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The Current State of Bandle City & Yordle Lore

Yordle Xayah·6/1/2018, 7:53:33 PM·15 votes·15,179 views

Hey Guys!

I spent last night after work listening to all the Bilgewater legends, and it was a very fun ride. I truly hope there's more of those audio stories in the future. As an audio aficionada, I always find it fascinating when you have to tell a story only with sounds, voices and performance, making the listener imagine everything like old stories being told by an elder or as an experience.

With that said, I made a YouTube comment where I regretted the current lack of love that Bandle City has gone with for a very long time now. As my name (and amount of Mastery points on Trist) may tell you, I'm a yordle fan. I made my own character a while ago and have always appreciated the little bits of lore we had, back in the day with The Journal of Justice and with the Trist written story a while ago, but as I read the comments replying to my original, I realized most of them were quite sad to say the least. Some people stating it didn't even exist anymore, other saying it wasn't canon, and others mocking the city, saying stuff like "What are they gonna say? It's where Yordles come from? That's not compelling story telling" and it really kinda hit me how abandoned yordles and Bandle City have become in the new lore.

We got that one amazing video about Noxus culture, we got some Ionia and Demacia stuff, and now Bilgewater once again like when Gangplank was reworked. And what do we get as yordle fans? A Pentakill video with a very questionable look (I don't intend to be mean but I hated so much the look they gave yordles in that video, not going for looks similar to either splash art or in game models) where they're mocked and treated like punching bags. Yordles are rarely featured on big videos like Worlds last year or MSI a couple weeks ago. Sometimes I've even wondered if Riot just flat out hates em, which is probably not true but I sometimes get the impression. Were we always just meant to be the laughing stock of Runeterra? Must I settle with my favorite character being beat up by Warwick in an instructional video about dodgy sites that give free RP?

Most of the current yordle lore has been pieced together by fans from a couple clues left by Riot, and I don't know if that's the intention but we've been left in the dust for sure.

And like I said on YouTube: If only you gave Bandle City and Yordle lore a fraction of the all love these other cities and cultures have received in the new lore.

Bandle City event hype? :D

Thanks for reading! Tristana

40 Comments

RiotRiot Scathlocke6/1/2018, 10:51:35 PM18 votes

Bandle City is definitely one of the top most requested region/faction updates, from players worldwide.

I thought it'd be cool to cover in future, so I decided to do some research, maybe take some photos... but I couldn't find any mention of how I was supposed to get there. I asked Teemo, and he shot me in the forehead with a dart.

Everything got a little fuzzy after that. At least I still had my kidneys the next morning.

Chembaron Yamada6/1/2018, 9:36:53 PM8 votes

My opinion might seem cruel, but I honestly think there is no need to flesh out Bandle City like that.

But why do I think that? Right now, the only thing that we know about Bandle City is that this is the place Yordles are coming from. It is supposed to be a mysterious place no one has seen who is still able to tell the tale anymore.

And I think that this is ok.... We got most archetypes for places in Runeterra covered. Shadow Isles as the land of the undead, Piltover and Zaun as the science cities, Noxus as the conquering army and so on. Looking at the roster of Yordle champions, there are even more Yordles attached to another faction primarily than Bandle City directly.

Bandle City Yordles: Corki Lulu Rumble Teemo Tristana Veigar

Non-Bandle City Yordles: Amumu Fizz Gnar Heimerdinger Kled Kennen Poppy Ziggs

And looking at these champions.... I could imagine a lore rework that makes these Bandle City Yordles move to another faction as well. Reading Corkis current lore, I am almost 100% sure that he will become a Piltover champion after his VGU. It just makes sense. We could fit even more Bandle City Yordles into other factions.

Corki Piltover Lulu Ionia (country with the most natural magic... makes sense for her) Rumble Zaun (he has a mecha made out of scrap, fitting for Zaun) Tristana Bilgewater Veigar Noxus

I wouldn't be mad if they moved the champions to other factions. Bandle City stays as the mysterious place where the Yordles come from. But the trend seems to be that Yordles are living in human society, hidden with the glamour. Which is more interesting for me.

Whyte Lyon6/1/2018, 11:42:19 PM4 votes

Why did this need to be dramatized. You go out of your way to pave mostly contrived examples that makes your argument sound more sympathetic, for pity points. I see there's always going to be a few fans of something in the lore that they feel has gone unnoticed. So they just have to unfairly react like how horrible and cruel Narrative has been for not taken notice.

Well come on now, dry those forced tears. There has to be a region/faction that ends up being the last to be updated, even a last few to be updated. So if that circumstance happens to fall upon Yordles and Bandel City, then it happens.

We all know that LUs are dictated by VGUs and/or new champions, and circumstance just hasn't held an opportunity for Yordles yet. And there wont be an opportunity until that unpredictable circumstance smiles in Yordle favour.

Also I dont think Yordles are being neglected in League's promotional conent, they've had their equal share in a few things. Just because Pentakill didnt float your boat doesn't really mean much in this argument.

Pale Mask6/1/2018, 8:49:36 PM2 votes

Bandle City event hype? :D

Hopefully soon enough. The new theme they're going with for Yordles is 'nature spirits'. I guess it doesn't leave as good of an impact upon Bandle City as a whole as Yordles just being another species concentrated in a specific area of the world would, but since plenty of Yordles are still non-major city-state/nation affiliated (and in the case of Teemo and Tristana, I honestly feel like they wouldn't fit anywhere else but in Bandle City), I wouldn't give up hope on Bandle City just yet.

Mr Dalloway6/1/2018, 9:27:25 PM2 votes

Just have to be patient. Obviously they are eventually going to get to it. But it is going to be on their time when they are ready and have a reason to do so. I doubt any amount of forum posts are going to rush that along.

Howldoom6/3/2018, 3:28:20 AM1 votes

What if Bandle City is not a specific location, but more of a super malleable dimension that can look like whatever your imagination makes it? Secret rifts in hidden places around the world, not quite certain where they're going to take you, suddenly you could be in a hallway or a burrow or a meadow with THATCHED-ROOF COTTAGES - or somewhere with high-tech or heavy sorcery.

Also what if yordles are immortal-ish in that they can come back or respawn from death situations but at some fundamental cost to their psyches? It would explain yordles like Teemo = doesn't have a home in Runeterra, he's the yordle guarding the Bandleway from the outside world, almost certainly had to do some REALLY bad things to keep it safe, would lose more of himself as he lives and dies and lives again, wants to forget the screams but still has an unwavering duty to protect his world from those who would abuse the power it is comprised of.

Also given that a number of yordle champs appear to be concepts of various regions made manifest (e.g. Poppy for Demacia, Kled for Noxus)...

Jaspers6/1/2018, 11:25:17 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Yordles are rarely featured on big videos like Worlds last year or MSI a couple weeks ago. Sometimes I've even wondered if Riot just flat out hates em, which is probably not true but I sometimes get the impression. Were we always just meant to be the laughing stock of Runeterra? Must I settle with my favorite character being beat up by Warwick in an instructional video about dodgy sites that give free RP?

Most of the current yordle lore has been pieced together by fans from a couple clues left by Riot, and I don't know if that's the intention but we've been left in the dust for sure.

Before (and kinda after) the Pentakill video, i was starting to think that Riot doesnt hate them but is embarressed by them. With a game about other worldly gods and men fighting to the death and promotional videos such as New Dawn or the Project skins videos, how do you 'promote' a Yordle? Answer for them, you don't and ignore them, hope they go away. Like Bandle City was like Marvel's 90s writing (characters, plots and teams etc), they were fine at the time and mentioned now sometimes but a bit embarressing.

The Ziggs comic helped a little but also created questions, it was nothing like Heimer's and Ziggs previous lore. Glamour was mentioned to be different and people saw through it easily. Heimer seemed afraid of being discovered instead of being comfortable in his surroundings and I didn't like that.

I want Yordle lore but in a way I don't want too many things 'explained'. The don't need to have glamour explained, just say it exists and Yordle's have it innate, make sure Bandle City is a real place, don't take from what we already know just expand and define it.

We'll see I guess but it'll be a while off, lore team can be great but slow, sometimes.

Teemo Gromp6/2/2018, 1:11:11 PM1 votes

Teemo Gromp agrees.

HonestJohnTheCon6/1/2018, 8:26:52 PM1 votes

I do think Riot should release a yordle champion (or VGU an existing one) that is actually affiliated with Bandle City, as our past few yordles (Poppy and Kled) have been allied with another nation. That's fine, but I still think Bandle City should be reincorporated into the lore.