Riot Games picks up the pace in their push to expand the lore of Runeterra in 2020 with two new cinematics
As part of their ten year anniversary celebration in 2019, Riot Games released a series of videos announcing a multitude of previously undercover projects as well as their plans for both expanding the lore behind League of Legends and taking it beyond the confines of Summoner’s Rift.
In Riot’s mega announcement video — clocking in at almost 49 minutes long — Greg Street, VP of IP and Entertainment at Riot, shared a brief sample of the content to come. It was only later in his more in-depth Dev Video that Street gave a roadmap for the team’s plans in 2020. To recap, here are the categories he touched on:
Evolution of Storytelling: 2018 was the year for fleshing out the map of Runeterra and what this universe actually looks like geographically, and 2019 was a time for polishing and delving deeper into the histories and connections of a few select characters. With Sett’s recent arrival to the roster of League champions, the team will use his introduction as a gateway to tell more about Ionia.
Comics: In addition to the Lux and Ashe comics made in partnership with Marvel Comics, Zed will get his own volume in 2020 and give readers a chance to not only glimpse into his shadowed relationships with other Ionian champions but to see what lies beneath his mask for the first time.
Arcane: Earlier, Riot released a trailer for Arcane in tandem with their 10th Anniversary announcements. Arcane will be the first animated series from Riot Games, which “will follow the evolution of two of League’s most famous champions as they grew up in the mean streets of Piltover and Zaun.” Based on the trailer, it seems like the team’ll finally be invited in to see what tore apart sisters Jinx and Vi.
Riot Forge: Riot is handing over some of the keys to the castle in order to build out the universe. Riot Forge is Riot Games’ new publishing arm, which allows third parties to take Riot’s IP and develop games within the universe. Street mentioned that “one of the challenges of telling stories inside of the games is that, for the most part, Riot makes these large multi-player competitive games. the team recognize that single-player games can be a great way to tell stories.” That being said, already two games published through Riot Forge are on their way: Ruined King, a turn-based RPG developed by Airship Syndicate, and Convergence, a vibrant platformer following the time-traveling antics of Ekko.
Tellstones: Riot’s team of dedicated tabletop game developers is replicating a fictional game played throughout Demacia called Tellstones. Rumors of Cithria of Cloudfield being the girl playing on the cover have been circulating, and it’s not unlikely as her League of Legends wiki article mentions it as a game she liked to play with her father.
Tales of Runeterra: Short videos “that take you around places of Runeterra” in order to connect the characters to the world both in and outside of the games will be released periodically throughout the year. A sneak peek of a Tales of Runeterra: Ionia video featuring Akali and Shen bookended the video.