Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

A realistic reason to why there's no lore currently

SaltyToplaneGoat·3/17/2015, 5:47:36 PM·4 votes·1,090 views

Ok we all know Riot scrapped the big "Institute-of-War"-Idea. But on the other hand they are still trying to get a story out that unifies most smaller narrative strings in league-lore. If they were planning on keeping things "small" they could have brought out a lot of lore until now. (This statement implies that Riot actually HAS a competent lore team and not just a horde of monkeys with typewriters).

So they are going for some big stuff again... but what could possibly be the reason for such a massive delay?

Actually it's pretty simple: WE ARE STILL MISSING THE KEY CHARACTER FOR THE NEW LORE. One that sets things in motion. It's kinda the starting point of all new lore that seems to be tied to a certain champion/character fucking over the world as we know it. The last champ releases seem to set the stage for this (not all of them tho). Azir suddenly made Shurima relevant again, Kalista shows how the Shadow Isles take influence on the continent and Bard.

Well, Bard being here is the true indicator that shit is going to hit the fan soon. It's the only reason why he materializes. Since he won't be able to totally hinder the change from happening I guess the missing key character is something equal in power.

This is kinda the only thing that could be the reason for this massive lack of lore. (The only other option would be massive incompetence).

Ok, but who or what could this missing character be?

My guesses are:

1.) A darkin - Jepp old stuff, but they were mentioned in the Bard Q&A. Something about how Bards way of taking influence on the world is different from their ways. It seems that Lore department hasn't forgotten the mysterious race. 2.) Ao Shin - They previewed him so long ago, thinking they would release him soon, but then problems came up. A rioter confirmed that he's not scrapped and still being worked on some time ago. Is the ionian dragon maybe a key figure to new lore? 3.) ??? - Your turn guys, I'm running out of ideas.

10 Comments

Alljoy3/17/2015, 5:53:41 PM11 votes

Even a horde of monkeys with typewriters would be able to hammer out a rather simian Shakespearean piece by now.

Axests3/17/2015, 5:55:57 PM9 votes

well i'm just ticked off that riot still refers to us as "summoners" after writing the institute out of the lore.

Pryotra3/18/2015, 7:25:05 PM8 votes

So they are going for some big stuff again... but what could possibly be the reason for such a massive delay?

You are over thinking it.

Quite honestly, riot has effectively said that they bungled the retcon, as they simply put it in place, wiping out the existing lore, without first having new lore anywhere close to ready. This is from RIOTERS, not my opinion.

As far as "center piece" for the lore, frankly there isn't going to be one. That was supposed to be the whole point of removing the IoW. Btw, that has it's own set of consequences. What kind of consequences? Well, before the institute of War existed, the summoners participated in what was known as the "rune war". This war prompted the creation of the IoW, as it effectively was like the Geneva conventions in our world. Yeah, summoners were throwing around the magical equivalent of nukes. So without the IoW to provide a ceasefire, guess what's still happening?

Ark Angel HFB3/18/2015, 7:36:25 PM8 votes

I think riot toyed with the idea of a tv show, or animated series...

maybe even another game. and scraped the IoW for the sake of those.

The IoW worked great for the game we play... So I'm suspicious that it was removed to benefit another game.

Slushi Simcambi3/18/2015, 7:07:44 PM7 votes

While I think you may bring up an interesting point, a lot of the characters have protagonist potential.

Ashe, Sivir, Ezreal, Riven, Katarina, Garen, etc.

They all have awesome journeys to go on that I fear we will never experience.

If you mean a character with an overarching plot to include all of Runeterra... Well, I think a character who meddles in the affairs of all of the stories I mentioned, thereby bringing them to some sort of resolve runs the risk of being too stretched out to be a character of their own. This character would also have to have their finger in A LOT of pies if they mean to resolve all of these runterran plot lines.

Honestly this character could get in the way of seeing the action we want to see, if I'm more interested in the Freljord while character X is there, why not just give the Freljoed an isolated story of its own?

I have a better reason for the lore being the way it is: Incompotence :)

gr8job3/17/2015, 6:06:48 PM4 votes

Can anybody provide me with a source detailing these "lore changes?" I thought the Institute of War was the entire reason for Summoner's Rift, how they settle their disputes? I'm returning after a long break and I'm a little confused. I know there's a lot of "isn't," but I'd still like to know what is and isn't these days, for my own speculative purposes. Then I can return to this thread and give my take. :)

Tesla Effect3/18/2015, 8:09:53 PM2 votes

Ao Shin...is he the important character for this lore? :D This leads to the unhappy info that we found out about him being released only after 2015 :P

Tesla Effect3/18/2015, 8:24:50 PM1 votes

We have to look at the fact that this is a MOBA and no MOBA to date has successfully made a in-depth lore to compliment the game from scratch. Most have ether bland stories to give reasons as to why this champion X is fighting champion Y on this Field Z (examples would be Dota and old LoL) or they have champions that come from existing games that already fleshed the characters out (a la whatever MOBA Blizzard is making now), these games are usually take the All-star approach. To put it bluntly, Riot is trying to make an All-star game from a non-existing lore which is very difficult to pull out, if not for the fact that we got a semi-good presentation of what some champions should be like.

And how long does it take to make a fully fleshed out world with 100+ important characters in them, all with their own backstories and ties to that world while also releasing new champions for those that get to bored of the same champion pool.......a very long time (plus they are doing it in a very visually appealing way for the masses which also takes time).

We can yell at Riot for many tings, but at least what they are trying to do is something that has never been done in the history of gaming. Its risky, very risky, but it will pay off.