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The current metaplots and my problem with the lore.

Ralanr··24 votes·2,022 views

So while I am a fan of the lore in league, there’s something that I’m honestly getting tired of waiting for.

Edit: this was supposed to be numbered but phone version sucks.

Progression

So far it feels like we’re still getting ground work for the basics of the setting. We are getting beginnings, first acts, but I don’t feel there’s a sense of progression. The only stories I feel have progression are Shurima (which feels like the end of act 1) and Bilgewater (which might be in the middle of act 2).

More annoying is that it feels like so many champions have their personal stories stuck in the bigger plot of something greater. Now this isn’t actually bad, but it makes me personally feel that we won’t get much character progression until that metaplot is finally laid out.

When I say Metaplot, I mean the Overarching Plot of the story. Some of you may think “League has no plot.” And you’re kinda right.

It has no single plot. Instead it has several.

  1. Noxus vs Ionia

Now some of you old Lore Lords will tell me that the Noxus invasion is over. Well I don’t believe so. If anything, it’s just turned into a cold occupation of conquered territories in Ionia (with hints of Swain being on the frontline and Kayn stealing Rhaast from Noxus). What personal plots are effected here?

Zed vs Vastaya: getting power from the magic of the land to fight Noxus.

Vastaya struggle: the rebellion of Xayah and Rakan against the misuse of their magic and enslavement is their people.

Jhin and the ninjas: released from prison by the shadows of the Ionian government (or one of them) as a result of the invasion, Jhin has become the assassin for Ionia, with Shen and Zed hot on his tail.

Riven wandering Ionia in seek of redemption, Yasuo finding the one he was blamed for.

Swain on the frontlines, leading to political discourse backhome. Especially in releasing Sion once again.

  1. Piltover and Zaun struggle (guest starring Noxus).

Noxus spies, purple men with cleavers, knife ladies who seek to keep the classes separated, a robot girl trying to find a place, all with two cops, a kid with a time machine, a slime monster, a killer wolf man, two scientists warring (its a big pot).

  1. Targon and the Void.

Multiple aspects in the span of ten years, the star dragon and the messenger returning to Runeterra, The almighty Janitor of the universe at our doorstep, and void creatures increasing in population as they arrive.

  1. Shurima (featuring the void).

Azir vs Xerath, Nasus vs Xerath, Nasus vs his brother, Taliyah vs history, Sivir vs destiny, Rammus and Amumu in the background, Ezreal disrespecting tombs, Kassadin hunting void creatures (the void takes a back step here honestly).

  1. Bilge water

Gangplank returning with a fleet and Miss Fortune trying to not be Gangplank.

  1. Demacia

hell if I know actually

  1. Bundle City

Also, hell if I know

  1. Freljord

The bloody war of three sisters that involves demigods now

  1. World Runes

Ryze hunting for the worlds most dangerous Alphabet Soup and Brand doing the same but for bad reasons.

  1. The Shadow Isles.

Spooky scary skeletons, centaurs, tin cans, furry reapers, coming down across the sea to spread havoc as Mordekaiser tries to regain his control. Meanwhile Lucian sails there to kill Thresh and free Sena while Yorick sits on his lawn starring at the wall of mist with confusion as Maokai has fun killing zombies.

  1. The world tree (which might be connected to Ryze world Runes).

TLDR: there are a large amount of metaplots hinted at that we haven’t gotten to explore much because groundwork is still being laid down.

Riot, I love Runeterra. But we need to see champions meet and have conflict with each other. There’s a reason why Burning Tides and the Shadow Isles story after it was so great. It has champions meeting at conflicting with each other. It had progression.

When will we start seeing more of that? When will we get progression that’s not because of a new champion or rework?

#Are there any metaplots I missed?!

30 Comments

THE RlVER KlNG11 votes

Riot lore team seems to have the Gardener problem that haunts George R. R. Martin.

They keep making the world bigger with more characters and more subplots and more antagonistic forces and types of magic and city-states and junk, without looking to actually create meaningful universal narrative. In GRRM's case, where he originally wanted three books with the Red Wedding at the end of the first, the War of the Five Kings instead ended up spanning all of the first three. The fourth and fifth had grown to encompass such an enormous cast of POVs that he had to literally split the same chronological tale in two. Now he's looking to wrap up the series in 7 books, but the sixth has taken 8 years so far to not finish and he hasn't met any of the quotas yet for what he had originally planned to write in his second book. Even worse, if Winds of Winter doesn't pick up the pieces of FeastDance and bring closure to a host of character arcs and subplots, the series could easily stretch to an eighth or ninth book after that.

Now, League is an organic game. I don't foresee Riot ever sitting down and saying 'Ok. This year we're gonna publish a series of novels that wrap up the major conflics and put a narrative cap on the League Universe." But...that's the problem. With a world as big and grand and deep as Runeterra, small one-off stories every couple of months don't cut it anymore. We need more huge events with big, gamechanging shit like GP dying and Noxus invading Ionia. We need new items based off lore and skins and events and in-client lore pages. We need webcomics and short stories that interact and link with each other. There are dozens of characters right now Riot simply flat-out doesn't create content for at all or even appear like they're trying to, even more recent champions who got a little bit of lore and then got tossed to the side, and then the small lucky few who got some nice story work done for them. Even worse is our most recent champion, Zoe, being a total shark-jump fuckup, valid criticisms for whom Riot brushed aside and treated as irrelevant and unwanted. If even the narrative team can't take criticism anymore then we've hit a problem.

I just mostly think it's criminal that a character with as much narrative potential as Tahm Kench (he's a thousand year-old-demon that's Runeterra's equivalent to Faustian Satan, who can also teleport, shapeshift, and most importantly, manipulate) hasn't gotten squat since release aside from two lines from Eve. Kench is a walking, talking, narrative gold mine when it comes to fostering conflict. I really wish Riot put out more stories for him.

Electro5224 votes

I like your gardener analogy, however, the way I would argue it is that GRRM keeps adding to his garden, whereas Riot hasn't even finished laying down the groundwork for the garden. Allow me to explain....

GRRM has his characters in very detailed settings. Once he builds one, he doesn't need to add anything more to the setting in order to tell that part of the story. Unfortunately, Westeros is a very big place, and in order to progress his characters stories, he needs to build new settings and environments every time they move. This is especially evident with Daenerys, of whom travels half way across the globe, and goes into settings that no other character will ever go to.

Riot, on the other hand, doesn't add to their world, they only continue to refine it. Sure, we have cosmic entities like A.Sol and Bard introduced, and the Aspects, and we also have demons. But in terms of actual world size, the last time we had a brand new area added to the world of Runeterra was all the back (I believe) during Caitlyn's release with Piltover (Zaun had been apart of the original 40, but Piltover was not)*. This was just about 7 years ago, and Riot has yet to add a new region to the world.

Ever since before the retcon, they have slowly been refining the world of Runeterra (I'd say it actually started with the Freljord event, and Lissandra's release), and we have yet to even get an official map of the world. The reason why we have no progression is because the world and settings are not ready to host said progression. Now, you could argue that to build this world, all they need to do is mix it in with champion's stories......but the thing is.....they have been.

Camille gave us an extraordinary look into the new Piltover and Zaun, only being further fleshed out with Jayce, Viktor, and Warwick. illaoi's release not only gave us what Bilgewater was like, but also the Shadow Isles, which was only further improved upon with Morde, Maokai, and Yorick. And then, theres Azir, which......I think needs no explanation.

Galio brought about Demacia, and Swain will no doubt bring about Noxus. A.Sol, Taric, and Zoe brought about Mount Targon, which was only further improved upon with the other Aspects. Lissandra brought about the Freljord, though, it could do with some polish since it was before the official retcon, of which is happening as we can see with Volibear and Ornn. And even the whole of Runeterra itself with demons, the Darkin, and even the physical (or not) manifestation of death itself.

After Noxus, the only 2 areas that need any real fleshing out is Ionia and the Void. Ionia is kind of a mess right now, and I kind of fear that Riot doesn't completely know what direction to take it in. The Void, on the other hand, has had zero fleshing out ever since the retcon, and even before, it was pretty much a mystery to everyone. An argument could be made for The Voodoo lands and the Kumungu Jungles, but, I suspect the Voodoo lands will be retconned completely with Swain's release (it would make sense for Annie to just be Noxian, especially since shes the only character from the Voodoo lands), and the Kumungu Jungles could just easily be moved into Ionia.

I wholeheartedly believe that once Riot has laid the proper groundwork for progression to truly take place, than we will see some honest progression take place in character's stories. We are not done being introduced to this world they are crafting, but once we are.....expect some amazing stories to come out of them.

######*This was long before I started playing League, so, it could very well be incorrect.

General Theritt4 votes

Allow me to hit you with that sick Demacian lore: Demacia is readying for a true war with Noxus.. Galio has slowly become more active, Garen and J4 act as brothers, trying to plan assaults, while Shyvana tries to flash her dragon panties in her fricken short skirt for J4 senpai to notice her after ya know, killing her mother. Lux goes on night raids to meet Galio and keep him company while exploring the outside world as a spy. Fiora is being... Fiora, and cutting down anyone in her family who opposes her rules to help the war. Poppy is trying to hammer someone (herself, ironically), Quinn is watching the Freljord and making sure nothing gets out of hand (Nice job there, bird princess). Jax is roaming around the general area testing warriors to help fight the void. Sona is HERE, for some reason, playing music because she can, and Vayne uses it as a hub for her anti-magic silver bolts. Oh, and Xin Zhao is being a guy and helping J4 as a rep in Noxus. And it's lucian's hometown.

Johnny El Rojo3 votes

I think they make a mistake trying to keep all the lore so tied up and controlled with only a handful of writers. They should give their world a clearly defined set of rules of what can not be done, and relationships between factions and characters, and then let writers go wild with their ideas. They would write a lot faster these way, and when they would need to tied up with an event in the game, make some of them a call for that.

Also, I'm the only ones that wants them to publish their lore in physical format? Like in compilations and so. Because I totally would pay for them just to have them in my shelf and in paper.

Leetri1 votes

The problem is they're still writing those defined sets of rules. They haven't completed the world for the writers to explore.

Blaiz Fenix3 votes

Well one thing I hope you notice is that the war between the Void is not Targon only. It's all of Runeterra.

Although Targon are the main players in trying to combat it right now. It's affecting everyone. Nami's tribe, the Shuriman deserts, even Ryze can see their danger. So the Void conflict is big. and I mean BIG. Even the conquest that Swain is pushing for Noxus is because he realizes the Void is the real threat to Runeterra and they need all the power they can get. No matter how.

Either way, I can see you are eagerly waiting too and I love reading your posts. Thanks again Ral!

P.S. I'm a Malz main, so Void lore is my crack. Even the tiniest sliver.

Ralanr2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Blaiz Fenix,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=gsKsFGZA,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2017-12-13T23:01:55.534+0000)

Either way, I can see you are eagerly waiting too and I love reading your posts. Thanks again Ral!

It's posts like this that make me question my own popularity.

Dead Anime Dad3 votes

Riot kinda redacts things too much to get a stable story going on usually.

Sraeg20133 votes

More annoying is that it feels like so many champions have their personal stories stuck in the bigger plot of something greater. Now this isn’t actually bad, but it makes me personally feel that we won’t get much character progression until that metaplot is finally laid out.

Sounds exactly like the pre-retcon lore.

SolarisCorvus2 votes

Off the top of my head:

Darkin war

and maybe Nami's hunt for the moonstone.

Ralanr1 votes

Good call on the Darkin war.

I think with Nami she’s going to Ionia.

GreenLore2 votes

How is the world tree a metaplot? It is a plot that is so far only tied to Ivern and no other champion(you are referencing the tree that Ivern cut down are you?)

And honestly I'd rather see riot lay the groundwork first before trying to move on. Sure it sucks that so many plots essentially stagnate,but the current state of a lot of champions lores is simply terrible and should be the lore teams biggest priority.

Ralanr2 votes

It’s probably more of a solo plot that might connect to the metaplot of the world Runes.

Or it is its own thing. I don’t mind either way.

And I understand needing to lay down ground work, but some of it is just a massive pain to wait for. We still don’t really have a good idea what Yordles are or why they exist.

DeadUnborn2 votes

you missed icathia. It will probably be tied to shurima and serve as ground work for many champs like kassadin, malzahar, jax and zilean

Ralanr2 votes

In my mind, I leave Icatha as "the background void stuff of Shurima"

mkyner2 votes

I for one don't mind all these loose ends, as long as they had some substance before being let loose.

Your point about characters interacting is right on. It's not enough for these champions to have background that merely places them in Runeterra. They also need to be placed in context with at least a few other Champions so we have a general idea of what their way forward will be. Your example of Burning Tides is exactly the kind of treatment that should be expanded to all champions. In contrast, Ahri's new background, while interesting, could be in an entirely different universe - her existence actions seemingly have no impact on anyone else in any of Runeterra's plot lines.

But I'm not sure we need the kind of mega-plot progression you are suggesting. The 'current situation' that Riot is developing for Runeterra is supposed to be full of loose ends. I was into 40k a long time ago, and the setting for that had numerous in-progress conflicts and several just-over-the-horizon threats that could possibly wipe out everything else.

So, I don't think it's so much 'progression' that we need, as it is more 'background development'. Like, the situation with Noxus and Ionia is not something that needs to move closer to a resolution (whatever it actually is at the moment). Rather, we need a better picture of the history and interaction of the Champions involved in that conflict. We don't need to see Riven's story progress so much as we need to see more details and interactions on the way to where she is now.

And, I kind of think that is exactly the direction Riot is moving with this. In some instances, they found it better to have Champions move ahead with their story, such as Graves and TF patching things up, or MF overthrowing Gangplank. But in other cases, as with Lux, we learned a lot more about the world she lives in, her interactions with a few other champions, and the challenges she faces - which all add interesting conflict to her story - without moving Demacia's story arc towards anything new.

ChuShoe2 votes

is brand the anti-ryze?

JustARivenMain2 votes

Now they just gotta make a MMO in Runeterra like I've been wanting for 4 years, then they can explain the story easier c:

a little shadow1 votes

Supposedly they are making a Teemo game! If I remember right it has been approved for sale in China! It is probably going to be a somewhat basic spy game but the fact that they are making more stuff in the LoL universe gets my hopes up!

Tesla Effect1 votes

Demacia is in war with Noxus since its inception.

Ralanr5 votes

Maybe in the old lore. The new lore doesn’t really talk about the Demacia and Noxus conflicts much.

They describe Demacia as very isolated with anti magic walls.

Tesla Effect2 votes

{quoted}

Maybe in the old lore. The new lore doesn’t really talk about the Demacia and Noxus conflicts much.

They describe Demacia as very isolated with anti magic walls.

No you dont understand, they literally were at war since Demacias inception. Noxus was created right after the destruction of Mordekaisers fall, and was part of the Rune Wars, which made the many citizens flee to the land that would become Demacia, and even from there they were at constant attacks from Noxus. Sion even killed Jarvan I. Gailo was constructed to be a super weapon against them. They are at constant vigilance against Noxus and any future attacks. They were never really in peace with each other.

Ralanr4 votes

We don’t actually know how long it took for Noxus to form after Mordekaiser’s defeat.

Though you made one point that is evidence of Demacia and Noxus being at war with each other. Sion did kill J1 during a Demacian attack on Noxus Prime.

Edit: but that also isn’t a metaplot. That’s just history.

Electro5221 votes

There was a post made about the Runeterra timeline not too long ago that Bioluminessence kind of proof read. According to her, the fall of the Immortal Bastion and the rise of Noxus isn't too far apart.

Granted, Bio isn't on the lore team, so take what she says with a grain of salt. However, stuff like this is always an interest to her.

Rinký Dinky1 votes

Noxus formed almost instantly after Mordekaiser's defeat

This is confirmed by a rioter

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO1 votes

It sucks that we don’t get a ton of progression yet, but I choose to hope that it will come once every champion has a solid foundation, it will probably occur in chunks as it has been

Craft Zeppelin1 votes

Ryze vs Brand. The battle of the baldest.

SangreDeNoche1 votes

Were celestials forgoteen or do they fit into a category already listed like the Targonians?

Ralanr1 votes

With Targonians as they seem to be dealing with the void.

GenoXx1 votes

It's not going to happen. Varus is a prime example. They simply don't regard what fans want from the lore. The Zaun update killed me because we didn't get the most popular mystery fleshed out. I know I speak out my frustration about the lore frequently, but now I'm just tired.

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