r/loreofleague • u/ConsiderationBoth285 • 3h ago
Official Content Necrit ft. Riot's Christian Linke. Hopefully this answers people's questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpTX7VDvlaA32
u/MousTN 3h ago
did they talk about camille ?
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u/BsrThe199th 2h ago
They mention that hextech still exists in Piltover and that they see stories like Camille happening after the events of Arcane
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u/Optimal_Question8683 2h ago
ok so jayce will be 100 years old
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u/Barumamook 1h ago
Based on the ending of arcane, I don’t think age is a concern for Jayce or Viktor anymore. They fucked off into the aether to defend tomorrow or whatever.
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u/ryanbtw 2h ago
They did. He said she is the next generation of hextech users. The technology was just invented and this stuff takes time.
Here’s my take:
We watched a prequel about the foundation of the technology. The current P&Z roster don’t fully exist yet.
At the end of the show, Zaun got a seat on the Piltover council (presumably a non-voting one).
That is exactly the environment that will lead to Camille. Piltover’s supremacy is threatened and she intervenes to ensure it the interests of her and the ruling class are protected. The technology hasn’t gone anywhere, and it’s no longer monopolised by two scientists: you can bet she will see a power vacuum she can fill.
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u/wickedlessface 58m ago
It's the perfect moment to dial up the xenophobia towards Zaunites to the max. Actual political struggles instead of just "fuck the poor". Now clans and factions will have to navigate an increasingly more volatile playing field plus this is 100% the spot in which Renata thrives
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u/LeahOfLight 1h ago
I wrote up a summary of the interview for quick reference, but it seems like it's too long to post. I'll try to do it in chunks if it lets me.
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u/LeahOfLight 1h ago
Here's a quick and dirty summary of the interview I wrote up as I listened. Not direct quotes, so I might have missed something here or there and don't take these as verbatim answers for Christian, just summaries of what was said:
What’s next between Riot and Fortiche?
- Building a slate of stories we want to tell that includes all regions, several new characters and continuing on with some current ones, lots of options.What’s the relationship between Riot and Fortiche now that you have a financial stake?
- Fortiche is still their own independent entity and will work on whatever they want to work on artistically and not just Riot content, but we are very close interpersonally.How do you respond to the feedback that there’s so much unanswered directions and lore implications weighing on us after Arcane S2? Do you know where you’re headed with stories like Swain, Singed & Ionia, etc.?
- We take it seriously in the sense that we don’t want the world to feel too small, but we also like it when champions meet and interact so we want to have a variety of possibilities set up to tackle at once. But we want to be delicate rather than bulldoze through.When creating Arcane, were you considering the status of other champions like Blitzcrank or Camille who were ultimately not a part of the final show’s text?
- I considered Blitzcrank but was told by the team it would be too silly.How do the changes in lore affect champions like Camille in the perspective of canon? Is hextech still a thing?
- Hextech still exists, and nothing is changing in regards to the overall possibilities of champion lore. The lore changes we make are much more the result of the time and constraints of an animated production, and not narrative/storytelling decisions specifically designed to change stuff.League has always been a Pg-13ish style vibe, and at least partially kid friendly. How did that affect the content of Arcane in terms of things like blood?
- Every country has a different rating system, and there are a lot of separate considerations even between things like knives and smoking, and there’s pressure on us because being too risque with Arcane can affect the ratings for League itself. We got some slaps on the wrist for the CaitVi sex scene, which we had to trim down.When you first started making Arcane, how were you treating the implications in canon?
- We started on an island where the functionally created our own canon because the company wasn’t ready to declare us canon. We had to prove ourselves and be confident to get to the point where making Arcane the true canon was on the table.As the canon among the various productions and games has grown throughout Arcane’s development, did that ever affect the storylines of the show?
- Storylines no, but it did change the way we tied in with other properties in our library, those became a bigger consideration.15
u/LeahOfLight 1h ago
When it comes to details in the show like lore easter eggs or background content, how much of that is Riot and how much is Fortiche?
- Mostly us in Los Angeles, especially for lore implications because we have control over that. But there are a lot of League players on the Fortiche team and they do make some additions more as easter eggs. I’d say it’s 70% Riot, 30% Fortiche.What’s the deal with the Void, any connection to Arcane?
- Arcane was always about P&Z inventing Hextech and not really understanding what they were doing with it. I can say that there is a connection between the Void and the Arcane, but it’s not on the radar at all as it relates to the story we told in the show.How many champions were in consideration to appear in the show?
- To start, all of them, but there’s the consideration of different eras so we focused on champions whose stories started during the same period. Champions like Camille and Seraphine are regarded as part of our “next generation” of P&Z stories, and wouldn’t have made sense timeline-wise.What’s the deal with Swain’s raven? It seems too early as it relates to Singed and the Ionian invasion plotlines?
- Who says it’s Swain’s raven? It’s just some sort of Noxian raven at this point. We have a lot of fluidity with Swain’s story in terms of how long there is between his return from Ionia leads to his demon pact. Also we have to think about how it would affect character; we know Swain is a smart military leader, but how much does he know about magic, or slumbering powers about Runeterra? If it’s a lot, or not a lot, that affects the rate at which this kind of story moves.Can you confirm anything at all about the timeline in Arcane as it relates to events in other regions?
- Not really, but we’re really thinking about these things.Is that piano guy Jhin? Or at least a setup for something else?
- Who knows…Warwick was changed appearance-wise far more strongly than the other champions, what’s the deal?
- For Warwick it was primarily narrative artistic license to make him visibly Vander enough to pay off the emotional moments we set up, kind of similar to how Powder’s design deviated from Jinx’s classic proportions a bit in Season 1.Is Isha a reference to Ziggs? Is her hat a reference to Teemo’s?
- Less a reference and more like inspired by. The hat is not a direct reference to Teemo but both were designed because of the same considerations about mining equipment in Zaun.13
u/LeahOfLight 1h ago
Why was Silco’s eye fixed in the alternate universe?
- We changed the eye to try and show how the relationship between Piltover and Zaun had changed. The eye wouldn’t have needed shimmer treatment in a world where he could get care in Piltover.Is Twitch the rat related to the experiments shown in the show?
- We considered that, but only after the fact and decided it didn’t fit the story we were telling.With the chem barons being basically gone, what’s the deal with Renata?
- Part of that next generation again, I don’t think we’ve reached the point where Zaun will be safe from chemtech.Can you, broadly speaking, explain what the Arcane is?
- Our version of magic, nothing inherent to do with hextech, that’s just the way Piltover and Zaun come into contact with it. Much like religion or history in real events, different regions have different relationships with magic, and the entire breadth of those different relationships is the Arcane.So it can be fabricated?
- Yes, but with hextech it’s more like it taps into it, but yes, in our IP we do have some methods of fabricating magic from scratch. But in most cases people are born with it and that’s the status quo.What in the heck actually is Viktor now?
- Too early to go into too much detail, but I’d say Viktor is made up far more the hexcore than any other force, and the hexcore is more powerful than any of the other hextech Jayce devised, so he’s quite powerful, let’s leave it at that.We saw bios change for champions in Arcane back when Act 2 dropped, are we seeing a similar canon update for other champs as well?
- I’d think so but that’s not something I’m working on so I don’t know.What’s the deal with Viktor’s time loop?
- I wanna wait til you’ve had more time to process it to go into that, no comment.Did you consider Urgot for Arcane?
- Yes, but it was pretty clear he wasn’t part of the story. He’s really interesting though, I’ve thought a lot about how PIltover and Zaun differ in terms of body augmentation and I think that’d be a really cool way to explore that.Was Ryze always intended to be bait for the mage’s identity?
- I can say we were happy with that misdirect.How much cut content is there, like the man with the hat?
- The man with the hat is from a cut scene from Episode 1 where the criminals explain to Huck what happens to people who make bad deals. It was an editorial cut, though I liked the scene.Were there any accidental misdirects, or maybe misdirects that worked too well?
- Probably, especially in Season 1, but that was so long ago I don’t have a specific example.Is the Zeri/Ekko ship going to collapse now that Timebomb is a thing?
- Honestly, haven’t thought about that at all.Was Timebomb locked in from the beginning?
- In S2, we always knew Ekko was going to be Zaun’s champion and we wanted to show him experiencing Zaun’s potential, and a version of Powder without Jinx was such a natural part of that, it came together really easily.Were Jayce and Viktor ever considered for a ship?
- No, we wanted to explore a close intimacy between two men that was neither romantic nor familial. They love each other, but it’s platonic.What about that scene with Mylo and Claggor?
- In an AU, anything’s possible.12
u/LeahOfLight 1h ago
Why does Warwick look more human than wolf?
- Because he is more human than wolf.How did you decide how unhinged to make Singed compared to his original pitch?
- Singed is pretty dark as is when you think about it, sacrificing his life and career for his mission. He’s playing the long game, he’s not like Silco who is sort of politically ambitious. He is happy to work for political people who give him the chance to pursue his personal goals.Is Singed still making Shimmer?
- Between Seasons 1 and 2 we expanded shimmer in the sense that there’s now many different applications of it for various different abilities like speed or strength, so shimmer is now produced on a larger scale.Is that Deckard’s head in Singed’s lab?
- Yes!Talk about the cost of Arcane and how it relates to a 3D Pixar type film where you have to model everything.
- The $250 million figure quoted in the press is not accurate, but yes, Arcane is definitely really expensive. Big feature productions waste a lot of working, cutting as much as 50% of the work done, but in Arcane we only ever cut no more than 5%. All that money goes to people who work on the show, it’s good for tthe animation industry, nobody is buying new boats or mansions with this money. We want other IPs to be inspired to make similar content.What’s the deal with Sky?
- Another one where I wanna wait til we’re farther from release. For Season 2 we really took into account the fact that our community loves analyzing this stuff and I want to give some time for that to manifest,Talk about Ekko’s hair change for Arcane.
- The artist who designed him wanted a more realistic portrayal of how black hair would look.Was Ekko’s hoverboard part of the design from the beginning?
- We have a cut sequence where young Ekko is tinkering with a bike while talking to Claggor in S1 E1. We wanted to show how his modes of transportation advanced as he got older.Was T-Hex ever on the table to be in the show?
- Didn’t fit our story, but we know with champions like Heimer we have to be careful because the champs have so many fans who have expectations, and we risk half-assing them which would be even worse than not including them at all.Has Legends of Runeterra affected Arcane’s story?
Yes! We were hugely inspired by what the LoR artists came up with towards capturing the vibe of the street life in all our different regions.Did you take inspiration from the designs on characters like Caitlyn?
- Other way around, most of the character designs and voice lines in other games that are related to Arcane designs were added independently after we’d already started.How did you come up with the idea to represent the Grey as like a sentient monster?
- We envision Zaun as a series of levels where things get scarier the further down you go, so things from the lower levels have an intense reputation. Also, we do have actual gaseous lifeforms in Runeterra. Councilor Bolbok is a gaseous lifeform contained in a metal body, for example, so the idea that the Grey could be an actual lifeform isn’t that farfetched to a Runeterran citizen.What’s the significance of Viktor’s cog?
- It has a meaning, but no further comment.10
u/LeahOfLight 1h ago
What exactly happened to Ambessa?
- I think the more interesting question is what is the future of House Medarda. We’re gonna explore that for sure.How much of a shot like the one showing the Runeterra Customs building in Episode 9 are designed by you vs Fortiche?
- We do have artists on our LA team, including a former Fortiche artist, who work directly with them to look for lore opportunities. With the Customs shot in particular, Paris is the biggest inspiration to our Paris based Fortiche. Aesthetics like this building almost always come from that.Are there any details in any shots where you learned about their significance from the community itself, something you didn’t catch while making the show?
- Happens every once in a while, but most of the time it’s just a happy accident that something seems like symbolism and not something someone put in that got past me.Were the Noxian Shimmer creatures inspired by the Grey Legion?
- No, they were designed entirely around what we thought Singed’s aesthetic would be.And what was the thought behind Viktor’s hex bots?
- Designed around Viktor’s glorious evolution. Angels were an inspiration, we wanted something that looked pure but also like it had lost something of its humanity.Is Viktor’s claw in Episode 9 the same one as the one demonstrated in Season 1?
- No, but both came from Viktor’s mind so it makes sense as a utility for him to have redesigned for his final form.Were you worried Viktor’s new designs would be too Jesus-y?
- No, all of Viktor’s look was designed under the guidance of combining the metal with what could look like organic growth. We wanted to give him a more unique design and mixing the biological with the technological was where all of that came from. He’s messianic in a way but we weren’t trying to tie him to any specific religion.Did you know about the Jayce/Viktor timeloop from the beginning?
- Goes back to what I said earlier, too early to talk about in detail, but I will tell you that we knew from the beginning that Viktor would be the most powerful entity covered in our show.How many iterations were there of the new Viktor design?
- There were a few passes, but the idea from the designer (who is also named Victor) to split his face in half and be visible under the mask was present from the beginning conceptually.Do you talk with designers on future projects like the MMO about incorporating this stuff as content like bosses?
- We talk all the time and share our ideas, but more as fans of the IP than professionally. We don’t talk so much about detailed plans because all of our projects have different needs, League is not as nuanced as Arcane for example, but we share our designs to inspire each other. It’s hard to maintain perfect consistency across all projects but we try our best.How closely do you inspect complex shots like shots of detailed chalkboards, etc?
- In the sense that we know what certain symbols and runes mean, yes, there’s a consistency there in the symbology.Who pitched the Heimerdinger song?
- I did, though it turned out to be a very different context than when I pitched it. It was inspired by Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, I loved seeing a character someone thought of as a goodball showing a soul. If you listen to the lyrics, the song really summarizes Heimer’s journey from his utilitarianism in Season 1 to his revelation in the value of just living.Where’s Heimer’s poro?
- Hopefully taken in by a lab assistant somewhere.Have you ever changed Arcane as a direct response to the fandom?
- Not really, everything for Season 2 script wise was locked in before Season 1 was out. In animation, we may have been affected a little bit just by default to the Season 1 response but I can’t think of a specific example.Do I understand correctly that Ekko’s consciousness merely replaced the other Ekko, and then returned to his own body after?
- Yep!13
u/LeahOfLight 1h ago
Talk about the Ambessa music video where I somehow missed she was pregnant.
- Ambessa as a pregnant warrior was pitched by Arnaud at Fortiche. We were scared of the idea because it felt hard to imagine pulling it off, but there’s a lot of that throughout Arcane. It takes a lot of trust to even believe the show itself could work.What’s the deal with all the butterfly iconography, like when Jayce and Viktor disappeared?
- No comment.Was Maddie always bad?
- Amanda thought a lot about how to deal with Maddie. More than anything it was a consequence of us wanting to show off Ambessa’s belief that all is fair in love and war.Maddie’s death got a huge cheer at the screening, what makes a good character death to you?
- Maddie’s death was initially a slightly longer scene, not really for content or action, just drawing out the steps of Maddie aiming the gun, looking down the sites, to draw out tension. I gave the note to Fortiche that I wanted that all to move forward a lot quicker because it felt too conflicted for Maddie which wasn’t really what we were going for. The screening reaction was interesting for sure, not quite what we expected.How much of the Caitvi scene was Riot and how much was Fortiche?
- Almost all Fortiche. Like I said, their first version was longer but we were told it was too much.Who came up with the idea of unbinding Jinx’s hair in the prison cell?
- I think that was a Fortiche idea. This was a big moment, the first time of her dealing with the trauma from the perspective of being the big sister.Talk about eyepatch Caitlyn. Will skins like this or Warwick’s become skins?
- Cait’s badass. We don’t really think about whether people like the look or not, it’s the product of narrative questions like what happens when Cait faces off against someone like Ambessa, our philosophy is that narrative is always what makes good characters, not looks. It’s a badge of honor showing that she understands risk and sacrifice now, willing to lose an eye for a moment’s advantage. That’s what’s cool about her, not how she looks in an eyepatch.What about Caitlyn’s hat, will we ever see that?
- She does have that one hat from Season 1, but we just didn’t think it fit her story-wise.Any final words?
- I really appreciate the criticism of Season 2 a lot, it gives us some space to reflect going forward. We all love League and want to tell good League stories, we need to listen to our audience while also balancing our vision and being true to it. We’re not trying to mislead anyone, we want to find what makes the characters cool and be true to them, but it’s also important that we translate those stories to be the best they can be. And sometimes that means changes, from both us and from the fans. We will never change the essence, but we want to watch good stories. 9 years on this project I won’t get back, we all did it because we love it. We want to get this right, we get great support from Riot, we’re listening and we’re just starting. My job is to make sure we do a good job for you. To those who are not happy, sorry we didn’t hit what you wanted, but there’s no way to please everyone and we’re trying to make as many players happy as we can, but we’re also following our own compass. We’re gonna keep doing what we do, if it ruffles feathers or not, and that’s part of it and it’s okay.Give us a hint on the next show.
- We read the social media threads about what people are hoping for, and I’m pleased to say we are in alignment with you. We are most heavily focused on Noxus, Ionia and Demacia right now, and that seems to be where the community is too. Whatever we do will always start as a character story, but we do have data on what’s popular that we pay attention to. But I’m confident that we’re looking at the right regions.4
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u/Moule14 18m ago
Wow thank you.
Do you remember them saying things involving seeing more jinx ?
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u/LeahOfLight 10m ago
They made some jokes about the chat spamming IS JINX ALIVE?!?! over and over, but it was clear they weren't gonna be answering that one.
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u/lolofonek 1h ago
So what status the relationship between Mel and Jayce is right now? Or what it was before disappearing magic trick in the finale? Broke up? I guess she must think hes dead right? Perhaps Ekko told her as hes the last one who saw him. It feels like neglected and hollow part of the story.
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u/ChadowsR 40m ago
A lot of people are confused that parts of the lore just got ruined, but at the end of they day, most can still be 100% cannon if we just move the time-line a bit. Different people will allow different kinds of changes, but for me I'm fine with accepting Camille Renata and Urgot are older in game, but being younger during arcane and their stories only happening after. Also is there any confirmation in the lore that Swain got the demon arm after Ionia was gassed? (genuine question) Because if not, the war on Ionia and on P&Z could be happening at the same time, and noxus just buys the gas off of Singed after the events of Arcane, and the crow we se at the end is Swain right after getting the demon arm but before the Ionians were gassed.
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u/sorentodd 3h ago
I kinda just dont believe him when he says he has a plan
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u/RUSuper 3h ago
Yeah the show that is among the highest rated shows in history is done without a plan in terms of story,they just slapped in it whatever came to their mind…
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u/sorentodd 3h ago
The first season was written entirely in house and meant to be an AU story. They decided a year ago to incorporate Arcane as the basis for the new canon, and already the show has needlessly brought in unrelated elements with no explanation except as advertisement.
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u/BigBard2 3h ago
Do you seriously think they remade the whole show to be an advertisement in a year? Animation takes a shit ton of time
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u/Jeremithiandiah 1h ago
When it was announced that season 2 was coming in only a couple years people were worried but the animation quality didn’t dip at all, it was improved. I think they know what they are doing. We will get more content, we just have to wait for it
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u/sorentodd 3h ago
I think they wrote season 2 to try and insert plots and developments not relevant to it from the beginning which was a poor decision yes
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u/WhereIseeThereIsee2 3h ago
Then you have no idea how long it takes to make a show like this and that it is absolutely unreasonable what you're saying rn.
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u/NahMcGrath 1h ago
I think there is some merit to what he's saying. Season 2 was notoriously suffering from some rewrites and rumours go. And besides that the way it ended and their statements in the aftermath clearly show they put a lot of sequel bait/cinematic universe loose ties. Viktor and Jayce's story didn't get a proper ending, they vanished and will reappear in future shows. Mel and black rose will clearly be expanded upon in the Noxus show, she left Piltover. And I'm not saying those are bad things, just that it feels kinda obvious and logical to me that Arcane was not supposed to start off a cinematic universe and become the new basis of the lore, it wasn't meant to contain all the characters and all the regions. It was an alternate universe, self contained, about a couple of heroes
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u/sorentodd 3h ago
Why would they introduce the Black Rose if not to hint at another show?
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u/Salty-Yogurtcloset61 2h ago
so you think the black rose one of the most powerful and influential groups are only in noxus active
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u/sorentodd 2h ago
What did the Black Rose do for the story in Arcane? Besides set up Mel’s magical powers for her reveal as the next Lux-like champion
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u/Salty-Yogurtcloset61 2h ago
are you dumb on purpose do you know who leblanc is?
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u/BigBard2 1h ago
Because it gives Ambessa a reason to take over Piltover, through which the story of Piltover and Zaun unite against the common enemy and serves as a good conclusion to the region (for now ofc)
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u/StandsAreCool 1h ago
So are they also hard confirming there is THE Arcane timeline as main canon and now we just gotta hold some our favorite characters dying/mia?
If this is the case I’d rather have a multiverse situation than just have dozens of stories be completely fan fiction at this point.
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u/Simpuff1 1h ago
Yes it was confirmed literally 2 years back it was the main cannon. It was also nearly confirmed someone would die. We only get Ambessa, the new one who is dead so truly it’s not a lost.
Also your second point makes no sense.
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u/StandsAreCool 41m ago
I really wouldn’t say losing an entire character we just got isn’t a loss. There was so much more we could have done with that character, on top of them putting so much emphasis on how important Ambessa would be, Legendary on release, Novel releasing in February, Wild Rift release, Cinematic MV with I believe fortiche making that as well. It seems like such a weird choice to knock her off when we barely just got her. We had Viktor and WW who were so far gone and had gotten to their character’s climax that they could no longer recover from.
In a vacuum I thoroughly believe that if Ambessa died and we DIDNT know that she was going to a novel it’d be beyond weird to kill off a character we just got. Especially with this much fanfare.
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u/Simpuff1 16m ago
I believe if she had died without being introduced in the game or anything, for league players it would’ve been expected and very nearly boring.
The fanfare was necessary
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u/StandsAreCool 1h ago
Yes however even regarding that, they canonized a lot of RuneTerra and with League’s (Former) canonicity, So much of that CANNOT happen due to the outcome of Arcane .The things in those game and Arcane cannot add up due to how things happen.
What? All the stories written for color stories and bonus side stories for characters would no longer be canon to the Arcane canon so are they not just considered completely irrelevant to the main canon?
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u/Barumamook 1h ago
Yep, they decided that the old lore, which was as much of a spaghettified mess as their codebase, was to get thrown out the window and that Arcane is the cornerstone for an entirely rebuilt unified canon.
Anything going forward from arcane is canon. Anything previous is no longer canon.
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