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Riot, Summoners were not Gods

Impetual·10/5/2014, 7:21:03 AM·39 votes·5,011 views

The recent lore retcon within Runeterra has really disappointed me.

Back in the day, Riot created lore that depicted an interesting world with summoners and the Institute of Justice and now, for some reason, they decided to retcon the world they exist in (Runeterra) into something much more generic.

What helped to make these champion's themes unique was their placement within the League of Legends, a place where champions from a variety of backgrounds battled one another to determine the fate of the world. This concept has been scratched.

None of the stories that were made recently (the Shurima event, and arguably the Freljiord event) would have been affected by Summoners or the IoW existing or not. There's no clear reason why they needed them gone.

There really doesn't seem like there is any reason to retcon the lore, other than to simplify things for the players that don't care about lore.

Another thing, I've seen too many Rioters misrepresent LoL's lore and pretend that Summoners and the IoW were too powerful, and say that is was the reason that they were removed.

Summoners were never all powerful, all good, or all knowing. **They weren't gods. The Journal of Justice gave us stories that showed us that summoners in lore, were just like us. They were corrupt, self serving, and sometimes bad. **

Riot Please, don't pretend that Summoners and the IoW were all powerful and use it as an excuse to pretend they never existed.

If you want to get rid of them, have the balls to do it through storytelling, rather than retcons.

Or, you could just reconsider your decisions to get rid of them.

Being a champion means nothing, without taking into account the world they live in. Telling stories purely through champions doesn't give us the full picture. We want to see things through the average denizen of Runettera, through its summoners, *and *through its champions.

And sometimes, even through Runeterra's history books.

In my opinion, Riot's newest approach at lore seems much more limiting than what it had before.

67 Comments

Legacy of Xion10/5/2014, 8:40:11 PM13 votes

So, the retcon of the League allows big wars.

Too bad at the end of the day you're still going to be Frost Archer fighting Boar Rider on a river on a mountaintop. You aren't going to be fighting in a huge war as Garen, leading the Dauntless Vanguard to crush Noxus. You aren't going to be Irelia, leading Ionia in defense of their existance. You are not going to be Kassadin, one man versus the Voidborn Invasion. You won't be Mordekaiser, bringing treacherous beats of metal and eviscerating ears during a Pentakill Performance.

You are going to be Might Man charging top lane against furry Satan. You are Undead Mace General trying to crush Dragonborn.

If I wanted to read about a huge fantasy war I'd pick up Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings, maybe Eragon, or hell, HARRY FUCKING POTTER.

I'm here to be a Summoner, working matches to avoid another Rune War. I am a Summoner, working with Kayle to ensure the laws are upheld.

If I wanted to be Generic Axe Wielding Undead Juggernaught No. 2301 I'd go, you know, play Skyrim. If I wanted to be Holy Angel of Awesomeness I'd mod Skyrim (which I have done).

The argument "now we can have full scale wars!" Is only good for reading. League is a MOBA - The Lore should reflect and enforce that.

Tell me how the full scale wars go as you charge up Murder Bridge - I'll go read the lore that makes sense and makes League of Legends what is is.

Diahane10/5/2014, 6:58:16 PM11 votes

To those saying the IoW was omnipotent in preventing any possible conflict, I ask them to try to be a bit more realistic. The IoW was an organization much like the UN. The UN doesn't really prevent wars from happening, did you notice? But they're mages! Right, they are, but the various nations are bound to have theirs too. It's ludicrous to think Demacia and Noxus do not have mages. Some of the summoners were supposed to belong to political factions to start with! There were Demacian and Noxian and Ionian and Zaunite summoners, as well as those from Piltover etc. If their countries were dead set on a war, they would back them up, thus thwarting the IoW's efforts to stop a war. The IoW was a human organization with all its possible flaws: corruption, disagreement, political struggle inside it. They were not omnipotent. If the nations turned their back to them and with them a part of the summoners, they would hold as much power as any of the major countries. They were limited on resources too: to stop the war in Kalamanda they sacrificed a nexus, an invaluable artifact. Their intervention didn't come cheap. They risked hundreds of summoners' lives too in the ritual! That is no thing you can do every week if all the world suddenly gets angsty and wants to start a war.

Let's be realistic: if Russia and America wanted to ignite a war, the UN couldn't do anything about it, even if it has some weapons of its own. That's because the UN resources are linked to the countries' support to them. If the OTAN nations left it because they sided with the US against Russia, they'd lose a part of their militar power. The same goes for the old IoW: they had artifacts and all, but manpower was shared with the various countries - summoners had a nationality and their loyalty may lie elsewhere. All this leaves room to a lot of political subplots inside, outside and all around the IoW. This was a most subtle and original point for the setting. Now it's all your everyday teenager fantasy, with a bunch of characters whose sole purpose is to be cool and appeal to the reader while the plot goes on the same old tracks of "someone schemes something, someone opposes the scheme, some battles here and there and it's all resolved in a fist-fight somewhere cool" (bonus points if it's a volcano or something as flashy as that). Before there was at least room for some deep political scenario, now we are in a world akin to that of Warhammer Fantasy. War is no big deal, is the ordinary, because there is no reason for countries not to get engaged in them. Whenever a country gets its resources, war ensues. Because they've been hating each other for centuries. It's only a matter of time before they get to the beating. It's like watching a game of Age of Empires: you just have to wait for their workers to gather resources, then they'll train troops and storm into battle until they either come to a bloody stall, hence a ceasefire, or someone gets nuked out. Then resource-gathering, troop-training and here we are again. All complexity lost, war as a plot device loses its weight because it's the obvious and common occurrence.

Iron Rubric10/6/2014, 10:44:45 PM8 votes

My biggest gripe is that I no longer feel attached to the game. Before lore wise, I was a summoner, I thought that was the most kick ass thing in the world when I started! Especially going through the tribunal and the first in game faction game that gave us the ionian boots.

I actually mattered in the world of runtera! I then got heavily involved in reading the JOJ and lore.

Now it just feels like im playing a video game ( you know what I mean)

This game and its lore got me through a rough patch and serious depression in my life. Now it feels like im trying to hold on to a dying friend while his internal parasites burrow out and eat him alive.

For me, The lore and purpose is what made the game stand apart. I cared for each champion. Maokai's judgment made my cry my eyes out when I first read it... Hell, still does.

It all made sense to me, I really don't understand why they changed it the way they did.

I Main Swain10/5/2014, 7:22:51 PM6 votes

honestly, I was just disappointed in the fact they removed the tying together of lore regardless. as a writer, I found the game much more fun when it had a context and wasn't just "heres the immediate background of this guy (as in what he was doing yesterday). hes pretty strong. go kill some people. yay." having story and a context to tie everything together with just makes it overall a much more enjoyable experience. removing the institute of war and summoners from league has literally taken all purpose, in terms of lore, from the game. it turns into literally just a game with a tiiiiiny bit of story to it. I agree with your last statement though. they need to either take back removing those from the lore or find something else to replace it with and do so with some actual style instead of just saying the IoW poofed mysteriously and this poofed in to replace it.

SecretLore10/5/2014, 1:03:41 PM5 votes

The problem is that while they weren't almighty,they were indeed the most powerful faction in runeterra,as they have been shown stopping the 2 most powerful armies in all valoran. Sure they got help from Zilean,but there is no reason why Zilean wouldn't help them to stop any act of war like this again(and the question is if they still need him or if they had the ability to do it on their own after learning how its done) and while it was difficult to do,there is no reason they couldn't do it again.

Then there is the problem that summoners have been shown to be able to summon champs from other worlds against their will,so there is nothing stopping them from summoning champions against their will(Lees lore also talks about lee sin trying to summon a beast from the jungle against its will) from valoran,which means that yes,they should be able to simply summon the most powerful individuals out of their city states whenever they want.

And thats not even talking about the potential destructive use of summoning LeeSin destroyed a whole village that was far away by accident and he was just a novice.So it should be possible for a trained summoner to do the same on purpose.

So yeah the summoners were quite powerful,but for good reason. If they simply toned down the power of the summoners,then there'd be no reason for a nation like noxus to really care for the outcome of the league matches,as no one could force them to obey to them(they have their own allies with Zaun,Bilgewater and maybe even the shadow isles,while several other nations have their own internal conflicts,so they can't just leave themselves open to attack)

Serpents Embrace10/6/2014, 4:07:56 AM4 votes

They wanted them gone because they felt they needed to answer the "why would this [new champion] join the League". Which is kind of bull considering champions like Fiddlesticks and Nocturne (captives) or Cho'Gath (who is described as too big to be on the Fields, which suggests that the Cho we play is some kind of reconstruction like the jungle monsters).

Solideus10/5/2014, 4:31:44 PM2 votes

Collectively, they were powerful enough to police all other factions. They were written this way to justify the gameplay, which they now decided to disconnect from the lore development. Without summoners deciding their every move the factions and champions can take center stage. If anything this makes the lore more complex, certainly not less.

ModCaptainMårvelous10/5/2014, 7:41:24 PM1 votes

The Institute was never all-powerful. However, they were powerful enough to negate entire wars. The Institute had (literally) the most powerful magic users in the world at their command. Kalamandra was the example, as they literally stopped all armies from clashing to create an entire null-sphere, locking out anyone from moving or being...well, combative.

Was the institute capable of being controlled? Entirely. Swain, LeBlanc,. all those noxians working behind the scenes. Still, what happens if they do get their way? Now Noxus has the most powerful magic beings in the world, capable of imprisoning void terrors (Cho'Gath) with little consequence? Yeah, the whole thing was kinda shitty. And yes, Summoners weren't necessarily good or bad but god damn if they weren't able to just do what they wanted.

Asides, these stories aren't just telling the stories of Champions. Look at "Reborn". We not only saw Sion, we see those around him. Darkwill's Horror at what Sion became. Noxus's pride in a fallen son. Swain's scheming that brought about the revival. Hell, Reborn is basically giving you everything you asked for in the new lore.

Mjolnir80210/6/2014, 4:34:46 AM1 votes

Telling the stories of the champions and the relationships they each have creates a web of tales to follow. Instead of everyone having this one ham-fisted common factor between all 100+ characters, we can now have stories that are able to develop more naturally than being channeled through the IoW and the League.

The League as it was always kind of bothered me to be honest. Ignoring that these summoners are able to call upon the most powerful creatures, warriors, and mages that the Valoran has ever known on a whim, why are they able to do it in such a way that all existing relations between the champions are irrelevant? Why would Garen fight Lux or J4, why would Lucian fight alongside Thresh, why would Soraka help Warwick? These meaningful relationships between the characters are rendered meaningless if we continue under the assumption that the League of Legends is an actual entity within this world.

What can happen now, is that each characters story can become their own; not a backstory as a means to becoming a member of this magical fight club. We can now explore their stories. They are no longer bound to the League and the IoW. They can all pursue their goals as they see fit, fighting alongside those they see as allies and against those they see as adversaries, when and where they want. Not when a bunch of magicians tell them to.