Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

League of ______? Because I'm not seeing the "Legends"

AnysonAcE·3/9/2015, 7:36:34 AM·9 votes·1,725 views

WARNING: THIS POST IS ME COMPLAINING ABOUT LORE.

Well to start off this was in response to a post I saw on the boards that I was going to put as a comment, but it ended up really long. Don't rage please- it's my first post as well.

With that said, I love what's being said in this post, but the first comment sums up a bit of what I initially thought: "Riot doesn't care about lore."

I mean as a player? I love lore. I love having reasons for the champions being on Summoner's Rift (Or should I just say "Rift" because we are no longer canon). I want to dive into these backstories of these characters who each have their own quirks and traits. And honestly I think that's what League is lacking right now.

We see a lot of the "League" in the LCS with competition and tiers of champions, we have situations where X counters Y and Z; and there is a diverse selection of champions (Not necessarily who is in the meta, but champions in general- that's a different discussion). But we see so little of the "Legends" because we get so little story behind these complex champions.

To me, League of Legends loses a lot of its feeling and depth when half of the title is removed from the game. Because as I'm seeing it right now, League of Legends has turned into League of "who can win me matches"- not playing as "Legend" I enjoy and like playing because the character is cool- despite their strength. I understand there are plenty of people who do play for the character and not the gameplay, but the number of people who play for stomping others in matches is the majority. I also want to acknowledge that it's not that fun playing as a champ who loses because they are out of the meta or are simply over-nerfed, I get that even if a character has an amazing back story it still won't be fun to lose on them. Again, I digress.

Seriously though, champions are no longer legends when the players don't have the in-depth lore: the feeling and power of a champion is lost. They don't seem "Larger than life" or "This character seems to be someone from a folk story"- like the feeling I got when Braum was released (And props to some of the newer champion lores because they are getting better). Regardless of the newer champions' overall strength in backstory, I want to know the interaction between factions. I want to know what conversations might go on between Draven and Katerina, or Kassadin and Vel'koz.

And the great thing is that Riot doesn't need to put all these micro interactions in the game itself- but giving some reasons and general stories and resources outside of the game itself would be amazing for us who enjoy the great stories of these supposed legendary champions (Like a separate part to the website for updates on what's going on in Runeterra)(Yes I know that costs money and resources, I can still complain).

Anyway what I think I'm trying to say is this: I want League of Legends

I also want to hear what the community thinks, feel free to share opinions even if they are completely opposite of mine. I just want to hear what the community thinks about the lore "situation" as it stands right now. Also, a poll:

17 Comments

LordHippoman3/9/2015, 11:11:06 AM8 votes

First of all, welcome to the boards. I've been here since S1 (well, technically on the old forums, but SEMANTICS) and it's always nice to see new people. We get lonely.

Lore is a weird part of League. It's my favorite part, but most players hear "Summoners" and think Flash, Ignite, Teleport, and not "employees of the IoW". We've never really been the big draw of the game. Doesn't mean we're not important, just that we aren't really at the forefront.

I get what you mean with the "Legends" thing. A few champions fit that bill really well, Braum, Lissandra, Sion, Bard, etc. But with some others, they're just people with significant skills. It is a bit of a misnomer, and I think a lot of it is just that "League Of Legends" is a catchy name for a game, moreso than "lots of people fight in the woods".

I think one of the most difficult questions to answer with League lore is if lore should focus on the champions themselves more, or if it should focus harder on Valoran as a whole. Even narrative tends to disagree on this sometimes, it seems, due to shifts in the staff. Like, look at two early Champs, Jax and Fiddlesticks. Both have lores that tell us more about the League than them. Now look at around late Season 2. The lore team shifted around here, they had a new head writer, and we got champions like Nautilus and Fizz. Those lores tell us a lot about their origins, but almost leave out the League entirely. Most material about Valoran from here on out was through stuff like Freljord or the last few JoJ's.

So, I think the golden mean would be a mix of the two styles that really pervaded early lore. Bios that focus more on the champions, supplemental material and events that expand Runeterra. I think that's the way to create "legends".

KING OF MASKS3/10/2015, 2:52:33 AM6 votes

You should've added another poll option: "In critical condition".

Or perhaps "Dead in the water"?

NorthernDruid3/9/2015, 11:13:59 PM5 votes

When they took the game out of the Lore it stopped being Lore and started being a seperate story in a seperate setting with mostly the same characters in it.

The retcon made it no longer be relevant to their game, so why do they even bother?

It's not like anyone's ever gonna love them for ripping out the core concept of their setting, at least not anyone who enjoyed the lore to begin with.

Especially when the IoW/LoL/Smmoners in general was the only interesting and sorta unique thing about their setting, which made it worth to invest time in.

But I guess innovation is too hard, much better to have something generic and dime-a-dozen than something new and forward looking.

I wish I had been there for the gameplay/story integration i've been wanting for the last 5-6 years.

Ebonmaw Dragon3/9/2015, 5:35:59 PM3 votes

League of Draaaaaaaaaaveeeeeeeeeeeen

Spam E for3/13/2015, 2:20:55 AM2 votes

Actually the real problem is the ............... of Legends.The league has been removed from the lore but the legend continues!And tbh I really prefer the league to stay but in a more,Minor way or at least have a lore event that would shut the league down...but something tells me that Riot didn't do this because of Demacia and Noxus;The two Nations ready for war now with the leagues Shut down, would kill eachover...so Riot decided to not make it that complicated and to restart the whole thing....Hopefully there will be more lore events soon to clear things up tho!

OhOkYea3/9/2015, 8:48:02 AM2 votes

Questioning LoL's lore is like questioning a plot hole in a children's TV cartoon

The Soulforged3/12/2015, 1:57:45 AM1 votes

In all actuality, it was the IoW which was nicknamed the League of Legends, so the words "League" and "of" both also have to go.

Xano5013/9/2015, 10:25:56 AM1 votes

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