Story Stagnation. What is present day Runeterra like? Will it Evolve?

Impetual··14 votes·1,183 views

@ any Rioters who will listen.

The new lore direction is causing Runeterra's lore to feel stagnant.

Under the new lore direction, Runeterra no longer feels like it is changing or evolving.

It feels stagnant. Nothing ever really changes, we just get new information about the state that it is in.

Heck, when a new champion is announced, the older champions seem to still keep doing what they did before (except when they are retconned), since our main/only source of lore are champion bio's these days.

While we still rarely hear about new champions that exist within Runeterra, when these champions do emerge, they usually just seem to be characters that were probably already there in the first place, that slot right into the world without upsetting the balance of power. We don't hear about older champions reacting/interacting with the new champions, rather, Runeterra's story is usually just changed to include them, rather than developed.

Runeterra doesn't necessarily evolve with the addition of new champions, usually we just learn more about what it already is/was.

Nothing new seems to have happened in Runeterra since the retcon.

It doesn't feel like any of the established characters ever have any development beyond their character bios anymore. The JoJ used to do this pretty well.

Will anything ever actually happen again in Runeterra? (not including retcons and lore additions? I'm talking lore development!)

18 Comments

GreenLore8 votes

Overall the problem is that they are still busy retconning. I can understand that they don't want to start some new arc before they didn't establish their world first.

I mean when the JoJ was going we had story progression yes,but we hardly had any idea about the society of the different nations.

What they are currently doing is world building which takes a lot of time and is coupled with a lot of retcons in this case too.

although I have to say that the lore team seems to be awkwardly slow even if you consider the size of this project.

Impetual3 votes

{quoted}

I mean when the JoJ was going we had story progression yes,but we hardly had any idea about the society of the different nations.

I disagree. If anything, we heard more about the societies of the different nations through the JoJ.

GreenLore2 votes

Freljord was more or less "some ice kingdom that needed unification" the conflict among ashe and sejuani was barely there and it didn't have the nordic influence that it now has.

Shurima was really just empty with some pyramids without any background

And in some cases the central figures of some states didn't get much characterisation. For example how did the general public see general boram?Was he considered a tyrant who didn't let go of the "throne"(I know he wasn't a king,but he was the leader of noxus),do the people think swain is the better leader or not?Heck we hardly knew anything about his personality until the sion promo.

Demacia also has it kinda bad,we know it is a militaristic state,but we hardly know anything about the life of the citizens,or the military career,or the council.

Legacy of Xion6 votes

What, you're tired of reading the same five line lores per champion in Generic Fantasy Realm #23446597?

/sarcasm

GreenLore5 votes

you know that long versions for the new champions(and Xerath,as well as a leaked one for amumu) exist?

GenoXx2 votes

That amumu leak, was to simply give us an example. Im sure it was Narratives choice. Although, some one could at least come by and say something.......

Legacy of Xion5 votes

Azir, Xerath, Ammumu, Kalista.

Where is Ezreal's and Sivirs.

Bro, I know they exist. But where are they and why am I not reading these amazing lores that apparently take six months to write?

GreenLore2 votes

I agree that they are late on that. As far as i know these lores were supposedly finished already when the shurima event started,but I find that hard to believe considering they still didn't give us any of those(but the fact that the amumu lore was leaked means that they are withholding lore from us,which would be rather stupid in my opinion)

Sneak Dog1 votes

The general lines, events and character decisions were probably finished. The actual fully detailed write-up perhaps not.

Xerath was to interrupt the ritual of ascension and destroy Runeterra, ascend and get imprisoned and drive Renekton mad. This must've been settled months in advance of the event. The actual write-up might've been done only a small time in advance (and not at all for someone for Amumu or Renekton, whose background isn't *entirely *related to this event.

Impetual2 votes

I do...

But just for fun, let's take on the perspective of the average player.

Where are the in depth champion bio's currently displayed? Is this a reasonable location for them to discover the lore of the champions they are interested in?

GreenLore1 votes

Yes they messed up on that part. But acting like they don't exist is still wrong.

Migrañaboy4 votes

Wut, everyone was aware of that OP since they rekt the JoJ.

Also, I remember that it was mentioned that the Freljord lore would be determined by the vote of the people by getting a freljord tribe icon, which motivated me to vote for Lissandra, Seems that they din du nuffin, really wanted to see what would they come with if bad grill wonnered.

Sneak Dog3 votes

Considering that a significant amount of champions lean on their history rather than their future for the interesting part of their lore, I find this a relevant question. Especially now, with Kalista, Gnar and all the Shurima champions being added to that list.

The Red Warden3 votes

Don't count on a Rioter response that actually answers questions when dealing with the lore team. Usually they just ignore everything and if they actually do answer. 99% of the time it will just be PR bull---- where they say there working in it and that they've taken it into consideration, but that they can't actually answer the question in hand cause spoilers.

OperationDEEZ12 votes

Why the hell did they change Amumu Rammus Ezreal Xerath Sivir Nasus and Renekton from descriptive lore to TWO SENTENCE LONG BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS. Why did Riot feel the need to gut so many of the champs' lore?

ULTRAF0RCE1 votes

you made two major mistakes, you called the old amumu lore, and any rammus lore descriptive.

OperationDEEZ12 votes

Eh, it was better than having a sentence or two.

ULTRAF0RCE1 votes

this new form is a lot more efficient for rammus, also the long form of amumu lore is more info than all past amumu lore entries.

More from Story, Art, & Sound

More by Impetual