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Why has the central conflict of League, Demacia vs Noxus, been ignored for the last 4 years?

CSDragon·1/20/2016, 6:59:51 AM·13 votes·4,221 views

At it's core, the story if League was Demacia and Noxus fight too much, that's why the League of Legends was made, to stop their fighting (And even then, it didn't actually stop them from fighting).

All stories pretty much had something to do with those two countries for the first few years of League, and while there were some sidestories like the Bandal Mothership, the wedding of Ashe and Tryndamere to unite the Freljord, and one major event, the Noxian invasion of Ionia, the Demacio-Noxian conflict was the center stage. And those tensions rose to a fever pitch with the Kalamanda event. The biggest story arc League had ever seen, which was all tied to the new game mode Dominion.

But...that was also the last time the two nations were at conflict in the lore. And the few times the nations have shown up at all were just in champion lore (Sion rework), or as a tool for another country's lore event (Quinn's Journal). Since then we've had 4 years of silence while minor factions get the focus instead.

And now that the League of Legends and everything in the Journal of Justice has been retconned out of existence, that means so has Kalamanda. Meaning our central story of League of Legends, is a conflict that to this day, has not happened yet. The only people that Noxus has fought in the lore anymore, and the only war that is ever brought up, is the invasion of Ionia, which was SIX years ago.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the Freljord, Shurima and Bilgewater events were cool, but in the end, they're filler.

I feel like I'm watching the Naruto anime again. 4 YEARS of filler.

Heck, the two main characters, Garen and Katarina, haven't even shown up tangentially in any lore event since Kalamda, only making appearances in the non-canon cinematics. Where was Katarina when her sister was being guided into a Shuriman tomb by Sivir, and being transformed into Cass? I know that they're not very close, but still. Heck, it's been so long since they've been in the spotlight, most players who joined after the start of season 3 probably don't see them as the main characters of League at all, when back in the Journal of Justice era of LoL lore, it was pretty undisputed.

15 Comments

GreenLore1/20/2016, 4:30:40 PM6 votes

Honestly your post made it pretty clear to me why they didn't do that much about these 2 nations in the last years.

I mean you say "the other things are essentially filler",but thats the problem: Noxus vs Demacia is not the central plot of the lore. They might be more influential than the other states,but they aren't the main focus and Garen&Katarina aren't the main characters.

The JoJ simply didn't such a great job at exploring more characters and places,as it mainly focused on the 3 conflicts with noxus(the ionia vs noxus,noxian barbarian campaign and the kalamanda conflict....man noxus was really overused as the bad guys here) and then filled the rest of its articles with champion teasers,small infos about the lore or stuff that could really be described as filler(like an interview with shaco that doesn't reveal anything at all).

Just because the other nations aren't the biggest ones doesn't mean they deserve less screentime.

SoldierRay51/20/2016, 10:51:14 AM3 votes

I don't know if this will help you, but someone from Riot already posted what they had to say about this. http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/creative-spotlight/dev-blog-exploring-runeterra As he says, " After a while, these early choices began to create unexpected problems. Every new champion needed a reason to join and remain in the League, and as their number grew, the net result was that over time the world started to feel, well, small, and eventually less interesting. The institutions we’d designed fostered creative stagnation, limiting the ways that champions, factions and Runeterra itself could grow and change. Furthermore, the very idea of all-powerful Summoners made Champions little more than puppets manipulated by godlike powers. The background we’d created to explain in-game action was ultimately restricting the potential narrative development of the game’s defining characters.

Faced with these limitations, our use of narrative elements tightly bound to the original vision (Journals of Justice, Judgments, etc.) dwindled, because they felt fundamentally restrictive to our hopes for a more vibrant and expansive world. In response, we started (with efforts like the Freljord event and recent champion bios) to tell stories that explored the furthest limits of League’s original creative framework. "

Though, I do agree. They need to add in more worldly lore and not just little tid-bits here and there.

Trylobyte1/20/2016, 4:50:24 PM2 votes

You've really misinterpreted the old lore. The champions were the main characters more or less equally, it's just that the Demacia/Noxus conflict was the earliest one we had any good information on. Most of the rest of the lore time was spent trying to deal with the narrative black hole of the Institute of War itself - Explaining why, for example, Kassadin and Malzahar are both there despite the fact they'd kill each other on sight (and indeed the one time they met outside the League they tried to kill each other), where off-worlders like Kayle, Nasus, and Taric even came from and why they were summoned, or why someone like Syndra whose entire character revolves around not being restricted would submit to the League and its restrictions. Every champion had to have a reason for joining and that became a big problem when you considered a lot of them didn't have any good reason to participate in the first place.

Now that they don't have to deal with the IoW they can focus on telling us more about the other places and the other conflicts. Just because Demacia vs. Noxus is the 'big one' doesn't mean it's necessarily the only newsworthy one. Consider, for instance, the war in the Freljord - It's in the interests of both Noxus and Demacia to keep that war going as long as possible (as stated by a Rioter) because neither wants them as competition. How will Bilgewater's total collapse affect the state of the world considering they're one of the big reasons imperial navies aren't viable? These are elements that can help frame and build up the 'central' cold war without banging on about it relentlessly.

Mystery Ghost1/20/2016, 1:54:39 PM1 votes

Swain got a girlfriend probably

Orangesilk1/20/2016, 3:44:27 PM1 votes

To be fair, they're also ignoring world-shattering conflicts they themselves created like the Void invasion. I don't think they know what to do with the lore at this point, so they're just throwing filler at the wall and hoping it sticks until it forms a cohesive story.

Peridition1/20/2016, 5:06:51 PM1 votes

Because Noxus and Demacia were the most fleshed out areas in lore prior to new format. Arguably, the only fleshed out areas in lore.

So Riot has been visiting other area since 2012, fleshing them out and giving them a greater sense of identity and depth.

So far we've had Shadow Isles, Freljord, Shurima, and Bilgewater. This has left Demacia and Noxus a bit in the dust but there are still other areas that desperately need attention as well. Piltover, Zaun, Bandle City and Mt. Taragon have all been mostly untouched.

It seems like Ionia is going to get minor update of the Lunar Revel this year.

So unfortunately who knows where Noxus and Demacia t on the list of things to do. Best you can hope for is that Noxus vs Bandle City event that was teased some time back.

Ebonmaw Dragon1/21/2016, 1:27:39 AM1 votes

Because Demacia vs Noxus is not the central conflict anymore.

WoonStruck1/20/2016, 7:34:24 AM1 votes

Because LCS. :^)

Impetual1/22/2016, 10:31:15 AM1 votes

The lore has been retconned.

For all we know, Demacia vs Noxus isn't even a thing anymore.

Who knows? In a Runeterra where the League of Legends doesn't even exist anymore, everything is pretty much up in the air.

Jeddy0171/20/2016, 8:04:37 AM1 votes

Because they're not the "main" part of the lore anymore.In fact,no one faction or champion is the main focus of the lore.The lore of LOL is now about all the LOL champs,the world they live in & the different events in that world.

SociopathFriend1/20/2016, 12:31:32 PM1 votes

Mostly because Noxus vs Demacia is a battle of ideology- a battle that has been going on for decades- centuries even. Furthermore, it's a conflict that can't end, because they're too equal in combat capabilities.

Writing about them would mean one side or the other would have to be winning in order to make a compelling narrative, which then goes against the point that both are supposed to be formidable powers that can't quite manage to take one another down.