This world is strange...

For a long time Skarner has been the posterboy of our issues with lore. From the consuming cocoon of the retcon was born an empty shell of his former self. But I won't dwell on it. Many threads before, some mine, have. I'll instead dwell on the implications the new lore has a whole has on the world of Runeterra, or just Terra (more on that in a moment).

The introduction of Dominion, no matter how underwhelming Riot's support for that mode was, was one of the best story developments in game history. The brewery of political intrigue and backstabbing, the careful deceit of Jericho Swain and LeBlanc as they manouvered themselves into power of Noxus, the implied horror of the Battle of Kalamanda (I personally like to think they were using the Nexii to resurrect their fallen soldiers, but for some reason - maybe hurry, maybe neglect - they started coming back... wrong. Decaying heeps of flesh and bone fighting nonstop until the summoners and Zilean froze Kalamanda in time temporarily, causing the environmental devastation of a nuclear warhead without any of the structural damage - this last part is canon, actually. The original debuff? Reduced healing and increased mana regen? Magical Fallout), and of course, the emergence of the Crystal Vanguard.

But now Summoners do not exist. Does that mean the battle of Kalamanda mever ended? No, because Kalamanda was only a point of interest because of the Nexii found there, buried away, meaning the battle never actually happened, which is why Skarner got changed to be a guardian.

So I thought, what else never happened? Apparently Fiddlesticks never got summoned, so it would seem extra-planar magic doesn't exist, being only used once in "modern times" to summon Fiddle then banned - which by itself suggests the Institute has some kind of Genebra Convention, an idea criminally underexplored. Ahri never stopped murdering people, probably. The Summoners were sustaining her volatile human form so she wouldn't have to kill, and who else would take an interest or have the power to provide to the Nine-Tailed Fox.

But wait. Why was the League even created? It didn't always exist in. Valoran. It was a necessity, the result of the devastation and fallout caused by the Rune Wars. Entire crumps of land got forever changed and contaminated. Life was created where there was none, animals mutated into sapient beings, like Rammus or Wukong or Rengar... Essentially a magical version of a nuclear war. The land lied in ruins, and, distrusting the will of Man not to use the weapons of victory but also of total anhialation (pure runes, before they're cut from the Rune Stone and crafted into what we use - runes and rune pages), the mosnpowerful sorcerers united and created the League of Legends, a diplomatical force that resolves conflicts without war, replacing battles with gladiatorial, 5 man combat, where death is merely a hindrance while inside the Fields of Justice.

Without the League, there would have been a Sixth Rune War. Valoran would cease to exist. But there is conflict between Demacia and Noxus, but there's still no Rune War. Because in this new universe there never was.

The first Rune War never happened. Man never rebelled against God. Man never took the power of our oppressors and made it their own. Meaning the runes have almost no weight or power in day to day life.

It was not just the League of Legends that got taken away from League of Legends. Runeterra too was victim of the great retcon, who brought more destruction to its world than a Sixth Rune War ever could. For there's no Runeterra anymore, Runes lost all their value, their power, their meaning. Now there is only Terra.