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Riot trying to be mysterious about Bandle City is killing support for it by the community.

Yordle Gunner··50 votes·17,255 views

Even the Void gets alot of lore through Shurima. But Bandle City gets almost nothing. The big lore update for the Yordles earlier this year barely gave us anything.

We don't have a Region Icon, our last new champion isn't even a Yordle the models and interactions are completely outdated, Some of the Yordles are still on the pre-Megling lore side. For crying out loud Corki has been popular for so long and yet many don't even recognize him as a Yordle it's so bad. We have very few stories, most of which only cover Tristana, it's no wonder not as many people care about Bandle City.

Where is the love for this region? Yordles are a unique race Riot created that has so many fans but feels forgotten. Keeping the region mysterious isn't adding to it, it's making it irrelevant to the world. Bandle City shouldn't be a forgotten side region, it's one of the Original regions that helped start League. It deserves better than this.

34 Comments

mrmeddyman16 votes

With the release of the book having only one page describing Bandle City and after all this time of getting nothing I actually could care less at this point. Yordles are the Ewoks of League of Legends, not inherently important to the world, but still thrust into the spotlight because they're cute and sell merchandise.

Terozu1 votes

The book also has a bunch of Yordle sayings scattered throughout it.

GreenLore11 votes

Uhm actually Bandle got a faction icon with its update. https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/images/bandle_city_emblem.png

But overall I agree with you, Bandle city doesn't feel like a place where champions and other yordles live anymore and more like a place of origin(just like all the void champs don't really live in the void). After seeing Teemo in Zaun in LoR I'm not even sure if they won't just retcon all the bandle yordles to live somewhere else, I mean Corki and Rumble would easily fit into Piltover/Zaun(tristana probably too),Veigar doesn't live in Bandle anyway and Yuumi is traveling the world(and it'd make sense for Lulu to do the same based on her new lore, I was actually surprised that she is apparently part of Bandles defense force).

Yordle Gunner16 votes

Yea, I meant they didn't give us an in game icon like the other regions. Despite having the symbol made that you posted. It's frustrating. Even when Riot retconned old lore for other regions there was still the general ideas and places of them. But for Bandle City I feel like Riot is out of touch with the community.

Chembaron Yamada1 votes

Personally, I would place Tristana in Bilgewater if I had to relocate her.

But yeah, it would actually be pretty easy to put all the Bandle City champions into other regions.

GreenLore1 votes

Tristana might fit into Bilgewater, but I kinda don't see her getting seperated from Rumble since his crush on Tristana is honestly one of his most prominent character traits.

Ebonmaw Dragon9 votes

The worst part is that it doesnt even sound like Riot is trying to be "mysterious", it sound like they have no idea what they are going to do with Bandle City.

The last yordle champion was Kled, and he is not from Bandle, and the last champion from Bandle is not a yordle and ALL the updated champions from Bandle have stories that have little to no relation with Bandle itself. Teemo in the card game is not in Bandle City and the "Bandle related yordles" are in Ionia in the card game.

And now i have read that the book has A SINGLE PAGE that talks about Bandle City? COME ON RIOT

Jaspers6 votes

I'd love for them to add more or at least give Corki, Rumble and others actual bios and stories. Corki isn't even part of Piltover anymore according to Universe page, nothing was mentioned why, he just isn't. Yet his bio still says "After leaving Bandle City he arrived in Piltover." His short bio still mentions he's in Piltover.

My main concern (as I'm sure I've mentioned before) is Riot must make sure they don't take away from the characters and just turn them into spirits or fae creatures that replicate their locations. This just removes what is special about them, Heimer isn't a genius because he is in Piltover and being influenced by their culture. He's a genius because he is a genius. If anything Yordles should have influenced the regions they are in.

OtterlyLost5 votes

I wish they'd do more with the yordles as well. At least they've expanded many of their lore in the last update; does anyone remember when Tristana's was literally just a paragraph and part of that was just that she could be dating Teemo(eyeroll because that totally fits her character...)?

And I agree that all of the Yordles could use in game voice line up dates. :/ Their interactions are totally outdated. Like there should be comraderie voice lines between Tristana and Poppy. Heimer, Ziggs, and Rumble could totally have some great lines together! Lulu should just be weirding out everyone

Thailand053 votes

Well...dont worry it will be update in the far future and they never forgot about them. (I understand how u feel)

League of legend still need time to prevent from Retcon that happen before. they need to be sure about the lore before update

That world is too big...

Camille Ferrøs3 votes

They probably have walls of lore texts kept in there for an opportunity for a "bigger release" A reminder that the Darkin retcon was done 2 years before its official release with Aatrox and the Udyr/Voli story was written 5 years ago...

Oleandervine1 votes

You are assuming that the stories weren't edited when the retcons happened though. Aatrox's story could have easily been under the premise of the Varus-era Darkin.

ACatIsFineToo3 votes

We might get a Yordle soon. Next year we will get a "Whimsical new jungler as well as an edgy solo-lane melee carry." Whimsical instantly makes me think Yordle. And I would personally LOVE a yordle jungler (Sorry Amumu), preferably a damage/trickstery one. Hard to catch, outplay potential, roaming etc.

Ebonmaw Dragon1 votes

{quoted}

We might get a Yordle soon. Next year we will get a "Whimsical new jungler as well as an edgy solo-lane melee carry." Whimsical instantly makes me think Yordle.

But... that does not mean that we will get any info about Bandle City, Riot can easily release a new Yordle champion that has literally 0 connections to Bandle, look at Kled for example.

And THAT is a problem... even Yummi who is from Bandle, has 0 connections to Bandle right now. Imagine if Riot released a bunch of champions from Demacia, without explaining what or where is "Demacia".

TheBossVeigar3 votes

This is late, but I agree. I've waited so long for more information on Bandle City and yordles, to the point where I've lost all hope and have resorted to trying to write my own (albeit bad) lore about them, just because it's actually depressing me how neglected Bandle City is.

I understand, it's not popular, therefore it's prioritized less. I understand that, but imagine if they NEVER released anything for Demacia. Demacia wouldn't be popular then, as it'd be in a broken, unfinished state.

Yuumi, while a nice release as she's our first new Bandle Champion since Lulu in 2012 (Yes I know Trist got a rework, but I mean brand new Champion) but her stories didn't tell us anything about Bandle, if I remember it didn't even spend too much time in Bandle. I think her short story was mostly in Bilgewater wasn't it?

I've actually been giving up on hope about it lately, honestly. It pains me to say that but I feel like it might never happen.

GreenKnight2 votes

Just wait for a retcon. Riot likes to remove things, so you might not want to read what they will do to this region.

HonestJohnTheCon1 votes

Well, at least with the release of the book, little else lore-wise can change now that it’s in hard print.

Hopefully. If they keep retconning stuff they put in the book I’m gonna give up on the lore completely.

LightswornLance2 votes

No one likes yordles, they arent worth a lore update, and I hope a new yordle champion never gets released.

Jeddy01710 votes

{quoted}

I don't like yordles.

Fixed that for you, mate.

LightswornLance1 votes

Pretty much all yordle champions are flying under the radar with low playrates, because they have no real appeal. They sound weird, look weird, have weird personalities. They just aren't really fit for this game. I'm glad there are no yordle junglers, riot actually knows their playerbase pretty well. They remind me of gnomes in WoW, no one wants to play them, even if they are the best mage class no one would sacrifice their pride to be one.

Jeddy0175 votes

Say whatever makes you happy buddy. Whatever makes you happy.

[poppy-wink] [sg-lulu]

HalfTangible3 votes

Off the top of my head, Tristana, Corki, Rumble, Gnar and Kled all appeared at Worlds. Teemo mains exist. Veigar sees a ton of play.

You can't just say "they have low playrates" and expect to not be called out for being wrong.

LightswornLance1 votes

Because they are played doesnt mean they dont have low play rates. Teemo mains seem to be a silver phenomenon in my experience.

GreenLore2 votes

I'm actually sure that the problem is more that riot doesn't have a clear image of Bandle and I think part of the problem for this is that Bandles champions kinda clash with the idea that Riot has for that place. I mean Bandle city is basically described as a fairly whimsical place, but then you look at the champs that are counted as bandle city champs and you'll see that a lot of them actually feel fairly militaristic Tristana Corki Rumble Teemo , which really clashes with the whole "whimsical" thing.

SlyTactician 2 votes

This is something I had in mind for a while too. While the fae/whimsical take on the yordles in the recent lore might work for champions like Lulu, it clashes heavily with someone like Rumble who literally built a mech with his bare paws out of anger against the teasing for him being the runt of the litter/the humans from Piltover that visited Bandle City or even Gnar who's a supposed prehistoric yordle. While this is likely to be changed in the new lore, the designs of many yordle champions do not seem very fairy/spirit-like.

Ebonmaw Dragon2 votes

So... i havent bought the book... but after seeing some videos i can say...

SERIOUSLY?

https://i.imgur.com/l5YXiVG.png

This is THE ONLY THING about Bandle City in the WHOLE BOOK?

Like... 2 pictures and 3 parragraphs of text that already appear in the Universe and a map of Runeterra... that is all.

.... oh and there are 2 weird symbols that say something that i cant read because i dont own the book, but i bet that is a teaser for a champion and no actual info about the city.

SlyTactician 2 votes

Hoping for a Bandle City update as well soon. I really want to see the region be fleshed out more as we've gotten a few stories of the yordles outside of Bandle, but nothing about the city itself.

Been waiting for lore stories about it for so long, and tbh - Veigar short story was my favourite of the the most recent. It fit him perfectly!

Kennen doesn't even seem to appear so far in the Zed comic previews/cover (hoping he does make at least an appearance along with Shen/Akali in the comic). Rumble is nowhere to be found right now and even Teemo of all champions still barely has any lore despite being such an iconic champion. Kled, Poppy, Corki, Heimer, etc could all use more stories as well.

The yordles and their bright designs/personalities were what drew me to the game and it would be wonderful to hear how their society is like and what Bandle City looks like currently.

Xplosion1011 votes

Irrelevant but I just can't picture Corki as a yordle.

Forhonor3211 votes

I'm going to be honest, I almost completely forget sometimes that Bandle City is even a thing. It is a shame though since Yordles are very unique (being the equivalent to hobbits/gnomes but sometimes furry). With LoR it feels like a lot of Yordles just exist in the world without and sort of home base or distinct region to themselves, with most of them residing in Ionia (from my perspective) for some reason. Riot introduced that the city's entrance moves around but that barely means anything if we don't actually see the city. It's just a random moving 'empty' portal then.

It really just feels like Riot just doesn't know what to do with Bandle City at the moment, whether it's what direction they want to go with before revealing or slowly fade it out and retcon it to make the world a bit easier to build. That or we may get more detail of it with this "whimsical" jungler that was mentioned in the last roadmap who may be a Yordle. We don't know. I almost want to see that if only to see if Riot actually has something for the region before making more regions, like Ixalan, or expanding others further.

JedenVojak1 votes

It's better if there is no lore about Bandle City - the lore team will only make something terrible.

Yordle Gunner1 votes

{quoted}

It's better if there is no lore about Bandle City - the lore team will only make something terrible.

Perhaps we should have more faith in the Lore team, they have done good with the Major regions so far. As long as they stay true to what the Current Champions of Bandle City are, and maintain them as a physical race and a place people that are fans of it can explore, it should be good.

JedenVojak1 votes

Mmm, if you like their new lore that's fine, but I don't think they've put out anything good since they removed the league.

Maisanai1 votes

I stopped reading all of the stories they put out after that atrocity that was the bandle city update. What a disgrace.

WeAreDuo1 votes

I have a theory that Riot is playing with the idea of making yordles be a real, existing thing, but at the same time have it be the stuff of fables. Think of characters like Kled and Poppy, they have no place in Bandle city. I'd argue the same for Trist, Rumble, Heim, Ziggs. Most of these characters can be associated with a region and since most people in Runeterra dont even believe yordles are real, what's to say that Kled isn't just Noxian folk tale or Poppy isnt just Demacian folk tale?

I'm sure Bandle is a real place in the spirit world but the physical world has little to no understanding of it and so it's possible that most of the Yordles and everything we know about them are just made up campfire/bedtime stories. Even though their lores are told in their perspective. It's just a theory.

So just for the sake of doing it, Im gonna try to place each yordle in a fitting region, some we already know and some I noticed in this thread.

Heimerdinger - Piltover Ziggs - Zaun Fizz, Trist - Bilgewater Gnar - Freljord Kennen - Ionia Kled - Noxus Poppy - Demacia Amumu - Shurima Veigar - Shadow Isles Lulu - Ixtal Corki - Targon (no solid logic behind this, just that he can fly up to the top of the mountain lol)

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