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Confusing details about Lore and the world of League

NA Darklarik·6/9/2019, 6:22:01 PM·10 votes·8,659 views

League is a big, in development world. Constantly being retconned, and spontaneously being expanded (Death Realm and new region Ixtal). As such, many of the necesarry fine details of many worlds, realms, creatures and such, are, for unknown reasons, even after years, still being denied to us.

So, i want to make a smal list of all the details that boggle my mind regarding lore.

1 - The After Life We have Nagakebourous, Ionian spirits, Shadow Isles and Deep water ghosts, Mordekaiser's Death realm, and Kindred. With Mord's recent color story "The Final Reign" we learn of a realm where many souls go, then seemingly vanish into oblivion. Is this a limbo? Is this really the afterlife for all? Or only a particular few? We have no idea. Is it ONE of the realms of death? I would imagine so, after all, who are the spirits who speak to Karma? Where are they speaking from? Illaoi claims that souls re-enter Nagakebourous and are re-incarnated in a circle of life. Which souls? Do they pass through this death realm? If not why? Do the souls Mord claims "Vanish into Oblivion" really stop existing like the souls who are deleted when fighting the Void? or is that "Oblivion" they pass into another plane? Another realm or Re-incarnation? and Where does Kindred factor into who goes where? The afterlife in League is very confusing, and it would help massively if the lore team could flesh out the concrete details of how it works to better understand many champions tied to it.

2 - Gods and Cosmic beings We got the Dark Star, Void Gods, Nagakebourous, Targon, the Demi-gods of Feljord, Celestials and others. What their reach is, how they where made, what laws and powers do they operate under, is all a mystery. Who is a "god" and who is just a ridiculously powerful being (Like Aurelion) is a not said. What even classifies them as gods in this world? Nagakebourous seems very real, but we have no idea what he is as the only connection we have to it, Illaoi, doesnt even seem to understand it acording to Aurelion. As does this Dark Star which the DarkStar enteties serve, which may or may not be in the main universe (we know they exist in the Odessey universe), but the only hint that they also preside in the main timeline is Aurelion's quote of "The depth of space crawl with terrible entities, pray they ignore this world", is the "Dark Star" just synonimous to all Black Holes or one particular Dark Hole which has a conscienceless and plan? Are they tied to the Watchers/Void Gods? They share the same goal of annihilating everything so one would think they would.

3 - Aliens We know from Aurelion and the Targonians that League universe is littered with worlds with Sentient life, ie, Aliens. What role do they play? and how come they have never jumped worlds? The only details we have off Valoranic entities are the Space Horrors we know as Dark Star and the Targonians. But these countless worlds filled with Life, do they influence at all or are they just fodder to tell us how horrible and powerful these other entities are?

4 - The Spirit Realm This one ties into point 1. Many champions, such as Yummi, Shen, Karma, Udyr, and other have ties to this supposed and many times mentioned realm. If "spirits" go here, is it an afterlife? Or are "Spirits" other type of entities all together in the sense of life and death? It would seem this Spirit realm is NOT the Death Realm, and if so, and is indeed a destination for deceased beings of Valoran, serves the idea that there are many realms of Afterlife. If not, it would seem to be a different realm, with its own type of living ethereal beings that we call "Spirits" but are NOT infact, the souls of the deceased passing on to another life/realm. Which just adds to the confusion of understanding this world and its rules.

5 - Aurelion Sol The big daddy dragon is probably in himself one of the biggest mysteries. According to him, all stars come from him. According to the evil lying bastard sociopath Zoe, he is himself lying and all stars do not, infact, come from him (Between the two, i believe the Dragon over the Aspect of Trickery/Lies/Mischief). If so, what would the universe be without him? He claims "Stars are not Born, they are made, by ME", you guys probably dont know much about Astronomy to understand the universal implications that statement means, and the importance he has on the universe if it is true. What other beings are on his level? Is he unique or a unique being of his species(Space Dragons)?

6 - Targon Everything pretty much. What they really are, how they work, what their goals, origin, controls, people, all of it. They have the biggest influence on Valoran and we know more about the fucking VOID and how it works than we do about them. Like come on!

Those are my main gripes, massive holes i wish Riot would really fill in to better understand the world. It would probably also help in building it, as you need a concrete floor and laws in your own world to make it work in a believable way. I could list other things, such as Demons, The World Runes and Yordles, but they are minor compared to these 6. I just wish Riot would flesh them out and not in the format they have been doing but rather just chunky pages/paragraphs in a similar fashion to the way things are explained in the world map.

15 Comments

RyzeTheSmurfMage6/9/2019, 7:42:58 PM8 votes

Skins aren't canon tho so dark star is false

Sharjo6/9/2019, 7:00:33 PM4 votes

Let's see if I can have a crack at this:

  • So when it comes to Mitna Rachnun, it's made out of souls Mordekaiser claimed himself, and is basically an afterlife for those he claims in death rather than anyone else. Mitna Rachnun isn't a natural place, it's effectively a man made afterlife. Beyond that we have very little information about the afterlife other than there is some form of it. Illaoi and Nagakabouros imply that the natural course of things is reincarnation, and there's implications that for those who become Aaspects of Targon, they get to spend eternity living in Targon Prime. True oblivion comes from the Void, so I personally attribute what Mordekaiser saw as reincarnation; souls eventually lose themselves in the haze of death and are reincarnated in to a new life, but that's my personal take. Over all, the afterlife';s sort of what you make of it.

  • As WAAARGHbobo once put it, what even is a god? At present, though some of the entities in League have bore the title of god, none are truly "god" so to speak, they're not the end all be all. They're entities with flaws, follies and with the capacity to fail and potentially die. It's all a matter of scope and the idea that there's always a bigger fish. Also Dark Star isn't in the Prime Canon, so it's incredibly unlikely to ever appear in Runeterra proper. It's a skinline and that's it.

  • Beyond Runeterra we don't know much but thus far the aliens we see all originate from the Celestial Realm itself, not other worlds. While they can be considered aliens in a sense, really the celestial realm is one of living concepts, so whether you wanna call the incarnations of war, change, justice and the like aliens or not is just a matter of perspective really. As to Targon's motives? Who knows. Targon's always been mysterious, even in universe hardly anyone knows what they're really about, but at the very least some of the denizens of Targon Prime have a vested interest in preserving Runeterra.

  • The Spirit Realm isn't really a death realm, it's a place of life and feeling. The souls of every thing, every one, every place, every idea and every feeling appear here, and that's what leads to beings like the Freljordian demi-gods, spirits and demons coming to be in the first place. I highly doubt it's an afterlife, cuz then what would happen to demons, spirits and other such entities when they die if they were born from the Spirit Realm?

  • Yeah there's a lot of questions a dragon making stars raises, but at the same time this is a universe where the very idea of justice, the societal concept of justice, is a living, sentient entity. Runeterra's universe doesn't hold true to the same truths ours does. All we know for sure is that, according to his bio, A Sol the celestials he shared the early universe with helped shape it in to what it is now.

  • And yeah sorry to be a downer on this but there's no solid answers to Targon at the moment. One thing I can say though is that it's likely intentionally vague. It's doubtful that Riot's gonna do a massive reveal of what Targon is and it's motives any time soon, though we might get a glimpse of it with the Pantheon rework.

ThePRofWRandR6/10/2019, 4:42:16 PM2 votes

Sol has a line something like “Celestial dragons live and die by our own beautiful rules.” So I don’t think he’s the only one - or wasn’t anyway.

Camille Ferrøs6/9/2019, 7:27:20 PM2 votes

And more confusion will come when they just add more and more without any explanation. Wait until Pantheon confuses us even more.

Akali Prime6/9/2019, 11:53:11 PM2 votes

also! Aatrox Isnt he somewhere in rune terra killing coutless numbers of people? i dont read lore so im not 100% sure but if he is...why the fuck is no one doing anything about it?

Towboat4216/10/2019, 1:52:36 AM2 votes

Glad to see someone else not taking Zoe at face value had to explain to someone that zoes whole thing is trickery.

mrmeddyman6/10/2019, 4:58:10 AM2 votes

I've been thinking about the realms of existence in the lore and I think I can explain it to you in simpler terms

Basically there exists 4 realms, 4 states of being, Physical, Spiritual, Celestial and Void

Physical and Spiritual are opposite to one another. Material and immaterial. In the same way that a dog, a corn dog, your mom and a cloud are objects in the physical realm, Yordles, the Undead, Spirits and Demons are all spirits. They aren't REAL but they aren't NOT REAL they exist in this ephemeral stat in between. The key to understanding might be this. In the Physical Realm there are different places that we wouldn't confuse one for another. Shurima, Demacia, Bilgewater, Piltover, Ionia etc. Well in the Spirit Realm it's the same. Bandle City, The Glade, Nocturnes Realm of Shadows, Mordekaisers Death Realm, wherever Shen goes to do his spirit stuff. Just different places on a different plane but maybe getting from one place to another isn't as simple as putting one foot in front of the other.

The other two realms are the Celestial Realm and The Void and they represent Everything and Nothingness. The Celestial Realm is vast possibilities stretched for eternity while the Void is (or was at least, the Watchers are still trying to set that right) infinite nothingness, no possibilities. Just peaceful abyss.

The Aspects themselves are just conceptual thought that represent ideals and can hijack humans and The Watchers are the opposite an entity with such a lack of distinguishing traits that they might not be called Watchers BECAUSE they can watch, but maybe because that's ALL they do. You know.... being nothing and all.

Maybe I'm making it more confusing. Lets see how the forums handle an impromptu Visual Aid

It's a matrix you see...or a Punnett Square. X axis is Material vs Immaterial and on the Y axis Everything and Nothing

................................................Everything..................................................

Material -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Immaterial

................................................Nothing..................................................

Physical = Material Everything Celestial = Material Nothing Spiritual = Immaterial Everything Void = Immaterial Nothing

Everything and Nothing are probably not descriptive enough words to get my point across, but I think it helps to see it this way.

Jerry SeinfeId6/9/2019, 9:46:06 PM1 votes

3 - Aliens We know from Aurelion and the Targonians that League universe is littered with worlds with Sentient life, ie, Aliens. What role do they play? and how come they have never jumped worlds? The only details we have off Valoranic entities are the Space Horrors we know as Dark Star and the Targonians. But these countless worlds filled with Life, do they influence at all or are they just fodder to tell us how horrible and powerful these other entities are?

this is why i don't like the way targon lore went tbh. like we barely know the whole deal with this planet, did we really have to move into space already?

Ionian Vulpix6/9/2019, 9:58:18 PM1 votes

I think Gods are more defined by their worshipers than their actual powers. If someone started a cult to Sol, he would be considered their God.

Jaspers6/10/2019, 10:41:29 AM1 votes

In a world of magic, everything should be taken with a grain of salt, explanations and how things work.

All we know is what Morde or whoever tells us really. Morde thinks this death realm is all there is, can he comprehend where people go after? He's just a man. Kindred would only care about death in the Physical realm and may not even have an understanding of what is beyond the physical realm, not because they don't know but because they don't need to know.

Sol probably did create all the stars, but does that mean that standard star formation (as how our universe works) in Runeterra's universe doesn't exist? If Sol has been in enslavement for a long time it means the cosmic order was out of place and in essence, Targonians were slowly destroying the universe because they kept Sol from doing his job although based on his lore this is obviously the case as he was used to kill other beings like him. What were they responsible for if he was responsible for the stars? Maybe one was responsible for protecting and managing the Void. (Crazy fan theory just formed in my head).

Zoe is a trickster and a liar, are we to take her word over Sol's? Zoe the person is not that old, The Aspect is older but neither are as old as Sol.

The biggest and best mystery in the lore for me is this one. The world runes were used to create Runeterra but the process apparently stopped and those doing it just left. Runeterra isn't a naturally created planet, it's 'being' made. Yet, I hope they never explain it. Sometimes mysteries are best kept quiet.

theveldman6/10/2019, 1:03:55 PM1 votes

anybody got the picture from the thumbnail?