Where's the Lore? Allow me to Answer: Lore FAQ

Sharjo·Oct 10, 2016·77 votes·19,188 views

So every now and again someone makes a thread that pretty much have the same sentiment, but are worded differently every time:

“The lore’s really gone to shit with all these short lores.”

“Where’s the lore at anymore?”

“Why is the lore so small now?”

Essentially, people always ask “Where’s the lore?” and it’s understandable as to why some folks might be uninformed, as it can be a tad tricky to find and most folks will just look at the lore tab in the client and be like “Oh. Well lore’s shit”.

So allow me to answer your questions and queries! I’ll explain this and more to the best of my abilities, though do remember that I’m not a rioter, I’m just a community member who likes the lore too much for his own good.

#But before we begin, some context on the current lore situation#

http://i.imgur.com/OBgZdPh.jpg

So for the unaware, Riot’s changed they way they’ve approached lore over the years, and I want to give context as to some history regarding lore so that some other stuff later on makes sense, and it mostly comes down to one major decision made during 2014:

During September of 2014, Riot made a public announcement that the Institute of War was being removed from the lore.

Why was this important? Mainly because the IoW as we abbreviated it was the main glue that kept the entire framework of the lore together, and it also justified the gameplay of League as it stood. Without it that unifying element to the lore no longer existed, and as such entire swathes of lore was thrown in to question, and the entire game itself was no longer canon to the lore; the champions, items and maps appear in Runeterra, but the way the game is played doesn’t exist in any form in the League of Legends universe. The game draws from the narrative elements of the world but it’s not intrinsically linked anymore.

This decision was made by Riot long before the announcement was made, but it was also made earlier than perhaps most would’ve liked, because Riot felt they didn’t want to string us out and make lore changes without giving the main reason as to why. The major issue was that this made a good amount of lore non canon, and didn’t offer a fix in the mean time, resulting in champions like Jax, Kayle, Morgana, Orianna, Nocturne and others, whose entire existence in the League world was in a way justified by the IoW’s existence, had no lore at all.

Currently lore is being updated continuously to mend the rift this effective lore reboot left behind, and we’re getting there, but there’s still issues.

Now that context is out of the way, let’s start with questions!

#Wait, so the League of Legends isn’t canon?#

Correct. The League of Legends and the organisation that created it; the Institute of War, aren’t canon anymore. Any lore mentioning them ain’t canon either.

One thing to remember though; Summoners ARE still canon, but they’re wholly different to what they once were, and whatever they are now hasn’t been elaborated on by Riot as of yet.

#So Riot broke the lore and hasn’t fixed it yet? What are they even doing?!#

Yeah things are still broken, but as I stated, things are being fixed and lore is being mended and improved. The process hasn’t been quick, and has been compounded with other issues, but for the last year or so we’ve been on track and the current manner in which lore is put out is the one Riot’s sticking to for the foreseeable future.

This is also why many champions still have lore referencing the Institute of War and the League of Legends; they simply haven’t been updated yet.

#What’s the plan for lore on Riot’s end then?#

Right now they’re going around updating champion bios, with the intent of structuring them as follows:

A quote from the champion to get their voice and attitude in your head from the get go
An extensive biography detailing their history.
A short story (currently referred to as “Colour Text”) to showcase this champion acting in the lore.

The current scheme for which champions will get updated lore first is as follows:

If they are a new champion they get this form of lore right out of the gate.
If the champion is receiving a Visual and Gameplay Update (VGU), they will have updated lore to go with it in the current format.
If the champion is included as part of a regional event, such as the Mount Targon, Shurima and Shadow Isles events of the past year, they will receive updated lore in the current format.
If they are a champion with wholly broken lore they are high priority to receive updated lore in the current format.

As a note on a few of these things I’ve talked about:

A champion’s biography will not speak to all of the details of their history, but will tell you the main crux of how they got to be who they are. Some champions actually lack direct origins entirely in their bios, but generally this is an intentional choice. Kindred’s bio is a good example of this.
The colour text is canon for all intents and purposes and can offer story progression. Maokai and Skarner’s colour texts are strong examples of this.
Champions who’re part of Class Updates like the Mage Update and upcoming Assassin Update will NOT be receiving updated lore at the time of the updates.
Currently, only one of the champions who had their lore broken by the IoW removal have been updated thus far: Taric, and this was more so because of his VGU and the Mount Targon event. We’re still waiting on many others like Jax, Nocturne and Orianna.
Right now, Warwick and Galio are the next two champions scheduled for VGUs, and as such they are next in line to get their lores updated to the current format.

#Ok so that’s all fine and well but which champions have been fixed already?#

Currently, at the time of me typing this up, 35 out of 133 champions have lore in the current format as discussed above. They are:

#Really? That’s it?! Surely there’s got to me more!#

Right now the 35 champions I’ve mentioned are the only champions with their lore updated to the current format, accounting for roughly a quarter of the roster, but they are not the only champions who’ve received changes or have canon lore right now, so I’ll go over some specifics:

Champions with Colour Text Only

Currently there are 7 champions in a strange spot because they have colour text, but not full bios, and they are divided in to two groups.

The first group of champions were either released or updated during 2014 before the announcement of the retcon, and were given colour text as part of a new direction by Riot in exploring lore delivery. These 5 champions are:

The 2 other champions had their lores updated AFTER the IoW removal: and . The reasons behind them having only colour text are different in each case, with Sion’s being an intentional omission due to narrative decisions at the time, while Evelynn’s was meant to be effectively a bit of love for her current state considering her lore has always been in poor shape, and she’ll get a proper extended bio when she is eventually given a VGU, of which she is very high in priority to get.

Though Evelynn’s may not be when she receives her VGU, depending on what direction they take her lore, for all intents and purposes these short stories can be considered canon.

Champions with a Short Paragraph and that’s it

When Riot initially made the decision to remove the IoW from the canon, there was a major issue in that the client and website were intrinsically linked, and so though Riot wanted to have a short paragraph in the client that linked to the website with its full lore, this couldn’t be achieved, and as such the champions of the time were left with only a short paragraph. This issue has since been resolved (mostly), but the fallout still exists.

The 7 champions who were and still are affected by this are:

These short paragraphs can be considered as canon explanations of the champions in question.

Champions with IoW ommissions but no updated bios

As a sort of stop gap until these champions could receive proper updates, several champions had slight re-wording done to their current lore. This removed the IoW from these lores, and was intended to make them “passable” to a degree; this lore is good enough to be considered canon right now, though changes will be made in the future.

Currently there are 16 champions with lore in this state:

While this lore can be considered canon this is subject to change when these champions are revisited for a proper update. The tone and general events described in the lore are the main things to take away, not every single little detail. Currently we don’t know if other older champions with outdated lore will be revisited in this way, as we’ve only seen two waves of this kind of lore update and the last was many months ago at the time of me typing this.

Champions with lore that never mentioned the IoW in the first place

To summarise this point there are champions who exist that never had the IoW or the League written in to the lore even when it was still canon, or were rewritten to not include it before the IoW was removed, and as such their lore is much more reliable (though not perfect) than most. The majority of these champions were released in 2013 or the second half of 2012, but there are a handful of others too.

The 34 champions who fall in to this category are:

Again, these champions have lore that could be considered canon, but it isn’t totally “safe” so to speak. Diana’s lore has been changed and she was one champion included in this category, while Zed’s lore has had questions raised about it because of lore brought forward by Jhin.

Take every other champion bio not listed above with heavy grains of salt, even the ones you think you know and are confident about.

#Ok...but WHERE IS THIS LORE?!#

Long story short: on the website. A champion’s website page has a dedicated lore section, and their full lore is listed there. Here’s the relevant links to all champions that have had their lore updated to the current format:

Some of you may be saying “Wait that’s not enough! You listed more didn’t you?” This is because some champions, usually those who were a part of a regional event have updated lore, but since the site’s still wonky in some areas haven’t had their main website lore updated yet. Their new lores still exist though on those sites:

Mount Targon (Aurelion Sol, Diana, Leona, Pantheon and Taric)

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/mount-targon/story.html

Shurima (Amumu, Azir, Nasus, Rammus, Renekton, Sivir, Skarner, Taliyah, Xerath)

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/shurima/intro

The Shadow Isles (Yorick, Elise, Maokai, Evelynn and the Shadow Isles champions who were updated in 2015)

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/shadow-isles#/?_k=cr984n

#Ok so there’s bios and stuff, cool, but what about stories not tied to these?#

Riot’s been putting out lore in various formats, and have released a small amount of stories lately that have progressed the lore for a few champions, or present lore in a new format. Since these can be difficult to find I’m just going to link a bunch of lore specific to champions that’s not part of their bios, short stories involving multiple champions and anything else lore related:

Bard: The Wonder Above and Mountain http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/champion-preview/wonder-above https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX8iSobsKTY

Ekko: Seconds and Chronobreak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtEpp9lkfxA http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/ekko-comic/

Tahm Kench: The River King https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9RM4HwwoKs

Kindred: A Good Death http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/page/good-death

Illaoi: Trial of the Kraken Priestess http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/champions/trial-of-the-kraken-priestess

Poppy: A Hero’s Calling http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/poppy-comic/

Ahri: Stray Fox (This story disappeared so the link’s to where it was thankfully archived by the community) http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Ahri/Background

Jhin: “Mind of the Virtuoso” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-BgDEy2AE

Aurelion Sol: “The Star Forger returns” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAAnY_L4Pp4

Taric: “Downfall”, “The Ascent” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1O0R0t6zdI http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/taric-comic/

Taliyah: “The Bird and the Branch”, “Homecoming” http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/taliyah-short-story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1nRIX-qvbo

Kled: “The Reunion” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw46WPuXMk0&ab_channel=LeagueofLegends

Ivern: “Friend of the Forest” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6PHb5xTO64&ab_channel=LeagueofLegends

Burning Tides (Short Story) http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/bilgewater/#act-1

Shadow and Fortune (Short Story and follow up to Burning Tides) http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/shadow-and-fortune/chapter-1.html

Bloodline (Short Story) http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/shurima/story

Princeling’s Lament (Poem) http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/shadow-isles#/the-princelings-lament?_k=kbazi4

That covers everything made after the big IoW removal, but other lore still exists from before then that can be considered pretty reliable in this new canon. The champions you see here do not have lore in the current format, so I won’t link to it specifically, but it still should be up on their champion pages.

The Freljord http://promo.leagueoflegends.com/en/freljord/ http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Journey_into_the_Freljord

Aatrox: An Ancient Mystery in Runeterra (Posted the wiki version since the original was a forum piece) http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/An_Ancient_Mystery_In_Runeterra

Yasuo: A Sword Without a Sheath, Unforgiven http://na.leagueoflegends.com/node/8513/ http://promo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/yasuo/

Vel’Koz: First Contact https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyb2KC-q7ls&ab_channel=LeagueofLegends

Braum: Trials of the Poro, The Feates of Braum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dvYxkyQFZU&ab_channel=LeagueofLegends http://promo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/braum/# (The Feats of Braum seems to be broken, but essentially recounted Braum’s current colour text in a visual and auditory format. Maybe it’ll work for you, I’m not sure.)

Gnar: Discovering the Link http://promo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/gnar/

Kalista: The Pledge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnT8jVCyh_E&ab_channel=LeagueofLegends

Rek'Sai: The Terror Beneath, Scourge of the Desert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcB-FreSnG8&ab_channel=LeagueofLegends http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/creative-spotlight/reksai-scourge-desert

#Ok, so what’s next for the lore?#

Right now? We dunno concretely. At the end of 2015 we were informed about our trips to Mount Targon and Shurima, but with the Shadow Isles having passed we don’t know which part of the lore will be up next for a big update. Beyond not knowing specifically where we’re going it’s business as usual; Riot will continue to update champion lore to the current format as time goes on, focusing on new champions, champions in line for VGUs, champions with broken lore and champions who’re part of a region they’re visiting.

…

Right that should cover everything I wanted to get to, but if you have further questions, feel free to list them below! Also for some of my astute lore colleagues out there, is there anything I missed? And finally if there’s anything anyone’s not sure on I’ll elaborate as best I can for you, just ask away.

No wait not finally. RIOTERS! If there’s any inaccurate information here, just come in here and yell at me for being awful and I’ll remedy it as best I can!

(Also if someone could enlighten me on how to increase font sizes on the boards, that'd be great! It'd probably help me with formatting this sodding thing.)

Well that’s it for me for now, hopefully this was useful to you dear reader!

Where's the Lore? Allow me to Answer: Lore FAQ

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