League of Legends is known as a PvP game with the same map, but it has a deep and very interesting backstory. With the new Netflix series Arcane, interest in this story has significantly increased. We at MeinMMO would like to summarize the most important events for you.
What kind of article is this and where do the information come from? In this article, we want to summarize the major points of the story of LoL and Runeterra in general. This is only a rough overview, as the lore runs very deep.
We will first discuss the most significant events of the game world, then the contents of the new series Arcane and lastly the Hextech magic in general.
The information comes from the short stories of Riot Games themselves, but primarily from the book “The Realms of Runeterra,” which contains an accurate timeline of the world.
The history of Runeterra – From creation to today
It all began with the Watchers, who fought against reality
Where does the story begin? The story of LoL begins with nothingness. After nothingness, the Void was formed, a force of insatiable hunger that wants to consume everything. The Watchers lived in it, but they saw and heard nothing. They were not even aware of their own existence.
But then reality formed and brought forth light, which the Watchers were not pleased with.
In reality, the first creatures formed, such as Bard and Aurelion Sol. It was Aurelion Sol who created the first stars. These creatures lived in Targon, a beautiful city of silver and gold.
The Watchers observed the activities of these “Celestials” and devised plans to destroy the reality that was a thorn in their side. This led to the conflict between reality and the Void that still exists today.
The creation of Runeterra: Runeterra is a planet that was not formed by chance. The Celestials, including Soraka, created the planet and filled it with life.
In this context, it is speculated that an army was intentionally bred on Runeterra to fight against the Watchers, although this is not mentioned in the official canon.
However, the Celestials lost the so-called World Runes, with which the planet was created, somewhere on Runeterra. This is said to be one of the reasons why magic is so powerful on the planet.
The Watchers, in turn, continuously tore holes in reality, which we now know as the so-called Void Rifts.
The division of the world: Runeterra is divided into different continents:
- Valoran in the north
- Shurima in the south
- Ionia in the east
- Oceanic in the general waters
Within these continents, there are various nations, which we will discuss in more detail throughout the history. These nations are not tied to a specific people, so for example, the small Yordles have a home in Bilgewater (Fizz), in Piltover (Heimerdinger), or in Ionia (Kennen).
In the here and now, there are 13 nations, most of which you can find on the world map. Only Bandle, the home of all Yordles, Ixtal, a nation in Shurima, and the Void are missing.
The time before year 0 and many wild wars
The time reckoning of Runeterra is based on the calendar of the Noxian people. Thus, there are the years before and after Noxus, similar to our time before and after Christ.
The war of the three sisters: 9,000 years before Noxus, the war of the three sisters occurred, where Lissandra fought against Avarosa and Serylda. The war arose because the Watchers had influenced Lissandra.
However, Lissandra recognized her mistake and the three sisters together imprisoned the Watchers in the Howling Abyss in the Eternal Ice. The Howling Abyss is now the place where ARAM matches in LoL take place.
The outbreak of the Void: 2,500 years before Noxus, a battle occurred between Icathia and Shurima, two ancient civilizations. The Icathians unleashed the Void in a last desperate action to win the war. However, their capital was destroyed, and their land was ravaged beyond recognition.
As a result of this action, several further problems followed, such as the collapse of the Shuriman Empire. The Ascended, who had actually fought for them, were perverted by their contact with the Void and turned away from the Empire.
Moreover, there was a betrayal by Xerath against the Shuriman Emperor Azir, who subsequently stole the Sun Disc from the Empire, which had given Shurima a special power.
The Rune Wars: A particularly significant event in the history of Runeterra was the destruction of the city of Helia, which tore a hole into the spirit world after a horrific accident. This place would henceforth be known as Shadow Isles. This happened 25 years before Noxus.
Through the fall of Helia, dangerous magical artifacts – the World Runes – ended up in the wrong hands. The Rune Wars commenced, during which the first brutal battle involved Ryze as the apprentice of the famous magician Tyrus. The images of this war burned into Ryze’s mind forever.
The entire world faced destruction, and chaos could only be averted because the two characters Mihira and Kilam climbed Mount Targon and were chosen by the aspects. In this way, Kayle and Morgana were created.
Ryze, in turn, began to collect all rune artifacts in the world and lock them away.
The Rune Wars caused a lot of destruction in Runeterra. Various peoples of the Noxians locked themselves in an immortal bastion and survived the horrible events.
They united thereafter into one people: Noxus. Thus begins the year 0 of the calendar.
Noxus wants to unite the world under one banner
In the years following the Rune Wars, several new nations were founded, including Demacia. Demacia refers to itself as “refuge from magic”.
Noxus becomes the imperial power: In the subsequent years, Noxus aimed to unite the entire world of Runeterra under one banner and one nation. The supreme leader of the military for countless years was General Boram Darkwill, who was likely kept alive longer through necromancy than is usual for a human.
From the years 787 to 892, Noxus managed to conquer large parts of the continent Valoran. Subsequently, they attempted to attack the Demacian Empire, and General Sion succeeded in killing King Jarvan I of Demacia. For this success, Sion was honored with a special grave after his death.
After that, however, Demacia attacked Noxus and liberated more and more nations in Valoran. Boram Darkwill then resorted to dark magic to resurrect Sion. With him by their side, Noxus then managed to drive Demacia out of their own lands.
In the year 984, Noxus marched towards Ionia. However, General Swain, who had actually been dishonorably discharged from the Noxian military, managed to lead a rebellion against Boram Darkwill and murdered him from behind.
Swain then seized power and ended the siege of Ionia. This occurred in the year 989. We are currently around the year 997, in which the fallen king Viego returned.
Zhaun, Piltover and the events in Arcane
What is the deal with the nations in Arcane? Zhaun and Piltover are two separate city-states. According to the series, Piltover is located directly above Zhaun, whereas in other reports of the lore, they are next to each other. However, it is clear that they together control a passage between the continents Valoran in the north and Shurima in the south, making them an important hub in the trade of the world Runeterra.
Both cities live in strong competition with each other, as both produce talented inventors and also experiment a lot. However, in Zhaun, there were numerous accidents with Chems, making it a more dangerous place and fostering crime.
Piltover, on the other hand, is more respected in the world of Runeterra, which is why the academy is also located there, where the brightest minds of many nations are educated.
When do the events of Arcane take place? We have not been able to determine a specific time frame yet, but we know that the characters from the series like Jayce, Caitlyn, and Vi were born around the years 960 to 970 after Noxus, which is about 25 to 30 years before the present.
In Act 2, the characters are already older. So we are likely quite close to the present.
The Hextech magic
The blue crystals from Arcane: In the story of Arcane, strange blue crystals play an important role. They are an important component of the Brackern, an ancient race of creatures made from crystals, of which Skarner is one.
The crystal contains its own personality and feelings, allowing Brackern to perceive the world differently and use magic. When a Brackern dies, the crystal waits for a new host but retains the experiences of the previous creature. Thus, a crystal constantly evolves.
The crystals communicate through a sort of song, which is also audible in the series Arcane. This song is also used by Champion Seraphine for her concerts, which has brought the champion some criticism.
Hextech magic arises from the crystals: During the Rune Wars, the Brackern fell asleep, hoping that the mortal races would annihilate each other with magic.
However, they were later unexpectedly awakened by their crystals when mortals attempted to steal the blue crystals and use them for their own magical purposes. Instead of mutually destroying each other, they emerged from the wars with stronger weapons and armor.
The Ferros family from Piltover, including Champion Camille, established a monopoly with these blue crystals, which they called Hex-Crystals.
They later succeeded in producing synthetic Hextech crystals through Chem-Tech, which were, however, very unstable. As Piltover rejected magic, they produced them in Zhaun, but took the profits back to their nation.
It was only with Jayce and Viktor that it was possible to stabilize the self-produced crystals enough that they could be used in tools or weapons. This is one of the reasons why some weapons are as powerful as Jayce’s hammer in the game League of Legends, and why so much magic is used.
LoL in the here and now
How does the story continue? The lore of League of Legends is constantly expanding, and even in the “current year” many conflicts are happening, such as the rebellion that Sylas is currently inciting.
However, this story and the many other ongoing events are not important to understand the previous content around the series Arcane. If this changes with the upcoming acts, we will accordingly expand the article.
However, it can be very interesting to take a closer look at the individual characters from the series. That’s exactly what we did in this article:
Arcane: All 9 characters from LoL and all completely new ones
