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The Institute of War Encouraged Interesting Champion Interaction.

Impetual··14 votes·1,780 views

Looking at some of the more recent champions that have been created without the Institute of War or the League of Legends as a part of their backstory, it seems to me that the removal of the Institute of War has led to some of the most bland champion lore we've seen in awhile.

(Sion's lore was cool...but that was a retelling of an older champion's lore, one who was designed with the Institute of War and the League of Legends in mind. That being said, look at how much better his new lore was than anything else that has been produced this year).

In my opinion, the absence of the Institute of War and the League of Legends from LoL's lore has led to these characters being a bit more boring than they could have been. Here's some examples that come to mind:

Gnar - Wouldn't his character be more interesting if he actually mattered? Just by spending a bit of time at the Institute of War, he could get some face time with some of Runeterra's most influential people, and actually have an effect on the world. That is not the case post retcon.

Nami - Her story could be much more interesting if she could interact with a bunch of her fellow champions, and draw upon the resources available to her at the Institute of War.

Yasuo - What if Yasuo used the Institute of War as a safe haven for his supposed crimes, while he figured out who the real killer was so he could clear his name and return home. By being at the IoW, he could interact with any of the other champions (in a friendly or not so friendly way) and try to figure out what happened in his back story. Sounds like a cool on-going mystery to me!

Azir - He could use the IoW as means to semi-peacefully re-establish Shurima as a nation. Imagine the political stories that could be written with him meeting with key political figures such as Swain and Jarvan IV, all while trying to be recognized as nation by the world at large.

Also, let us not forget about the lore gutting that Jax, and many other champions like him, are currently doomed to receive due to the lore retcon.

In my opinion, removing the Institute of War seems to inhibit Interesting champion interaction within the lore.

18 Comments

Legacy of Xion8 votes

There is now no reason for Kayle to meet Ahri, Caitlyn to hang out with Braum, Yasuo to join Gragas and Jax for a brewskie. None what so ever.

Its gone fromt unique to GENERIC FANTASY WORLD 2493

Hell. Garen x Katarina is now void. Didnt they have an affair in the bushes by red buff? Ohwait...

Impetual5 votes

I feel you man. This is exactly why removing the IoW removes the charm that League of Legends lore had.

There's no longer any reason why seemingly unrelated champions should interact with one another.

Legacy of Xion6 votes

I feel you man. This is exactly why removing the IoW removes the charm that League of Legends lore had.

There's no longer any reason why seemingly unrelated champions should interact with one another.

And, as I have said a million times before...

"The only limitations a writer has are the ones he himself places."

Killer of Poros6 votes

The Institute was a unique and great idea, but apparently riot's "lore team" doesn't have enough creativity to create a good enough story without destroying anything that bothers them. They seriously could have done almost any thing with the league, have it be attacked or a civil war erupts between summoners, but didn't want to deal with a unique but semi-restricting world, so they destroyed it completely instead of finding a way to weave stories in between to create interesting scenarios. They could do so much, but they're wasting a perfectly good chance to create a nice story because they felt it was too "limited".

Impetual1 votes

Exactly! For some reason Riot seems to want to trade the awesome potential that its old lore had, in favor of bland, un-inspired, generic, cliched video game lore.

WHY???!!!

Gross3 votes

I guess they don't want to expand on champion relationships (not necessarily romantic relationships) that much, which baffles me. That's the most interesting aspect in the lore for me.

Impetual2 votes

I know right? Remember all of the funny stories from the Journal of Justice? They did more to expand Runeterra than anything we're seeing now.

Gross6 votes

Seems like they don't want to expand Runeterra at all, they want to focus on champions as individuals with no connection to anyone else, and if there are connections they are shrouded in mystery or talked about as little as possible so that they can expand on it '' when the times is right '' which really isn't that promising... At some point, they'll have to start revealing things, instead of keeping everything in an exciting mystery.

Impetual1 votes

Hopefully this isn't the case. This sounds like a lazy and boring approach to lore.

Gross1 votes

It might be laziness, or then they actually think they are making something really epic and awesome that's going to blow our minds away, but it's a surprise!!! A MYSTERY!!! OOOHH!!

And these are the options of how the surprise is going to eventually pan out:

A) It's going to be a disappointment and lore-enthusiast will be annoyed B) Lore is forgotten, and the truly amazing lore surprise is never going to be mentioned again. C) It will take loads of time to release becuase of x, r and z, and at that point people have already ventured off the different games and paths of life. D) It's going to actually be amazing/decent.

Which one of these is the most likely?

moogle8903 votes

This so much this. The League is pretty much the only safe-fire zone in all of Runeterra. Imagine all the possiblilites of champions interacting with each other because they don't have to worry about being attacked because they're from two seperate city states.

deborahcliff2 votes

i think the way they handled the institute (by just retconning it out of existence) was a bad, bad move. if you're gonna get rid of it, do something...anything! easily could have made an event out of it.

that being said...the existence of the institute really hindered the future of the lore. they were like a UN that actually had power, and they wanted to prevent valoran from being messed up by runic magic or whatever. basically, they wanted to keep the nations from destroying the continent with nuclear weapons. ok, that's fine. so countries can settle their disputes on the fields of justice. that's an issue.

think about the real world, where a tiny repressive regime regularly tries to hold the world hostage with the threat of nuclear weapons. sure, their ICBMs have famously failed, but they can easily nuke their neighbors and screw up the world economy. any of the world super powers could take this country out in an instant, but they don't. imagine this scenario in valoran:

noxus: screw it, we hate those demacians and we want their resources, we're taking over.

institute: sigh ok, go through the fields of justice.

demacia: wait, you're supposed to oversee the orderly resolution of political conflict in valoran. they're trying to take over our kingdom via champion warfare, wherein the results of the battle on summoner's rift will be used in lieu of full scale combat.

noxus: a war of conquest certainly qualifies as "political conflict."

demacia: you know they're just trying to gain enough power to eventually overthrow the institute, right?

institute: er...ok, winner of this combat in which none of your champions actually face perm death gets 10,000 cattle from the loser.

noxus: screw these dumb rules, we're use our magic to take out demacia.

institute: we won't allow that!

noxus: and how will you stop us? with the dangerous magic you wanted to keep in check? by assembling the other nations to engage in standard warfare with us? you think they won't retaliate with similar magic when we start blowing them up?

institute: you'd destroy the entire continent to get what you want?

noxus: step out of the way, and you won't have to find out.

Impetual4 votes

How hard would it have been for the Institute of War to lose a bit of its power, and end up being a bit more ineffectual like the United Nations in our world?

That would have fixed things pretty nicely without the need for a retcon.

GreenLore2 votes

What I dislike about the removal of the IoW is that many characters may never meet each other now,however I disagree with what you are saying.

Yasuo using the IoW as a haven would more or less destroy the tension,I mean he would be perfectly safe living there,he wouldn't need to worry about ionian assassins anymore and with the IoW it should be actually rather easy to find more wind-users who could have been the culprit

Namis quest to find the moonstone would be greatly simplified with her more or less just sitting in the IoW,doing matches and waiting until the summoners find her some information about the moonstone,because they have simply so much more resources than her.

Azir can and most likely will meet up with the leaders of the different nations,I mean he doesn't want his kingdom to be overrun by its neighbours.Now however we can't predict how the nations will react to azirs rebirth,they might attack him,they might want to establish peace with him,they might offer him help,we can't tell.Before with the IoW it would have been basically "Azir walks to the IoW,he joins them and his kingdom gets protection"

Gnar is a good point,the little guy has now no real reason to leave the jungle,but then again,he is listed as a friend of lulu and heimerdinger,so who knows how he met them.However I doubt that gnar would have had much influence on the really important guys,I mean gnar isn't really smart and seems rather naive,so yeah I dunno what kind of big role he could get even with the IoW

Impetual5 votes

@ the Yasuo response:

Yeah, because we've never seen anything capable of assassinating someone within the Institute of War before....cough...(Check out the Journal of Justice).

Just to remind you, the IoW was never all powerful. Summoners have been killed within the old lore by champions...sometimes pretty easily. Even if Yasuo was hiding out in the IoW, there would still have been the threat of him being killed off...possibly by one of the other champions....maybe Shaco? The difference being, he would be in a position to play detective and investigate the circumstances involving the Elder's death, and who possible culprits might be...all while looking over his shoulder thinking about which champions may be out to get him.

@ the Nami response: The IoW isn't all powerful, also, the old lore made it apparent that the Summoners there probably wouldn't be inclined to help any champion out without getting something out of them first. Check out Maokai's old backstory.

@ Azir reponse: Have you considered that the IoW could choose not to recognize Azir as the Leader of Shurima? Wouldn't that lead to some cool lore ideas?

@ Gnar response: Gnar can fight. The IoW would want him for that reason alone. Heck, the summoners there probably preferred champions that didn't think too much or have much political power.

Don't forgot, the JoJ made it pretty clear that there was some corruption within the IoW.

GreenLore1 votes

For yasuo: It is still a less interactive position than letting him roam the land(not to mention that he IS a wanderer) and it is still more or less the difference between yasuo being without any protection at all and him being under actual protection.

Nami: It isn't all powerful,but still the biggest source of information in all of Valoran.

Azir: Well that could have been interesting,but the question is if that would have happened or not.If they didn't aknowledge azir(quite possible,considering ashe had problems getting the freljord recognized),then it wouldn't have made much more of a difference anyway,then azir would have been open for attacks just like he is now,only that with the league,there is the chance that his country gets immunity.

Gnar: Of course he would have been a champion,its just that he would have been just one of many champions and thus I can't see how he'd have any importance to the other factions.

cshakes2 votes

Yasuo: Nah, in the League he interacts with others; wandering is less interactive.

For Nami: "Moonstones were manufactured by the Lunari" -> plot. After the ending of her epic quest, she decides to stay in the League to rep her people and hopefully stop Zaunite pollution. And she gets to interact with any friends she's made.

Azir: With the League, you get POLITICS!!1!

Brenticus121 votes

(Please note there are spoilers for the fanfic The One Truth. If you do not want to know of an important plot point beforehand, please skip over the portion with the spoiler tag)

I recall reading a fanfiction a long time back about Garen and Kat called the One Truth or smth.

In that, the author ends up amplifying the corruption within the IoW by having

<Spoiler> kill the High Counciller and try to take over Noxus then the rest of Runeterra.</spoiler>

Of course, alot of champions end up dying, but point is, she managed to get the league out of the way by having its corruption amplified, causing a war which lead to a time of peace where the new league started becoming obsolete as the city states started coming to a realisation.

While I don't agree that it should be like this exactly, Swain, LeBlanc, Zed and other evil characters would lose what makes them truly unique as characters, it was still a great idea of getting rid of the league that the lore team so desperately wants to do.

Check out the fanfic too :) It's one of the best I've read and it has some decent political intrigue, the romance is believable albeit makes Kat a little too mellow for my tastes when nearing the end and it's quite serious too with the deaths of some important characters that I don't want to spoil.

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