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What if Janna’s old lore was combined with her new one?

ForgottenStone·9/14/2018, 8:40:49 PM·1 votes·2,817 views

I know this is years too late but I’ll be honest I don’t like Janna’s current lore, she is completely unrelatable and disconnected from the rest of the world, the only champion she is related to is Ekko through unknown means.

So in her old lore she was an orphan from Zaun who decided to study magic to get out of poverty, turns out she is a prodigious air mage and quickly masters air magic. Her immense powers make her a celebrity and respected individual in both Zaun and Piltover and she uses her newfound power and prestige to campaign for social justice for the citizens of Zaun. Also old Janna had connections to a lot more champions as well.

That to me sounds like Janna and a lot more relatable.

Her new lore is that she is a Shuriman Goddess powered by prayers who used to help guide sailors before they stopped praying to her. She found a new home in Zaun as the people need a savior to help them to not die from their own air pollution so now when enough people pray to her she will show up and blow the pollution away. This lasts for a few minutes and everyone goes back to choking to death until the next time Janna blows the pollution back.

That’s a bit hard to relate to, and sounds a lot more like Zephyr the mysterious bird always by Janna’s side. Plus unlike every single champion what is new Janna’s struggle? To get people to worship her?

Also blowing away smog every now and then to stop people from suffocating sounds pretty boring and uninteresting, literally every champion has more interesting lore than that.

Why is Shurima mentioned but never developed as she has 0 connection to any Shuriman champion or really any other champion.

So I think as a solution just have Janna’s new lore describe Zephyr the air elemental. And keep her old lore.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/vsbattles/images/c/c9/Janna_OriginalSkin.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20161115182219

15 Comments

GreenLore9/14/2018, 11:10:08 PM6 votes

I disagree with you here.

Her being an orphan that turns out to be a genious with magic might be more relateable,but it is also quite generic and old Janna really never did anything beyond that.

New Janna struggles to protect the people of Zaun and also has to keep her followers at the same time,that is more interesting than pretty much anything she had before.

Psyrix9/15/2018, 12:37:36 AM4 votes

Not every champ is supposed to have a struggle, some champs are just there because they are iconic... Kindred has no "struggle", nor does Rammus, nor does Illaoi really, nor multitudes of other champs. Some exist to flesh out the lore and universe rather than striving towards a particular goal that drastically drives the story... Some just naturally drastically CREATE or impact stories by mere existence rather than wanting something.

Janna isn't Shuriman, just holds a Shuriman name... in fact her origin as a sea spirit more implies Bilgewater origins (which i believe are referenced in her lore, tho i cant quite recall atm tbh) which were then spread to Zaun. Her name was chosen by the seamen "Janna" meaning Guardian or protector, So yes, the name comes from Shurima, but the spirit doesn't (She's more of a spirit, not an actual Goddess).

LusterCrown9/14/2018, 9:07:18 PM3 votes

I have to disagree with you cuz there is no single word describing Janna as Shurimian Goddess but "Janna" is old shurimian word describing a sentinel or guardian.

Edited:

I found that line fro Janna's Univrsum lore page: "Eventually, Runeterra’s seamen agreed upon a name for this wind spirit: “Janna,” an ancient Shuriman word meaning “guardian.”

BTW I think she deserves smal VU (unfortunetly she's classified Tier 2-or-3) cuz her splashes and model are old and outdated, her passive is quite not "usefull" much compering to othes supports' passives, her quotes should be re-write and one thing deffintly I want to add to her kit is casting her ult like Kindred's.

Gold Light9/14/2018, 9:15:48 PM2 votes

I have to agree. While I don't hate Janna's current lore, there's a lot about it that feels really vague. She's called a 'goddess' but doesn't seem to operate like any other deity/divine being we've seen in the lore; if anything, she's closer to demons, since demons are born of mortal vices and Janna was born of prayers.

Cetri9/14/2018, 10:37:56 PM1 votes

I gotta disagree. First off, retconning already retconned lore to this extent would be a big mistake, and would only further inflame the "AlL tHe LoRe Is DuMb BeCaUsE iT cOuLd Be ReTcOnNeD aNyTimE" crowd.

In addition, Janna's no more disconnected than a lot of champs. Quinn, Ahri, Orianna, most yordles, Annie, etc. all have no canon interactions with other champs at present. It's easy to envision circumstances where they would meet other champs, though, and the same is true for Janna. She'd likely have interesting things to say to not only Ekko, but Urgot, Viktor, Zac, and WW as well, if not all Zaun (or even Piltover) champs. Janna's personal struggle isn't getting people to worship her; rather, it's bringing hope to the people of Zaun, and all of those champs have their own ideas on how to do that.

Ben O Nights9/15/2018, 12:59:09 AM1 votes

I get what you're saying. Everything about her feels very passive and she lacks personality. But please don't try to shoehorn the old story into her new one.

Have you ever read Small Gods by Terry Pratchett? In this the great and powerful god Om wants to visit his followers so he decends to the world. Too bad it turns out that nobody actually worships him and he ends up as a powerless turtle. (On the Discworld gods are more powerful the more they are worshiped) So he tries to make himself known to people so he is worshiped again and regains his power.

I basically want Janna to be that. Actively trying to get peoples favor because she is afraid to be forgotten again.

RyzeTheSmurfMage9/15/2018, 4:10:25 PM1 votes

Where does it say she comes from Shurima?

prestige to campaign for social justice Lmfao no. Justice is more like it but social justice just turns the opressed into opressors (In Zaun's case since there people are actually opressed)gl hf