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What is the lore purpose of League these days?

Ninjari·6/2/2016, 6:35:10 PM·6 votes·1,497 views

So I have always been a huge fan of the LoL lore. I have been playing since about mid-season 2 and my brother was actually part of the beta for this game (paladin045). For those of u that are not familiar with it, the base lore behind the actual name of the game is pretty cool and simple. the League is a collection of champions from nations around Runeterra that fought to resolve national issues. This league was established by the Institution of War after the latest Rune War. My question is where does any of this play into with the new lore coming out about Shurima and Bilgewater and a little bit of the Frejlord? We have all this cool insights into Runeterra itself but it feels very inconsistent with the purpose of the name of the game. Are us summoners just snatching these random fighters from whatever they are doing and throwing them into death matches where they can't control their actions? Like forcing Taric to fight is bro, Garen. That's rude so rude. Or having Shyvanna maim J4 or Xin? Where are u guys taking this lore, Riot? I would really like to know and I know I m not the only one who has thought of this

14 Comments

I am Pacman6/2/2016, 6:45:47 PM9 votes

Did you miss the whole lore retcon they did a while ago?

TLDR - the league of legends (as in the institution) has never existed and thus the actual game of them fighting (lol the game) no longer exists. I liked it but apparelntly It became to hard to write new stories and characters in to it and really made no sense why lucian would ever be on thresh's team even if they had some super powerfull institute of war. A good example is Bard or Aurelion. They is pretty much zero way or reason that the institute of war would even be able to hold them, let alone make them fight battles over petty disputes between nations on one small rock.

Anyways now we just have it as a universe with a bunch of interconnected characters across the different landscapes of runterra. The shadow isles, bilgewater story, mount targon story and the shurima story are part of runterra weaving the characters together with no doubt more on the way.

Think of it like how the overwatch backstory and lore works but the actual game is completely separate, allowing them to put widow maker and tracer on the same team.

I personally really like reading all of the new lore and havn't really minded the retcon. The only problem is the few champs whos lore directly ties to the institute like jax or oriana (she can be changed but still ma boy jax needs some new lore).

Jeddy0176/2/2016, 7:48:12 PM3 votes

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/creative-spotlight/dev-blog-exploring-runeterra

As Pacman said, the game & lore are separated now with the League no longer being a thing in the canon lore.

Marbelara6/3/2016, 10:21:17 AM1 votes

Much like Pacman said; the lore of League is becoming largely it's own thing with an increasingly dark and threatening plot leading up to some epic conflicts (shit'll go down), while the game itself is now not unlike a simulation of all the major parties whooping tons of ass.

Decrit6/3/2016, 10:33:36 AM1 votes

Do you know Super Smash bros? Yeah, basically like that.

Champions coming from a background ( in this case a shared one) that might or might not ever saw each other fight in an arena for the sake of it. They keep personalities and relation to their lore and so on, but there is nothing hardcoded ( so Shyvana can fight Jarvan and so on) and the lore is to let players know better the world, the champions and how they relate. And probably is going to be used for some other product somehow.

Ninjari7/29/2016, 3:09:28 PM1 votes

So I have been keeping up with the lore and I see what yall are saying. I kinda grew with the League and the changes kinda took me by surprise. I liked that with Ryze rework and lore included a glimpse into what the Rune Wars actually were, something the original lore alluded to in abundance but never expounded. Also when I started looking at champions, the lore greatly influenced my decisions on who to buy as well as their abilities. The people that care about the lore are also starting to die out replaced by people that just wanna play and don't care to read. thx for the posts btw [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

lol I didn't read the replies xD

[{quoted}](name=The Last Ballad,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=j9o0ogjc,comment-id=00000000000000010000,timestamp=2016-06-29T09:29:15.064+0000)

Wouldn't she want to kill Morgana before she has 1000 years to practice it? (which is how long Kayle's servitude is for) If they had no such constraints, then many "I want to find and kill you" storylines would be resolved quickly. Like the Renekton and Nasus one.

About the Nasus v Renekton thing, well seeing as they DID remove the restrictions of the IoW the way it plays out in the lore is that Renekton is running berserk looking for Nasus.

{quoted}

Though I think RIot could still get the Summoner thing to work if they were just conjuring simulacrums of champions rather than yoinking the person into battle. Set it up in the lore as a humane form of gladiatorial combat for the masses to enjoy.

that is a pretty darn good point, and I quite like it.