New lore for Vel’Koz and Lissandra sets the stage for a Void apocalypse

Riot released even more League of Legends lore yesterday on Universe, the game’s official portal for lore and stories. This time, it was all about Lissandra, Vel’Koz, and the Void.

The stories were simple, for the most part. Vel’Koz and Lissandra’s bios were rewritten, likely to go along with Nunu and Willump’s update as others from the Freljord. The new bios paint Vel’Koz as some mysterious being tasked with gathering knowledge for the Void, which is where he comes from. That’s not too different from what we already knew about him, but Lissandra’s was a lot different.

Rather than just some random and powerful ice witch, she was turned into some sort of herald for the Void. Her new bio is a bit confusing, though—although she’s supposed to be allied with the Void, she’s also trying to prevent it from arriving in full. It’s a very strange dynamic, and we’re not quite sure it works here. Apart from the two new bios and a short story for Vel’Koz, there was another longer story that takes roughly 30 minutes to read.

This longer story touches on Lissandra a bit more, but from her followers’ perspectives. Essentially it ends with the Watchers returning to the world, which is a very bad thing for everyone that likes living. The Watchers are what Lissandra was trying to help (or stop) consume the world. Again, her new lore is probably the most confusing.

It’s always great to be able to digest new backstories and dive deeper into the lands and characters around League, but this is something different than we’re used to. This sets the stage for the Void actually returning in force, which would mean a continent-wide conflict to decide the fate of everyone. That’s the sort of huge, ongoing story that a movie, RPG, or proper novel can dive into. But League, as an action-packed multiplayer arena game, isn’t really the place for it.

That being said, we hope Riot is using these stories to tease some sort of story-centric project that’s in the works, like another game or something else, to be the platform. Otherwise, if this whole Void/Freljord story was really designed with League in mind, it might end up not feeling as important or gripping in the long run, which wouldn’t be great.