About the lore

I think chronological order is a boring way to go but

Freljord (Lissandra, Vel'koz, Gnar and their stories + The Eye in the Abyss short story) Shurima (Azir, Xerath, Nasus, Renekton + Where Icathia Stood) Darkin (Aatrox and Varus + Twilight of the Gods)

After that you should just be loose with it and read what you find interesting first and that process will create interesting questions that will lead you to other questions. The Void and The Darkin are kind of the catalyst that lead to all the other stuff and are the "required reading" at the startfrom there you can look at:

Old Noxus Mordekaiser, LeBlanc and Vladimir and how that leads into current day Noxus (Swain, Darius + Principles of Strength) Blessed/Shadow Isles (Kalista, Hecarim, Thresh, Yorick + The Echoes Left Behind) Rune Wars (Kayle, Morgana, Ryze) Demacia (Jarvan, Sylas, Lux all the stories there) so on and so forth

I however think it's better to just pick something that you're interested in. If a player of the game that knows nothing about the lore went on Universe he'd probably start with his favorite champion lets say Lee Sin for example. The lore is designed so that he could have a bunch of different jumping off points. Lee Sin is from Ionia so he could read about that, Lee Sin fought against Noxus so maybe the player would go learn more about them, Lee Sin was friends with Udyr so he might read Udyr stuff and learn about Volibear from that cool new story.

Oh, I love these questions. There are several approaches:

• If you like finished stuff, you should start with Bilgewater. Every champ from there has a full biography and a color story, and there are two long stories too. The lovely Bioluminescence has prepared a Reading List for that too. The downside is... well, it's finished for now, so there's not much going on as the newer releases focus on other regions.
• If you like to be in the action, like literally right in it, start with Demacia. Poppy, Kayle and Morgana lay out the past, how it was founded. Jarvan IV, Xin Zhao, Shyvana, Garen and Lux give a solid overview of the present, then read Sylas' stories and the Lux comic for the ongoing stuff. The comic is not even finished, the next issue will be released on Wednesday. The downside is that some champions are either not involved (Quinn, Fiora) or don't have finished lore (Sona, Lucian)
• Not ongoing, but still very recent is the Noxian Invasion in Ionia and the Resurrection of Azir. Check them out if you like any of the involved champions: Azir, Sivir, Cassiopeia, later Nasus, Xerath and Taliyah. In the Invasion almost all of Ionia was involved, Irelia is a key figure here. On the other side there's Swain, Darius, Sion and Riven. The invasion has a great, three-part story, Confessions of a Broken Blade, and Azir has a two-part cinematic.
• If you like worldbuilding and history, read about ancient Freljord, the fall of Shurima and the ruination of the Blessed Isles. (These are the main points in the timeline of Runeterra.) Lissandra is a key player in the Freljord, you should also check out the demi-gods Ornn, Volibear and Anivia. I wonder what Lissandra is afraid of? The Fall of Shurima once again ties back to Azir, Xerath, Nasus and Renekton. Start with Where Icathia once Stood, which we voted as the best story of 2018 (and deservedly so). Xeraths biography then describes the actual fall, and then you might want to hop over to the Darkin (Aatrox, Rhaast and Varus). The Darkin Wars finally find their end after the (rightfully second-placed) Twilight of the Gods. Kalista, Hecarim and Thresh can provide insight on the Ruination, and Ryze explains the Rune Wars that followed. (Bonus: Cinematic featuring Ryze)

Some other stories I think are really great:

• The Bird and the Branch (Ionia, featuring Taliyah)
• Bloodline (Shurima, featuring Taliyah again)
• City of Iron and Glass
• From the Ashes
• Ashe: Warmother (Finished comic series, Freljord)
• For Demacia (Demacia... duh)
• Progress Day (Piltover, has a really good twist)
• Silence for the Damned (Freljord)
• The Whispering Doodad (somewhere in Noxus, features Yordles)

(You'll notice an awful lot of Graham McNeill there, he's the best writer in my opinion. He wrote both stories that placed 1st and 2nd in our contest and in general, I like his style.)

If you want, you can also join us on Discord. We love to talk about the lore and the universe of League.

LordRedStone's post is a great start. The Whispering Doodad is a personal favorite of mine.

One thing he didn't mention was the Shadow Isles. The Shadow Isles started as the Blessed Isles before "the Ruination", becoming a dead land of lost spirits and undead. Kalista's and Hecarim's bios are a good place to start on this subject. Many of these Champions have forlorn tragedies (Kalista especially) or delectably dark stories (Thresh's is over the top evil and enjoyable because of it), and the Harrowing that comes from the Shadow Isles ties in with the aforementioned Bilgewater lore, too.

Imo the lore is written so you can start pretty much anywhere and just go off of there, but if you're looking to read all of it rather than just whatever's caught your eye, I'd suggest going region by region and just reading everything there. This method leaves out a handful of champs who aren't classified, but you can read up on them just by finding anyone marked as a Runeterra champ (so basically ryze, aurelion sol, fiddlesticks, etc.). This method isn't really the best of the best since it might make it hard to keep up with updates until you've read it all and can go back and see what's been added, tho. It's how I personally read the lore and it's probably the most structural way to do it.