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New lore: Runeterra map concept

An Undead brat··15 votes·2,858 views

So we are for almost two years without an actual Runeterra map. That might mean that Riot has a problem constructing it, or just doesn't give a damn. Whichever of these is the reason, I tried to collect all pieces in my mind from the new lore and I also thought about land-shaping processes that formed the continents on the Earth. This is the result:

http://i.imgur.com/PPES6c4h.jpg

Now I will describe my reasoning behind placement of each place. If any of my thoughts is wrong, please, let me know in the comments so we can shape Runeterra together and make it the most accurate we can!

FRELJORD: The typical northern land. Placed close to Noxus because of the Noxian invasion to Freljord, although I don't remember if this isn't a part of the old lore.

NOXUS: Close to mountains, where Vladimir's temple and Kled could be located. Path to Ionia is cut only by Zaun's territory, their ally that helped them with Ionian invasion. Also not-too-far from Shadow isles, where Mordekaiser's relics were put and also where Karthus traveled.

ZAUN: Neighbor of their ally, Noxus, but also their direct enemies, Piltover. Zaun lies on a river, as every city that relies on chemical industry needs to.

PILTOVER: Piltover just perfectly fits in.

DEMACIA: Lies next to their faithful ally, Piltover, but also close to Mount Targon, which is then reachable for Taric. It felt only right to put it on the opposite side of the Valoran from Noxus.

MOUNT TARGON: Close to Demacia so it was reachable for Taric and also lies next to Shurima desert, which (not sure there) was stated in Pantheon's new lore.

SHURIMA: The desert. Lies on the south and huge mountains protect it from the wet that would come from the sea winds (typical geographic phenomenon).

IONIA: The island state. Takes strategical position between Freljord and south so it's important for Noxus to conquer. Also is on the east, because it's League's Asia-like land archetype.

SHADOW ISLES: Takes position near Bilgewater for the Harrowing to be possible, the rest is explained in Noxian chapter.

BILGEWATER: A maritime city. We can see an island system, which is described in Illaoi's lore and where she comes from. Also pretty far from Freljord, that was said in The Shadow of Fortune (Harrowing story) when Olaf appeared.

BANDLE CITY: Merry utopia, hidden from other's sights. Also close to mystical forests where Lulu could've dissapeared.

KUMUNGU JUNGLE: Wet and overgrown jungle, similar to northern South America by position and landscape. Far away from civilization.

Thanks for attention, I hope I did not miss anything!

31 Comments

GreenLore2 votes

I feel like you missed the "first light after harrowing"-map that was released after the retcon(and thus is definetly canon) http://am-a.akamaihd.net/image?f=http://news.cdn.leagueoflegends.com/public/images/articles/2014/november_2014/eoh/maps/HarrowingMap05_Text.jpg&resize=1536:

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/special-event/first-light-after-harrowing

You can see that the shadow isles are south east of bilgewater and they appear to be south of ionia(there is an ionia symbol pointing to the north and an ionian fleet was consumed by the harrowing north of the shadow isles). Also it shows that bilgewater is indeed located on an island(or group of islands)

So I'd suggest to switch demacia and Noxus,put the bilgewater islands to the south west of ionia and the shadow isles further south of ionia.

Bandle city and the kumungu jungle also seem a bit misplaced. I mean if the jungle is so far away from civilization,then how did Nidalee end up there?

Last but not least we've got redposts who actually confirmed that Ionia is now a continent,not just an island,so I think it should be a bit bigger.

An Undead brat2 votes

Fuck shit I now remember I saw this and I absolutely forgot... I feel so dumb now... Anyway, thank you alot lol

Nothing to say anymore except of the Nidalee thing: Was her lore updated yet? Like does she need to be anywhere else?

GreenLore1 votes

Nidas lore wasn't updated yet,so for now we can assume that she is still in the kumungu jungles,which pretty much means that humans have reached that place(though given your map it is possible that they arrived there by ship,so its not such a big problem)

LostFr0st2 votes

Would the Rammus lore assist you any? If he's still an armordillo from the Kumungu that walked into the Shuriman desert that could help a bit.

An Undead brat1 votes

If this is canon, that only might confirm they're located near, which is current theory.

LostFr0st1 votes

mmm the new lore only has one tiny piece of info:

"...When invading Noxian warbands attacked a Northern Shuriman settlement, disparate tribes banded together to defend the territory beneath the Temple of the Ascended..."

but you've already got Noxus to the north :/

deathgod51 votes

Looks good, but you missed the ruins of urtisan, birthplace of zilean and motivation for vel koz. You also miss Icathia, the spawncity of the void

An Undead brat1 votes

I actually did not forget those, I only did not know where to put them because of lack of information about their location (Or not? Please, share your informations!)

YumaS2Astral1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sexy Bisex Plant,realm=EUNE,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=oEJG5qIs,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-10-10T16:02:40.077+0000)

I actually did not forget those, I only did not know where to put them because of lack of information about their location (Or not? Please, share your informations!)

Icathia is located at Shurima. Taliyah's village is actually located near Icathia.

With the Mount Targon lore, peharps we can say that Icathia is technically the Void "capital" but it is not the only place where Voidborns spawn.

An Undead brat1 votes

Gj, might help, but it is still too few informations :/

resumed1 votes

i think ionia needs to be closer to noxus

not only is it described as being north east of noxus, but how did noxus actually invade ionia using this map?

it's not like the noxian military is going to charge right through zaun and piltover, as well as being so close to demacia

they can't go through the shadow isles or bilgewater

also way too cold to lead an invasion north

An Undead brat1 votes

Tbh I think the part of the map should have been thiner, I just messed up. And also what could we know, Runeterra can be closer to it's star so it's not THAT cold as it might seem, but good point, I will look at it for sure!

Jeddy0171 votes

Another point about Noxus, they had also conquered some Shuriman land. Using this map, the Targonian mountain range is in their way & would have likely had to deal with the Targonians 1st.

Digielf1 votes

are you a girl btw? i ask because of the summoner name not for the content

An Undead brat1 votes

Lol no, I'm a boy, does it even matter ('cause for me absolutely not LOL)?

Tesla Effect1 votes

You messed up Bilgewater, Shadow Isles, and Ionia...not to mention the other places. So what exactly compelled you to make a map with no actual info that would suggest the placements you made? Cause there is no info about the placement of numerous factions you placed on the map in the fashion you did. (also you forget that Ionia is a continent now, Valoran is a Afro-Eurasian continent instead of a Pangea like continent, and there are 12 seas on Runeterra)

Cant really blame you, there are a lot of small lore tid bits between champion Q&As and lores released, that somebody who didnt take time to dig through all of it, would make something inaccurate....but come on, Bilgewater updated map was released openly to all, there is no was its part of the mainland.

An Undead brat1 votes

Ye, well, we already solved most of this and I'm working on the new one already. I disagree that my placement is totally random as I reasoned all of my thoughts, the problem is that I missed the Harrowing map and that pretty much twisted the whole map, but the v.2 is way more accurate - and improving it is the whole point of this thread. Thank you for the 12 seas bit, helps alot.

Edit: And to explain why I made it so Pangeatic (since now it is a word), it's because the old map was concepted like this.

Tesla Effect1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sexy Bisex Plant,realm=EUNE,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=oEJG5qIs,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2016-10-10T16:52:31.273+0000)

Ye, well, we already solved most of this and I'm working on the new one already. I disagree that my placement is totally random as I reasoned all of my thoughts, the problem is that I missed the Harrowing map and that pretty much twisted the whole map, but the v.2 is way more accurate - and improving it is the whole point of this thread. Thank you for the 12 seas bit, helps alot.

Edit: And to explain why I made it so Pangeatic (since now it is a word), it's because the old map was concepted like this.

12 Seas bit was mentioned during Gangplanks VGU time period, and was later confirmed that indeed they are 12 seas (now if the current two seas are still canon, thats 10 additional seas we know nothing about yet, not to mention where they are and what does that mean for the shaping of the continents to have 12 seas and yet no Ocean mentioned).

Tesla Effect1 votes

Further note to help

Piltover http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/a/a4/Piltover.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20140702013138 The city itself is located near a body of water, a sea and has a river (or river system) passing through it. http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/2/2e/Caitlyn_model_fig.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160909221640 Also with a release of a Caitlyn model, we got some neat new artwork done of Piltover. This is a odd departure of what we thought of Piltover (being this modern city and what not...most likely the city is modernised in certain sections, where as the lower class sections are in standards that you would see in Noxus or Demacia, heck even Zaun)

Also using dots to indicate any of the factions besides the city-states (such as Piltover and Zaun) is a very odd choice, seeing as Noxus is not just one city, nor is Demacia, Shurima, Mount Tarogon, or Ionia. The most accurate thing is to do as you did with Freljord overlay it across the whole region it controls (for instance the dot you used for Noxus would be the capital, Noxus Prime (as the name was indicated by Kled in his quotes). Bilgewater itself is an Island city, which is made out of smaller settlements around the larger Island system, the smaller ones are where Illaoi and such come from. The main Island is large enough to have a river flowing threw it, the Serpentine River (which is not not part of the main norther lands and now is part of the Blue Flames Islands location).

This wiki page will also help you figure out all the known locations all the lores have mentioned so far that have names or certain lore in some of the stories.

An Undead brat1 votes

According to the lore (that's the thing I believe is still canon) the Runeterra's civilization is based on city-states, which means the capital and VERY near fields. We can speak here about spheres of influence but those are not written in the stone and might change even daily.

I think I've seen enough artworks from each city, I know what they look like, but I unfortunately don't think this helps us there :/

Nice job about that river in Piltover, I'll think about it when designing the new map!

Beyond Legends2 votes

Nope the only city state left are pretty much piltover and Zaun. Noxus is an Empire, Demacia is a kingdom, Ionia is continent size instead of an island and there 3 continents now.

Tesla Effect2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sexy Bisex Plant,realm=EUNE,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=oEJG5qIs,comment-id=00050000,timestamp=2016-10-10T18:22:05.352+0000)

According to the lore (that's the thing I believe is still canon) the Runeterra's civilization is based on city-states, which means the capital and VERY near fields. We can speak here about spheres of influence but those are not written in the stone and might change even daily.

I think I've seen enough artworks from each city, I know what they look like, but I unfortunately don't think this helps us there :/

Nice job about that river in Piltover, I'll think about it when designing the new map!

Noxus and Shurima are both large empires, with large territories of influence, not to mention all the cities they have. For example of Demacia we have Jandelle, Needlebrook, and Uwendale which arent close to the capital, which is predominantly surrounded be grassy fields, where as these are around forests. Also Noxus now is known as an Empire (which controls not just territories from the Northern plains, but also northern parts of Shurima, heck whole of Shurima until Azir hears about it and changes that), Demacia a Kingdom (due to having a King and a Prince obviously).

Ionia feels like a unified nation of many different regions (picture a weird unity of China, Korea, Japan, and India mixed in with some Nature Spirit Magic and you will got yourself Ionia). Bilgewater is close to a City-state, mainly to the nature of its existence (similar to how real life Nassau was).

Mount Targon, similar to Freljord is "unified" under many tribes, with an overall main tribe being recognised as the main government. Imagine them as Skyrim and each region is one tribe, some of which have formed their own cities/towns (like Avarosans Rakelstake, or the Frostguard Citadel)

The Void Portal is where Icathia is, as proven by Ryzes and other Shuriman champions lore.

GenoXx1 votes

You have to wonder how a void portal opened around the top half of targon

Tesla Effect1 votes

{quoted}

You have to wonder how a void portal opened around the top half of targon

Not sure, but the one in Icathia was due to two World Runes. My guess it were also World Runes in work here as well.

An Undead brat1 votes

I don't know practically anything about Scyrim :'D

But I'm glad for all those informations, really useful (seems that I'm still deep in the old lore), although I remember I read many of those (wtf, brain, are trolling me?)

So now this moves Noxus way more to south, isn't it?

Krully1 votes

feeling inspired

https://gyazo.com/645b8cb524ce898a572de2f315d7bd55

GULAG 4 U1 votes

The portal to the void?

An Undead brat1 votes

Guys, this is the second version! Let the conversation continue there!

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/8qWgBuq9-new-lore-runeterra-map-concept-2

invisiblecat11 votes

Correct me if I am wrong, but the thought there was a portal to the void somewhere, I think in Shrumia, and even the in Rek'Sai video she is shown in a desert

An Undead brat1 votes

You are absolutely correct! Unfortunately we have near to no informations about where to place it :/ The location is currently most likely northeastern from Shurima, but might be absolutely false.

Adalore1 votes

on the multi continent design for the map I at least figure Demacia and Noxius probably share the biggest land mass together along with frejord(relatively remote) and Shurima(probably within reasonable distance of noxius compared to demacia due to Noxian presence there.). I am hoping we get more regions CREATED in the future as there is still plenty of cultural archetype space that shouldn't just be shoved into the "Main" land and Ionia.(which should be far beyond "Large island" size)

Without ease of transportation to the majority of factions it is hell to move people around to wage war.

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