Questions for Riot regarding the lore's direction

Geokhan··5 votes·766 views

Dear Riot,

I have been a bit disappointed in your Lore this past year. I really loved the idea of summoners being the players and that we could influence the plot if you all started to do Lore events and the idea that all these champions are fighting for their own political agendas. So, as you could imagine, I was furious when the League was first removed from the canon. However, I have calmed down since then. I understand that some change was needed as characters like Jinx would abhor the idea of joining such an organization so devoted to law, order, and keeping things nice, tidy, and alive.

However, the new direction I heard about from Riot was a focus on character. I like that idea. Characters drive Lore, because without characters there is no life and nothing worth writing, but I felt this was a bit odd sounding based on what we had. I could count on getting a story to read and sometimes I got two that explored the character's motivations and his/her history. They were short stories that all fed into a larger narrative that had a direction and seemed to evolve with each new character. Besides, Setting influences a characters decisions. For example, Noxian military decisions regarding Ionia were made because of their cultural belief that the strong have every right to rule and weakness of any sort is to be stomped out. Every action is acceptable to gain power, thus invading Ionia to claim more resources was acceptable with them, as was making use of their allies in Zaun to take over Southern Ionia and bombard Riven's company. Some of you might not remember this, but Noxus is a nation where the Grand General honored the man who tried to seize control over Noxus via a coup by naming his personal bodyguards after him.

In short, what were the characters without the world that gave birth to them? Are not all your actions colored by how you were raised and what you encountered in life? Of course, you choose how to react to these events, but these events were necessary to make you what you are.

However, the new lore I see today is...lacking. There is very little history outside of Xerath, Azir, Nasus, and Renekton who are all...bound to each other (#sorrynotsorry, Spark-plug). Hecarim's new lore merely describes him as a grim horseman who tramples people using about 60 words. I have twice that in my first paragraph. There is very little you can say in 60 words.

So, are these shorter lores going to be the norm? What purpose do these shorter lores serve?

Is Riot considering doing events based on lore that are affected by player actions?

Is Riot going to notice this? I hope so.

What does the community think of these shorter lores?

Do we want more information on the setting the story takes place in?

Will anyone remember the Meglings or the Brackern?

WILL KALADOUN SEE A PURPOSE?

Find out next time!

6 Comments

Dotintheparadox2 votes

About your Jinx bit, she would've joined just for the chance to piss off Cailyn and Vi, also free buildings to blow up of course.

Geokhan1 votes

Oh yeah pissing off Vi would excite her, but the monotony of destroying the same buildings would loose its charm rather quickly. She also destroys to make a statement. She targeted Piltover for appearing too neat and tidy. The League was an Organization all about keeping the world 'neat and tidy'.

Dotintheparadox3 votes

So she could've joined at the tail-end, when the Kalamanda stuff was occurring, & a point a lot of the old lore community is trying to make is that the IoW was more of a record keeper of the events of Runeterra, with a bit of political pull.

Also, many champions didn't have their entire existence determined by the League. The League was just another faction present.

Geokhan3 votes

Firstly, The IoW was founded specifically to stop the Rune Wars by providing an alternative form of solving disputes that could not be solved politically. They kept (secret and public) records (as do all political organizations), sure, but the summoning of Champions and having gladiatorial combat does not make it sound like record-keeping was their primary function. They were committing themselves to persevering the world and the lives of those who would die in the massive wars that used to occur, which is why they could take action at Kalamanda and not have the world actively throw a fit and dismantle them.

Secondly, yes, many champions did not need the League in order to exist as characters in this narrative, but the League was the thing that brought them all together.

Shaco, Karthus, Jinx, and Garen would not willingly enter the same room as one another much less aid one another in battle, but the League made it happen. All of the characters HAD a reason to be a part of the League and they had reason enough to allow others to put them through brutal combat without any control over their own actions. How important the League was to them was not varied. To some, it was a means to an end and to others it was a way to strengthen their home. Others did feel they were protecting the world and making it a better place. Others were Jax and Sivir and liked getting PAID. (I hypothesize that Shaco liked the killing and this works for Shaco more than Jinx in my opinion as I think Shaco is much more of a sadist than Jinx is, but that is a debate that isn't for this thread).

Yes, a few characters had no place in the League and Riot clearly stated that their purpose in joining was mysterious. That could have been explored a bit, but it no longer matters. A Valoran without the League opens A LOT of doors for new characters and is good for Riot's business. However, it causes Champions whose relevance are bound to the League to be in a questionable state.

Skarner is now a guardian of some Shuriman thing that was never explained in the Ascended lore.

Jax is a three fingered something that smacks people with a Lamp because REASONS.

Nocturne is a spooky demon thing that kinda wants to be a ghost and likes scaring people.

Fiddlesticks is a scarecrow from hell.

And so on. There is a problem here, and Riot is working on it. (Gimme more Skarner lore, Riot. I miss my kind, Dammit!)

In short: Yeah some of the older characters were questionably in the League, and some mysteriousness is cool. It could have been done better, though. We'll not see those stories told better as they have been scrapped, so who knows what their plan was. Let's focus on the future.

Maybe Riot will make something interesting. (Like a reply to this thread...I'M NOT DESPERATE!) ((yeah I am))

Dotintheparadox3 votes

Sorry if this gets confusing, I was tired when I wrote this.

I wouldn't count on them making anything interesting, the last few stories were really bland to be honest, the only one that I still enjoy is Amumu's, and that's still just him, from a storyteller's perspective.

The harrowing gave us some sequence of events, but they were actually confusing, and dry, black mist spreading further and further? I know I make a lot of predictions but it sounds like that they want to put that stuff in Morde's shell.

A big point a lot of community members make is this, it is the chosen canon among us, that Summoners acted as a strategic advisor to the champions on the fields, I initially thought of the puppet master idea as well, but I read up on it, neither party is in control entirely, the old writers actually used something very interesting when they came up with it, a mental unification, combining the aspects of both. It's the reason you have a respawn time (Shock from the temporary separation of the two minds, builds up like nitrogen in your blood from scuba diving), the reason you have to re-learn the champion's skills in game, you're both broken down into your building blocks, and the reason some champions aren't nearly as powerful as they are in lore, the Summoner's side literally couldn't handle that power, for fear of death.

They all had limitations, we just didn't read into them enough.

Also I realized something about the Kalamanda stuff in the old lore, the league would've disbanded not because of the nations demanding it, but because of their own members leaving to support their nation's stance on a certain conflict.

The older characters actually had some of the best reasons to be in the league actually, Fiddles was never really meant to be explained, he existed as a warning to magic users, and since they couldn't remove him from the IoW, they just used him in the League. Jax actually had some intrigue I would have LOVED to see played out, what is he? What is his relation to Reginald Ashiram? How is he such a combat master? Nocturne was also supposed to be like Fiddles, just a character of mystery, but he was more open to resolutions than Fiddles.

No matter what, a fictional world WILL have limitations, good writing works with those limitations, to create an interesting plot, which no matter what the current narrative team thinks, shouldn't be ignored. As a fan, I don't want a bunch of random people "wandering", it's boring, and really cliché.

Finally, there was one thing I suggested to those who thought the IoW wouldn't allow for plot advancement because of the characters, why not set up a time skip in the lore, where some stories are resolved, and then you can have a new generation of Champions for the lore, while still keeping your old ones for the game.

IRONTAYGUH1 votes

I personally think that a lot of the lore that came about in the past (League Judgments, Journal of Justice, even some character bios) go far too deep into the backgrounds of each character. Sure, I like the idea of an expansive world that each player is an active, breathing part of; however, a lot of the fun of lore is having the community figure it out for themselves. In general, the old lore team explicitly stated too much information about the game's world, and as the old creative writing mantra goes, "show, don't tell."

I'm interested in how Riot takes the game's story, and I think a good start in the direction would be giving the champions a lot of voice lines like Kalista. Through her responses, we get more of an understanding of her character than if her bio simply stated "SHE REALLY HATES BETRAYAL, GUYS."

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