What if the League of Legends was like the Holy Grail War?
TL;DR at the bottom
I'm referring to the Holy Grail War from the Fate series (Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero, etc).
What I mean by "like the Holy Grail War" is, what if Summoners were like Masters, and Champions were like Servants/Heroic Spirits?
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Definition of "Heroic Spirit": Heroic Spirits are spirits of heroes who achieved great deeds in life, having become objects of worship after their deaths.
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Definition of "Master": Master is a designation given to an individual, usually a magus, who has become one of the formal participants of the Holy Grail War by obtaining Command Spells and forming a contract with a Servant.
Despite what people may think, Summoner's DO STILL EXIST within the lore, but in what form? And why are players still referred to as "summoners" (if not because it'd be too much of a hassle to change the ingame terminology after all this time)? What relationship do they have with the ingame Champions? Do the Champions actually exist in the same world as the Summoners, or are they perhaps historical, or even fantasy characters to the Summoners, as Servants are to Masters?
Here's what I think:
Champions: Fantastic historical figures within the world of Runeterra. They have their own personal histories and relationships with other Champions. When they are summoned to fight with and against other Champions by Summoners, they are either pulled out of their world/timeline against their will (or through a contract) to do so, or they are merely "copied" so to speak and "pasted" within the scenario. This would explain how/why they would fight with/against friends/enemies when they normally wouldn't.
Summoners: Mysterious, powerful figures that summon Champions to fight for them. For what reasons is unknown. However, they have the power to replicate the Champions of Legend (hint hint) and place them within a battlefield alongside other Champions. These Summoners could be a part of some kind of organization that does this, taking historical figures from ancient times (in their world) and pitting them against one another. This group could possible be the "League of Legends" the title refers to now.
If this was how the lore was setup, it would give context to both the gameplay AND the stories. I think this would allow the battles that take place between players and their Champions to make sense, AND allow Riot to tell whatever stories they want for each Champion's individual lore, because that would just be stuff added to that Champion's history.
The TL;DR: Champions are Runeterra's fantastic historical figures summoned into the "modern day" by Summoner's to fight for whatever reason, similar to how Heroic Spirits are summoned by Masters to fight for them in the Fate series.
