GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! we can still be summoners
Yes it's true! We(the players) can still be summoners, and riot can still abolish the institute of war, AND it can all still be cannon(more or less); not sure how? well allow me to elaborate. (tl;dr at bottom of post)
As i understand it the issue with the institute of war is that it limits creative expression through conflict, i.e. it's meant to preclude war of all kinds and therefore makes the world wholly more boring. But without the I.o.W then there are no summoners right? Wrong! Well, functionally right in the "traditional" lore, but i have a simple and elegant solution that will both allow players to continue to be summoners and let riot have their wars, all while being cannon, AND allowing for more story and champion diversity without all the convoluted plot devices! HOORAY! Sorry, here's how.
Instead of summoners being glorified civil servants based out of the I.o.W, they're a cadre or nigh immortal arch-magi that take individuals from throughout runeterra's history, capture a portion of their essence, which they then summon to battle in their league for the purposes of training and preparing the people of runeterra to fight off a future void invasion.
What this does is it allows the league to exist outside of the direct "interactional" continuity of the lore, but still be available to add to the lore if desired. Essentially the summoners can pick anyone from anytime in runeterras history and summon them to the league battlegrounds for "training". After the match all the subject would remember(if anything) would be a vague dream of a battle; and being that the summoners exist outside of the direct time continuum they could always call upon people while they were sleeping, thus freeing us from any of that awkwardly jarring, "I know your fighting a war right now but i need you on my team, yoink!"
Once summoned the subject would remember all their accumulated training from their previous summons and would have no qualms fighting side by side with otherwise sworn enemies(knowing it was for the good of all life ever). This would also explain why they all start out fresh every time, why they can be killed ad infinitum, the neutral creeps etc.
What this accomplishes from a completely non-commital stand point(lorewise) is to connect both the game and any other lore pieces together without the need of any extraneous explanation(after this i mean). Imagine, this explains everything about the game world, opens up vast possibilities for storytelling, and never NEEDS to be wedged and hammered into everyone's lore SOMEWHERE. You don't need to explain why the secretive le blanc suddenly went all american gladiators, you don't have to rationalize why lucian is holding down bot lane alongside thresh; they're doing it because the have to! The training scenario even explains why they would fight side by side with void monsters, because you can learn just as much fighting with someone as against someone.
TL;DR: get rid of the I.o.W. and bad plot devices, turn summoners into demigods that go all "secret wars" to train people to fight the void.
step: 3 profit
