Runeterra Timeline?

Celeburus··30 votes·15,103 views

Can I get a timeline of Runeterra's canon events please?

61 Comments

Sharjo115 votes

We don't have an official one, but I'll be damned if I'll let that stop me! Here's one I cooked up from what we've gotten so far. Keep in mind though that some of what I'm listing here is based on conjecture as some of the historical details are muddy and difficult to place given other information (Gnar I'm looking at you):

  • Beginning of the universe: Universe is born. Various celestial entities are birthed in to existence and set about doing various tasks that help form the early universe. The entity that would later be known as Aurelion Sol is one of them.

  • Period of millions of years: Life develops on worlds across the cosmos. Eventually sentient life emerges from this. Primitive cultures begin to pop up on planets.

  • Runeterran prehistory: The Targonians, a mortal civilization that has managed to leave its home planet and inhabit other worlds is met by Aurelion Sol on Runeterra. They give him that name and a crown which they then use to control him, and from then on develop in to a massive space faring empire. Targon leaves Runeterra behind but keeps watch over it. It remains unclear whether Targon originated from Runeterra or elsewhere in the cosmos.

  • Pre-human Runeterra: Darkin and demons exist on Runeterra in a different form to how they do now. At some point the Darkin are reduced to five members. Brackern come in to existence at some point and live in an isolated environment in what would become Shurima. Presumably beings like Anivia also emerged in this time period.

  • Earliest point in human history: Primitive humans mark gravestones with the twin masks of Kindred. This is both the first time Kindred appears in human history culturally and the oldest known record of human civilisations ever existing.

  • Magelords and Protectorate conflict: Conflict between two factions; the Magelords and Protectorate occurs. Evidence indicates these are among the first if not the fully established human nations. Aatrox appears for the first time in human history and changes the course of the war.

  • Reign of the Watchers and the iceborn: primitive human societies have spread across Runeterra by this point, with Freljordian humans being contacted by a race of beings known as the Frozen Watchers. They transform the humans in to the immortal iceborn and have them build an empire for them. Valoran is engulfed in an ice age, indicating this time period lasted thousands of years (remember ice ages aren't seasonal, they're literal ages. We're in an ice age right now). Eventually iceborn rebel against the Watchers in a huge civil war and claim the empire as theirs and theirs alone. Later the iceborn devolve in to civil war called "The War of the Three Sisters". The end result is that the iceborn's overarching leader Avarosa is killed, Lissandra goes in to seclusion after corrupting a tribe of humans and Serylda's fate remains unknown. The iceborn eventually die out as they cannot procreate to create new iceborn - their children are human. The Freljord returns to the state it was in before the Watchers arrived thousands of years before.

  • Founding of Shurima: The empire of Shurima is established in southern Valoran. Other nations exist at this time, such as Icathia. Presumably Rammus first entered the cultural eye at this time, and would remain a part of Shuriman culture even past the empire's fall, though his origins remain unknown.

  • Rune Wars: new human nations appear across Runeterra and come to discover "World Runes". The power of the runes leads to devastating magical wars that sunder the planet and decimate entire continents. Shurima was involved, but how we're not sure. Many nations were destroyed by the wars. The Brackern see the wars occurring and decide to hibernate to avoid death.

  • Aurelion Sol, Sun Disc and Summoner's Rift: At some point the Shurimans built a huge Sun Disc which led to the creation of the Ascended. During its construction a major conflict emerged in northern Valoran between two un-named factions. This conflict is what presumably led to Summoner's Rift being in the state it is currently in. At a similar time Aurelion Sol was called to Runeterra by the Aspect Pantheon to seal a void rift at Mount Targon. This is the first time there seems to be inner turmoil within Targon.

  • Amumu: At some point Amumu came to be. All we know is it was before what's next as Amumu is referenced in history at the time of Nasus and Renekton being human.

  • Nasus and Renekton: these two are born at this point and become Ascended later in their lives.

  • Shurima vs Icathia: a conflict erupts between Shurima and Icathia, culminating in an army of Ascended warriors taking the battle to Icathia's door. Icathia's presumably done void dabblings at this point, and here Ryze kills his master and claims his scroll to continue the duty of hiding away the World Runes.

  • Fall of Shurima: because of the plans of Xerath, Shurima as an empire collapses. The capital is blown beneath the sands, the lineage of emperors is presumed dead, and Renekton and Xerath are buried in the tomb of the emperors. Nasus goes in to exile and the Shurimans become nomadic or live around deltas and oasis's.

  • Reign of Iron: Northern Valoran is filled with warring tribes and eventually one man, Mordekaiser, manages to become an undead revenant and raises an empire of his own. It lasts for hundreds of years before an alliance of tribes and the actions of an unknown thief bring down Mordekaiser. His skull is brought to the Blessed Isles.

  • Ruined Kingdom: A king in a long forgotten kingdom is stricken with grief at his wife's death. His general Kalista goes to the Blessed Isles to find a way of saving her and eventually the betrayal of Hecarim and the king's grief cause the Blessed Isles to become the Shadow Isles. Maokai is turned in to the twisted treant while Thresh, Hecarim and Kalista all become trapped in the Black Mist. The Ruined Kingdom's fate is unknown.

  • Founding of Demacia and Noxus: Unknown which came first, but they came to be after the birth of the Shadow Isles. Poppy and Kled both exist at this time and become a part of their respective nation's history. Noxus is founded on Morde's old castle - the Immortal Bastion.

  • 400 years ago: The ancient technique of shadows is sealed away by the Kinkou on Ionia.

  • Sion: Sion kills Jarvan 1 during a conflict between Demacia and Noxus. Sion is then re-animated through necromancy to terrible effect. He is later sealed away because of how uncontrollable he is in this state.

  • Mordekaiser and the Shadow Isles: At some point Mordekaiser is re-animated on the Shadow Isles and claims it as his own. This occurred at the very least 50 years before the events of Shadow and Fortune.

  • The Harrowings: Several Harrowings target the Serpent Isles, specifically Bilgewater, over the course of fifty years. These are not the only Harrowings to have occurred but they're the ones focused on Bilgewater.

  • Kusho and Jhin: Kusho, the Eye of Twilight, incarcerates a serial killer named Khada Jhin. The trauma invoked from seeing Jhin's works scars Kusho, his son Shen and adoptive sons Zed mentally.

  • Order of Shadows: Reeling from Jhin's horrific murders Zed begins to loose his edge of training, and tries to find new ways to prove himself, finding the box that the shadow techniques were sealed in. He is banished and years later returns, killing Kusho and properly establishing the Order of Shadows. Shen becomes the new Eye of Twilight at some point and rebuilds the Kinkou Order after Zed decimates it.

  • Noxian Invasion of Ionia: Noxus invades Ionia with the intent of conquering completely. This invasion continues for several years and thus far has not been stated to have resolved entirely yet, though it is known Ionia repelled Noxus in a major way at some point. Many Ionian champions are influenced by this event.

  • Swain: with the aid of LeBlanc and some trickery involving Jarvan IV Swain manages to take control of Noxus, becoming the Grand General.

  • War in the Freljord: Ashe and Sejuani, after having built up their forces, go to war for the Freljord. Lissandra allies with Ashe as part of a ruse. This war has yet to end and is actively ongoing with no clear victor in sight.

  • Shurima's restoration: Cassiopeia's betrayal and Sivir's blood lead to the return of Azir, Renekton, Xerath and the Shuriman capital.

  • Burning Tides/Shadow and Fortune: Miss Fortune tries to kill Gangplank in a major assassination but fails. Gangplank is assumed dead despite this and Bilgewater descends in to chaos. Illaoi tests Gangplank and he then goes in to hiding. A Harrowing occurs and Illaoi repels it with the power of Nagakabouros. This isn't too long after Shurima's restoration.

  • Bird and the Branch: Taliyah hears of Azir's return and decides to return to Shurima from Ionia. This is roughly a year after Shurima's restoration.

  • Bloodline: Nasus and Xerath meet in Verauka, Sivir and Taliyah meet Nasus, Sivir escapes in to the desert, Nasus prepares to confront his brother Renekton, and Taliyah goes to Shurima (the city) to confront Azir. It's not too long after Bird and the Branch.

_That's as much as I remember to stick in one timeline. I'll maybe add to this later if I can remember more. If people are dubious about this timeline just talk to me and we can discuss, because I'm probably screwing this up somewhere and I missed a lot of smaller details because ordering those tiny details right now is super complicated and awkward. This is just a brief overview as far as I can see it. _

_FYI I didn't include Gnar stuff because yordle stuff is too weird right now to place that - for all we known Gnar could've met the Frozen Watchers during a period of time before humans were even a thing. _

I'd go back and edit for a few things I missed but I'm literally on the verge of the character limit for this post. Might do a more extensive boards post with timeline musings another day though.

Fasmodey20 votes

what the actual fuck

my left mouse button is broken because of upvotes that I spammed.

Sharjo15 votes

I spend too much time on the lore of this sodding game.

It may not seem like it now but come december I'll prove how stupid my chronicling has become.

Fasmodey12 votes

{quoted}

I spend too much time on the lore of this sodding game.

It may not seem like it now but come december I'll prove how stupid my chronicling has become.

And then I say I know lore

cries in a corner

Sharjo17 votes

Don't cry child, at least you have an existence beyond this. Between World of Warcraft, Overwatch, League and Pokemon I've become a shell of a man.

At least I can take pride in my knowledge.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

EDIT: No actually I can't, because I know Jaredan, Loping Cinder, WAAARGHbobo, ThermalKitten, FauxShizzle, Ant in Oz, Carnival Knights and the rest of Narrative are scoffing and chuckling at my feeble attempts to discern the lore.

[zombie-nunu-tears]

Narrative are cruel and vindictive gods. Hopefully my attempts at comprehending the lore are worthy offerings to them.

RiotRiotJaredan32 votes

Never scoffing, always applauding.

Malicious Metal21 votes

Sharjo for Lorekeeper!

Seriously, give the guy a badge. Or a cookie works too.

Celeburus11 votes

[{quoted}](name=Malicious Metal,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=jKME9AAU,comment-id=0000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-08-02T00:18:51.292+0000)

Sharjo for Lorekeeper!

Seriously, give the guy a badge. Or a cookie works too.

I second this

Marbelara4 votes

Third!

item 2054 item 2009 item 2052 item 2009

Sharjo7 votes
StellarPrime3 votes

Sharjo, your posts are beloved & since this one is about timelines, where would you fit in Zyra (my fav champ :3) and her kind when they dominated the kumungu jungle? Her lore mentions "centuries ago" but is otherwise pretty vague. Just curious where in the timeline you'd put when her and her kind ruled. :) All smiles here :D

Sharjo4 votes

For Zyra her transformation was probably within a decade or so of current events, but yeah otherwise her lore is super vague. She could be a part of a super ancient, potentially millions of years old plant species, but that's just me speculating.

I am inclined to believe that her species could be Brackern levels of ancient though if that's any consolation.

Ralanr1 votes

I FEEL YOUR PAIN!!!

Fasmodey1 votes

{quoted}

Don't cry child, at least you have an existence beyond this. Between World of Warcraft, Overwatch, League and Pokemon I've become a shell of a man.

At least I can take pride in my knowledge.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

EDIT: No actually I can't, because I know Jaredan, Loping Cinder, WAAARGHbobo, ThermalKitten, FauxShizzle, Ant in Oz, Carnival Knights and the rest of Narrative are scoffing and chuckling at my feeble attempts to discern the lore.

[zombie-nunu-tears]

Narrative are cruel and vindictive gods. Hopefully my attempts at comprehending the lore are worthy offerings to them.

I'm between Middle-Earth, Warhammer40k, Warcraft, League of Legends and other universes that I have small knowledge. I'm nerd.

Sharjo3 votes

Nerd power!

RiotBioluminescence16 votes

{quoted}

Don't cry child, at least you have an existence beyond this. Between World of Warcraft, Overwatch, League and Pokemon I've become a shell of a man.

At least I can take pride in my knowledge.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

EDIT: No actually I can't, because I know Jaredan, Loping Cinder, WAAARGHbobo, ThermalKitten, FauxShizzle, Ant in Oz, Carnival Knights and the rest of Narrative are scoffing and chuckling at my feeble attempts to discern the lore.

[zombie-nunu-tears]

Narrative are cruel and vindictive gods. Hopefully my attempts at comprehending the lore are worthy offerings to them.

No-one I've talked to has had anything but the highest respect for your efforts, Sharjo.

Sharjo10 votes
Ralanr7 votes

We need more built in stickers.

Hyrum Graff1 votes
Rito Staff1 votes

68, 69, 68, 69, 68, 69, 68, 69

DeathBot6661 votes

HOW!

I was to lazy to read all of this.

+1 for you man.

Sharjo2 votes

By being way to attentive for my own good!

Kadavik1 votes

I've got a question Sharjo. Back on a Tahm speculation thread a long time ago I posted my idea on the origin of Tahm's name, it being taken from the gambler he conned and everything. I later deleted it but Trident SPQR brought a Rioter's attention to it citing me and everything. Anyway I was wondering weather this became cannon or not cause I remember seeing it on your TLDR:2015. It would be pretty cool for me to know that I influenced league's lore. Thanks man.

Sharjo1 votes

Aye it was confirmed as canon that Tahm was the gambler's name and it became synonymous with the River King as time went on in Bilgewater.

UomoAfide1 votes

Now that you mention it, is it just a case that the River King title is pronounced so similarly to Reaver King? Just some kind of parody of Bilgewater ruling?

Sharjo1 votes

AFAIK Reader Captains are a thing in Bilgewater, so Reaver King is the title for the guy above them. The name River King is probably as old as human history at least.

UomoAfide1 votes

I guess it depends when the people started calling him (or did he give that name to himself?) River King, tough yeah, must have been a long time ago.

Sharjo1 votes

I've always assumed that "River King" was one of the earliest titles ever used by humans to describe the demon, and he liked it enough to keep it, or that it's just based on the metaphor he always brings out "All the world's a river and I'm its king", and people gravitated to that line in the stories to formulate the demon's title. Either way that name's super old.

UomoAfide1 votes

Makes sense

Star Guardían1 votes

Isn't Shurima on a different continent not souther Valoran? Idk, I could be remembering incorrectly.

Marbelara1 votes

Sharjo love

Can you look at this proposal and debate/verify it's accuracy?

http://imgur.com/iwqXTEc http://imgur.com/eSPA0gG

It's about Yordles, hmmmm...

I think a possible explanation to yordles being so magical now is that specific era - where everything was magic, like the first day of Narnia, having some effect on them, on their origin from that time giving them their innate powers.

Also, the Wild Watchers occured to me after getting confused over a Watcher just randomly popping up alone in a forest. It must've happened before they made the Iceborn courts and froze the world. The Watchers themselves could originate from the era of innately-magical Runterran races scuttling about everywhere too, now that I think about it.

Sharjo2 votes

Personally, after thinking on it for a while, I think that the creatures that yordles descended from (Gnar's mega form) evolved during Runeterra's pre-history, and Gnar's encounter with a Frozen Watcher occured during pre-human Runeterra. I've entertained the idea that the Frozen Watcher's were among Runeterra's more primitive and early sentient life forms who later entered solitude for eons before humans developed in to proper societies. We don't know what Runeterra's climate was like back then, only that where Gnar encountered the Watcher it is now a jungle. It might've been commonplace for Frozen Watchers to be around that area back then. I'm imagining a prehistoric Runeterra where the first sentient lifeforms developed from the beasts and land itself, leading to creatures like the Brackern, the Frozen Watchers and the Stranglethorn (Or whatever Zyra's plant species was called) developing and claiming territories for themselves. Ecological shift and the emerge of more complex organisms of flesh and blood led to the eventual downfall of these species in their own ways.

Either way I'm imagining yordles in Gnar's form lived in pre-human times, and developed in to societies earlier than humans, but remained secluded and insular despite their unique position in the world. Perhaps they, like the Watchers, had hidden themselves away deliberately for whatever reason. Something darkin related perhaps? Speculation for another time I suppose.

Either way I feel that yordles in their modern form have existed for as long as humans have at least, and probably for a bit longer. Given the legends about Amumu being potentially a yordle I assume that yordles were known to human societies for ages before hand as myths and legends, and became known fact only later.

All speculation on my part but the tl;dr is I think yordles became as they are now a bit before humans became as they are now, and Gnar dates back to pre human times.

Marbelara1 votes

You put it into words better than I did ;w; Thank you! And for your own insights too.

One can hope that the Yordle evolution will get adressed someday by the narrative. I think it's a very interesting aspect of Runeterra and League as a whole that a lot of people would love to learn more about.

DeathBurst1 votes

Aurelion Sol, Sun Disc and Summoner's Rift: At some point the Shurimans built a huge Sun Disc which led to the creation of the Ascended. During its construction a major conflict emerged in northern Valoran between two un-named factions. This conflict is what presumably led to Summoner's Rift being in the state it is currently in. At a similar time Aurelion Sol was called to Runeterra by the Aspect Pantheon to seal a void rift at Mount Targon. This is the first time there seems to be inner turmoil within Targon.

AND

Shurima vs Icathia: a conflict erupts between Shurima and Icathia, culminating in an army of Ascended warriors taking the battle to Icathia's door. Icathia's presumably done void dabblings at this point, and here Ryze kills his master and claims his scroll to continue the duty of hiding away the World Runes.

I'm not sure I agree about this order.

For me, the event in Ryze lore where his master does something wrong could have been the first problem between Runeterra and the Void, so I would have placed that before Aurelion's lore and the Void Rift in there.

Also, do you think the Ascension depicted in Aurelion's lore is one of the many unnamed Ascended or one of the few we do know?

Sharjo1 votes

The thing depicted in Aurelion Sol's lore isn't an Ascension, it's the construction of the Sun Disc itself, long before Ascended were an actual thing. We know that Ryze was in Icathia with his master when shit hit the fan, and we know that the Ascended went and battled on Icathia's doorstep in a major war, leading to the idea that the events are linked together and certainly after Aurelion Sol's short story Twin Dawns.

Plus the Void is a universal threat. Just because Icathia dabbled in it and pretty much ruined south western Shurima forever doesn't mean that Void Invasions didn't happen before then.

DeathBurst1 votes

Hmm, I read the Sol's lore once again and it seems you're right. I really thought the Void threat may have been caused by World Runes and Rune Wars, but from Sol's lore, it seems it is indeed quite universal.

By the way, do you think Runes and Targon are related in any way?

Sharjo1 votes

I'd assume that the World Runes are sort of the coalescing of natural magical energies in to a more physical form over thousands and thousands of years. In that way I'd say they're probably a natural phenomenon of magical worlds and not directly linked to Targon.

Robert Smith1 votes

What about Gnar and Bard. Gnar probably not being significant other than showing the void was opened in the past, But Bard was at the end of a major battle when he took that Egg

Sharjo1 votes

I would go back and edit but I missed the character limit for that post by about twenty, so I can't!

I'll probably go back and do a big massive thread with a timeline in it later on, but for now I need to consolidate things. Yeah Bard's arrival at the mountain would be included but Gnar's a bit of an oddity because new lore for yordles confuddles Gnar's backstory in terms of when it happened. I've mentioned it in this thread but right now I'm leaning towards Gnar being hundreds of thousands of years old, potentially millions of years old, from the pre-human era.

Melledoneus1 votes

You forgot to mention the events with Bard and the egg.

Sharjo1 votes

Word cap's a bitch.

Melledoneus1 votes

There's a word cap?!?

Sharjo1 votes

Character limit's the better term I now realise, and yes for boards comments.

Melledoneus1 votes

I have never even dreamed there was a character limit on boards comments.

Sharjo, take me in as your student!

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

I would legitimately not be surprised if you had a more thorough knowledge of all the lore and its timeline than the actual writers.

Laughing Fish1 votes

Seriously, that was impressive. Bravo good sir!

https://media.riffsy.com/images/3ed84016385a06560957920423fea2f8/raw

XIII Vanitas1 votes

The iceborn eventually die out as they cannot procreate to create new iceborn - their children are human. The Freljord returns to the state it was in before the Watchers arrived thousands of years before.

Actually, the fate of the Watchers is unknown. They were thrown into the Howling Abyss and a Freljordan was sacrificed by Avarosa to become an immortal lookout and signal their eventual return.

Sharjo1 votes

I never mentioned the fate of the Watchers though...

XIII Vanitas1 votes

I think I had some sort of stroke, because I was 100% sure you wrote "The Watchers eventually died out as they cannot procreate", so much that I quoted you. I'm scared right now.

Sharjo1 votes

You're probably fine, but never be afraid to go see a doctor!

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