It feels to me Riot isn't clear on this, so why not ask the Community. What do you all want Yordles to be? What do you want them to be like? What do you think of them Currently?
I want yordles to be funny, fuzzy, fae creatures that provide comic relief in otherwise serious stories. They should be an opportunity for the devs to make caricatures of common fantasy tropes and have a bit of fun with wacky designs and over-the-top backstories.
There shouldn't be anything ancient and secret and dark involved with yordles. There's plenty of that in Runeterra already. Let them be light-hearted, magical creatures that don't have much to do with anything. They don't need to be the secret to some great power or whatever.
There's not enough of them in the roster, that's for sure. More yordles!
You know that thing about "yordles being spirits"?
That's dumb.
Yordles being physical beings with heavy ties to spirit magic?
Far better.
If you want to tell me that these 
who have cool and interesting dynamics as corporeal, mortal (but long-living) beings are actually just mystical hippie spirits of nature, I'm gonna puke.
<-- These guys already fill that role anyway. Yordles are better off as an actual fantasy race.
EDIT: Forget everything I am writing here. 4 Step Cadence's interpretation of yordles is actually way better and I wish that they would go with that instead. It is wonderful.
Seems like I am the minority here, but I actually enjoyed the idea of yordles being representations of ideals held up in their assigned region.
Heroism, but still being humble (Demacia)
(Physical) Strength and taking what you consider yours (Noxus)
Balance and swiftness (Ionia)
The responsible and creative side of science (Piltover)
The careless and destructive side of science (Zaun)
Trickery and mischief (Bilgewater)
Clinging to long gone times of glory (Shurima)
Survival through strength (Freljord)
This could have been also expanded on through adding the Bandle City yordles to other regions. Many would actually make sense.
Sense of adventure and exploration (Piltover)
Being one with nature and the surrounding magic (Ionia)
Representing the urchins, being leery and creative with the scrap down in the sump (Zaun)
Strength through mastery of magic (Noxus)
Adventure and comradeship (Bilgewater)
Protecting the jungle and their secret society (Ixtal)
I guess it is very unlikely to happen at this point now and I am probably the minority here, but I would have enjoyed if they had went in that direction.
Overall I don't think that Yordles should be spirits, but I'd be ok if they were related to them.
And honestly other than that I just want Riot to give us a real yordle update, I want to know what Bandle City looks like(and I want Bandle City to exist, it shouldn't be retconned) how Tristana, Rumble, etc. fit into it and how it relates to the fae of Lulus story.
I had a theory that Yordles were born from the spirits of dead children but the more I developed it the more it fell apart, so eh. I'll elaborate if you want me to, though.
At this point i would simply like that they were part of the lore... I mean, sure, there are like... 5 random stories about yordles... but it's not like they are actually relevant at all.
I think that Yordles are ??? and as for their direction, Removal.
Gaze's explanantion is a great one. Sometimes the best way of explaining things is not explaining it. They are magical fae like from Bandle City. Done, that's it. Don't need to be anything special. No avatar of each area or anything just Yordes.
Heck, as long as they aren't just another race of humans turned into magical beings that is, we've lost enough of those already.
dont like the yordles, and never did. why? because they feel like comic relief in a world thats already full of funny, lighthearted and goofy characters. there is no need for an entire race to counterbalance the super serious rest of the world. for example: hobbits in lord of the rings fullfill that role, because everyone else is so edgy and emo and grim all the time (dont like them either, but i get the reason for them existing)
league isnt as serious as LotR though, not even close. look at characters like braum, blitz, ivern, yuumi, zoe, twitch, kled, nunu, gragas, rammus, etc. yes, the lore team has been pushing the story into a far more serious, adult and dramatic direction for a while now, which is very much apreciated, but its still not grimdark enough to justify an entire race of characters that always will have the "goofy and funny" tag attached.
that said: since they will not remove yordles (people love em for some reason), they could absolutely give them depth and drama. they will keep their comedic characteristics anyway, but backgrounds of yordles like poppy, teemo or veigar could easily be changed into something actually captivating. something more than: look at the little ewok, he thinks hes an evil sorcerer, haha.
...god i hate em
"What do you want them to be like?"
What I want them to be like is actual characters. Let Yordles have more of an impact on the world of Runeterra & have ties to some of the many ongoing plot threads.
Think about it. Of all of the Yordles (? ), only one have direct ties to other champs & have the potential to be involved with their stories. That's with his connection to 
& to a lesser extent, 
. And even that connection, Riot has been heavily sweeping under the rug to focus on the human ninja champs.
HAD a connection to 
. Veigar isn't involved with Morde's revival plot or anything related to Morde. Hell, Veigar isn't involved with any other story elements right now.
Most of the Yordles are segregated off from the rest of the lore. They have no role, no place in Runeterra. They're just there. Relegated to one off stories with random characters & kept in the sidelines while all to other champs are involved with the major elements/plots of Runeterra. Yordles can't even have their own plot threads in Bandle City because BC got absolutely nothing in terms of lore beside being a mysterious city where Yordles come from. No history, no mythos or anything.
Sowizardhologram2/23/2020, 9:42:31 PMMostly stay in the light-heart side with moments of dark moments. Have it be more so comedic/slice of life stuff.
