A nightmare for IronStylus: why Narrative shouldn't treat the lore as a blank slate.

CupcakeTrap·Dec 2, 2014·48 votes·4,126 views

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Leona_0.jpg

So far, Narrative is treating the lore largely as a blank slate. Though I hate to disturb the tranquility of our beloved Parrot Sovereign, IronStylus, here I will risk doing so in order to illustrate why Narrative's "blank slate" attitude is problematic.

Shock Reveals: Great for new content, terrible for rewrites and retcons

The blank slate attitude goes hand in hand with Narrative's favorite toy: the shock reveal.

A shock reveal slams new content down without warning, and (obviously) also without any prior discussion with the community. That's fine for brand new material, including material that continues a prior storyline, or fleshes out in greater detail events that are already established. Want to write a story about Ezreal sneaking off to spy on Noxus? Go for it. Make it a shock reveal if you like. Same for putting out a story that illustrates Xin Zhao's escape from the arena, or a new music video, or some awesome artwork of established events.

However, because shock reveals (by their very nature) preclude any possibility of meaningful community engagement—community interaction that happens early enough in the development process to meaningfully affect it—they are deeply inappropriate for rewrites and retcons that tear up the foundations of League's lore rather than building upon them.

Incoming: lots of new material, likely full of retcons and rewrites, likely coming by shock reveal

In a recent thread, IronStylus confirmed my suspicions that Narrative is working on a truly massive block of new lore, which I expect will invoke massive rewrites of existing characters and settings, launched by shock reveal with no prior community input:

As for communication, our team is dealing with NEARLY the amount of information, story and world building that Narrative is creating. I do not envy their task.

If Narrative persists in its present MO—retcon of established lore by shock reveal—then "more lore inc" is anything but reassuring.

A parrot-lord's nightmare: what if Narrative went after Leona?

Imagine how people would feel if one day they logged in and Leona was redone as a growling Noxian with black armor. But still called Leona. Imagine the shock and dismay of all those people in the community who'd drawn Leona artwork, or written Leona lore, seeing their devotion to the character nullified. Now imagine these people logging in to ask "WHY?!?!" and seeing Narrative post something like, "oh, gosh, we're sorry about that, but we hope you'll enjoy telling new stories with our new Leona, who we think is a much more interesting character. (We felt that Mount Targon was really constraining her, and that she'll have much more interesting story opportunities as a Noxian.) Stay tuned! We've got tons of new Leona lore coming, and I think you'll really enjoy it. I wish I could share more, but it's all under wraps, haha." I think you can imagine that there might be a lot of monitors with keyboards shoved through them that day, and a lot of community artists sobbing over their tablets.

Leona is one Champion. An awesome Champion, but one Champion.

Multiply accordingly and you'll understand why we're not exactly happy with Narrative's "assurances" that they're writing lots of lore, and we'll be so "excited" when it all comes out.

And if you don't think that Narrative is making such drastic changes, well, I hope you're right. (Leona is in some ways a poor example: they'd never order a full VO rework of her. But many of these beloved Champions from League's older days are slated for such a rework, and could easily suffer that sort of fate.) But so far, they show essentially zero concern for the damage they do. They're treating an established, organic universe as a blank slate, ripping up pieces and stabbing new components down into the foundations without any regard for the damage they do to the community in the process. This approach is fundamentally flawed and has us very, very anxious.

Meaningful community engagement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsiKOJOXMJU We're Trundle and Karma, woooooaaaaahhhhh! Let's say that Narrative were to see such horrible visions in their nightmares and, sweat upon their clammy brows, immediately phone IronStylus to tell him they weren't going to retcon Leona into a Noxian after all.

"What are you talking about? Of course you aren't! Oh, you guys," he might jovially reply.

"But wait!" Narrative might next proclaim, in this increasingly unlikely tale, "Is that not what we are about to do to so many other Champions? How shall we avert this terrible nightmare? Speak comfort to us, community!"

Here is my prescription.

Recognize that you do not have a great track record for predicting what the community would say, if you asked them. (Recall that Dev Blog post announcing the Great Retcon? One thing that came out was the "reassurance" that they had definitely considered all the points people were making in the comments. There was a trial before the League and Summoners were sentenced to oblivion—just a trial in absentia. This predictably failed to soothe us.) So get the genuine article: come talk with us.
If you're thinking about rewriting a major established story element, stop and reconsider. "I think it might be a liiiittle better if…" is not a sufficient rationale. That's all fine when you're still at the drawing board, sketching out a brand new universe. Once the universe goes live, retcons should be highly disfavored. "Meh, Vayne really should be from Piltover instead of Demacia" is the sort of thought that should be followed with, "but whatever, let's just write in a connection to Piltover for her, instead of trashing her whole background."
Give us some indication of what Champions, settings, and other story elements are up for retcons. Do a rework thread similar to the threads that Champions get prior to gameplay reworks or VUs. Tell us what you're thinking, and ask us what we think. The decision is still yours at the end of the day, but at least give people who are in the path of your bulldozer a chance to make their case.

But enough about Narrative, because we know they're going to "Bah! HUMBUG!" this thread and go back to planning their shock rewrites.

To the community

Let's plan for the worst and hope for the best. Keep reminding Narrative that they could turn over a new leaf anytime. In the meantime, get ready for the storm. Develop community lore. Write fiction. Draw art. Devise community theories about the lore. Create vividly and unapologetically. If you want to write stories about the League and Summoners, do it—and support each other. Walk around Runeterra like you own the place. If someone tells you you've been retconned, laugh and keep on summoning.

The first Noxian invasion of Ionia, as written

Here's a run-through of what happened there. I think there are some rough spots, and it could benefit from a non-destructive rewrite/clarification, like what Sion got, but I'll start by discussing it as-is. I believe that, even as-is, it doesn't invalidate the idea that the League is reluctant to intervene except by invitation of the parties, or where the safety of Runeterra demands intervention.

Soon after Noxus and Demacia signed a treaty agreeing to settle their disputes through matches held by the young League of Legends, Noxus turned its expansionistic eye outward. Bolstered by the forces of Zaun and Bilgewater, Noxian soldiers invaded Ionia in what became the bloodiest engagement since the Rune Wars. Rallying its forces, Ionia managed to halt the progress of the invaders, but Noxian forces entrenched themselves in three of Ionia's southern provinces: Galrin, Navori, and Shon-Xan. Seeking to avoid further bloodshed, Ionia joined the League of Legends and petitioned to have the Noxians removed from Ionian soil. The decision was made to settle the matter on the Fields of Justice.

Read straight, the old lore seems to indicate that the terms of the League charter gave Ionia (perhaps with Demacian sponsorship?) some kind of right to dispute the invasion, and that a match was then held:

The match was coined "The Trial for the Isle" and it captured the attention of all of Runeterra. Despite the best efforts of Ionian champions, Noxus prevailed, although rumors abound that foul play was involved. Noxus was granted the right to maintain its occupation of the Ionian provinces, and no appeal of the decision could be made for fifteen years.

Why would Noxus resort to League adjudication? Maybe it found that resistance was stiffer than it expected. Maybe it found that its aggressive tactics were leaving little worth possessing, and it realized that if it kept rampaging through, it was going to end up with a smoldering, poisoned wasteland to its name. Maybe it had other political objectives, and wanted a way to get its troops redeployed before it took any further casualties.

It's also possible that Noxus had no say in the matter. I do think that it would be strange for the League to assert jurisdiction without a serious stake in the matter, but if Noxus doesn't protest too vigorously, it could happen. The League wants to have jurisdiction over conflicts; it just has limited ability to do so. I think it's true that if Noxus adamantly insisted that it would not turn the matter over to the League, there would have been a problem. Maybe the League would have said "fine…but Demacia can send in some troops to shore up Ionia's defenses. How does that sound, Noxus? You feeling more ready to talk?" Or maybe Noxus just figured, for the reasons outlined above, that it would prefer to settle the rest of this by League match. It had perhaps had enough of Ionian guerrilla warfare.

So there was a match, and Noxus won. Pretty nice win for Noxus. It got the Isles, and got to ship most of its troops back home. It also got a peace edict, meaning that good ol' law-abiding Demacia lost any opportunity to jump in.

So that led to the Noxian occupation. Then Lee Sin set himself on fire, there were tons of protests, and Valoranian sentiment turned strongly against Noxus. (Perhaps they felt that Noxus had taken advantage of the relative weakness of the newly founded League.)

(Lee sets himself on fire and…) Almost immediately, there was a public outcry for the League to reconsider its ruling. Moved to action, many of Ionia’s most notable figures spoke out, demanding an early rematch.

So Ionia demanded a rematch. Then:

In uncharacteristic fashion, Noxus offered Ionia an early rematch, putting to rest concerns that Ionia might betray its agreement to abide by the League’s previous ruling. Ionia accepted Noxus' offer, and the two city-states entered negotiations to solidify the stakes of the match. It was ultimately determined that if Ionia wins, Noxus must withdraw its forces in full, and immediately halt any and all extraction of Ionian resources. However, should Noxus prevail, Ionia must completely surrender the southern provinces to the nation of Noxus, and furnish one Noxian designee with a seat amongst the Ionian Elders. This would give Noxus a voice and ear inside the government of Ionia.

So Noxus decided that it was willing to have a rematch. It let Ionia double-down: if Ionia wins, fine, they leave those awful islands, which were perhaps proving more of a nuisance than they'd planned. But if Noxus wins, it gets to sink its claws into the Ionian leadership. And hey, all it's got to do is beat those wussy Ionians in a League match. It did it before. Sounds like a deal.

Rewriting it

I've hinted above at how details might be added in to make it flow more smoothly. I've got no problem with that. The original lore is pretty rough, and often leaves a lot unsaid. I don't consider it a destructive retcon to go back and fill in some of those gaps, e.g. how the war was going for Noxus, why it might agree to a League adjudication, or (if the League simply decreed it would be adjudicated) why Noxus wouldn't or couldn't block it.