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You know, lore wasn't really big last year. What's the expectations of 2018?

GenoXx·1/2/2018, 8:15:10 PM·3 votes·1,013 views

Seemingly, the biggest thing was Vastaya update....maybe The legend of Orrn. Then there's the left overs from Piltover/Zaun in which didnt that roll of the previous year?

I mean, yes, finally some things of Runeterra are fleshed out, but the pace has slowed down. And I think it started too after the tip of last year. I know we potentially have new Noxus lore coming with Swain and all. But after that whats next? Look, I get that Riot took the time to add some lore, but the pace of it just isn't enthusiastic imo. When they declared they would start doing better with lore a few yrs ago, im not going to lie, I expected much more.

When I saw the comics, I was surprised. And thought this would be a consistent thing. It doesn't really seem like it. And I'm excluding December since Riot slows things down around this time which is understandable. The really audience grabbing lore seems to still be tied around new champion releases, if not a vgu for a current champion. That would be Vastaya(Xayah and Rakan), The demi-gods of Freljord(Orrn), and Targon(Zoe, even though her story just doesn't deliver.) The Darkin lore with Kayne gave us no info on the actual Darkin himself(Rhast) and Varus was just a mistake imo. I mean we find out that Darkin aren't from Runeterra after all, even though Aatrox's lore gives you the impression that they have been around Runeterra for a long time.

And with 2017 passing what can we expect from 2018? I'll be honest I grew unenthusiastic about the lore. And it's not just because of what I wrote above, It's because alot of the things I expected to see covered with their lore updates aren't. Some things are givien more tidbits about them, but are ultimately still left for later as we are constantly being told. Swains update is coming up, and I expect alot of things(not all) to be covered that fans have have been asking questions about since the times of lore discussion forums. I got interested in the lore with Jinx's arrival, when I started the game and it sucks that I might have to wait a couple more yrs just to reads about a mystery that fans have been wanting to know about for years.

Even though it seems a little selfish(I'm really trying to not be) when I hear Swain, the grand general of Noxus getting a big update, I expected if not all most of Noxus lore to be covered. Because this is what Riot has been doing, tying lore updates to things like this. That includes the Black Rose, Noxus or Noxus Prime's general life for Noxians, and things like the disappearance of Katarina's father. Because these are things fans have been wanting to know about for years, you can't really blame a person for expecting it. Same with Ionia(if that means Riot is going to do this with Irelia too): Yasuo's killer, Irelia's brother, the cabal who freed Jhin?

My concerns is that Riot isn't closing the holes in lore atm, instead their are expanding the world ever more and are leaving these things untouched. I try to not expect anymore do to my on philosophy on having bad expectations. But when you want to learn something, sometimes I just can't help it. So I ask of you lore fans and maybe/also Riot what are the expectations of lore for this year?

25 Comments

Ebonmaw Dragon1/2/2018, 8:38:23 PM8 votes

I just want to know what the hell are the Yordles in the new lore and what is the deal about Bandle... Because right now everything is confusing about them, even more after Riot decided to make Fizz a yordle as well.

Bandle City feels like a blank spot in the lore right now, we have gotten some information about yordles but none of them mentions the place (Except tristana in her VO) and most of them dont even live there and the last champion released from Bandle was Lulu.

At least we know some information about the rest of the Regions/City States of Runeterra... But Bandle? That is a big question mark in the lore... and its not like we have 1 or 2 champions from that place... there are at least 5 champions (that is without counting the rest of the yordles that live in other places) that have direct relation to Bandle and no clear information about them.

.... that and The Void, but i think that the mistery of the Void is part of the "charm" of that place.

GreenLore1/2/2018, 9:27:52 PM6 votes

Uhm you kinda forgot the whole Demacia event.

Anyway I noticed that Riot seemed really eager to focus on different races last year. I mean we were introduced to the vastaya and demigods and got some more info about the darkin and demons(and we also got an aspect,though she didn't shed that much light into the aspects)

Darrosh Jewfist1/3/2018, 4:23:01 AM4 votes

I don't know if I "expect" it, but I think this would be good for League of Legends lore.

More consistent releases with a very public, open timetable.

I'm not saying they need to say "Oh we're going to have X event on this date or Y event on that date" like "Oh we're doing the Ionian rework event EXACTLY on March 15, the Ides of March" or something. I mean something localized and focused in scope over a prolonged period of time.

I'm thinking some kind of short serials. It could be...

  • A month of random League of Legends "Facts" about champion personalities where a set of facts, or even one fact, is released every day. It turns out Elice loves wine and steak (rare of course) and she never dies alone (Corpses count as people!).

  • Weekly comic series focusing on a single champion/storyline spanning 10 weeks (1 comic a week)

  • Weekly short animation clips contracted to a studio (like a 3-5 minute episode over 10 weeks - that gets you like an hour worth of animation total)

  • Monthly newsletter where fans can submit random questions on lore (What WOULD Shyvana do if Ezreal licked her knee? Does Vayne like pineapples?). I think this is helpful because Riot loves giving lore tidbits in Q&As but they're really poorly consolidated. Having a monthly newsletter type thing would make it very organized compared to the ad hoc nature of the trivia lore.

My caveat on the newsletter Q&A is that they should avoid stuff like what happens sometimes on the Nexus where they use a bloatload of words to say a simple thing.

https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2017/06/ask-riot-practice-tool-stays-solo/

Okay, so the question is simple:

Does Runeterra have a calendar? How do people track time?

But the way they answered it was so... just stupid.

We are doing a wide range of creative world-building behind the scenes at the moment, bringing you a much deeper, complex, and rich setting in Runeterra, and this absolutely includes the calendar and how time is measured by those who live in our world.

Developing a concept of time and the tools a culture uses to measure it is a unique challenge. Make something like a calendar system too different and complex, it becomes an abstraction that can distract people from a story.

Like, this is a very simple question. Just say "Yes, they track time in various ways." THEN you start giving examples. Hard concrete examples, not fluffy ideas. The entire first paragraph was just rambling and beating 'round the bush for no reason. The guy had a simple question that was basically "Do these people use a month calender? Do they have a 40k system where it's like the 999m41 forever?"

It bothers me because it kind of shows how Riot is desperate to appear as if they're trying really hard yet provide nothing of tangible value in their answers. Yeah, I get you're researching a lot and culture factors into how calendars work - do you have an example? No? It's not ready to reveal yet? Then you might want to rethink which questions you pick to answer...

tl:dr - Riot needs to give us something concrete to look forward to instead of months of silence then a week of stuff released with mixed reception (see Varus/Zoe).

Solidair31/3/2018, 5:56:39 PM3 votes

I liked all of the lore last year, especially the comics and short stories.

I look forward to this year, and what Irelia and Swain will bring to the game.

I'd also like a greater Ionia update. Varus and the Vastaya brought a lot (Varus to the Darkin as well) and look forward to more storylines moving forward.

Dorans Pants1/3/2018, 4:22:10 AM2 votes

idk the last things we got left me so unsatisfied i lost interest in new lore altogether.

abca981/2/2018, 9:36:41 PM2 votes

My wish is that in the next lore updates they maintain most of the elements of the previous stories of the champions instead of simply taking the old versions into a dark alley and then shooting them in the nape.

Żügżwäng1/3/2018, 8:36:25 AM2 votes

After the embarrassing way they handled the Varus lore, I have low expectations... which is a shame since the art team that did the comics/videos did a great job with the shoddy material given to them.

Whyte Lyon1/2/2018, 9:10:44 PM2 votes

2017 had roughly an equivalent with 2016's amount of major and minor lore updates. I imagine the sufficient standard of these last two years will remain persistent and dependable through this year. Not sure why OP thinks last season was lacking when it matched the ideal standard of previous.

Hell 2015 had potential to be on par with 2016 and the like, if it wasn't for Burning Tides cosuming so much development time. But I would never trade BT event for more consistent LUs instead.