[Discussion] What is the Kinkou Order?
Hey there, S&A! I'm NyanGoesBoom, and I'm going to start a campaign of formal discussions to get us on the same page conceptually.
It's no secret that Riot's Lore is extremely sparse right now, and because of that there is no definite character design for Riot's creative teams to go off of. However, everyone here knows that hasn't stopped us - the fans! - from defining what Runeterra and its people are. Just reading through these boards on any subtopic shows that the community already has general ideas of each and every champion. Riot on the other hand, comes from a business and straight-to-fact perspective, and may not even be aware of what our concepts are!
The purpose of these discussions is to challenge each other's headcannons, achieve a never-before-seen state of try-hard, and really boil down what everything is and why. As we as a community come to conclusions, I will edit the OP to list these conclusions in the most organized manner I can manage. **Riot can then refer to our discussion’s OP as a solid summary of our ideas, so that nothing is lost in the comments. **
Rules:
*1. If you’re going to call someone out or refer to their ideas, please use a quotation to indicate who/what you're talking about. Take 
Clarity, Summoners!
2. State your support for ideas you like!
3. Don’t be afraid to throw your ideas to the melting pot and to play the Devil’s Advocate!
4. PLEASE nit-pick! Point out those loopholes, and thread your ideas together!
5. Remember: We're here to come to conclusions, not beat around the bush. Identify exactly what we have , and point out all the directions we can run with it in! *
Now that formalities are out of the way, let's start talking about the Kinkou Order as a stand-alone organization!
Upon throwing out the notion of constructive conversation, it seems the Kinkou Order was sitting on some people's minds as odd and out-of-place in Runeterra. Currently, the present issue leaving that thread is that the Kinkou order doesn't seem very "original," as our Kinkou champions all seem to be your traditional ninja at first glance and beyond.
**Goals: **
1. Define the motivation behind each of the “sacred” roles -Why the "Eye of Twilight?" Why the "Fist of Shadows?" Why the "Heart of the Tempest?" What do these things have to do with each other?
2. Decide why these champions are best suited to their roles What can we infer and decide about the intention of these roles, using our champions as pointers? (Identifying lots and lots of individual traits is a little unnecessary, since we're speaking of the role and not the champion.)
3. Brighten up the “traditional ninja” concept Now that we know what we have, how can we take this ninja concept, and make it unique to Runeterra?
Reference Material: Kinkou Order wikia Akali's wikia Kennen's wikia Shen's wikia Zed's wikia It's worth noting that "Kinkou" is of Japanese origin, meaning "equilibrium." It's composed of kin meaning "level; average," and kou meaning "equilibrium; (measuring) scale." Balance (kinkou) is commonly used in the sense of having or wanting balance in one's priorities and one's life.
- So, what is the Kinkou Order again?
In summary, the Kinkou Order is an ancient, highly-structured organization of assassins with important roles to be filled among their number. The titles of the Kinkou champions are derived from these roles. They were designed to maintain a certain “balance,” such as how you prune the branches of a young fruit tree to encourage it to grow tall, strong, and bear healthy fruit. There seems to be heavy implication on shadows within the Order, thus Zed was not necessarily created as a complete juxtaposition to the Order. The Eye of Twilight is charged with Watching the Stars - “exercising judgment untainted by prejudice.” The Fist of Shadows is charged with Pruning the Tree – “eliminating those who threaten the equilibrium of Valoran.” The Heart of the Tempest is charged with Coursing (Guiding?) the Sun - "tirelessly conveying the justice of the Kinkou."
The champions presently filling the "sacred roles" are:
as the Eye of Twilight, 
as the *Fist of Shadow, *and 
as the Heart of the Tempest.
They are all rivaled by 
the Master of Shadows, after Zed defied Shen's father in the name of power.
- What do they do here on Runeterra? They originally kept watch over Ionia alone, until the IoW’s formation allowed them to branch out and influence Valoran. Unfortunately, that’s not canon anymore, so wat do?
… Notice how short the “What they do” bit is. Shall we fix that, S&A?
Conclusions: ...
Let's start our discussion with: "Why the "Eye of Twilight?" What is that? What does that even mean?!"
