At one point in time there was a tie between the lore and the actual game of League of Legends. I just wanted to know what you miss most about the now retconned lore.
For me, probably a tie between Jax's lore now meaning nothing and the loss of the description of "Judgements."
What piece of outdated lore do you miss most?
As always, please upvote and comment to promote discussion.
redniwediS17 votesI miss the feeling that these champions we play as are not the top of the power list. I liked the feeling that there was something larger at play, and that each champion was just a piece of the puzzle that was the Institute.
I like the individual stories that cover small parts of the happenings of the world, but the different parts of Runeterra just feels so disconnected from one another. There is nothing that binds all these people and places together other than the knowledge that they all exist in the same world.
I'd love to get into what I'd have rather seen happen, and what still could happen, but I think that's a discussion for another thread.
The Whamboozler17 votesThe biggest loss to come from the lore retcon was the fact that our matches no longer matter.
Yeah... you heard me right. Under the old lore the league of legends was a thing. Summoners Rift was a place, and we were all fighting for a reason. Sure, many matches were goofy and didn't make any sense.. ("Wait, why are Swain, Garen, Shaco, Caitlyn and Thresh attempting to kill Ahri, Olaf, Amumu, Ashe and Blitzcrank?") But the idea that the matches were a real thing that occurred in the world and had meaning made the game feel more immersive. Your summoner was a PERSON in the setting. Even if you weren't some RP nut imagining your summoner's story, the fact that the lore HAD YOU IN IT was fodder for a ton of fanfics, stories and immersion-enforcing moments as people championed Demacia or fought for the glory of Noxus... even if it was tongue-in-cheek.
Now stuff just happens... the world and the factions seem distant and disconnected, and the actual GAME we all play may as well be the daydream of a random kid somewhere who huffed too much paint. The lore retcon rendered the game itself utterly pointless and imaginary in it's own lore. Name ONE other franchise that does that? Even Smash Brothers has an explanation that explains what the matches are and why they're happening... it's a child playing with his toys. What is the reason for our constant battles on summoner's rift?
There isn't one. It's all without purpose. And THAT is the biggest tragedy of the lore retcon. They felt chained by their lore in regards to introducing new champs, so they made EVERYTHING pointless. Now we can play an arrogant god-dragon or a river-demon in a top hat, but in return the game itself means nothing. Not sure why they HAD to change things in the first place... it's not like that "god dragon" is actually more powerful in the game anyways. He just has lore saying he's awesome and super powerful... but I've seen him die to Teemo too many times to take him seriously.
Riot screwed up. You write your characters to fit your lore and setting, you don't change the setting because you want to write new kinds of characters. Writing 101 Riot. The new champs can be diminished in scope without being uninteresting. If A-Sol had been a small, impish dragon with a MASSIVE ego he'd be the same character... hell, he might be MORE entertaining. If Tahm Kench had been a scheming demon that was asked by a summoner to fight in the league... he could have lines ominously mentioning the "price" you'd eventually have to pay for his help and how much he was looking forward to it. Instead we get omnipotent super characters out of bad fanfics and half the old champs being retconned into god-vessels and other such goofy crap.
There's a reason Batman is overall more popular than Superman Riot. He's a normal guy and almost all his villains are ALSO normal guys. They're some of the most popular characters in comics because they're INTERESTING and well written. They're also MUCH easier to relate to or understand. It's the reason fans liked Atreus and loathe Pantheon. LEARN FROM THIS.
Beyond Legends4 votesBut do all games matter? Even the pleb that are under lv 30 or the bizzare combo of jaravan swain thresh lucian and kindred all on the same team. I get the league sounded like a cool idea but not call cool idea is good in practice. Tahm kench being enslave to league sounds dumb, why would he even bother. What is their to gain from this? Also the league itself made no sense, you're in a world where some can use world altering effect and than you have some one like garen, just a guy with a sword. League was built by people who could alter reality, yet the spend their time not taking over the world? That not mention numerous amount of stupid things within the league. It was dumb from a story perpective and the retcon was greatly needed.
So no the retcon didn't destroy league at all, nor was anything of real value was lost. I rather not feel the sense of purpuse in game for a better written story than a bad melting pot of mess. In fact I doubt people were attracted to league because the league premise, they were attracted to the champions. The league always hass been an inmbitor for creativity and I'm glad it done and gone.
Erractic Eick4 votesI believe in the original lore, the Summoners decided to not take over the world since Rune Wars are so destructive that there would be nothing left.
Another post somewhere (maybe not even on this board, my memory is crap) had an idea that Tahm could have been giving his talents to a Summoner in exchange for something to eat later, much like his story video on Youtube.
The point of world ending powers employing people like Garen to resolve their disputes would be to take over the world without destroying it. The way I always thought of it was that the more matches a champion won, the more decision making power the champion and their summoner had on international disputes.
Beyond Legends2 votesYes but why bother to even form a institude, they could have simply threaten the world with the unseen amount of terror they have kept within the institude of war. They can enslave things like chogath and nocturne but they can't stand against a few city states. The whole magical UN thing seems to be a poorly tag on part to make the gameplay some what relavant. Probably a rip of of the original Dota if anything.
Also the League was useless, I mean look at the Ionia war for sod sakes. Also don't give me that bull crap about the Ionian war happen before league since the last joj entry was 22CLE (current league era). Yeah so the league fail majoraly there and kinda ruin the whole fantasy of conflict resolve on SR. The fact is wether the league existed or not had little value to Valoran as a whole. The only thing that was interesting was the Rune War, but that is about it. Also it made little sense for Noxus high command not full with summoners and mages? Why did they abandon Noxus to join some club again? Also the old lore mention mutiple tribes, but there is like only two faction that was really fighting Noxus and Demacia. What happen to the other tribes and what happen the rune enchated armour they were using? They may not be able to use rune nukes, but why would they give away their armour too? What kind of idiotic faction does that? Why was the world suddenly down graded as soon as the league was introduced? We never got these answers and I doubt the original writer ever thought it through either.
All in all, the league sounded good when you first looked it, but at any deep analysis your realize just how bad the whole thing actually is. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug, hence people should take caution when analyzing things about the old lore.
Also Garen wasn't employed, he was this super vanguard person that fought in multiple skirmishes.
Wyrmblade3 votesWhy even bother to do anything.
Let's just stare at the ceiling until time closes in.
Beyond Legends3 votesNot sure what you mean, but that's sound just depressing.
The Whamboozler3 votesThat was his point. Nothing REALLY matters. Your "what was the point?" statement in regards to the old lore could apply to ANYTHING. Who cares that MF took over Bilgewater? What's the point of Lucian getting to kill Tresh. Why does it matter if A-Sol is a giant space dragon?
None of it mattered. But a lot of people liked the old lore and many of them, myself included, feel that while it was flawed it was still superior to the current lore... mostly due to how disconnected from itself the current lore is. It's just random short stories about the characters... often months apart... all of which explain little and change little. NONE of it had a point... but people liked the old lore and it was scrapped for something new that has so far been... well... mostly "meh".
You're entitled to your opinion, but so am I. I miss the old lore and wish they'd worked more on making the story I'd grown to love more interesting instead of scrapping it all to start over. Like a LOT of Riot's changes of late, it left a lot of fans in the lurch or actively upset them and what we got out of it didn't seem worth the slap in the face it gave to a bunch of loyal players.
Decrit1 votesI liked that idea too.
But honestly, i never "felt" that. The game completely missed the point there for me, and that just by its own nature.
I don't miss it for that reason, after some weeks i even forgot the lore meaning of the matches and i focused on the game game itself.
ltmetal11 votesI miss 
being unrepentant. In her new lore, she was overcome by some mysterious power that wasn't explained when she was making her case to the Solari elders and feels bad about killing them. In her old lore, she was sentenced to death by execution after making her case, then she broke out of her cell and killed them instead. She made the decision, instead of being dominated by an unseen influence.
Warlord Dienekes8 votesWords cannot adequately describe how much I hate the way Aspects were handles in the new Targon lore. Mysterious powers forcing our heroes to do things is not what I want to read about I want to read about what the heroes would do.
Talos of Altmora1 votesI did a new my problems on them. but yeah, we all have our beef with that.
Tesla Effect10 votesGameplay and story integration.
Zarvanis9 votes
These guys basically don't exist, because all of their lore revolves entirely around the Summoners and the League of Legends.
Chaotic Reks5 votesso why does still use a lamp anyway? There's no restriction on him now so he can use whatever he wishes.
Narasimha3 votesEh, could be along the same lines. He wants a challenge, so he doesn't use a real weapon.
Erractic Eick1 votesIt's because he knows his ban rate would be 100% if he had a real weapon.
XeroKimo2 votesDon't forget 
Voidrey9 votesI miss having a main story
Trolosaurus8 votesThe idea that every champion can feasibly interact with one another
The Soulforged7 votesMost everything on the journal of justice, especially the rising tensions in Kalamanda which ultimately ended in the stasis bubble. I mean, Demacia taking blame because Leblanc tricked the soldiers to follow her? Genius! It felt like something was actually happening.
Artificial Human1 votesIt was gone when i started playing, but it seemed really awesome when i looked it up.
The Soulforged1 votesI didn't even read lore then. I changed a lot around the start of season 3.
Reaper Review7 votesA lot of the more recent champions just plain wouldn't work if they had to try and contrive a reason for them to be in the League.
Rek'Sai would just be another Fiddle/Nocturne/Brand/etc, a powerful thing captured by summoners and left to do nothing unless summoned for gladiatorial combat.
Bard and Aurelion would have no reason to want to join the League, and if they're roped in by force, that just makes the power level of the Institute even harder to gauge.
Kindred is an extreme case by the above logic. If the Institute controls them, they effectively have a leash on the personification of death.
Azir would never willingly bow to another. He's a proud emperor, even after all these years.
Aatrox's entire MO is "blood and glory on the battlefield", while the Institute prevents large-scale wars from breaking out. There's no actual death or bloodshed in the League of Legends, so Aatrox likely wouldn't take kindly to the whole thing. Cue him getting captured by summoners and added to the Fiddle/Brand/Nocturne club.
Even as far back as Syndra. Her ENTIRE character motivation is about not being controlled, which is kinda at odds with the idea of being controlled by a summoner.
Also, the Harrowing as it is now wouldn't work the old way. Why would the Institute willingly let Hecarim and crew go on a rampage through Bilgewater every so often?
I mean, even before the retcon, they were phasing out mentions of the Institute and League in the lores simply because contriving a reason for all these people to be there would get progressively stupider.
Erractic Eick4 votesOkay, I get the logic of a great deal of this, but I do want to play devil's advocate, because I find this conversation fascinating. No hard feelings? :D
Rek'Sai is a mature Void Creature, and many of the older creatures (i.e. Cho'Gath, Vel'Koz, Kha'Zixi) have motives to be in the league. Cho wants his influence to derail the world in order to provoke havoc, and so wants to win as many matches as possible so, I don't know, nations want more Void creatures to come into the world to be used as weapons of mass destruction. By participating in the League, Vel can destroy and analyze as many life forms as he wants, and he wants to know EVERYTHING. Kha wants the thrill of the hunt and to consume everything he can so he can hunt more, and thus finds purpose in the league by fighting Rengar. Perhaps Rek wants the League to be the arbitrator of her territorial claim in Shurima. This would also explain Azir's motive for being there, since he probably would have a tough time rebuilding his nation with a Rune War occurring in his country.
Isn't Aurelion Sol under the control of Targon? Couldn't they just order him to compete in the League? And Bard is a protector of balance, so preventing another world ending Rune War would be in his interest, right?
Kindred I couldn't explain. Game, set, match on that one.
Aatrox is less BLOOD on the battlefield than "glory, no matter the cost." If he wins every match on the Rift, he is the best fighter to ever exist, never mind the fact he probably just destabilized the political situation of an entire continent, leading to more of his favorite thing: conflict. What better reason to fight than that?
Syndra is probably one of the few champions who I've ever felt was underdeveloped in lore, so I couldn't say what she might feel.
The Harrowing argument I will also have to surrender to. But the current lore does not explain why Nautilus was seen destroying an entire cardinal direction's worth of Harrowing Ghouls, might I add, where the combined might of Gangplank and Miss Fortune only barely held off another (man, Nautilus is awesome). So the new version has holes in its logic as well. I mean, Nautilus shouldn't even exist in the new lore.
Sorry, that last paragraph was an irrelevant rant. The point is that you win on the Harrowing.
If anyone else would like to chime in on anything I missed, it would be greatly appreciated.
Beyond Legends2 votesAzir wouldn't even fit in the old lore, Shurima had flying sand pyraminds back then....and the whole ascended thing couldn't even exist because nasus and renakton was some of world creature. Alot of the old lore was just plain lazy writing; I mean read old lore Malphite, Taric, Nasus, Renakton etc.
Also Naut is like 30 feet tall in the new lore. He can easily wipe 30 ghoul with one swing. In fact Naut new lore fit better with the new black mist than before. Also another thing people forget is that shadow isle was on the west side of the map.
Talking about map you should have a look at the old valoran map. I promise you it look like a four grader old made it.
The Soulforged3 votesIn the case of shurima, I was thinking of the place being a gateway between the worlds of Nasus and Renekton and the actual place. It could've been really cool without needing to change much about the place from what it was.
Narasimha2 votesPerhaps Rek wants the League to be the arbitrator of her territorial claim in Shurima.
Wouldn't work. She's literally just a beast. That's part of what makes her unique, in that she has no higher intelligence. She's all instinct. She doesn't need a 3rd party. If someone wants to get in on her territory, she'd fight them off herself.
Isn't Aurelion Sol under the control of Targon? Couldn't they just order him to compete in the League?
Not Mt. Targon, the space empire Targon. Big difference. The space empire, from what we've seen, doesn't seem too interested in Runeterra in particular. They've got a galaxy or so to run. Same thing for Aurelion Sol. For how busy he is, what reason would he have to take time to stop by the League?
And Bard is a protector of balance, so preventing another world ending Rune War would be in his interest, right?
So why does he need the League? What could the League possibly do that a dimensional travelling aeons old guardian of the galaxy could not?
Aatrox is less BLOOD on the battlefield than "glory, no matter the cost." If he wins every match on the Rift, he is the best fighter to ever exist, never mind the fact he probably just destabilized the political situation of an entire continent, leading to more of his favorite thing: conflict. What better reason to fight than that?
Doesn't fit his personality. He like to inspire people, then fade back into the shadows of history. After all, if everyone knew him, he wouldn't be as effective in what he did.
So the new version has holes in its logic as well. I mean, Nautilus shouldn't even exist in the new lore.
His story isn't affected by the League at all. The crux of it "Sailor goes overboard, gets covered in black ooze, becomes one with his diving suit." The League literally has no bearing on it. You could replace it with any other nation, or he could even have been freelance. More to your original question, the current prevailing theory is that Nautilus was supposed to have been taken by the Black Mist, but somehow his suit prevented it from taking his free will. So now he's pissed off at the Mist, but still tied to it.
JedenVojak7 votesI miss cheesy random fun champions from out of nowhere. They were allowed to exist before, because the lore of the old LoL was not super serious: I would liken the old lore to the new lore it to the difference between Army of Darkness and the new Man of Steel movies - the first is cheesy, but because it embraced that cheesy you had a fun movie with moments of random awesomeness, where as Man of Steel tries to be gritty and serious but it's just bland and uninteresting.
333lom7 votesI miss the feeling of a greater, overreaching storyline. The Institute of War was unlike anything I've seen before in a fantasy world, a supranational entity designed specifically to try and prevent wars in order to save the world from being literally ripped apart. It gave the story importance. I felt that the champions had a dynamic with the Summoners and I miss the feeling that almost all champions comprehend their world and what's currently happening to it. Now, every single piece of lore is disconnected and has no meaning in relation to one another, nor do the characters presented show any higher sense of understanding and awareness. It all now looks like just excerpts from many different fantasy stories with nothing characteristic to bind them and point, "hey, this is the world of League of Legends!"
The addition of these super-powerful characters has no influence on the world. We just read their descriptions that they're super-powerful and that we should be amazed by them, but I am not. And all of them are again bound in a way. Aurelion is under the control of Targonians, other entities are limited to their areas or mindsets, allowing them to only do certain things.
I also liked very much the feeling that the characters are a part of events taking place in their own area, dealing with problems there and actively participating in events, but also are aware of the Institute and have some knowledge of what's happening in the world as well.
WestTiger6 votesI think the culmination of all that was good with the old lore and world and even the lore 'system' was the irl 3-4 year long plotline involving Swain attaining power.
It involved League Judgements revealing history we wouldn't know otherwise. Like his history with LeBlanc, or with the High Chancilor of the Summoners back then.
Then it was primarily told through the Journal of Justice, which has so many parts over the years that I can't link right now on mobile. Things like Swain's increasing rank in Noxus, or ingenious storytelling methods like deliberately fake reader's letters that invited the real players to decipher them.
We had multiple champions introduced in the wider context of his story. Darius being the prime example, but even Talon originally was entrenched with the overall plotline.
The introduction of the Dominion map and the aftermath, was also part of Swain's evolving plotline, and this big culmination was when he finally officially becomes the Grand General; and the actual in-game representation in the form of his Tyrant Swain skin.
Everything that went into building this narrative, the use of multiple publications, the way new champs and new maps were interwoven together through this narrative. Over so many years at that!
It's impressive to this day. It was obviously well thought-out and worked on over such a long time. And it's a legit good story as well.
And now it's all gone. Even Dominion.
a damn waste.
SomethingUnknown6 votesI miss when the power between champions wasn't as huge, it probably sucks being a Twitch or Draven main and knowing your champion is like an insect compared to Aurelion Sol or Bard. Back in the days Xerath was considered the strongest, but he had his full power locked so he could still be beaten. I really liked "Burning Tides", but after learning about Aurelion Sol it feels like Green Arrows side-story of fighting some thugs while Superman and Wonder Woman fight a world ending catastrophe.
No mystical champions like Tahm Kench and Kindred, all the champions used to be tangible, you could see them and hear them. How are those two supposed to have an interesting story with other champions that isn't "I'm having a near-death experience, hello Kindred, let's have a philosophical talk" or "I have a desire, but I can't do it myself so I'll need a demons help" and I can't even imagine what a story with Bard looks like.
Warlord Dienekes5 votesWell I miss when Pantheon was a soldier and not a body snatching demigod from space most. But that's not really the institute of war's (or lack of its) fault.
Probably I miss that the power creepy that's been happening in recent years was much less prevalent. I miss the champion reflections thing. Or whatever they were called where we could see how their inner mind worked.
I miss the concept of the Journal of Justice far far more than the implementation of it. Stories about who Ashe has secretly jumping into her room? Who's dating who? It had the decorum of a crappy gossip tabloid.
cornpirde5 votesWhen champions like 
or 
, and 
made sense.
The Soulforged3 votesI liked it when champions weren't supposed to be godlike entities, and instead served as almost equals.
Ace Access 5 votesall of it
Drahcir5 votesPersonally, i miss the Journal of Justice, it added so much to the game, when i was new, i spent about as much time reading those as i did playing the game.
ZT Xperimentor5 votesIt at least made sense for these champions to be here, let alone fighting eachother.
CasterGilgamesh5 votesi missed the Journal of justice
Jet Sett4 votesI liked the fact that player's could interact with the champions in a way, like fan letters getting answered by a champ and such, or just the champions discussing lore events like when Ezreal was investigating Aatrox's origins.
warmcorntortilla4 votesWhy even read the lore or anything anymore? It's like... fucking not real. Nothing makes sense at all. I'm not saying that a game SHOULDN'T strive to be fun, first and foremost, and for the most part, League succeeds really well in that regard.
But gaming is also an art, and a story-telling medium. The in-game lines should feel meaningful. It should feel purposeful. The Journals of Justice were great because it was like we were getting kind of updated on what these champions are doing, right now. In some ways, it didn't make a lot of sense, but they could have wiggled that around a bit. Retconning the whole thing feels so dumb. It also makes a hell of a lot of champions straight up not have any lore. We literally don't know what happened to them. Where does Ryze live now that there's no institute? What about Xerath? Cho'Gath and Kog'Maw? What about Janna? The Fields of Justice existed before in-lore, with real nexuses... is that gone, too?
I think my least favorite thing about the lore retcon is now Riot just straight up doesn't even care about it anymore. They just come up with some shiny, new character design and throw it out there with a little fanfic piece and a pat on the head. Why the hell does Taliyah exist in the same canon universe as Kindred, or Tahm Kench, or Aurelion Sol? Why are Leona and Diana and Pantheon Avatar-controlled flesh-prisons? Do we learn anything about why these people are doing... whatever it is they're doing? Nope. Do we learn anything about their culture, or day-to-day lives? Nope. They're not even people anymore, they're just dozens of moving parts in some vaguely tied-together arena. The only reason we even get the fanfic is so they have some sort of reason for introducing this champion.
I guess they're moving these stories in some sort of direction, but it has nothing to do with what you're doing in game, and what you're doing in game has nothing to do with what this character is doing in their life... whatever that thing is. I know basically nothing about this world anymore. Hell, now Summoner's Rift isn't even part of the lore anymore, so we don't even know what the world looks like!
As a general problem I have with the lore, it REALLY doesn't make any sense when you start looking at it on a "is this a cohesive world?" level. What does the world these champions live in look like? What time period does this take place in? Is it post-industrial revolution? Pre-industrial revolution? Do they speak all the same language, or do they speak different languages? Why is Piltover seemingly teeming with technology, but Shurimans are still riding camels? Do they not have... globalization on Runeterra? Does everyone speak the same language? Apparently there are different religions, so are there different languages? Are the Ionians still being occupied by Noxus? Should anyone even give a shit?
Nope.
The Deckowner4 votesI miss the fact that we don't have gods and figure of deaths and dimension travellers in the game. the champions actually felt like...human(altho many aren't).
Beyond Legends3 votesHonesty not much, most of the old lore was simply badly crafted. Old lore didn't feel like a world, it felt like mutiple worlds tied together by a badly thought out deus ex machina. Kalamanda was one it's worst offenders. I was only attractic to league was because of it's champions never because of the world. The old lore had some neat one shots but it's world itself was bad as a comic book timeline. New lore fixes many of the problem cause by the old lore. It had a interesting world, something the old lore never had despite what other claims it had.
turkeyBACON8 votesI would agree with you except I don't feel like that the new lore fixed any of the disconnected feeling. It's hard for me to comprehend that near barbarian Freljords exist in the same world as the hextech advanced Piltover and the space faring Targonians. It's all mashed together still. There are small threads of connection but none of it feels organic and natural when you look at the world as a whole but instead like the forced connections of a mad man. http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/community-sitcom/images/7/78/3x04-Conspiracy_Unraveled.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120927150840
Karn Bishop3 votesI still stand by my opinion that dissolving the institute was a mistake, yes a lot of lore was crappy but that was not the fault of the institute at all it was more so the fault of the writing team at the time who simply were not willing to work with the idea that there could be a powerful organization capable of dictating the decisions of other powerful groups, which is ironic considering they mostly lived in America and we are very known for doing exactly that even when we should not do so.
Kjarik3 votesNothing; it was stiff and artificial concept
Xano5012 votesI love champion's character and personality in old lore because in old lore champion have good dimension. But new lore dimension of champion look decrease.
I want new lore just current event but don't need to change champion's character and personality, such like this.
Gangplank was trains to became pirate and killed his father, he try to find another way more than be pirate. But one day, someone from Shadow Isle told Miss Fortune about Gangplank killed her mother and her understand like that then try to avenge him. But however, no true information to tell Gangplank kill Miss Fortune's mother.
Monkey D Luffy2 votesI loved the old lore and retconning is the stupidest thing you can do, I don't even bother to touch the new lore even though it's really good because of this complete disgrace.
