So guys who's enjoying the new canon lore?

Pythagorean Thm·Jan 8, 2015·61 votes·4,762 views

Pretty good right? I mean there's just TONS of stories that are constantly expanded upon. Now that those pesky summoners are out of the way, just LOOK AT ALL THESE STORIES. it's crazy.

48 Comments

DrCyanideJan 8, 201531 votes

It's been four months since the update that deleted several champions lore out of the client. When the patch was rolled out, we were told that the new, full lores couldn't fit in the client because they were too long and would be on the website within a month. A month came and went and they posted some of the lores here. Since that time, a grand total of 3 lores have been posted on the forums. Sion got his updated lore put in the game, which seems to fly in the face of the old explanation for why lore needed to be off-loaded.

What kind of 'Technical Issues' have come up with posting the update lore on the forums? What kind of 'Technical Issues' keep the site update from actually happening?

To be honest, I think there are more Management Issues at play here than Technical ones. I have a hard time believing that the IT staff in charge of updating the lore on the website didn't test things before hand and realize there was a problem. Someone said "go ahead and delete the lore for those champions from the client anyway". I can believe that some challenges came up with actually implementing the website changes. I can't believe the changes needed to make things work take four months. I can believe there is feature-creep for some fancy new website that does more than is needed right now.

Lets also be honest, lore is a third-world citizen in a first-world game. If this was a promotional icon that wasn't showing up with a new skin, it would be fixed in the week, no matter how many lines of code needed to be changed. Same with the textures for a skin, or the animations, or any other aspect of League of Legends.

*sigh*

I just want the real reason for why things are being delayed. Is it too much to want Riot to be honest with us?

Darrosh JewfistJan 8, 20155 votes

The idea of management issues is what I lean towards as well.

THE FOLLOWING IS PURE SPECULATION AND TIN-FOIL HAT CONSPIRACY.

Technical issues involving text limits is... seriously? It doesn't take 4 months to write these champ bios. But I can totally imagine a room of 5-6 people spending 4 months agonizing over how this is going ruin their future plans.

Judging by how the narrative leadership went through a recent flux, and probably still is going through staff shuffling, and with so many hands in the narrative it isn't surprising the lore is not going in many places. They probably started off with a grand vision, but couldn't realize it since lead went on and now that visions changed. So you've probably got staffers who still miss for the old unapologetic so-bad-it's-good JoJ/IoW era lore, the grand vision narrative lore they seem to be going for, and the scattered visions of various others in the narrative.

I'm just guessing that they haven't quite hammered down their vision yet and they certainly don't seem in a rush to do much (given the War of Three Sisters Freljord storyline has been stagnant for 3 years).

It wouldn't surprise me if a narrative conference is a lot like a UN Security Council meeting where everybody has some veto power. A single veto, and the entire thing gets stopped. There's probably a load of content prepared at this point (if there isn't any content prepared, then narrative would just seem incomptent incompetent), but they can't decide what to release because of the backlash phobia.

A ship with so many captains and navigators isn't going to get many places. And they definitely want to avoid another retcon with huge community backlash.

Throw in the fact you've got an increasingly corporate and e-sports-centric Riot that wants to showcase League of Legends as a professional image, and distance itself from the previous-era's "goofy" lore. It also explains why a lot of the newer champs and reworks show more grim-dark serious characters rather than old school Sions or joke champs - Riot just doesn't want to be associated with that anymore.

In a way, this is the opposite of what happened to Blizzard. Blizzard started off with wildly successful franchises that told epic, engaging stories. The Starcraft 1 monologues in the briefings and random unit banter and atmosphere was masterful. It had the grimdarkness of Warhammer without the sheer terminology overload.

Then Starcraft 2 comes around and everything gets comical. Rather than keeping a Nolan-equse (we are sorry this is a superhero film but we are trying to be serious), they opted for... rather generic lore with artifacts, prophecies, and Zerutal OMG WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU?

tl:dr My theory is that Riot started off as that fun, nerdy kid in glasses but realizes if he takes off the glasses he can be one of the dime-a-dozen popular kids.

OuroboroJan 9, 201514 votes

I've been opposed to the retcon since day one.

I've never felt so dead about something so insignificant when the lore retcon was announced. Probably due to the old lore being the only reason why I like League of Legends, but it's moot at this point and I near quitting every single day.

By the way, the new dialogue direction is just stupid. I wanted to play Rek'Sai because free week today. Heard "her" voice over and just switched to Vladimir. Having absolutely no dialogue isn't interesting Riot, not in the slightest. I'm sorry. I can't stand any of it.

RasCaelestisJan 9, 201511 votes

I agree with your first point, but not your second. Part of the reason I like Rek'Sai is that she is an animal. Therefore probably unable to properly communicate/understand human speech. When she attacks, her shrieks/noises are more violent and full of anger, and when she moves she sounds more passive, like she's biding her time or on the hunt for more prey. She can communicate on a basic level, but I love that she doesn't sound like a *sentient being with full understanding of language.

She's the first true animal champion this game's really had. There are definitely animalistic ones, like Rammus, Anivia, Skarner, and Wukong, but those are all magically-altered or sentient creatures that just have animal-like features. Yes, her species is from the Void, but there is a massive difference between the level of her intelligence and that of Vel'Koz's, or even Kog'Maw's. She's said to be smart for one of the Xer'Sai, but it's an entirely different level of sophisticated thinking. My dog is pretty smart, but I'd never say he's as smart as I am. Rek'Sai is to my dog as Vel'Koz is to me, essentially.

On a slightly related note, the fact that you put quotes around "her" kind of jumped out at me. You're not the only one I've seen do that, and I'm not calling you out specifically, but I've been wanting to say this for a while... Why is it that just because she doesn't sound like Caitlyn or Kayle or Janna, she's not considered a female? If it's her form, that shouldn't matter, since Skarner looks like a purple scorpion, Volibear looks like a bear, heck, Zac is a vaguely-humanoid blob of lab-created goo, but even he's referred to by masculine pronouns. If it's her vocalizations, that also shouldn't matter since Gnar just speaks gibberish (along with a few imitations of known words like 'Demaglio!'). I know it's not a big deal, but this is the first non-humanoid female champion since Anivia, and I really like her concept.

EDIT: For some reason, the last part of the first paragraph got cut off and I didn't notice it until just now. The * indicates where the edit starts.

OuroboroJan 9, 20155 votes

{quoted}

I agree with your first point, but not your second. Part of the reason I like Rek'Sai is that she is an animal. Therefore probably unable to properly communicate/understand human speech. When she attacks, her shrieks/noises are more violent and full of anger, and when she moves she sounds more passive, like she's biding her time or on the hunt for more prey. She can communicate on a basic level, but I love that she doesn't sound like a

She's the first true animal champion this game's really had. There are definitely animalistic ones, like Rammus, Anivia, Skarner, and Wukong, but those are all magically-altered or sentient creatures that just have animal-like features. Yes, her species is from the Void, but there is a massive difference between the level of her intelligence and that of Vel'Koz's, or even Kog'Maw's. She's said to be smart for one of the Xer'Sai, but it's an entirely different level of sophisticated thinking. My dog is pretty smart, but I'd never say he's as smart as I am. Rek'Sai is to my dog as I am to Vel'Koz, essentially.

On a slightly related note, the fact that you put quotes around "her" kind of jumped out at me. You're not the only one I've seen do that, and I'm not calling you out specifically, but I've been wanting to say this for a while... Why is it that just because she doesn't sound like Caitlyn or Kayle or Janna, she's not considered a female? If it's her form, that shouldn't matter, since Skarner looks like a purple scorpion, Volibear looks like a bear, heck, Zac is a vaguely-humanoid blob of lab-created goo, but even he's referred to by masculine pronouns. If it's her vocalizations, that also shouldn't matter since Gnar just speaks gibberish (along with a few imitations of known words like 'Demaglio!'). I know it's not a big deal, but this is the first non-humanoid female champion since Anivia, and I really like her concept.

No problem, but I'd have preferred lines akin to Anivia and Elise (spider form) for Rek'sai. As someone who really likes my champions talking to me (Jinx js one of my favorite VOs).

The fact she has enormously loud grunts to facilitate the role of a monster champion...I can see where they are going with it, but I simply don't like it. I realize you used Gnar as an example, this is actually why I don't like Gnar either (though to a lesser extent, he has some cute character interactions)

The quote on she was really a joke that OP might catch, considering the fact even casters call her a he. I would have enjoyed a more evil sounding Anivia than a VO full of grunts if you catch what I mean.

The SoulforgedJan 10, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ouroboro DFGAREN,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=KwMn002W,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-01-09T05:07:07.040+0000)

I've been opposed to the retcon since day one.

I've never felt so dead about something so insignificant when the lore retcon was announced. Probably due to the old lore being the only reason why I like League of Legends, but it's moot at this point and I near quitting every single day.

By the way, the new dialogue direction is just stupid. I wanted to play Rek'Sai because free week today. Heard "her" voice over and just switched to Vladimir. Having absolutely no dialogue isn't interesting Riot, not in the slightest. I'm sorry. I can't stand any of it.

We feel for u master of wizard garen.

Sneak DogJan 9, 201510 votes

I'm really happy with all these new, entertaining and deep characters like Rek'Sai the monster and even retcons to replace our old characters for just plain better characters like Xerath the political ascendant.

If only someone had seen this coming a year ago when Trundle got retconned, boy would they be happy now.

All the upvotes to this great and constructive thread showing Riot exactly what we want.

Toothless LionJan 9, 20157 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sneak Dog,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=KwMn002W,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2015-01-09T00:14:49.430+0000)

I'm really happy with all these new, entertaining and deep characters like Rek'Sai the monster and even retcons to replace our old characters for just plain better characters like Xerath the political ascendant.

If only someone had seen this coming a year ago when Trundle got retconned, boy would they be happy now.

All the upvotes to this great and constructive thread showing Riot exactly what we want.

Trundle's retcon was the dumbest shit ever.

Avast AntivirusJan 9, 20153 votes

{quoted}

Trundle's retcon was the dumbest shit ever.

I agree, but I think he was being sarcastic.

I would hope that no one could actually think that the Xerath retcon was good. I've given up playing him, between the rework that made him clunkier and the absolute destruction of his lore. I just main Azir now, because he's more Xerath than Xerath is.

About Rek'Sai, however... I think that worked out pretty well. She's one of my favorite characters in League.

Sneak DogJan 9, 20153 votes

I didn't put enough sarcasm and contradictions in the post that replies to a sarcastic OP to make it entirely obvious? Daang. Ah well, not every post can be a winner if you simply voice your own, possibly controversial, opinion. People might just be downvoting me because they approve of Xerath being a politician ascendant now, rather than a magus ascendant.

TiureJan 10, 20151 votes

I kinda like new Trundle's lore. Yeah the concept of a regenerating troll who bears the curse of his tribe is pretty cool, but honestly I prefer the cunning, powerful troll that we have now. He feels stronger, he looks stronger, he acts like a troll king, and even his voice is more imposing.

This is coming from someone who prefers LOTR trolls to troll faces, for what it's worth.

Sneak DogJan 10, 20152 votes

That's fine, it's just not very relevant. My issue is that the old character was removed and replaced. Not with whom he was replaced, that just should've been a new character if Riot wanted it in their game desperately.

ArtorrisJan 9, 20157 votes

Best question... Now that Summoners don't exist what will the Summoners' Cup be called?

junglerboy16Jan 9, 20154 votes

—and who should give a crap about the summoners' code either for that matter. /Sarcasm.

AbsoluteSadmanJan 9, 20154 votes

Follow the _____ Code kids!

xXSomeoneElseJan 9, 20151 votes

they said that players will still be known as summoners.

ChortleJan 8, 20156 votes

Korrasami!

Legacy of XionJan 9, 20152 votes

BEST POST NA

IS1c1d21220aa58ffe97d65Jan 8, 20156 votes

I can't handle the level of sarcasm you've put up in this thread..

have a bunch of potatoes :'D

KingsgraveJan 8, 20155 votes

Who here is enjoying these patient and not all whiny fans? Man they are so well composed and friendly! Riot must love talking to them!

Pythagorean ThmJan 8, 201521 votes

{quoted}

Who here is enjoying these patient and not all whiny fans? Man they are so well composed and friendly! Riot must love talking to them!

I know right! I mean, their complaints are totally unfounded! After all, League of Legends is a f2p game! http://i.imgur.com/vwjD1Ta.png

KingsgraveJan 8, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hatch RawerBeryl,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=KwMn002W,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2015-01-08T21:16:30.435+0000)

I know right! I mean, their complaints are totally unfounded! After all, League of Legends is a f2p game! http://i.imgur.com/vwjD1Ta.png

Would you rather have a game that cost 60 dollars, new champs come in expansion bundles and the company has no reason to care about you? Because thats the alternative.

Darrosh JewfistJan 8, 201517 votes

Sounds like a false dichotomy. They could be a f2p game where the company doesn't care about us as well.

Although I imagine there'd be less complains on the story & art boards if there was some story going on.

Pythagorean ThmJan 8, 201511 votes

{quoted}

Would you rather have a game that cost 60 dollars, new champs come in expansion bundles and the company has no reason to care about you? Because thats the alternative.

Oh come on man. We had a thing going where we'd indirectly argue. You totally ruined it. Oh well...

Darrosh JewfistJan 8, 201515 votes

He's anti-fun.

DG AshabelJan 8, 201514 votes

I dunno. The developers behind Awesomenauts cared enough to send me a thank you postcard for backing their game on Kickstarter and I didn't even pledge for one. The developers behind Dawngate paid out of their own pocket to get Extra Life rewards such as posters delivered to their supporters after their game got canceled by the publisher, and they knew a lot of us by name.

Care to show me all that caring Riot Games exhibit toward everyone who isn't a eSports player with a fat sponsor in the meantime?

AbsoluteSadmanJan 9, 20154 votes

dont talk about dawngate, i dont wanna think about her. ill always miss you KoM ;n;

N00BC8K3Jan 9, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Would you rather have a game that cost 60 dollars, new champs come in expansion bundles and the company has no reason to care about you? Because thats the alternative.

if you had to pay though you wouldn't have all these toxic players :)

KingsgraveJan 9, 201511 votes

{quoted}

if you had to pay though you wouldn't have all these toxic players :)

Thats never been true for any actual paid game.

Toothless LionJan 9, 20155 votes

{quoted}

Who here is enjoying these patient and not all whiny fans? Man they are so well composed and friendly! Riot must love talking to them!

How many years do people have to wait for Riot and apologist fart sniffers like you to wake up?

CerbearusJan 9, 20155 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/AGEM160T-what-we-learned-in-2014-a-k-a-tldr-lore

shakin11Jan 9, 20155 votes

While i do enjoy most of the new stories i fail to see why removing the summoners, the IoW and skarners lore was necessary to write them.

metriccyberneticJan 10, 20153 votes

I know, right? It's absolutely astounding, the volume and the quality of the lore they've put out! I mean, I absolutely loved...

Ah, forget it, I can't play along with this. It hurts too much. Riot, for the love of all that is Good and Holy, just bring back the Institute and Summoners. Whilst far from perfect and in need of some serious rewriting they were much better than this absolutely Godawful state than the lore's currently in.

You could have made the previous lore less of a choke-hold on your creativity. You could have written it out in style. You could have just turned to us and asked 'Guys, we don't like the Institute, and we think we're going to retcon it. Thoughts? Ideas? Alternatives?'. WHY. DIDN'T. YOU. DO THIS?! We are here for a reason! We like to be communicated with! We don't like being left out of the loop. That's exactly what you did and this is what has happened. There is no-one to pin the blame on but yourselves.

I don't consider myself an extremely good writer, by any means, but I am pretty confident in my abilities to bash out something a little better than 'LORE FAILURE, ABORT!'. A few days, maybe even a week, you guys could have resolved the issue. It's taken you four damn months. It took me two days to come up with a very basic timeline of Runeterra from its creation to present. Is it good? Not a clue. Do I think it's good? I certainly think it's better than just saying 'Screw this' and throwing in the towel.

InivtesPreezeJan 9, 20151 votes

What neckbeard actually cares about lore in a game that the lore means nothing in? Seriously?

You're worse than the neckbeards who care what a champion looks like, as opposed to the mechanics.

MotajoJan 9, 20156 votes

{quoted}cares about lore who care what a champion looks like, as opposed to the mechanics.

If you prefer, we could remove all of that, and have the game just be a bunch of blue cubes hitting each other with red lines and green spheres, eventually progressing to the opposing yellow rectangle. Y'know, since neither story nor looks are important.

Pythagorean ThmJan 9, 20153 votes

{quoted}

who care what a champion looks like, as opposed to the mechanics.

If you prefer, we could remove all of that, and have the game just be a bunch of blue cubes hitting each other with red lines and green spheres, eventually progressing to the opposing yellow rectangle. Y'know, since neither story nor looks are important.

Thomas Was Alone would like to speak with you. I'll have you know that its story about rectangles was far more interesting than anything riot has made recently.

MotajoJan 10, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hatch RawerBeryl,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=KwMn002W,comment-id=000900000000,timestamp=2015-01-09T20:03:11.014+0000)Thomas Was Alone would like to speak with you. I'll have you know that its story about rectangles was far more interesting than anything riot has made recently.

This intrigues me more than it should

Legacy of XionJan 10, 20151 votes

I've seen it played firsthand for a few levels. The narrator is amazing and the story is more cohesive and well thought out then The Great Retcon.

OuroboroJan 9, 20156 votes

{quoted}

What neckbeard actually cares about lore in a game that the lore means nothing in? Seriously?

You're worse than the neckbeards who care what a champion looks like, as opposed to the mechanics.

This is the story and art board

The SoulforgedJan 10, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ouroboro DFGAREN,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=KwMn002W,comment-id=00090001,timestamp=2015-01-09T23:27:51.421+0000)

This is the story and art board

A lot of old gd actually cared too.

SolideusJan 11, 20151 votes

I **do **enjoy the new stuff!

I see some commenters obviously aren't happy, mainly because all the old canon hasn't been replaced yet. However, unless they make a comprehensive effort across the board they would fall back into the problems with the old lore, where a lot of it was very "one off" and disconnected from everything else. We should be glad they are thinking things through before they add stuff! Its a huge undertaking, and obviously it will take time, and they won't be able to do everything at once.

Sneak DogJan 11, 20155 votes

There's people unhappy about the only interesting part of the premise being removed. About the immersion being removed. About characters being removed. About Riots reasoning being flimsy. About Riots lack of communication.

Just giving us more lore, more shock reveals and more characters isn't going to make all of us happy.

SolideusJan 11, 20151 votes

Surely most people have differing opinions on what the "only interesting part of the premise" is. **Immersion **is a complicated subject, as anyone studying games will attest, but the new lore lends itself no less to narrative immersion and investment. Characters haven't been **removed **as far as I can see. Some have been changed in attempts to improve the quality and delivery. Everyone won't love every change, that's just a how development works. I'm sure the new Trundle is loved by many. Riots **reasoning **seem to be higher quality, a more comprehensive approach and better organization, which hardly seems flimsy. There *has *been communication. We can't expect design by committee. They really shouldn't reveal stuff before it's finished, that level of transparency wouldn't be a good thing.

More lore, more **reveals **and more **characters **seem like good things to me. There has been a lot of world-building as well. The new stuff being higher quality also helps. Those with particular tastes will just have to settle that their every fancy can't be a deciding factor every time. Some were invested in the old stuff, but changing it has big advantages too. There will always be new things to like.

MotajoJan 11, 20151 votes

{quoted}better organization

Uhhh

Sneak DogJan 11, 20155 votes

Trundle got removed. The frost troll is a new character. Had they wanted this new character in the game, it should've been a new champion.

Riot has not defended their reasoning for the retcon. Some of the arguments in the dev blog are just bad or wrong. Summoners never were puppetmasters.

Gameplay is revealing stuff before release just fine. See Sion and Cassiopeia. They're not revealing new champions though.

We used to have the JoJ for a steady income of lore. I think the writers just got better. This doesn't mean the retcon is good.