Dev Blog: On Vastayan Evolution

One of the problems in creating a new race is evolution. It’s a fundamental concept and a subconscious lens we (as media consumers) use to see any organized worldbuilding. It’s easy to ignore it with creatures that are supposed to be purely magical (like demons and ghosts) but it’s hard to ignore the illogic of some classic monsters and races that are supposed to be physical creatures that developed within that world. Many IPs simply avoid these questions or resort to a simple Deus Ex Machina (uh… Titans made them!) Both of those solutions seemed like cop-outs, and if we want League’s lore to be taken seriously, we needed to approach it seriously.

clap, clap, clap.

I had a conversation about this with some of my author friends about a week ago. They wanted to have beastmen, and I advocated taking an evolutionary approach to designing them. Naturally, this evolved into a group argument about whether that's even necessary. Good to see Rito taking this seriously; in a world with scientific thinkers, some people would have asked that question and put together a theory. Being created by Gods is a very Ancient Literature style since the Greeks; there's nothing wrong with it inherently, but as the webpage mentions, Information Era culture incorporates evolutionary theory into its viewer lens.

I'm trying to understand how spirits work. We have the Kindred, who are invisible to mortals until we near death. We have Bard, who needs a physical form every time he crosses over. We have Yordles, who have physical bodies, but are so magical, humans have trouble seeing their true shape. So what are demons? Are they more like Bard, like Tahm Kench is? Are there any who are more like Kindred or Yordles?

So basically instead of the spirit world naturally existing in a stale (even when these worlds are described as constantly changing, they always seem to stay the same) state that mirrors what the world "should" be, it had a separate evolutionary tract?

I like it.

So the Spirit World is literally 'The Warp', and magic is ran by ley lines.

Hnngh, I suppose. I'm not a fan of the concept of ley lines as it quantifies magic in a way beyond that of a natural force. Gravity exists throughout the universe, but matter interacts with it, for example. Nothing more or less. Magic, I imagined, to do much the same, except it is living beings (even microbes) who interact with it. You might argue ley lines arise as a result of particular areas of magic concentrating, but it is not 'the' method by which magic is infused with reality. The fundamental difference spells radically different paths in how magic is eventually utilized, economized, and/or industrialized.

im kinda sad that they had to realize they are not paying attention to their "beastman" champions until creation of xayah and rakan , considering some of them are pretty popular among both their gameplay fans or character/lore fans. talking about regnar wukong and ahri etc.

but atleast they are now paying more attention to them giving them more love.

Nice blog. I like where they took it, and I agree that it shows a very mature approach to worldbuilding.

This supports radical violence against humans by marginalizing non-magical races.

In a vacuum, a self contained setting glorifying genocide of humanity wouldn't be much of an issue, however it is highly probably this is a thinly veiled parallel to current modern society. It is truly disappointing that Riot has decided to participate in the perpetuation of violence and terror.

That still leaves the oddity that is Nidalee. The only thought I have on that is that maybe the region she went to was maybe too abundant in magic and mutated her into a vastaya? But that's pushing it.

And also spur of the moment. Curse my curiosity sometimes.

gh

For the record, I do love the vastaya concept, and can respect Riot for trying to tie things together. Having said that, between the blog and the video, their handling of it is confusing. The blog explains that the vastaya came from a desire to not handwave the logic of the world with magic or gods. Meanwhile the video diary explains that Riot moved away from the league out of a realization that they didn't have to explain every detail of the game to connect with the story. They even used the Force to say that. Obviously there's a middle ground, but still.

As for the vastaya, if you have been keeping up with the lore, they're a simple enough idea to understand. If you are a new, casual, or returning fan, it's very confusing. Being described as chimeric, magical, animal-human hybrids, it's understandable that people would apply that to virtually all animal champions.

Nasus looks like he'd be a vastaya, but he's an ascendant. Elise looks like she'd be an ascendant, but she's a demigod from a spider god. Warwick looks like he'd be a vastaya, but he's made from science.

I hope Riot spends more time developing that race page.