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What Technological Era would Runeterra be in?

JainaProudgurl·9/12/2017, 4:04:17 PM·1 votes·915 views

And yes, I know. Its hard to place a technological era on a society that is semi-ruled on magic. I was looking at all the various pictures and art that we get of various cities. For what I've seen or read, they must be decently far into tech, but its weird that the world doesn't seem to entirely evolve with it. If you've ever seen the cities of Demacia or Noxus, you'll notice they have a very medieval feel to them; they're both walled in cities with the castle towards the middle of the complex. However, if you go over to Piltover and Zaun, you see a different type of city; Piltover is similar to England, mostly consisting of town houses where its denizens live. If you go to the underground of Zaun, its almost akin to the appearance of cities from the Bioshock series.

But what intrigued me most is the cinematic released by Riot for the new Star Guardians. If you watch it, you'll notice that Valoran City is mostly composed of skyscrapers, which means that at the very least, their technology is roughly where most of Earth is currently at. We've also seen our fair share of military progress; We know from Riven's lore that Noxus has developed biological weaponry akin to things we've used in previous wars. Jinx uses a machine gun and a freaking rocket launcher as her main weapons, then you have Corki who is flying in something almost akin to a helicopter, and then you have people like Camille and Viktor that are practically cyborgs.

And yes, I know what your thinking: They could be using magic to hold up these structures, and the weapons could be magically imbued. But from what I've read and seen, in terms of using magic to strengthen things, there was only one reference, which is the bridge built in Howling Abyss. According to Ornn, if they would have never enchanted it, the bridge would have lasted WAY longer. Which means, that given time, magic seems to wear off or even damage structures.

8 Comments

Oleandervine9/12/2017, 4:16:40 PM2 votes

Valoran City in the Star Guardians lore is independent of the core League lore - it's an alternate fantasy, so it should not be included in the scope of Runterra. The Star Guardians are their own self contained world set in a modern era.

Core League lore is more of a Renaissance era, possible cusp of Industrial Revolution setting. Sure, there are still medieval sorts of cities, but they're not ignorant, and they do adapt themselves to growing times if we look at their outfits and their weaponry. Lucian, for example, is a Demacian, yet he uses pistols. Piltover and Zaun, rightfully so, are the technological hubs of the world. The machinery and technology they innovate is used by them and will trickle into other nations eventually. Some slower than others (Demacia), but eventually. We see this in Ionia and Noxus, with Jhin's gun and his mechanical looking limbs, as well as Noxus' embrace of Zaun scientists and technology. The world isn't in a full blown industrial age yet, but we can see that it's slowly getting there.

Ebonmaw Dragon9/12/2017, 4:58:01 PM2 votes

Its the Viking age, that explains the laser raptors.

https://youtu.be/bS5P_LAqiVg?t=797

Glîtchy9/12/2017, 4:14:01 PM1 votes

I would think it's more of steampunk thx to Piltover and Zaun

Beyond Legends9/12/2017, 4:16:20 PM1 votes

Star guardian universe and League main verse aren't the same universe

Jaspers9/12/2017, 4:22:44 PM1 votes

First, the SG world is a different universe so seems to exist in a state similar to ours while having 10 people with magic powers and gets invaded by monsters.

The rest of Runeterra is another thing altogether. Magic ruins things in all aspects because with magic comes a different way of progressing. The formation of technology seems to be new-ish in Runeterra but magic (crystals in the case of alot of Piltover and Zaun technology) is being used to enhance it's progression. Zaun and Piltover seems very 'clock work' in it's non magic technology, think steam punk is style. Look at Orianna. So in terms of era, think maybe early Industrial revolution...

Potentially.

Crimson Anam9/12/2017, 6:14:19 PM1 votes

Jinx's stuff is late 19th century.

The most technologically advanced universe in LoL is probably going to be Dreadnova, where they have individual spaceships that can travel to other galaxies and destroy planets.

Or Pulsefire Piltover where they can time travel millions of years forward and back in time repeatedly.