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Riot's new approach with lore: Story Arcs and Progression

GenoXx··8 votes·4,777 views

http://lol.garena.com/playnow/bilgewater/assets/bilgewater/img/act-2/act-2-world-layer-foreground.jpg

I have to say, from what we(the fans) have seen from Riot's lore up to now, I honestly can say that they are doing better with lore. There are two Titles now that are very enjoyable to read for LoL's lore. This is a nice start! Bilgewater: Burning Tides and A Harrowing Story: Shadows and Fortune. And what's most important, the lore is progressing. After Gangplank lost control over Bilgewater and the hands of Sarah Fortune, it set the City in Chaos and unprepared for the Harrowing. And we saw what happened to the city when order wasn't maintained. While we view this, a new champion was also introduced in this Arc, Illaoi.

http://s.lolstatic.com/site/shadow-and-fortune/5180507cef6c61303facede2596949b35990ef12/img/shadow-isles/novela-backdrop.jpg

In my opinion, this is the start of a very good way to bring lore back to life for Legends. The Bilgewater arc wasn't restricted to only having people from there either. Lucian, a demacian, and Olaf, a freljordian also made an appearance. Well afterall, Bilgewater is a port city and gets visitors from all around. We also got a scoop on whats to come next in the world of Runeterra. Shurima and Mount targon.

http://lolstatic-a.akamaihd.net/site/bilgewater/1d0e96db6bd69523cf508365e1042f93171e3deb/img/modal/splash-cuthroat-cutpurse.jpg

But you are probably thinking, "If it's going to be story progression, what happened to Graves and Tobias?" It was hinted Graves is think of going to Piltover to get a new shotgun after he lost his. He knows a certain blacksmith he says. Well, thats another story. When we can finally get towards Piltover im sure our favorite duo will be featured.

http://lolstatic-a.akamaihd.net/site/bilgewater/1d0e96db6bd69523cf508365e1042f93171e3deb/img/epilogue/story-backdrop-epilogue.jpg

And I'm sure we will see more of Gangplank. He probably wasn't in Bilgewater during he Harrowing which would make sense. I mean come on guys, We are now heading to the mainland Valaran! Well most of the story resides. Bilgewater needed to be fleshed out and so it did. Remember when we asked for that last year? I think its a nice start to begin with the smaller parts of Runeterra before going to the main place. Narrative/Foundations I want say great job and keep going with this route. I, for one, am enjoying what has been done.

Can't wait for the next Arc of Legends ^__^

19 Comments

Tyrannus04 votes

My main issue with the story right now is that there's no timeframe. We have no dates, or any kind of context to what's happening. Everything happens in a vacuum. We don't know how many stories have happened, are happening, or will happen. Lucian got up to the point we are familiar with during this harrowing story, which is cool and all, but where and/or when does that coincide with say Sion's release? Or Shurima's return? Is Shurima even on the map when this is happening? Or is it ruins?

GenoXx3 votes

......This story obviously is the most recent. Those that happened are in chronological order. Hence why Burning tides happened before Shadow and Fortune

Tyrannus02 votes

{quoted}

......This story obviously is the most recent. Those that happened are in chronological order. Hence why Burning tides happened before Shadow and Fortune

But that's not what I'm talking about. Obviously Burning Tides came before Shadow and Fortune.

Valaran Nara2 votes

{quoted}

But that's not what I'm talking about. Obviously Burning Tides came before Shadow and Fortune.

If we just go by what we understand of "present times"

We already know Sion has BEEN resurrected. We know this because it should have happened in Noxus before this year's harrowing took place.

I can't imagine Sion's resurrection for Swain who (is currently in charge of Noxus) to happen after Burning Tides.

Gangplank stole Swain's battleship. A ship belonging to SWAIN! So between then and now, I imagine Swain having already resurrecting Sion and the Black Rose getting ready to actually make movements for another objective.

Shurima is not on a map. Technically speaking, Shurima should have happened the same year (roughly) that this year's Harrowing has occurred. It's not "on the map." It's one crazy birdman (some don't even know exist) wandering through the desert.

They'd have to do a story of Azir vs Xerath or a group coming across a risen Shurima before it could be canon in any possible way for it to be "back"

Tyrannus02 votes

[{quoted}](name=Valaran Nara,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=hlwlEawn,comment-id=0000000000000000,timestamp=2015-10-31T19:23:11.954+0000)

If we just go by what we understand of "present times"

We already know Sion has BEEN resurrected. We know this because it should have happened in Noxus before this year's harrowing took place.

I can't imagine Sion's resurrection for Swain who (is currently in charge of Noxus) to happen after Burning Tides.

Gangplank stole Swain's battleship. A ship belonging to SWAIN! So between then and now, I imagine Swain having already resurrecting Sion and the Black Rose getting ready to actually make movements for another objective.

Shurima is not on a map. Technically speaking, Shurima should have happened the same year (roughly) that this year's Harrowing has occurred. It's not "on the map." It's one crazy birdman (some don't even know exist) wandering through the desert.

They'd have to do a story of Azir vs Xerath or a group coming across a risen Shurima before it could be canon in any possible way for it to be "back"

But how can you tell all that? How do we know that Sion's story wasn't a flash back or Shurima wasn't a glimpse of the future when there was no indication of time at all? You can't assume that the time of publishing relates to the in universe time.

Star Guardían1 votes

I agree with you. The time continuity makes no sense. I don't think characters like Olaf or Ashe should exist at the same time as MF and Gankplank. It's like a Vikibg from 1000ad hanging out with a pirate from 1700ad. It makes no sense one has an axe, one has a gun. I think Riot tried to make the world large by giving mentions of other places, but it ended up feeling small. I'll give an anecdote. If I wrote a story about a Carribian pirate in the 1700s and then all of a sudden I added an Victorian gun smith and a Viking to the crew it wouldn't make sense.

Tyrannus03 votes

{quoted}

I agree with you. The time continuity makes no sense. I don't think characters like Olaf or Ashe should exist at the same time as MF and Gankplank. It's like a Vikibg from 1000ad hanging out with a pirate from 1700ad. It makes no sense one has an axe, one has a gun. I think Riot tried to make the world large by giving mentions of other places, but it ended up feeling small. I'll give an anecdote. If I wrote a story about a Carribian pirate in the 1700s and then all of a sudden I added an Victorian gun smith and a Viking to the crew it wouldn't make sense.

There's a certain element to this that I can understand, literally, magic. The drives in technology in Runeterra are driven forward by magic, there's no telling what the rate of development on that is. Also, they've had multiple collapses of society. The Freljord being the most poignant that comes to mind. We know for certain that they had a high point but at the point of the war of three sisters they are at a very, very low point. Pilot over, if they exist at the same time as that battle, would have little ability or inclination to disseminate that kind of weaponry to them, and an an extra level, the Freljordians seem sorta conservative and not prone to picking up something like that.

So when Olaf shows up after getting lost in a sea serpent for who knows how long, it's appropriate that he has HIS axes. Who knows, maybe he'd pick up a gun if he wanted, or some of the other Freljordians, but the opportunity would be in Bilgewater, not back home. And especially on Lokfar which is super isolated.

Remember, the Samurai were beaten by guns, but guns weren't exceptionally new at that point.

Star Guardían1 votes

True. I'm not opposed to the direction the lore is going, but with no uniform map or timeline it kind of seems like the scenario I provided above. All I'm hoping is that Riot kind of gives an explanation as to why Piltover and Zuan have mechs and guns while Freljord is using bows and arrows at the same time. Or make them not coexist in the same time. As of right now, there is no explanation and if feels weird.

JacctheInsomniac2 votes

[deleted]

GenoXx1 votes

All in all its the same thing.

GreenLore4 votes

The thing is that story is usually rather hard to implement into a moba like this.

The best thing they can do is probably a featured game mode that fits the thematic(kinda sad they missed this opportunity,at least they could have let the butchers bridge return).A story mode would simply fail because of how the game is built or would require far too many resources to be any good.

And books brings a whole bunch of new problems with them(even more expensive lore,lore would actually cost the playsers some money,the overview over the lore would be blurred,etc.)

ADepressedLeona3 votes

{quoted}

The thing is that story is usually rather hard to implement into a moba like this.

The best thing they can do is probably a featured game mode that fits the thematic(kinda sad they missed this opportunity,at least they could have let the butchers bridge return).A story mode would simply fail because of how the game is built or would require far too many resources to be any good.

And books brings a whole bunch of new problems with them(even more expensive lore,lore would actually cost the playsers some money,the overview over the lore would be blurred,etc.)

Except they did implement it perfectly with the League of Legends and the Summoners, but they didn't feel like working hard to make up stories to fit champions into the Institute of War (Even though it would have been incredibly easy to do so, they really had a lot to work with)

What they did would be the equivalent of J.K Rowling, after Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets going "Ya know what, it's getting harder for me to fit Harry into Hogwarts and come up with cool stories there, so now Hogwarts, and everything tied to it no longer exists."

It's fucking preposterous.

It makes me wanna give Mothra a blow job, and I think Mothra's a female

GreenLore2 votes

But the game still didn't tell the story. Before the retcon you did somthing that was justified in the story,but you didn't learn anything about the story in the game. Stuff like the kalamanda conflict,the harrowing,the bilgewater conflict can't be played in the game,simply because there is no interaction between the game and the story.

JacctheInsomniac1 votes

[deleted]

GreenLore2 votes

In that case you still wouldn't experience in the game itself,you'd just unlock a bunch of text/storytelling(which you'd most likely wouldn't even find in the client,but on the main page),something that could be easily found on the internet,thus rendering all this rather moot in the first place.(also having to kill a specific champ a certain amount of times could be horrible,I mean how often do you encounter an urgot for example?)

Ascension game mode was cool and all,but what story did it tell except for "xerath is an uberpowerful ascended bad guy"? There was no storytelling in it,all it did was pretty much just referring to some story-elements.

Xulsigae1 votes

I don't think the Harrowing stories progressed much of anything. The status quo is unchanged.

GenoXx1 votes

it did actually....we were left at a cliffhanger from what would happen to bilgewater now that gp is gone. And we did. Thats called progression

Xulsigae1 votes

It's a cliffhanger with nothing happening before it. The Harrowing stories haven't changed much. The Bilgewater event changed the status quo. The Harrowing ones described the status quo.

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