Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

The PROJECT Storyline & Universe

Dreamspitter·11/27/2017, 6:05:07 PM·57 votes·28,194 views

First let us review our cast of characters. Jhin

"All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts" -As You Like It, Act II Scene VII

G/NETIC - A rebel faction led by Ashe fighting against PROJECT Ashe Ekko Fiora Yasuo Leona Lucian

PROGRAM -Wholly artificial beings, implied to control PROJECT. Like Skynet it isn't hardware. It's software. Camille Lissandra Soraka EDIT:Blitzcrank

PROJECT (???) -Megacorporation controls all augmentation. Most of the characters it seems were apart of this. Since Katarina and Zed are fighting against G/NETIC I assume them to be apart of it. Yi sounds as though he is a man on the edge. On the one hand he rescues others, and fights Zed but...he has some odd quotes. Katarina Zed MasterYi (Formerly?)

HUNTERS -These are individuals all after something. None of them seem to be following higher orders, rather they act on their own. Vayne has her one woman quest for vengeance at any cost. The Vigilante. Vi is the cop, and an honest one which Vayne notes as a rarity. Whereas others would see an open and shut case, Vi wants the truth. Jhin is a collector of black market tech seeking upgrades. The Artist. Vayne Vi Jhin

The first big question is, what is PROJECT?

PROJECT: is the perfect fusion of one’s supernatural essence with advanced weaponry and body augmentation. This linking of technology and energy allows extraordinary hosts to channel their essence into physical manifestations and, in rare cases, transcend the corporeal plane. Only subjects possessing extremely focused inner essence and exceptional physical attributes can unlock the true power of PROJECT." https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/champions-skins/creative-spotlight/how-project-champs-transcended-humanity

In ways, PROJECT is something we've seen before. A kind of fusion between the magical and technological, like Hextech with a totally different vibe and aesthetic. Not everyone can wield it, as it requires an extraordinary inner power. It can allow you to manifest your essence -perhaps as weapons, blasts of energy, or.....even transcend humanity.

"Through my work, you shall transcend." -Jhin

This gives us an interesting idea- Astral PROJECTION. It makes me want to go back to Projection of the Astral Body by Sylvan J. Muldoon. If PROJECT were to allow a human to transcend corporeal reality, they could become utterly immortal and everlasting. One could perhaps transfer from one machine body to another even after the destruction of it. It could represent absolute freedom, power of mind over body, and reality itself. It makes sense that people of the PROJECT world would pursue it, but there many problems that have come along with this.

Most of these skins are 1350 Epic Skins, but a few of them are 1820 Legendary skins. The latter have fully new voice overs that contain interesting details. We can examine some of the themes of the PROJECT setting through the skins that have been released.

#Lost Memories

Ashe "Memories are more than ones and zeroes." "Erasing our memories only ensures we repeat our mistakes." "Each reboot, a fresh guiltless mind." "Today only matters if we can remember it tomorrow."

MasterYi "Do not trust corrupted memories." "Memories... like shadows in the fog." "We are memories - deleted."

#Lies In The Code & Life Under PROJECT

Ashe "The source code lies." "They promised us infinite possibility. They lied."

MasterYi "Mercy is stilling a chaotic mind." "Order must be enforced." "Humanity has faltered." "Isolate the radicals." "These... are not my thoughts!"

Vayne "Every trace of PROJECT must be eradicated." "I will break your code." "PROGRAM is PROJECT Unchained" "For humanity to heal it must sometime ally with the virus." -Program Ally "To them, we are nothing but lab rats and batteries." "One more iteration and they will have no need for us." "I was rebuilt to override everything they are."

#Mortality, Humanity, Reality

Ashe "My humanity cannot be overwritten." "Will always trumps programming." "We aren't weapons, we're human beings." "So long as you refuse to obey, you are human." "Memories are what make us human."

MasterYi "Have I died?" "I see the edge of living." "We are not meant to grasp eternity." "Weakness is... human."

Vayne "The enemy is in all of us, programmed in our very core." "All we are is an accumulation of Data" "I am no longer human."

https://i.imgur.com/JeHYIbX.jpg

#Of Rats, and Cats, and Neon Mice https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_US/story/project-of-rats-and-cats-and-neon-mice/

The first PROJECT story that I know of. I enjoyed it and look forward to more. While voice lines from the few Legendary skins, and cinematic trailers give us hints of what is going on and what this 'skinverse' setting is about, writing takes us directly into it.

The PROJECT setting takes place in a particular city, unnamed with a population numbering about 100 million. The Tokyo metropolitan area spread over multiple prefectures holds only close to 40 million. I take the city to be a bit like the Boston-to-Atlanta Metropolitan Area in Gibson's Sprawl trilogy. The Boston-Washington Corridor or Northeast Megalopolis is projected to reach 58 million by 2025. It's divided into many sectors -perhaps like city blocks, but also vertical levels. The lower levels are poorer and destitute compared to wealthier upper levels. This reminds me strongly of the relationship between Piltover and Zaun currently.

This is a dark world lit by neon. Neon itself is an aesthetic choice, since a world so advanced probably wouldn't use gas-discharge tubes. Cyberpunk is a genre full of retrofuturism. It often rains in the PROJECT art, giving us a Noir feel. If this were set on Earth, perhaps it could be Seattle home of Shadowrun. But, one of the characters notes that while he is old (intending to retire 20 years ago) he's still not old enough to remember "real" rain. There's no mention of greenery, or plants and the rain that falls is produced by moisture condensers. Why though is a good question. Perhaps it helps clean polluted air?

https://i.imgur.com/oU9LuyU.jpg

Everyone in this setting pursues augmentation. But most people can't afford augments fresh off the assembly line. The poor, and working class acquire older parts that upper sectors no longer want. After using augment technology for a time, one's memories somehow become imprinted on the technology. Remember ....PROJECT interfaces with the soul . In a sense, this means after you upgrade, you leave behind a piece of your essence.

"At my last performance hearing, I asked the reviewing officers what it took to make it in Central. One of them said you had to be ready to trade a piece of yourself—that every upgrade would take you higher up PROJECT’s command line, but would cost some more of who you were in the bargain. "

Characters are bothered by memories that aren't there's passing through them because of used hardware. Sometimes scrubbing the hardware dozens of times can't remove them and one could imagine some people becoming cluttered by thoughts and feelings they can't get rid of. Jhin has been collecting high end parts stolen, or taken right from his kills -but had experienced personality fragmentation. In theory, in this way Jhin might keep the memories of his targets last moments. In Shadowrun, an illegal cyberdrug is called "Better Than Life" or BTLs (Beetles). These single use chips allow you to relive someone else's memories of anything -just as if it were happening. Adventure, Romance, Wealth can all be yours- for a time. Unlike commercial simsense tech, BTLs have no limits to intensity or content. Sex is common, but there is also are rape, murder, torture (giving or receiving), and other crime. Some BTLs are strictly mood chips, with all data except the emotion edited out and overrides removed, so one can move about in the real world and still be aware of one's environment.

It is implied that, in certain cases it might be possible to raise people from the dead. Jhin reveals to us that Shauna Vayne and her squad "all died". But they "Rebuilt" her because she was "special". It may be that Yi, Yasuo, and others are these special souls. Jhin says that she "wears them well." indicating most of her hardware was reclaimed from them. And further, that "PROJECT rebuilds us all." Based on Ashe's remarks certain military personnel might be formatted after "death" in an attempt to gain complete control over them. Or like the Hashashin of old (from which the word Assassin comes) , who were said to smoke hashish in hopes of forgetting their crimes or believing them to be only a dream.

37 Comments

XIII Vanitas11/27/2017, 9:35:23 PM10 votes

You missed iBlitzcrank, he's one of the Program skins.

Dreamspitter11/27/2017, 8:15:56 PM9 votes

Another thought.

What happens when someone dies?

Since PROJECT can interact with the "soul" then the soul , does that mean a soul can be kept in a mechanical body forever? What could be the long term consequences of this? Yi says that humanity was "not meant" to grasp Eternity. If a person dies, should their soul be "reincarnated" in some other form? Would a machine body cause a soul to become trapped, and unable to be spun in the wheel of fate?

If PROJECT "rebuilds" someone, do they pull their eternal essence from the aether?

Project Ashe has an interaction with Project Lucian , in which she mentions Senna. Could that mean that....Program Thresh could be a possible future skin?

"A spirit cannot be engineered." -MasterYi

Project Yi says that souls cannot be engineered by man. Therefore, does this imply that fully aware robots could have the reincarnated souls of humans, provided the vessels are capable of holding them?

Feels Bárd 11/27/2017, 6:30:30 PM6 votes

I really enjoyed reading all of this!

I've had some difficulty putting the "teams" together. I'm really curious as to what Yi's deal is in this PROJECT world. I kept thinking back to that cinematic where he [Yi] us strapped down to the seat and is remembering some scary looking samurai dude approaching him.

I think it would be awesome if Riot released more stories on the PROJECT universe.

Good read!!

ReisenTheDos11/27/2017, 10:35:13 PM4 votes

I wonder how Pulsefire fits into the Project universe thanks to several lines from Puslefire Caitlyn. Especially whenever she kills a PROJECT skin character, she's afraid she might had accidentally messed up her timeline.

JooshBox11/27/2017, 11:52:35 PM4 votes

This is a really detailed and thorough post, I look forward to reading it after I finish up the PROJECT: story. There's a cute little easter egg in the story that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere yet. Vi's badge number is her release date.Vi

Blaiz Fenix11/27/2017, 10:38:17 PM3 votes

I always thought the PROJECT, Mecha, Program, and Battlecast skins were all contingent on Viktor.

The Mecha skin line being the initial designs that were completely inorganic, but ultimately being a failure because he couldn't control Sion.

He then created the PROJECT initiative because he felt the soul would make them easier to control and was successful with Zed and Katarina, but the addition of memories, the organic component, led to free will in some of them. This led to the G/NETIC faction. The hunters I believe were intermediaries between the Zed faction and Ashe's group that first showed signs of wanting independence, but not to overthrow the status quo.

Program in my thinking was the same as you. AI to control the Megacomplex and the PROJECT but each one seems to represent different parts. Lissandra as the central computer, Soraka to maintain the order that's established by "helping" cyborgs/robots in danger of destruction, and Camille to delete any rogue dissidents.

The Battlecast is rather obvious as not only the pinnacle of Viktor's efforts as the perfect combination of biological inspiration fused with indomidable machinery, they also serve to increase their ranks by finding "additional specimens," according to Skarner, and protect the empire he has created.

Those were my thoughts at least. As a side note, the Battlecast skins seem like the perfect combination Piltover and Zaun technology. The clean, efficient crafting of hextech with the rough, unfettered power of chemtech.

ChuShoe11/28/2017, 3:15:37 AM2 votes

So is project an example of a dystopia?

tendo62511/28/2017, 5:30:33 PM2 votes

You should include the character motivations. Kindlejack commented on them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/6rw755/what_do_you_think_of_the_programproject_universe/dlbixrl/

HudnofskiBleh11/28/2017, 5:51:40 PM1 votes

Is it confirmed that Project, Mecha, and Battlecast are seperate universes?

Solidair311/27/2017, 6:54:28 PM1 votes

Great read, thanks for throwing this together!

I actually haven't gotten a chance to read the PROJECT story yet, but PROJECT is a fascinating world that I want to know more about.

Moonboy6511/27/2017, 6:57:13 PM1 votes

there's also Battlecast and Mecha who could potentially be part of the same universe

FlameHalbrdOkido11/27/2017, 9:51:00 PM1 votes

Good enough to make a new story based game from

GenoXx11/27/2017, 11:09:35 PM1 votes

+1

RobAaronCross11/27/2017, 11:54:10 PM1 votes

I WANT PROJECT:Talon

DarkKatalyst11/28/2017, 12:32:00 AM1 votes

Program Nami pls, Riot!

Modl Ryden l11/28/2017, 5:54:57 AM1 votes

How about Pulsefire Caitlyn and Ezreal.

I believe in one of Caitlyn's quotes, she mentions how slaying a PROJECT: champion might affect her timeline. Where does the time travelling between Caitlyn and Ezreal tie in all this?