Why is Fiora French?

Tattersall·Aug 27, 2016·10 votes·4,885 views

I'm hoping the answer isn't just "Because Rito."

48 Comments

Lost RAug 27, 201615 votes

1: History of fencing. It was originally an Italian sport before it was improved by the French and thereby forever associated with them.

2: Why is Tahm Kench Cajun? Why is Kled a hillbilly? Why are Graves and Twisted Fate both pirates AND Southern? Why is Viktor Russian? Why do all the champions in between have American accents, even if most of them aren't even from this world? Where the hell is Xin Zhao from?

3: Opening up a conversation about linguistics and accents in this game will open the can of worms about the evolution of language and accent. Consider this: in Britain alone, you have a massive variety of distinct British accents; Cornish, Cockney, Northern, Yorkshire, and Birmingham just to name a few. And that's just ONE country! Scotland has its own fair share of accents as well, and both these countries are smaller than California (with Scotland being roughly twice the size of the Greater Los Angeles Area).

4: This gets into a deeper conversation about population densities and the sociopolitical circumstances under which these regional changes in language and accent occur, and even as a self-fancied linguistics expert, it's a bit too complicated for me. Consider that most of the American English language is derived from British English with Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, and Arabic as well as a few others strewn about between all of them. Don't forget that the language is still evolving; in recent decades we started adopting other foreign words into our language, like Tsunami from Japanese. Just imagine how many Japanese words we've incorporated in the past ten years alone due to the popularity of anime; tsundere was NOT common parlance (or perhaps even INVENTED) until at least the mid to late 2000s, and now it's officially recognized as a word by Merriam-Webster.

Bringing this back to League, Runeterra and specifically Valoran, we don't have much concrete detail about national censuses, population or even landmass sizes. Accents don't occur in a vacuum. They evolve over time due to many, MANY factors, including the environment, access to information about your own language (consider that READING was a rare skill until multiple European nations decided to make literacy a mandatory skill in the 16th and 17th centuries, and until then you had mini-Dark Ages where large parts of or an ENTIRE language was forgotten whenever an empire fell or a population was eradicated), relations with neighboring populations (German and Dutch are extremely similar languages, and the Japanese language and Kanji script is derived from Chinese, both languages having changed very little in the past several hundred years [much longer for China] due to their many centuries of isolation), and social/government enforcement (A radical group in post-Isolation Japan tried to keep the language pure of outside influence, and there is a committee in France today that keeps its language pure of outside influence). Basically... history itself causes language to change, even here in America. ESPECIALLY here in America.

Honestly, Fiora is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other champions that warrant the question. The best solution is to just not think about it too hard.

TattersallAug 27, 20161 votes

A lot of answers I'm getting have been the dreaded "Because Rito"-type response. Thanks for taking the time to type this entire essay on this topic. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

MinaZer0Aug 27, 20161 votes

TLDR :D item 3110

SoultakerKatanaAug 28, 20161 votes

Xin is Ionian became a gladiator in noxus and was was saved by jarvan and went to demacia.

ArdoreAuroraleAug 28, 20161 votes

TL;DR: Because rito. how sad i could've saved myself time reading this wall of text.

Lost RSep 3, 20162 votes

It's too easy and simple to just say "Because Rito", and... in a way, yes, the simplest answer is just "Because Rito". But the science behind how languages and accents develop, change and evolve is too complicated to summarize in two words and honestly has nothing to do with Riot. This applies to ANY fantasy world that takes place in more than one culture, country or even CITY. The language and accent here in California are vastly different from that of the Bible Belt, New York, the Midwest, Chicago, and so on, and that's just one country. In just about any fantasy setting, no matter where you are in the world, the language and accents are basically the same (though tabletop games like D&D and Pathfinder try to account for different languages existing in the world, they are segregated by race rather than region, with Common being the universal, native language of the players).

Truth be told, most writers never consider differences in language or accent, but it's one of those rules of storytelling and immersion that everyone lets slide, along with concepts like a universal currency. Could you imagine Elder Scrolls being any fun if you had to learn an entirely different language for even minor things like shopping or quest hunting when you went to a new region, or work up a new currency because Imperial Septims are not circulated there? Of course not! It would be irritating as hell, and it's ultimately unnecessary!

Riot actually separates themselves from the rest by going to some lengths to address differences in accents and even language (even if it remains inconsistent among regions; Braum is the only Freljordian with a Russian accent, for example). These things actually do help develop and define a character's personality, even if it's a very cheap tool for character development (an accent doesn't 100% define a character). A character's language, accent, choice of words and even their tone also gives insight into their personality; Gangplank uses a lot of nautical terms and evokes plenty of violent imagery, Tahm Kench probably has the widest vocabulary out of any champion (that goes away when he has a full stack of An Acquired Taste on the enemy), and Gnar is from so many eons ago that he barely even has a language (just as the _homo _genus, which we humans are members of, has been around for about 2.8 million years and the development of a proper language in homo sapiens only began about 200,000-350,000 years ago.)

So yes, while accents are odd and inconsistent in Runeterra, it is just best to not think about how they could conceivably exist.

ArdoreAuroraleSep 5, 20161 votes

interesting read this time, ty

Chamuel85Aug 27, 20168 votes

Because the style of duelist that she is thematically is based on French techniques in fencing.

Weiner the PoohAug 27, 20163 votes

Pretty sure it's actually Italian.

Chamuel85Aug 27, 20162 votes

There is an italian style and a french style. The italian schools of fencing (especially in the north) were heavily influenced by french schools of fencing. The foil (the fencing weapon) is french in origin.

Warlord DienekesAug 27, 20162 votes

There's also English style, German style, and more. And it's not like Fiora is using any moves that point to one style over the other.

What is odd is I always assume Fiora was named after feminizing Fiore, specifically Fiore dei Liberi who was an Italien fencing master.

But then I think she may be loosely inspired by Julie d'Aubigny (la Maupin) the infamous French fencer, opera singer, and all around very naughty girl.

Ebonmaw DragonAug 27, 20167 votes

She is Demacian.

SharjoAug 27, 20165 votes

A Demacian noble, to be exact.

I mean, if we wanna get technical we can explain Fiora's accent as being from a specific region of the Kingdom, potentially from where the Laurent family originated from.

rand0mredneckAug 27, 20165 votes

The same reason Viktor is Russian.

Cause who cares.

TattersallAug 27, 20161 votes

Because Rito

Troll for TrumpAug 27, 20165 votes

Why? Because someday we'll get a Fiora skin with a baguette instead of a sword..

TouchFluffyTaìlAug 27, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Why? Because someday we'll get a Fiora skin with a baguette instead of a sword..

Baker Pantheon skin has to be released first.

SukishooAug 27, 20161 votes

Coming next patch :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Xq3amF8B4

MF is my WaifuAug 27, 20164 votes

Why does MissFortune have the largest rack, wears high heels, yet remains the fastest-moving ADC?

Because Rito.

TattersallAug 27, 20161 votes

Because Rito.

Indeed.

MinaZer0Aug 27, 20162 votes

~ MissFortune doesnt have the largest boobs, Sona does (next to Illaoi )

~There are girls that dance in high heels, Like Korean dance Group Waveya, not to mention I recommend an Episode of the show called Boondocks named "A Pimp Named Slickback".

~The fastest Marksman base movement speed would be Graves at 340, next down would be Sivir Quinn Lucian Jayce Urgot at 335 movement speed

~ Even THEN next down is Draven Twitch Varus Vayne Jhin and Teemo at 330, then all the rest of the marksman at 325, including MissFortune .

~If you are speaking on her passive on her W Strut, Then Jinx has a movement speed passive, Jhin because of his passive and Sivir because her ult, Teemo W, Vayne Ult, Twitch Q and cant forget about Draven hehe ecks dee

~ summoner 14 Because Rito.

ZonkmanAug 27, 20163 votes

why can velkoz talk?

TattersallAug 27, 20161 votes

Because Rito

MinaZer0Aug 27, 20161 votes

he speaks telepathically.

ZonkmanAug 27, 20161 votes

thats kinda hot

SpookyNeedleAug 27, 20162 votes

I'm just here for the Fiora post

TouchFluffyTaìlAug 27, 20162 votes

Why isn't Ahri real?

MavenSongAug 27, 20161 votes

This. We need to ask the important questions people!

Qiy4naAug 27, 20162 votes

Why is Lb not french? she has no accent

RalanrAug 29, 20162 votes

I imagine that Demacia and Noxus are both mixtures of French and German cultures.

TheLazySunbroAug 27, 20161 votes

Cause why not

TattersallAug 27, 20161 votes

Because Rito

AptestAug 27, 20161 votes

that is a good question. it breaks, imho the cohesiveness of the valoran environment.

is she demacian? therefore, where is garen's accent? where is jarvan's? where is lux's ?

Iwinatlife42Aug 27, 20161 votes

She is but if someone is from the united kingdom the could have a scottish accent or a welsh accent and quite a few in beteween. Similarly an american accent ranges from new yorker to southern drawl to valley girl all the same country. Heck Japan has a variety of accents on a small island nation so its not too unbelievable that Demacia has multiple accents.

Slack KingAug 27, 20161 votes

{quoted}

that is a good question. it breaks, imho the cohesiveness of the valoran environment.

is she demacian? therefore, where is garen's accent? where is jarvan's? where is lux's ?

Im american, doesnt mean americans dont have different accents from different regions. Let alone the fact Garen and J$ come from a royal line of Warriors, Fiora comes from a line of pompous duelists.

CatastropAug 28, 20161 votes

Um, you do realize accents can exist in a country without it being widespread among the entire population right?

AptestAug 28, 20161 votes

yes but such an existence requires a fairly isolated environment, or a fairly large country with parts detached from each other, or both. Most of the Demacia actors are from similar enough backgrounds, to merit the question.

JustMonika13Aug 29, 20161 votes

{quoted}

that is a good question. it breaks, imho the cohesiveness of the valoran environment.

is she demacian? therefore, where is garen's accent? where is jarvan's? where is lux's ?

Even within a nation, there are various different accents in different regions. This is obviously noticeable in the United States where you can tell the difference between someone from California and someone from New Jersey. I've also heard that there are difference accents in the South where some think that they share the same Southern Drawl.

"But FlamingEnemy, the United States is huge! What about smaller nations? What if Demacia isn't huge?"

Im pretty sure the Lore states that Demacia holds a pretty expansive space of land in Valoran, I'm too lazy to actually check though. And even in smaller nations, there are differences in accents and pronunciations among different regions, let Balone different usage of words and expressions. The United Kingdom (yes, even in Britain, they have different accents depending on the region), and Japan comes to mind.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoAug 27, 20161 votes

she is french? no wonder i hate dealing with her !!!

UltîmaAug 27, 20161 votes

Why is Fiora French when every other Demacian champion doesn't have even a hint of the accent? I could understand there being a different spoken dialect between nobles and other citizens but that isn't the case... Rito pls

MinaZer0Aug 27, 20162 votes

Family Ancestry, Demacia is like United States, many different cultures all in one place, living together, fighting for the same cause.

JustMonika13Aug 29, 20162 votes

[{quoted}](name=ILittle IMonster,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=mVhW1IOl,comment-id=000d0000,timestamp=2016-08-27T18:08:40.022+0000)

Family Ancestry, Demacia is like United States, many different cultures all in one place, living together, fighting for the same cause.

"...is like United States, many different cultures all in one place,...fighting for the same cause." I laughed.