LoR League of Legends: A Brief History of the World, Characters, and Factions

The League of Legends lore covers the history of Runeterra—a fantasy world inhabited by powerful empires, magical kingdoms, ancient gods, demons, and other creatures. Each champion has their own story, homeland, allies, and enemies, and the conflicts between characters are tied to wars between nations, struggles for power, and personal events. The story of Runeterra is told through character biographies, short stories, comics, videos, and the TV series *Arcane*.

The main setting is Runeterra. It is a world divided into several major regions, each with its own culture, politics, and attitude toward magic. Among them are Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, Freljord, Shurima, Piltover, Zaun, Bilgewater, Targon, Istal, and the Shadow Isles.

Demacia is a military kingdom built on order and strict laws. Noxus, on the other hand, is an empire that expands its territories and welcomes strong individuals into its ranks regardless of their background. It was Noxus’s expansion that sparked the war with Ionia—a region where the connection between nature and magic is particularly strong.

To the north lies Freljord, where several tribes are fighting for power and the region’s future. Shurima was once a vast empire, destroyed after a catastrophe, but is now rising again under Emperor Azir. Piltover and Zaun, located beneath it, form the technological heart of Runeterra; however, there is a serious social conflict between the wealthy upper districts and the industrial underground city.

There are also threats that go beyond ordinary wars. The Void seeks to invade Runeterra and consume it; the Shadow Isles are filled with the undead and the Black Mist; and darkin and demons are capable of threatening entire nations. Because of this, characters who are usually on opposite sides of a conflict are sometimes forced to fight a common enemy.

The champions themselves do not belong to a single organization and are not obligated to fight one another. Among them are rulers, military leaders, criminals, mages, inventors, ancient beings, and gods. Some heroes are at odds due to wars between nations, others because of personal vendettas, beliefs, or power struggles, and some are not connected to one another at all in the storyline.

That is precisely why battles in the Summoner’s Rift should not be explained through lore. Previously, Riot used a storyline about the “League of Legends,” in which champions participated in organized battles to resolve conflicts, but they abandoned that concept. In the current canon, specific matches exist separately from the history of Runeterra.

You can explore the lore in detail on the official League of Legends website in the “Universe” section. There, Riot publishes champion biographies, stories, comics, and articles about events in Runeterra. In the game itself, basic information can be found in the champion descriptions, but there is no comprehensive story encyclopedia within the client.

There is no full-fledged Japanese anime based on League of Legends yet. The main adaptation of the universe is the animated series “Arcane,” created by Riot Games in collaboration with the French studio Fortiche. Therefore, technically speaking, it’s incorrect to call it an anime.

Riot also releases many short animated clips about Runeterra and individual champions, but there is no standalone anime series among them.

There is no official manga that chronologically recounts the main storyline of League of Legends. Riot develops the story of Runeterra primarily through short stories, comics, animation, and games.

Therefore, there’s no point in looking for a manga to learn about the main lore. Instead, it’s better to read the official champion biographies and comics.

League of Legends has official comics. They focus on individual champions and events in Runeterra and complement the main lore. Among the most well-known are the series about Ashe, Lux, and Zed. Riot views comics as one of the formats for expanding the universe, alongside games and animation.

When reading, keep the release date in mind: Riot is gradually revising the canon, so some older stories may differ from the characters’ current biographies.

Until 2022, “Komilfo” was the main Russian publisher of League of Legends comics. For example, “League of Legends: Lux” was released in Russia in 2020: the collection included five issues of the Lux series. They also published “League of Legends: Zed”—a collection of issues #1–6. Since stocks of these comics have likely run out over the past four years, print versions of these books can be found on Avito and specialized marketplaces.

Most of the key characters in “Arcane” originated from the League of Legends universe. The game features Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, Jace, Viktor, Ekko, Heimerdinger, Singed, and Amessa. Amessa was added to League of Legends at the same time the series’ second season premiered.

“Arcane” also features characters who are not in-game champions. For example, Silko plays an important role in the series but did not become a separate League of Legends champion.

The events of *Arcane* are part of the main Runeterra canon. Therefore, the series can be viewed not only as a standalone story about Jinx and Vi, but also as part of the overall League of Legends lore. That said, it depicts only a small portion of the world—primarily Piltover and Zaun—while Runeterra itself is much larger.

We covered the series’ universe in more detail in a separate article.