What's going on with all the IoW's imprisoned champions?
I'm not very good at actual writing, so I'm just going to put my thoughts on the current lore in story form. Also this sums up how I felt when I heard about the League of Legends not being canon any more...
“Dude!”
Mordekaiser smashed down the door to the small, stone room, leaping around like some sort of lunatic. “DUUUUUDE! How are you?”
Cho'Gath briefly looked up from his news-scroll, before continuing to ignore the master of metal.
“Dude, that's rude.”
“What do you want, Mordekaiser?” As always, Cho'Gath's voice was grating. He dropped the news-scroll and sat up from his comfy leather chair. Cho'Gath had been here for a long time, only leaving if he was ever summoned. But no one had summoned the terror of the Void for weeks. Months even. A pity, since he was starting to become popular again, if a monster such as Cho'Gath could ever be considered popular. 'Tolerated' may have been a better choice. Summoners had brought in new items, some of which felt they were designed for Cho'Gath and his journeys into the jungle of the Rift. And for the so-called top and middle 'lanes' too, despite the lack of monsters.
The master of metal had strayed off course, prodding at the antiques on Cho'Gath's shelves. Rare gems, a collection of defunct items and some incredibly precious and ancient books. Morderkaiser poked a small statue a little too hard, snapping off the figurine's hands. “Oops...”
“Did you just?.. Never mind...” Cho'Gath sneered. “Are you going to tell me why you are here, or am I going to be forced to destroy you?”
A grin quickly sneaked onto Mordekaiser's face, before disappearing. “I could totally take you... But I ain't here to fight, man.”
“Well? Out with it then! I do not have all day. There are two more news-scrolls to read, then dinner to prepare. I have a fine wine that I am dying to try.”
Another grin. “Weeeeeeeellllllllllllll...” Mordekaiser's playfulness was met with a growl. “Ahem. You know that the Institute of War is no more, right? Oh hey, that kinda rhymed.”
The look on Cho'Gath's face mutated from anger and annoyance to genuine surprise. “What? No, I did not know of this...”
“Dude, seriously, did no one tell you?”
“No.”
“Not even that stupid purple magic guy?”
“There are lots of purple magic guys within the League of Legends. I assume you mean Malzahar?”
“Yeah, that guy. Floaty purple hood guy. Doesn't he look after you Void champions?”
“No. No one tells me anything.”
“Huh...” Mordekaiser went back to poking at the antiques, before skimming through a book with the word metal on the cover. Turned out, it was about alchemy, not music, as he'd hoped. “But yeah. It all went bye-bye. Dunno how, buncha evil dudes just said “lol we ain't actually summoners any more lol so ta-ta stupid place!” or something like that. I dunno man, it all happened so fast.”
Cho'Gath scratched his chin. “And the summoners didn't complain?”
“Fuck yeah, they did. But there ain't much those suckers can do now. The guys in charge haven't shown signs of doing anything significant in weeks. Months even. There was this thing with Shurima being rebuilt by some bird-brain, but none of the city-states have really cared.”
“Shurima?” Another chin scratch. “I suppose that's where they dug Rek'Sai up from. Boring old place, even when Icathia was around. So the Institute is really gone? This is not a joke?”
“Nope.” Mordekaiser put down the alchemy book and looked back at Cho'Gath.
“So there is nothing stopping me, for example, from destroying this prison?”
“Nope.”
“And nothing stopping me from tearing a hole in space-time and unleashing my fellow Voidborn into this pathetic world?”
“Nope.”
Cho'Gath smiled for the first time in months. But before he could grab his coat, Mordekaiser put a hand on his shoulder.
“But before you go forth and eat this pitiful continent, want to go out for ice cream and s'mores?”
“Yeah, sure, why not?”
So yeah, what about all the monsters that the Institute of War kept locked up for Runeterra's safety? Are they free to do whatever the hell they want?
TL;DR: Monsters everywhere!