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The Problem With The New Lore DIrection, And What It Is Lacking

Impetual··29 votes·1,271 views

We never get to hear about how champions are interacting with the world unless it relates to their personal backstory anymore!

The cool stories about champions just having random interactions within Runeterra are gone!

None of the new lore has been on par with the story about Blitzcrank's fleshling compatibility service, or the one about Jax and Gragas having a rowdy night on the town.

Where are the cool fun stories about what champions are doing in their downtime? Oh wait, they don't have downtime anymore, since Runeterra doesn't even exist anymore (except in name only, where it is merely a a place where champions can reside in a non-evolving state).

Champions within the new lore just seem to be archetypes lacking personality. They lack the narrative support that Riot used to provide that helped make many of the champions of League of Legends beloved characters.

Good stories don't seem to happen in Runeterra anymore, just short character bios and flashy videos with very little actual context/content.

15 Comments

Voidac16 votes

The lore team seems driven to do nothing. Like, purposely do nothing. I don't know why, since the lore was so amazing. I think they hired some people and they didn't want to have to read through all the old lore. So they scrapped it and are now putting out as little as possible.

"Don't make us do stuff. Go buy some skins." - Riot Games

3tyson2 votes

Dont make us do stuff go buy some skins god ur fucking hilariouse lmao

The Red Warden12 votes

I think Bard is the ultimatum of this. A spirit with no voice and no care to interact with people. He is set up to never interact with anyone besides maybe taking an item away in which case he became more of a plot device than an actual character.

Sneak Dog2 votes

Actually, I suspect he's set up to be stopped by other champions. I suspect Xerath distracted Nasus, Renekton and Bard at the same time. The ruined kings (Mordekaisers?) plan must've included distracting or bluntly stopping Bard.

It's still barely any character Bard has, he is still just a guy that pops up to steal stuff. There's some interaction when something important happens though.

The Red Warden3 votes

How would the other factions find out about him though? Bard is based in Ionia where every village has at least one nuclear-level artifact which keeps him busy. How would the other city states find out about this Ionian spirit when the only way they seem to interact in is wars?

Bard just seems to be another plot device that's function is one of the reasons they retconed the Institute; he will always exist to try and stop anything before it gets too serious, denying a conclusion.

Narasimha3 votes

He's definitely not based in Ionia, they outright said he wanders all over the place. Hell, he's not even based in Runeterra for that matter.

Also, his definition of 'serious' seems to be a lot different than ours. If Noxus does a full on invasion of Demacia, Bard's not going to do anything. While the League might step in and say "Bad Noxus. No. Stop.", Bard wouldn't even know or care about all the people dying and cities being razed to the ground. He'd only jump in if Demacia tried to retaliate with a legendary continent-splitting super weapon. He'd take it out of the fight, then let the mortals do as they please with each other.

The Red Warden6 votes

I said Ionia since that is where the only game's only other star person, Soraka, comes from.

He would probably stop the Rune spells then, since those were on equal level to some of those artifacts and probably use them as a catalyst.

Really Bard just doesn't seem to be a character to me, he feels like a tool that will just be used once or twice to interrupt a major conflict that will happen later down in the lore. He feels like a plot devise/ gameplay object more than a character.

Narasimha4 votes

As much as I do hate to say, I do agree with you on that point. He seems to exist more as a 'Deus Ex', than a character in his own right. Intentional or not, he's basically the nail in the coffin of the IoW. He's the guy they can now point to and say "This is why the world hasn't gone boom, this is why we don't need the IoW."

KING OF MASKS6 votes

I think the better question is, what isn't the new lore direction lacking?

3tyson4 votes

Take matters in your hands make storries put them on the forum

A Superb Villain4 votes

But it is sad that this is what fans must resort to for the sake of having any lore.

Impetual1 votes

That's called fanfiction. It isn't the same as Lore.

Only Riot can produce lore for the League of Legends (unless they contract it out, which may not be such a bad idea).

NorthernDruid4 votes

I wish they'd cave on the retcon, and then the next devblog is about how they're canonizing factinos and making a proper que for it.

And their starting with more judgements and the revival of the JoJ.

I wish I could have that dream and just never wake up.

Or that a miracle happens at my birthday.

GhostOfShrimpmas2 votes

Well, if the red posts for the last couple years can be trusted, which I'm not sure they can, they've been doing a ton of work. And just being very careful to not let it out of their offices.

Impetual1 votes

Lol, it would be nice to finally see some of that work!

They certainly haven't released enough content to justify their silence.

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