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Why are there not more novels/comics/stories out there about the world of League?

Forhonor321··9 votes·8,170 views

Just there's so much potential that you can get out of the world of League. Yeah, we've gotten some comics, we keep getting the short stories with the champs, and those are great. But how long has it been since the last comic? Ryze was the last one four months ago? Burning Tides was roughly 3 years ago along with that Harrowing story if I recall. To my memory, we haven't gotten a big, base lore story for quite some time. We've gotten stuff like Star Guardian, which is fine, but it's not the same.

The only thing keeping me anchored to League right now is the art department, certain skins that come out, and the lore of League. While the art department never really fails, skins can heavily be hit or miss to me, and lore/stories just come out too slowly. It's almost painful to wait for what the next big event is in the world and short stories for champ's updated bios and new champs can only do so much.

"BuT RiTo iS JuST a SmoL Indi-CoMPanY", BULLSHIT! Riot has been around for nearly 12 years and how big are they at this point? Still roughly a few hundred people? I don't think so. They are running one of the most popular games, maybe most popular MOBA (debatable for another day), around and they don't have the resources to maybe hire a few extra writers or artists to maybe come out with a better stream of comics and short stories?

Why not start looking into novels? They could easily start building more of the world that way with tales from various people and characters created for these stories, not necessarily the champs that we all know in the game. It'd be interesting to read more about the life of a Demacian and how they make act around from someone outside their country, a Noxian soldier whose slowly is seeing the flaws of their nation and the struggles they get with that knowledge, the viewpoint of an Ionian in the middle of their home being torn by invaders but also extremists, maybe even a swash-buckling Bilgewater character and just have him go on stories of adventure across Runeterra.

There's just a lot of potential that can happen here that Riot can jump on. League already is losing its touch as a game to me but as a series of stories or comics I'd be down for more. That's just my thoughts and opinions anyway, I don't know. Just needed to get this off my mind.

28 Comments

Whyte Lyon5 votes

I dont think "novels" is what Riot needs for now. They should be considered once the entire IP has monumentally more of a puplic recognition, something that this lore objectively doesn't have yet.

Like I'm fully invested in this lore for the long term, but even I wouldnt buy a book or god forbid a series (I'd likely just search for the spoilers off the wiki). I'm not the sinking money kind of invested and I could imagine a great deal of this very audience being the same. The more free this website based content/service stays the absolute better for it.

So far with the more frequent LUs we get as is + consistant novellas, things like World Building has been developing at a steady and reasonable rate ( both manageable for the devs and audience). So im not about to get frustrated over their work progress just because a comic hasn't been produced in a hot second neither because I have grand expectations that havent been met yet.

mrmeddyman4 votes

Pretty much this. Making a longer book or story would require significant investment from Riot which would be thrust on us and I'm not paying for a League book. The stories are just meant to promote the game Riot isn't going to branch out into media for it's own sake. They only use stories, cinematics and comics to promote investment in the game which is where the actual money comes from. I wouldn't be buying Leonas' new skin if I wasn't invested in her character. That's the point.

Star Guardían1 votes

If Riot views storytelling solely as promotion, they’re being extremely short sighted. League of Legends as intellectual property is more valuable than the game itself in my opinion. League of Legends the game generates a lot of revenue but doesn’t have much growth potential. Furthermore, it’s their only revenue source which isn’t a good business strategy, especially when there are so many opportunities to diversify right under your nose.

Not diversifying into other media would be a huge squandered opportunity for Riot. They should maintain their current cash cow while investing in other opportunities such as comics, tv series and and eventually movies.

SSmotzer4 votes

Because they are still trying to figure out the lore. I mean, even that Heimi, Ziggs and Jinx comic they just made was already retconned.

Cetri1 votes

I don't remember anything of the sort happening...

SSmotzer1 votes

{quoted}

I don't remember anything of the sort happening...

Well, the comic says that Heimi invented the glamours yordles use to hide among humans. Then in Veigar's new lore the glamours are part of their biology.

Cetri3 votes

The comic also came out after Kled's lore, which also stated that the glamour was innate. I'm fairly certain it's not a retcon, but rather something that we the audience haven't been able to piece together yet.

RiotRiot Scathlocke5 votes

Correct - all it said was that Heimerdinger created the "visual transmogrification" devices for him and Ziggs. It doesn't explain anything about glamour as a whole.

ModAcademy Kayn2 votes

I'd imagine the glamour works based on how closely related the Yordles are related to the ideals of the region they inhabit. Poppy and Kled are highly attuned to their respective regions, believing in most the same ideals as the general populace. I can't imagine they'd work if they left that area, like most respective Fae do when leaving their realm.

Would Poppy, look like a Yordle to a Noxian, or vice versa?

Jaspers1 votes

Why 'ideals'? Why not just innate magic to keep them safe. In 'A Quiet Night' story, Tristana is seen as an old woman but she's not connected to any regions, she's Bandle City tied.

If anything it's just innate magic that hides their true appearance from the observer. Different people see them slightly different but Heimer needed his 'transmogrification' to keep Ziggs and his appearance consistent because they were living in a largely populated area and have social jobs.

ModAcademy Kayn1 votes

But didn't the people of Piltover see Ziggs as what he really was when he was rocking about with Jinx?

Jaspers1 votes

No one said it was perfect, just helps. Jinx was mentally unstable and saw through it while enough people focused on Ziggs also allowed them to see through it. Yet when he asked Heimer to vouch for him they didn't see through Heimer's glamour as most were focused on Ziggs and only a few on Heimer.

ModAcademy Kayn1 votes

I dunno. I thought the reason that Jinx could see through it was because she identified nearly identically with Zigg's ideals or values. I don't see why being mentally insane allows you some glimpse through what is effectively magic.

I don't remember with Poppy, but was the hero she followed back then, who entrusted her with the hammer? Did he see her as a yordle or no? Meanwhile we have Mordekaiser seeing through Viegar's glamour like it was nothing, presumably because of his power, or maybe, his thirst for magic or power was very much the same as Viegars, matching the values of Viegar, hence revealing the shroud?

I do think your theory makes sense in one form of it, as the folk who tresspassed on Kled's territory won't see Kled the same as someone else, like Riven who shares (shared) many of the Core noxian traits, and them being in a public job meaning that they need to remain a single appearance by multiple people.

RiotRiot Scathlocke6 votes

What I'm hearing is... We need to explain glamour, somewhere!

[slayer-jinx-wink]

Hexs Fortune1 votes

{quoted}

What I'm hearing is... We need to explain glamour, somewhere!

[slayer-jinx-wink]

Have you ever played telltale games: "the wolf among us" Scathlocke? It had some glamour references in it.

DarkSoul19943 votes

Yes please. My best guess is that they 'just adapt' to whatever environment they're in. Maybe Heimerdinger's device simply controls how/if they glamour/what they glamour into.

KFCeytron1 votes

{quoted}

What I'm hearing is... We need to explain glamour, somewhere!

[slayer-jinx-wink]

https://supchina.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/giphy-downsized-large-4.gif

Shíny3 votes

You need to explain yordles in general somewhere.

Jaspers1 votes

If Scathelocke explains it we are all good but my theory is based on the idea that they aren't influenced by ideals surrounding them. If that all Yordles are, then it takes too much from their individual characters, Heimerdinger isn't a genius because he's Heimerdinger but because he happens to live in that society. They might go to places because they seek out like minded people (like we all do) but not in a way that it takes from their character.

For Glamour, Poppy was able to walk among loads of people without anyone giving her a second glace in her comic, many of those people were warriors and 'heroes', all Demacian. For Jinx, Ziggs says straight after "Wait, She's Crazy." Indicating a unsound mind can be twisted enough to see through because of their view on the world. Morde was powerful enough the innate magic in Glamour wasn't even a problem for him but the other people Veigar was with at the time, even though they were attuned to magic, didn't see through it. If they had the same ideals as Veigar, learning and achieving magic.

ModAcademy Kayn1 votes

Heimerdinger isn't a genius because he's Heimerdinger but because he happens to live in that society.

No no no, you misunderstand what I'm saying. The Yordles gravitate to where Their ideals matter, or are akin to the Culture of the area. Heimerdinger is still genius because he's a genius, he simply blends in best in Piltover, because that it the nation of innovation and invention. Same as Kled, or Poppy.

As for the Ziggs Jinx thing:

https://i.gyazo.com/c9d64d97ffb45bc7c4966e92a059f6bc.png

He was using "She's crazy" as a trait to identify her as Jinx, the Loose Cannon. Not to explain why she could see through his glam.

RyzeTheSmurfMage1 votes

I don't remember that being retconed

Camille Ferrøs1 votes

{quoted}

Because they are still trying to figure out the lore. I mean, even that Heimi, Ziggs and Jinx comic they just made was already retconned.

retcons didn't happen to them recently.

The Iceborn3 votes

You need to understand that Riots Lore Team is charity for the players who are interested in stories.. Riot makes no money directly from Lore thus there is few Writers compared to game developers. The game makes Riot money and not the lore( at least not directly) so that is why there is not enough writers hired at Riot to do more Cinematics,Lore updates etc

KFCeytron1 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Iceborn,realm=EUNE,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=EkaKaEux,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2018-11-14T09:24:58.167+0000)

You need to understand that Riots Lore Team is charity for the players who are interested in stories.. Riot makes no money directly from Lore thus there is few Writers compared to game developers. The game makes Riot money and not the lore( at least not directly) so that is why there is not enough writers hired at Riot to do more Cinematics,Lore updates etc

Correction: gameplay is another part of LoL that doesn't directly make money. It's skins and esports that can actually justify their existence with a dollar value. The problem with this thinking is that direct financial return isn't everything: people who stopped playing the game due to balance issues or bugs won't buy skins, and then you're left with vapid consumers who just throw their money at everything regardless of sense.

The increasing focus on the Story, Art & Sound teams is detracting from the actual game.

Camille Ferrøs1 votes

We could expect more and bigger lore projects in the future since Riot decided to make a game all around the lore. And with that for sure we will get even more and more stuff with it.

Ahri Body Pillow1 votes

Small indie company

Porństàr Akali1 votes

I would totally read League of Legends novels, especially about specific champs. Then riot would change the lore and the novel would become invalid. RIP

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