League of Legends: Skin Lines Lore

Skins are, by far, one of the most fun parts about League of Legends. On top of being good rewards, they also function as part of the personal and artistic expression that players can have during the match.

A less known fact about skins is that most of their lines are not just a theme outside the core game, but parallel worlds with their own lore, where some of them are just different possibilities inside the Runeterra storyline while others are just entirely different universes.

In this article, we will talk about the lore and themes behind some of the most famous skins in League of Legends!

Set in a parallel universe where cults rule the world, the Blood Moon cult is organized to adore an entity of the same name which manifests itself in an eclipse where the moon turns red colored, a portal to a mirrored dimension is opened, and demonic spirits are freed to mingle with humans, each spirit represented by a mask and the person possessed by it wears the mask as a symbol of this junction.

All the Blood Moon members wear these masks, them being: Twisted Fate, cult leader, Sivir, the incarnation of the blood moon, destined to be the consort to the primordial demon Aatrox, Zilean is an amalgamation of spirits which have the ability to mold time and make the eclipse occur so that the portal can be opened.

The other members are: Akali, Elise, Evelinn, Jihn, Katarina, Master Yi, Pyke, Shen, Talon, Tresh, Tryndamare, Yasuo and Kennen, each with a fundamental place in the cult and all awaiting the arrival of the primordial demon Aatrox to fulfill his ancient prophecy of destruction.

In a cyberpunk future, Zaun, Piltover and the rest of the world fell into the claws of a megacorporation denominated Project, which kidnaps people to execute experiences in cybernetic enhancements to serve their own ends of maintaining world domination.

Some victims of this corporation rebel against it, creating G-Netic, a group of enhanced which have once served Project and united under Ashe’s command to free the world from the megacorporation and bring justice to the people the system has victimized.

Also fighting against Project, there are the Renegades, civilian victims who had their bodies enhanced against their will. However, unlike the G-netics who betrayed the corporation, the renegades were simply thrown out due to not working properly, all of them got together and swore revenge on Project.

On the side of the corporation, there are the Hunters, enhanced units created to bring order to the cities and hunt down the renegades, working as a police unit and a Project arm on the streets. To fight against G-Netic, a new plan was constructed, where the Cybernetics were created, top-shelf enhanced units, with the best technology Project can provide. These units are commanded by the A.I. Lissandra, which eventually developed a conscience of her own and threatens both the existence of the megacorporation and of the rest of the world.

In a parallel world, set in a wild west style, humans need to survive the battle between angels and demons, some end up giving into primal desires and/or necessity and make deals with the devils, then spending their entire lives running from their binding contracts, or trying to hunt down the demons to get their souls back. Others, however, are blessed by the divinities which survived the destruction of heaven and try to rid the world of demonic influence.

Even though it’s very popular and there’s a good number of skins released, the High Noon skin line still doesn’t have the best explored lore.

In this universe, the champions are artists, musicians of great prestige and fame, some having solo careers like DJ Sona and Popstar Ahri.

After a pause in her solo career, Ahri meets Akali, Kai’sa and Evelynn, and they form KDA, a k-pop girl band which revolutionized the musical industry. With all of that success, Akali realizes that it was the mixture of their multiple artistic styles which got them to stardom. Trying to learn more and consolidate her career, she traveled around the world and met a veteran producer named Yasuo. Together, they recruited other artists: Ekko, Senna and Qiyana and formed the group TrueDamage.

Different from the KDA, which focuses more on K-pop style as a base for their music, TrueDamage went beyond and brought elements from american hip-hop and latin music, having Ekko as their rapper, Akali, Senna and Qiyana in melodic vocals, and Yasuo as a DJ.

In Brazil, the musician, composer and poet Emicida voiced Ekko in this skin, strengthening even more the representation that the character brings to our context.

Being KDA fans and following in their footsteps, Heartsteel is a boyband formed by Ez in the vocals alongside K’sante, the group leader. Kayn and Sett come in as rappers, Aphelios as instrumentalist and composer, and Yone is the group’s producer.

Pentakill was Riot’s first musical project, being a Heavy Metal band, in their shows and story the band mixes fantasy elements, as if they had been chosen by the metal gods for the success. The original members are Karthus on vocals, Mordekaiser playing the guitar, Yorick playing bass, Sona playing keyboard and Olaf rocking the drums. After some time, Kayle joined too, as vocalist, alongside Viego, but he was sort of an “antagonist” to them.

Inside Riot’s musical universe, all the bands reference each other in the promotional material for the skin lines, and all the groups’s musical content is real, having singles released by pop music groups and two full albums from Pentakill, they’re all excellent tracks and worth the time to be listened to, if they are within your music taste.

These were a few of the stories for some of the most popular skin lines, some having their universe much better detailed than other lines, while new Riot releases tend to update or reboot the lore for others still.

Don’t forget to check out my Mordekaiser guide, and go after that M7.

See you next time!