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The Institute of War, Heart of Runeterra - A comprehensive essay in defense of the "Old Lore"

AzurDawn··7 votes·1,515 views
The Institute of War, Heart of Runeterra.pdf

Almost three years ago, the lore of League of Legend suffered a major retcon that cleared out the foundations of its existence. Additionally, one week ago, another announcement was released reinforcing the direction they took. However, I still believe this direction, even when it was the correct step towards the world of League of Legends, sacrificed too many valuable resources already built, a thought I'm sure lots of fans share with me, making it, in the end, an truly regrettable change.

This essay pretends to cast light on both the benefits the Institute of War had and the hindrances it created, making clear a different Institute of War could exist without the imposing barriers it previously had, creating a better Runeterra overall.

As everything else I could mention here is already mentioned in the essay, I have nothing to say but to encourage you to read it if you are interested in this topic, in narrative in videogames or in the lore of League of Legends in general. Previous knowledge about League of Legends' lore is practically innecessary, as the essay has been written from an analytical point of view that resorts to lore in counted ocassions, and in those, everything is explained to the reader.

And once you have read it, as I mention in the conclusions, I can't stress enough how much I'm dying to hear from you. Show me where I failed to see a problem, show me disadvantages I've not considered, show me where I've been dead wrong. Tell me in what points do you agree with me, and in what do you think I'm utterly wrong. Let's make an interesting, deep discussion! :)

Regarding the guideline stating not to post concepts: I think the main reason why the guideline exists is not broken: the content of the post is correctly sorted out in the correct board, as this topic mainly consists of a discussion about the current and past state of League of Legends' story, and the annexes are, as their own name indicate, additional attached elements important for the full understanding of the essay that would create a more chaotic boards in case they were separately posted in both Story, Art, & Sound and Concepts & Creations. Anyway, if this reasoning is not enough for keeping the essay up, a second version of the essay without any of the annexes is available here, in case the current link should be deleted and a version without these concepts was needed to replace it. However, I think the annexes are vital to the full understanding of how the universe of League of Legends with the Institute of War would actually work, especially the second one.

18 Comments

Beyond Legends5 votes

Are we really going go through this again? It's been 3 years and people don't care nor have the bloody time to fucking read 35 fucking pages of your personal opinion.

Even Riot admited it that during the earlier day riot had said the whole summoner was an lazy idea.

Whyte Lyon4 votes

Yeah i think most of those who argue against the retcon forget that Riot has the only right to do what they think is best for their IP. If they had issues with their gameplay, the visual aesthetics and the experience players can/ could have then they will create something more refreshing. Successfully or unsuccessfully it doesn't matter, being a developer of any kind is to constantly experiment. So why do they need to be chastised (in past cases demonized) over a retcon?

Hell why does the current Narrative team need to be lectured over issues made by previous writers? Three years later the company still can't dust themselves off, put it all behind them and move beyond it... well they are trying but some from this community wont grow up over a situation that cant be changed or reverted.

PS. I'll still upvote OP regardless as i at least admire his informative enthusiasm. Damn son 35 pages of enthusiasm!

6FlagsFunnelCake2 votes

Though I do see your argument, I personally find it nice as Lore-Entusiasts and future writers to experiment with the idea of reincorporating the Institute into the amazing lore that League has now written up. I understand completely how the Institute can feel restraining at times, and I completely respect Riot's decision as it got us where we are today.

Beyond Legends4 votes

The institude and the Summoners was unfortunately hasty proccess Riot made in the past. Writing and world building was clearly a side project. Reading JoJ for the most part seems to be second rate fanfic writer attempt at slice of life and politics. In fact most of the intrested story ended with being a major disapointment. I won't go into detail on the countless flaws of the old lore.

As a artist/Creator you have to learn when to drop somethinh that clearly isn't working.

Personally I rather see a new generation of lore ethuaist instead of dangling on bad old concept such as the IoW

AzurDawn1 votes

I think you are missing the point. In no moment I state that the old Institute of War was the perfect, flawless resource that made League of Legends an extremely interesting world. The essay is a reflection of both the benefits it provided and the problems that made it impossible to keep up, and solutions for these problems; because, as you say, the old Institute of War was heavily flawed, but had an immense potential to configure a truly awesome world. Lots of points have been made towards why the Institute of War was flawed, but very little have been made recognizing its advantages. This is an analytical piece, not a personal opinion.

And, regarding your previous post, lazy is such a confusing adjective. What is lazier, creating a system to justify and develop gameplay and narrative together, or just developing them isolated one from the other? I think ideas should be considered for what they are, not for how they were conceived.

Beyond Legends2 votes

The Institude of War isn't heavily flawed but foundationally flawed as a concept. It was a keen to horrible drawn character with messed up porpotions, terrible color balance, terrible pose and ans a poorly thougjt out theme with the only saving grace was their is tiny detail that kinda looked cool.

I think your not looking at the big picture and making a moutain out of spec of dust.

AzurDawn3 votes

First of all, thanks for the objective upvote, much appreciated!

And then, I completely agree with you, Riot is the only one that should have (and has) the final word on their world. If I appear to be demonizing to them, I can't only apologize for the misunderstanding, as the current narrative team has created marvelous creations that mostly can't compare to the old champions we got a players.

However, I think debate is also necessary. Gameplay concerns are discussed everyday, feedback is given to every skin uploaded in the PBE. Why isn't the lore being discussed? I know it's a much more difficult topic to tackle, because unavoidably lots of complains would be_ "I liked this champion being this way, why do you push this aspect of him? I don't like it"_, but in the case of the Institute of War, discussing about whether it was a good or a bad feature in the world, much more things can be brought into the table, and it could be analyzed unbiasedly. If I went this far to make a statement in favor of the Institute of War, is because I think the advantages it created in the world are worthy of recognition.

Whyte Lyon3 votes

If I appear to be demonizing to them, I can't only apologize for the misunderstanding

No, no in the past has Riot/ narrative team been demonized, people trying to make the same discussion you've made but they resorted to passive abuse rather then neutral criticism. Regardless it all still stacks up as needless chastising, especially when the writers have already taken their punishment.

However, I think debate is also necessary. Gameplay concerns are discussed everyday, feedback is given to every skin uploaded in the PBE. Why isn't the lore being discussed?

Trust me dude if you stick around these boards lore does gets discussed, negatives and postives. Hell there's even a Youtuber now who critiques the actual writing of the lore.

As a unrelated but prime example of heavy lore discussions was with Camille's story mentioning a church devoted to "The Glorious Evolved." People took as a connection to Viktor and ran like headless chickens over it. Started accusing poor Thermal Kitten (Camille's writer) of re-imagining the Machine Herald into some religious cult leader/ nut job.

Link to a bunch of those headless chickens discussing the lore and demonizing the Narrative team. If only any of them had been patient enough to wait for Viktor's lore to be released.

AzurDawn2 votes

Regarding the Viktor example, that's completely true. Can't believe I forgot about that. Thanks for pointing that out, I'm sorry for having taken the fact that lore wasn't being discussed as a given. I'm sure loads of other discussions have been made and I'm forgetting them, and even more I haven't even seen.

Regarding the Youtuber you mention, I'm amazed by his work! His channel is such a great place in which almost everything is discussed with a global, mature point of view, and even the comments are interesting to read and consider. He doesn't have any problem in clearly, maybe even way to clearly, pointing out flaws, something I still struggle. And most of all, I see eye to eye with him in most points I've seen yet. For now, I've only watched his analysis of the Ryze dev diary, as I wanted to know his opinion about this, but I will be watching most of his videos in the near future. Thank you so much for showing me this! He deserves much more views.

Even though, I still think one of my main points is still not being considered: the Institute of War was wrong and needed to be rethought and rebuilt, not to be cleared out of the universe. As many times as they have already gone through how the Institute of War was wrong and correctly deleted, they have never (well, or at least, as far as I know) gone through how the Institute of War didn't have to be like how it was, and taking only the "good" things out of it to rebuild it would configure an amazing League of Legends.

GreenLore4 votes

Overall I haven't read everything in the essay,I mostly focused on chapter 3 and a bit of chapter2,so here are the points where I disagree with you(correct me if I overlooked something): 1.The IoW as a means to move the plot forward You say that the IoW is a good tool for advancing the plot forward,but I disagree with that.The Ionia-vs-Noxus match is a perfect example of this,as they resolved this major conflict that affected the lives of thousands of people through a simple league match.Thats like resolving the conflict between the orcs and the other races in Lord of the rings through a soccer match.Its anticlimatic and kind of a solution for everything.

** 2.How would the League enforce its rules?** You say that they wouldn't meddle with politics that much,but they'd still need to be extremely powerful to enforce their rules,otherwise Noxus could just be like "well we lost the match,but we don't think it was fair,so we still won't pull back from Ionia".Making the summoners too powerful would meddle with the fantasys of certain champs or even whole nations.I mean how can champs like Xerath or Syndra feel like the powerful beings they are if the summoners can easily overpower them?Or what would prevent certain factions from abusing the powers of their summoners?

** 3.What about the shadow isles?** They are a twisted nation that pretty much wants to spread death and destruction everywhere and most of its inhabitants seem to have lost their sanity.But they aren't mythological beings either.Same goes for Renekton who would likely butcher anyone who even comes close to him.

** 4.What about plots that involve a champion who is hiding?** Gangplank is currently believed to be dead,which would honestly be hard to pull off if he was still present in the League-matches.Similar,what would happen if a champ dies?Would they just be removed from the game?And then there is the plot between Leona and Diana,where it would actually resolve a lot if the 2 just had a chance to talk to each other,which they easily could do in a league match.

** 5.Why wouldn't they just kill the voidborn?** If they have the ability to capture them over and over again and realize that they are a threat to the whole world,then it would make sense for them to also attempt to kill them.And given that void champs are far from unkillable and the fact that the league should have the means to enforce their law,it shouldn't be difficult for them to kill voidborn,even if they can't keep them captured.Also this would more or less "reset" the location of the voidborn again and again.

** 6.What about the summoning powers outside of League matches?** I mean lets face it,summoning abilities would be kinda op outside of league matches.And if the summoners have abilities that would allow them to enforce their laws,then that means that these abilities could likely be used to some extend by other factions as well.

** 7.Wouldn't their "rebalancing" of the champions make it look unfair?** I mean they are handing out a price after all for the champion who performed better than anyone else,so I can't imagine that champions would be ok with being nerfed.After all the summoners can easily decide who will perform well and who wouldn't just by buffing/nerfing certain champions.

AzurDawn1 votes

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time of reading through my essay and being so critical with it. It really means a lot to me to receive this kind of feedback! And sorry for the late response!

  1. That's an understandable concern, and probably, something impossible to fully contradict. Stating that in Runeterra people are so into these matches to consider them as climactic as a true warfare is openly debatable, though I think it's something able to be conveyed. Nevertheless, for us, outside the game, I honestly think it would be extremely climactic. Wasn't game 5 of the last TSM vs C9 match a tense game in which people roared in excitement with every kill his team got? The same would apply in Runeterra, but adding important implications for the lore of whatever faction is the one you are rooting for.

  2. While the Institute of War wouldn't act most of the time in any given circunstance, they would be as categorical with the enforcing of their Judgements as they are when it comes to protect the physical integrity of Runeterra. And the power of summoners themselves wouldn't be as powerful as they are when fight in the Summoners' Rift, as their power come directly from the High Council of Equality. Them three are the ones that would overcome in power any faction and practically every champion, holding a true neutral point of view over Runeterra. Summoners wouldn't be able to summon any creature outside the territory of the Institute of War (in the way Summoners do, any other "classical" summon would be of course able to happen), as this power comes directly from the High Council.

  3. Mostly, they would be in fact considered as myths by humans, just like Hecarim was presented in Shadow and Fortune, even though they are "physically" real. Anyways, the Institute of War wouldn't act to stop them, as they would enforce their objectivity and their "vigilante policy" over Runeterra. The dooming power the Black Mist brings may destroy all life on the world, but is not powerful enough for tearing apart the reality of Runeterra, so they wouldn't stop them. Annex 2 mentions the way in which the High Council debates about doing something about the Shadow Isles or not (and other threats), and their final response for it.

  4. These would be certainly impossible to keep up for a long period of time, but for small periods of time it would be simply overlooked in terms of gameplay. Even though you could still choose the champion to play, he would be withdrawn from the Institute of War in terms of lore. The theorically ideal solution would be to make the champion unable to be picked while his hidding takes place, but that would be awful for most players, so the other solution would be the one. Something similar would happen with deaths. Even though its deletion from the game could seem like the logical solution, it's clearly something horrible for players and for the game itself. However, I think no champion should ever die, as they would also end the possibility of players to enjoy the character in terms of lore. If any champion were to permanently die, the best solution would probably be to keep him ingame but making him unable to interfere with ingame lore, such as in Superior Trials or any other event, but as I still think champions shouldn't just permanently die, I haven't put much thought into this. Finally, as for the Leona and Diana encounter (and other ones), I think their lores shouldn't be based in a misunderstanding/lack of talk. If the reason to be for two champions were solved by just talking between them, something is not working properly. Even if they are mimicking the way in which the Sun and Moon never meet, it's not excusable: keeping them both unable to meet would also make their development as characters impossible. The Institute of War, exactly as you point it out, wouldn't be able to make possible this kind of backgrounds; and if it could, the solution would be probably way to far-fetched. Almost the three solutions to this question could be summed up with "no, that wouldn't be possible", and while that's again an objective restriction in the way in which the champions' stories develop, I personally think sacrificing the whole Institute of War in order to do this kind of storytelling is not worth it.

  5. This is an interesting question whose response should also be tackled from the lore of the Void as a place itself. Voidborn champions are clearly much superior to any other known voidlings, and while that could be just cause they were born exceptionally strong, they could be defined by something else. We know the Void is not just an unexplainable region thirsty of chaos, as Vel'Koz exists and a superior, unknown, intelligent Voidborn exists as Aurelion Sol's lore states. The current Voidborn champions could be specially powerful entities unable to be killed by Runeterran weapons nor magic, entities purposely with more power. The only way in which these superior creatures could be properly dealt with would be with either the force of the Void itself (making Kassadin a very valuable ally) and the creationist power of Aurelion Sol.

  6. Mostly explained in the second point.

  7. That's a hole in my arguments I honestly didn't consider, and is entirely true. While there's some room for arguing that they are all equaled to be tested from the same skill level, I think it doesn't hold water either. Now that both you and BonzaiBuddy have given me feedback about that section, I'm seeing how all stated there seems to be weak reasonings that hide more disadvantages than advantages.

You really shed light on a lot of things I didn't properly explain, so thank you again for that!

GreenLore1 votes

1.To be honest:No.I'm not much of a sportsman and don't enjoy watching others play.And the problem would still persist,that certain conflicts would get solved rather fast thanks to a league match.

2.But that would mean that we have some ridiculously powerful guys sitting in the IoW.That opens kinda a whole new can of worms,I mean like I said,how could Syndra think she is more powerful than aynone else if she makes a contract with someone who surpasses her powers that much.Also we'd need a reason as for why these guys are so powerful,otherwise it just comes off as a cheap justification

3.That honestly feels rather forced :/.Also them being some sort of last defense against these threats,kinda makes them seem insignificant,since you know that the IoW doesn't even bother with them.

4.I disagree about that,lack of communication isn't an inherently bad plot point and it gets rather problematic when everyone can talk with everyone.I mean Galios entire new character would be impossible and the same goes for Lux and even Shyvana.Heck Demacia as a whole doesn't fit with the IoW,as they detest magic,so why would they cooperate with a magical institute?

5.That would cause a lot of other problems when it comes to the interactions between voidborn and other champs.Like how could Rengar even hope to kill Kha'zix if no mortal weapon could kill him?Not to mention that voidborn would then be basically unstoppable juggernauts in the lores(unless someone with powerful restraining magic just happens to be nearby)

GenoXx3 votes

Dude, the Iow was limiting creativity and world building. I honestly don't get how some people can't understand that...... Still

AzurDawn4 votes

The full essay, and the very text in this post, acknowledges that fact. I honestly don't get how some people can't be bothered to read the post before commenting... still.

Splision2 votes

I'm not going to lie, I skimmed over most of it, but that's on me for being lazy. It has nothing to do with how good or bad your essay was. Either way I respect you for presenting your opinion in a mature and logical manner, and for that I think you deserve to have more people reading your essay.

AzurDawn3 votes

Thanks for the comment!

In case you were remotely interested in it, I recommend you to only read the prologue and the conclusion. It doesn't convey all the points, but will definitely make you understand why I think the Institute of War was relevant. :)

The length of the essay may have turned out to be too long, that's true, but I didn't want to miss any topic to discuss.

6FlagsFunnelCake1 votes

I really liked your essay, it made lots of very interesting points regarding the Summoners and the Institute of War, and I really liked some of your more modern takes on them, especially the concept of "Runterra's Blessing." Many of your statements about changing the Institute of War are almost completely paralleled with my personal ideas for a way to modernize the Institute into new League lore, a very interesting read!!!

Edit: Personally, I like to think a few things;

  1. Nothing in-game is to scale, and barely anything gameplay wise is 'canon.' I believe that Summoners Rift is that vast maze of forestry and ancient ruins we see in A New Dawn cinematic, since every human-character in-game is actually almost as tall as a tree. Along with that, I think making it so that the Summoners shrink down the Champions such as Galio or Malphite to a human-size doesn't do them justice for their characters, same goes for the yordles as well. Along with that, we do see that Nautilus retains his ginormous size in the cinematic as well. Gameplay wise, I like to think that Summoners leave an 'imprint' of sorts on the Champions when controlling them, magically enhancing their abilities (a way to explain how Vayne can go invisible when she ults, or how Garen summons a giant sword). Other than that though, many aspects of the gameplay are not related to the lore and mostly follow 'video-game-logic,' such as MissFortune's guns or how Quinn has Valor in the most convenient places and needs no quiver.

  2. Some motivations of the Champions are more personal with the League, some of them even a reference to their SUPER old lore. A few examples:

Nasus joined as both a Champion and official Curator after an encounter with Renekton, whom the Summoners imprisoned in a stone room for his madness (Old lore reference) and are currently studying for a cure as a deal with Nasus to make him join the League. Criminals like Yasuo Jinx and Jhin join as 'punishment' in a sense, as they also show potential with their abilities to become Champions I have so many others who I am currently writing small fun stories on how they joined the League (my current favorite is Ivern's, who I wrote up to have wandered the Rift for a while while Summoners weren't looking, befriending the jungle monsters and believing them to be actual animals despite being illusions of sorts casted by the Summoners), but that's a whole other post for another time. Either way, I am deeply in love with this essay!!!

AzurDawn3 votes

Thank you for your feedback! You don't know how much it means to me this!

  1. That's completely true and I now see how I didn't truly throroughly think about it. The ingame representation of the true world may not be anything comparable to what the Summoners' Rift really is. And while this "I give you the basics, let your imagination do the job" strategy works better for other types of game narratives such as TCG, I completely see how this could be being pushed towards the current world.

  2. I have intentionally strayed away from making champions join the League of Legends for any given reason apart from the stated in the essay: either trying to achieve Runeterra's Blessing, participating on it because as a spirit you would actually benefit from doing it (every match would be a buffet for Tahm Kench!) or in counted cases being summoned against your will. I think that making the reason why a champion joins the League other than that would draw part from the attention and potential the champion has towards the Institute of War, and one of the things I try to emphasize on is how every champion is still a world by himself, being the Institute of War just a force that supervises them. However, it's also true that, if done properly, champions could have truly rich stories featuring the League of Legends. The one for Ivern seems to perfectly fit his character, being as quirky, naïve and pure as he is!

Thanks again for taking the time to read it and to make these two points! :)

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