Time and League of Legends

Back in the bygone days of the Journal of Justice we saw an attempt by Riot to represent the passage of time in Runeterra. Issues of the publication would be marked with an in-setting date of their release that reflected the actual date, with only the year being altered to suit the Runeterran system. An example of this would be Maokai's preview in the JoJ issue dated 9 February, 21 CLE, his Judgement marked as taking place on 14 February, 21 CLE, and finally his actual release coming on February 16th, 2011. The Journal of Justice provided a framework by which Riot could reinforce that the passage of time actually took place in their setting.

In stark contrast to this a significant problem in the post-JoJ Runeterra is that it's essentially impossible to read the passage of time into anything. Between a slower Champion release schedule and the distinct lack of any real progression in storylines, we've found ourselves in an environment where an event of world-shaking significance can take place and then simply go forgotten as it ceases to have any sort of immediate relevance. What makes this even worse is that we haven't got any way of interpreting when the vast majority of contemporary events in the League universe actually occur in relation to each other. Do the events of Ekko's lore precede Jinx's attack on Piltover, are they concurrent with them or are the Loose Cannon's actions as far in the past as her release? We don't know.

The Journal of Justice came to an end on the twenty-first of March, 22 CLE (2012) and in the years that followed we at least had the existence of the Institute of War to suggest some measure of continuity. Even if Riot themselves had ceased provide definite dates for which Champions joined the League we still saw an apparent progression of the setting through their release and the expansion of known events. It was hardly difficult to assume that time in Runeterra still travelled on in a straight line and that the events were being presented occurred in the order we perceived.

But in this time of uncertainty, when elements of the timeline have been radically altered or are essentially continuity snarls, one has to wonder just how events even piece together. The contemporary era in the old canon covered the 22 years from the founding of the League of Legends to Jericho Swain's ascension to the seat of Grand General of Noxus, but now we have no relative markers on the timeline for virtually anything of significance in recent years.

For example:

What is the relationship between the war in the Freljord and Azir's return?

Forgive me for using the Champion release dates rather than looking up the specific dates of the start of the events themselves, but 17 months of real time passed between the release of Lissandra as part of Riot's reboot of the Freljord and Azir's release at the head of their reinterpretation of Shurima. Throughout that time period we were privy to nothing occurring in the North and the only thing to happen since in either region is the release of Rek'sai, her background providing no markers to evidence how long the Xer'sai have been in Shurima or whether Azir had returned before the events shown in her 'Scourge of the Desert' material. Even the absence of Azir's new empire is hardly anything to suggest that he wasn't around.

It might seem utterly logical to assume that Azir's return happened after Lissandra began to play her hand - it literally did to our eyes - but there's nothing to anchor either event in the timeline and nothing to suggest that either the Freljord or Shurima has actually advanced even a single second since we last set eyes upon them. Even Braum's arrival on the scene only seems like it moves the Freljord forward a little because, to our eyes, battle lines were drawn during the Freljord event and he wasn't present then, but even at the time people noted that nothing truly suggested that there was a "war" going on in the North or that the event was anything more than Riot rearranging the board and changing the players.

So what is actually happening in Runeterra, and more importantly when?

• Has the Freljord plotline been all but frozen (no pun intended) for the last two years, has time been passing relatively uneventfully or was it actually updated to the 'present' and then slightly advanced with Braum's release with the real passage of time a non-factor?
• When did Azir return relative to major events in the timeline? What is there to say that he didn't rise from the sand several years ago in the setting and Riot simply haven't yet begun to tell the stories of his resurgence and impact upon the world?
• How long has it been since Jinx turned up in Piltover (She was released 18 months ago)?
• When did the Noxian invasion and occupation of Ionia take place and how long did it last?

I ask because like ... we can look at Ekko's release as taking place in the 'present day' (Although there isn't really anything to cement it at any point in time) but that still tells us absolutely nothing about the setting as a whole. We honestly can't make sense of so many global events simply because there isn't any way of making a coherent timeline out of them in Riot's new continuity. For all we know it's theoretically possible that every major event of recent times (So Lissandra's mobilisation, Thresh's capture of Senna, Jinx's attack on Piltover, Vel'koz's arrival in Runeterra, Braum allying with the Avarosan, Gnar's awakening, Azir's return, and probably a few more that have slipped my mind) has taken place more or less concurrently.

I know it's tremendously unlikely that someone from Riot will respond to this thread, much less be in a position to directly answer any of these questions, but like ... I would appreciate absolute anything you guys could offer to shine some light on your plans for restructuring the timeline of the post-League Runeterra. It would be fascinating to learn how you view this sort of thing and what you have in mind to attempt to return a sense of structure to something which is currently about as loose as it gets.