The “Dreamlit Paths” expansion for Legends of Runeterra (LoR) is officially live as of Wednesday, April 24th, and I’ve already started working my way through the new quests! Granted, this new expansion comes with a good deal of baggage from behind the scenes: this is LoR’s first — and final — full-scale expansion following Riot Games’ decision to ax 11% of their global workforce — that’s 530 people — as well as having to deal with budget cuts and staff reductions that have forced the people working on LoR to redirect their focus towards long-term sustainability. That’s why I want to support the people working on the game I love, so I’m going to dedicate an entire article to talking about the new expansion and why it slaps.
Legends of Runeterra is a digital collectible card game that utilizes the champions and worldbuilding from Riot’s flagship game, League of Legends. LoR’s gameplay involves players taking turns drawing or playing cards against each other — or casting spells in reaction to any cards played — with the ultimate goal of reducing the other player’s health to zero. Every card in the game belongs to a specific region, of which there are eleven in total; every region has its own distinct playstyle and card archetypes, but I’m going to focus on the narrative of the new expansion, instead.
“Dreamlit Paths” is not only LoR’s latest expansion, but it’s also the newest ongoing set, which is a large group of thematically relevant group of cards released over multiple smaller expansions meant to tell the larger, overarching narrative of the set. As for the finer details regarding the story the set is going to tell, “Dreamlit Paths” will be following three of League’s champions, who must fight a malevolent presence corrupting the realm of dreams before it traps them forever within their own nightmares. In the coming months, another expansion will continue the story set up by “Dreamlit Paths” with a new group of champions and, hopefully, a reveal as to what exactly the corrupting presence is.
Lillia’s lore is very dense, so long story short, she’s a fae creature born from the Dreaming Tree, an ancient tree that gathers and spreads the magic of humanity’s dreams captured in its blooms. After spending most of her life witnessing humanity from afar by tending to their dreams, she eventually makes the difficult decision to take up a branch of the Dreaming Tree and travel both the waking and dream world in order to help people realize their own dreams.
In “Dreamlit Paths”, it’s Lillia who first sees the nightmarish presence taking root in the dream realm, and makes the decision to enter the dream realm and help those whose dreams are becoming corrupted, preventing them from being trapped within their own nightmares and the Dream Tree from being corrupted, as well.
Vex is the character I’m most looking forward to playing in this expansion. She’s an immortal spirit creature known throughout Runeterra as yordles, many of whom dwell in the whimsical, fae-like realm of Bandle City. However, whereas many yordles are endlessly exuberant and happy-go-lucky, Vex is exactly the opposite: she’s a spitting image of a depressed, emo teenager, and is both endlessly repulsed by the merriment of the denizens of Bandle City and deeply haunted by the fact that she can never truly die.
However, after traveling to the Shadow Isles, a blighted island plagued by cursed Black Mist and swarms of undead monsters and spirits. There, Vex’s innate yordle magic was amplified and given new life in the form of her Shadow, having been granted sentience and a host of new magical abilities to protect Vex as the first — and only — being who truly understands her. And in “Dreamlit Paths”, the way her dreams have started to become corrupted is the simplest, but also the funniest: she’s been invited to a surprise birthday party, and must now fight through a horde of Joker-grinning yordles with Lillia’s assistance.
What’s interesting to note about Lux is that she already has her own unique champion card in the game, and was part of the first major batch of cards from the game’s official release. And while Lux getting a second card instead of coming up with something new for any of the other 166 champions in the League of Legends roster, I can appreciate the concept they decided to go with for the role she’s going to play in the narrative of “Dreamlit Paths”.
Lux’s main region is Demacia, a kingdom that prides itself on being the pinnacle of virtue and chivalry, but in reality, possesses a deep hatred towards magic in all its forms, so much so that they have a task force known as the Mageseekers who are dedicated to hunting down, imprisoning, and torturing any mages living in Demacia. Despite being a mage herself, Lux has evaded the Mageseekers simply by being born into a noble family who can bribe the Mageseekers to look the other way, and covertly uses her status and influence to help other mages evacuate Demacia’s capital city.
In “Dreamlit Paths”, Lux: Illuminated is her literal dream self: a talented mage beloved by everyone in Demacia, who no longer has to hide her powers in fear of being persecuted. However, lurking deeper within the depths of this new Demacia is a nightmarish presence, corrupting her dream of a better Demacia and threatening to trap her there forever. And even though Lux is fully prepared to step up to bat, there’s always the underlying knowledge that she’ll ultimately have to wake up, and in one of her interactions with Lillia, Lux questions if she’ll have to go back to hiding her powers away once she does.
Many people have already begun theorizing as to which champion is going to serve as the mysterious final villain of “Dreamlit Paths”, with the two main contenders being Nocturne, a lesser demon that feeds on nightmares, and Fiddlesticks, a primordial greater demon that feasts on fear and steals the voices of its victims. I’m personally hoping for Fiddlesticks because he’s not just a cooler demon than Nocturne, but Fiddlesticks getting a card in LoR also means his lore is going to be expanded! League is infamous for choosing to prioritize the release of new champions over reworking their older, much jankier champions, progressing the lore of the champions they already have, or giving lore to champions who don’t even have any concrete lore.
Legends of Runeterra, however, gives every champion they add to the game groups of follower cards that expand on their lore and their characterization — giving them new friends or travelling companions, enemies to fight, and even central locations for their stories to take place. If Fiddlesticks does end up being picked as the central champion of the next expansion, I’m hoping his follower cards will progress his lore in the same way — maybe by giving him some subservient lesser demons or even some victims for him to kill. But until the next expansion rolls around and confirms who it’s going to be, I’m going to boot up the game and start grinding for those sweet, sweet cosmetic rewards.