Ever since Arcane arrived to the League of Legends universe, it has completely turned canonicity on its head. It explores and redefines several backstories, sets new ground rules for magic and the existence of mages, and expands on the conflict between Piltover and Zaun.
Riot Games confirmed that Arcane is canon not only to League of Legends, but any other lore going forward. This makes Arcane a great gateway for newcomers into the world of Runeterra. Many characters that appeared on the series have their stories continued elsewhere, some more canon than others.
This article will contain heavy spoilers for Arcane’s two seasons.
Jinx
Jinx’s backstory in League of Legends started out as relatively vague, nothing beyond a crazed gunman in Piltover and Zaun creating as much chaos as she possibly can. Her backstory initially gave her some distant links as Vi’s sister, and her origins were deepened with Warwick’s rework in 2017, linking her with the wolfman as well.
Jinx’s depth shown in Arcane is completely absent in other iterations of her character. While Arcane shows her as having a definite arc and a spiral into madness, her original design is closer to somebody like the Joker—a force of nature and a problem to solve, and little more than that.
In-game, she’s an attack damage carry who thrives in exhilarating, fast-paced fights and depends on resets from takedowns to ramp up further in speed. She’s been a staple of the ADC role ever since her release all the way back in 2013, maintaining a high pick rate over the 12 years since.
Vi
Vi’s backstory was originally a lot thinner than in Arcane’s. In fact, it was non-existent.
Her first origins were that of an amnesiac orphan who found herself a job as an Enforcer, armed with nothing but a pair of gauntlets and a mysterious “VI” tattooed on her face, which she adopted as a name.
The second rendition of her backstory more closely resemble her backstory in Arcane. Hailing from an orphanage in Zaun and notably an only child, Vi found herself in the mentorship of a barkeep in the undercity, and tempered her into an independent grunt. One day, a failed heist spoiled by a rival gang left her in a mine trapped with innocent bystanders. Unwilling to leave without them, she grabbed a set of pulverizer gauntlets and punched her way out, before bee-lining straight for the rival gang that set her up. She disappeared shortly after, returning as the assistant to the sheriff, Caitlyn.
In League of Legends, Vi is a jungler focused on hitting hard and hitting fast, initiating fights, and isolating enemy carries with her crowd control. Her value comes from forcing fights, creating space for her team, and making trouble in the enemy backline.
Jayce Talis
Jayce’s backstory in League of Legends pits him closer to a character like Tony Stark. He’s devoid of any ethical conflicts that arise from his decisions—he’s the poster boy of Piltover, confident, idealistic, intelligent, and a hero of the people, completely divorced from politics or governance.
Most things in life came easy to the natural genius and inventor, and the only peer who could compete with him was Viktor. They worked together before disagreeing on an implant that could make dockworkers ten times as strong and incapable of tiring, but also incapable of disagreeing with orders. Viktor was stripped of his title and honors in Piltover, while Jayce went on to refine brackern crystals into Hextech. Refusing to give Viktor the crystals to power his project on the Glorious Evolution, Jayce instead used them to create weapons to defend his inventions from evil.
In-game, Jayce is a top-laner and mid-laner, and a unique, flexible blend between a fighter and a mage. He’s one of the unique category of shapeshifters in the game, being able to use his ultimate to change his kit of abilities on the fly. He can choose between a hammer form equipped for heavy burst damage at melee range, and a cannon form capable of long-range poke. He’s had various standout moments in high-elo gameplay, where his flexibility, side lane control and map pressure have been staples of professional play for several years.
Viktor
Viktor’s original backstory differs greatly from Arcane’s, much to the distaste of many Viktor mains who have stayed through his change into his Netflix iteration. Initially, Viktor was a zaunite inventor who theorized that most of the issues with technology are due to human error, rather than mechanical error. He specialized in robotics, creating golems and workers in the hopes of creating safer working environments. His work in Zaun earned him a place in the Academy of Techmaturgy in Piltover, where he met his peer, Jayce.
After his disdain of free will became evident, he was stripped of his title, however. He saw this as a personal human error of his own, and started on the path of the Glorious Evolution, stripping his flesh for metal, and removing the parts of his psyche that relied on emotion. Still the same idealist who sought to save lives, he journeyed to invite others to do the same, creating the Cult of the Glorious Evolved and scouring Zaun for increasingly more followers.
In-game, Viktor is a mid-laner and a control mage, who relies on zoning and controlling space to land his high-damage abilities. He excels as a high-damage artillery mage, capable of dealing massive AoE damage with his abilities from the safety of the backline.
Mel Medarda
Mel was introduced in League of Legends after her appearance in Arcane, so she has never had an “original” backstory. The daughter of a Noxian warlord, Mel Medarda was disowned and banished from Noxus, sent to Piltover to “oversee” her family’s interests. In her stead, her mother Ambessa would pick Rell as a backup heir.
After the events of Arcane, with her mother and her brother dead, and Rell captured by the Black Rose, Mel returns to Noxus to pick up the mantle of matron of Clan Medarda.
In-game, Mel is a mid-lane control mage who excels in long fights, thanks to her passive that executes enemies if they’ve been hit with enough of her abilities. The most unique part of her kit, however, is her W (Rebuttal), a protective ability that lets her become invulnerable for a short duration and reflect spells back to the enemy team, including ultimate abilities.
Ambessa Medarda
Ambessa is yet another character introduced in Arcane before League of Legends, and thus, has no differences with her League of Legends counterpart. Her backstory is explored through the novel Chosen of the Wolf, which narrates her past as a warlord, her encounters with the Black Rose and Ambessa’s rise to power as the head of Clan Medarda.
Through both the novel and cinematics, we find that Ambessa is a religious worshipper of the Wolf, the side of Runeterra’s personification of death that represents a violent demise and those who fight for their lives until their very end, rather than accept their fate. After an encounter with the Kindred during a near-death experience, she participates and eventually wins the Medardan Succession War.
In-game, Ambessa is a top-lane bruiser who specializes in high mobility, being able to dash a short distance after each of her abilities. She excels in aggressive skirmishes and requires careful management of her resources and good knowledge of her damage windows and limitations.
Caitlyn Kiramman
Caitlyn’s backstory is quite similar to her original. Born to a wealthy merchant family in Piltover, a young Caitlyn Kiramman returned home one day to find her home ransacked, her retainers dead, and her parents missing. Using her experience in her hunting hobby, she tracked down the kidnappers and helped his family escape, before alerting the Wardens of Piltover.
Although the kidnappers were caught, none of them personally knew the person who hired them, who only gave them the moniker “C”. Caitlyn developed an obsession, and investigated the matter for years and established herself as a private investigator. Her work earned the recognition of her parents, who gifted her a Hextech rifle, and the Wardens, who offered her a position in law enforcement.
She quickly climbed the ranks all the way to the Sheriff of Piltover. However, she has not been able to track down her parents’ kidnapper. It’s currently unconfirmed, but it’s most likely “C” refers to Camille, another Piltovan champion.
In-game, Caitlyn is an attack damage carry who sports one of the largest effective ranges in the game and incredible zone control with her traps. Her range in the early game has earned her a reputation for one of the staple early lane bullies who excel in early dominance.
Cecil B. Heimerdinger
Thanks to the strange plot device that is Hextech and its differences in League of Legends, Heimerdinger is one of the characters whose backstories differ the most.
The yordle Cecil B. Heimerdinger is one of the most esteemed inventors Runeterra has known. Contrary to the anti-mage pacifist he appears in Arcane, the original Heimerdinger has gleefully developed weaponry, including a t-rex powered by Hextech. He acts much more like your stereotypical yordle, being driven by little more than a vague sense of progress and uncomparable genius.
In-game, Heimerdinger is a top-lane and mid-lane control mage who specializes in controlling space with his turrets. He focuses on controlling objectives and lanes, establishing a strong presence in one zone of the map, but giving up the flexibility of roaming around the map. The game has become increasingly faster over the years and rewarded flexibility and fast-paced gameplay more and more, which has left Heimerdinger in the dust over time. His pick rate in all scenes has steadily dropped over the years, leaving him within the niche of a top-lane mage centered on early lane control.
Ekko
Contrary to Arcane, Ekko in League of Legends heavily centers around his ability to bend time using his Z-Drive. A gifted boy genius, Ekko developed an early sense of patriotism and belonging in Zaun, forming a small gang known as the Lost Children of Zaun who embraced the values of street-smarts and inventiveness.
In his teens, he invented the Z-Drive, a device capable of rewinding time for a few seconds. Despite the fact that such an invention could easily earn him a spot in the Academy of Techmaturgy in Piltover, he instead kept it for himself. He now uses the device to protect his gang and Zaun as a whole, despite the physical toll of its repeated use.
In-game, Ekko is a jungler and mid-lane assassin who excels at skirmishing and roaming, leveraging his high burst damage and mobility to assassinate priority targets, before returning to a position in the past with his ultimate.
Singed
Singed, or Dr. Corin Reveck before his exile, faces some small changes in his backstory from League of Legends, with some very large ramifications.
Originally, Singed and Dr. Reveck were completely separate characters. Singed was a chemist from Piltover, and a vocal critic of Hextech in its early stages. He would lose all funding after Hextech’s success, and move to Zaun, where he would prove that Chemtech could work just as well. There, he conducted inhumane experiments with the leftover resources he had. He developed alchemical weapons for Noxus, which they used to great effect in their invasion in Ionia, and created Warwick on little more than a whim.
Dr. Reveck, on the other hand, was an inventor from Piltover who specialized in prosthetics, replacing her sick daughter limb from limb, before saving her from death with Hextech. In a tragic turn of events, his daughter Orianna would give him her Hextech heart to keep him alive, giving up her sentience.
In-game, Singed is an unconventional top-lane wildcard whose gameplan revolves around spreading toxic gas and enticing enemies to chase him through it. He thrives on disruption, running into the back line and generally making himself a problem for the enemy carries. He also specializes in pushing side lanes, since his fast speed and poison trail make him too much of a problem when faced alone.
Vander
Vander, known as Warwick after his transformation, only gets his real name during Arcane. In League of Legends, he was an unnamed gangster who renounced his life of crime, before being kidnapped and experimented on by Singed. After years of surgeries, vivisections and experiments, he was left to die in the sump before he mysteriously came back to life.
He is now a grotesque chimera of a man and wolf who roams and hunts in Zaun, but the man who he once was fights against the beast. Warwick does not prey on innocents, instead targeting the thugs and rich chembarons he used to work for, blaming them for who he has become.
In-game, Warwick is a jungler with the unique ability to track low-health targets globally across the map. He’s a durable bruiser who’s able to heal himself in combat, disrupting the backline or frontlining for his team as necessary. His health tracking also enables him to show up to any fight almost immediately, and dash to pick off low health targets at a ridiculous range.
Conclusion
Do keep in mind that, since Arcane’s release, none of the previous backstories are considered canon.
If you want to experience League of Legends for the first time as an Arcane viewer, starting with one of your favourite characters is a great place to start. If Arcane inspired you to try League of Legends, the fastest way to get into real matches is with a level 30 unranked account.
