Chapter 01 · Frostguard Citadel
Ice that does not melt. Tribes that do not kneel.
Pre-reset
Named by Riot among the regions players would explore. That was the vision before the March 2024 reset.
2020Announced
2024Reset
2030Before
13Regions
The record
What is actually known
Six years, two directors, one reset. Every entry below is dated and sourced, and carries the status we give it: confirmed, reported, pre-reset, or rumour.
Teased
Riot hints at an MMO during its tenth-anniversary broadcast. No name, no footage.
Announced
Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, formerly WoW’s lead systems designer, confirms a Runeterra MMO is in development.
Street leaves
The project’s public face departs Riot after nine years. In October the MMO is folded into the unified Runeterra canon.
The reset
Marc Merrill restarts the vision: the first one “wasn’t different enough.” Fabrice Condominas, ex-BioWare, becomes Executive Producer. The team goes dark.
“Most of my time”
At the DICE Summit, Merrill calls it probably the project he spends the most time on. The MMO had lost its technical director two months earlier.
The WoW veterans
Raymond Bartos, former lead producer on World of Warcraft, joins in January. Brian Holinka, its former lead combat designer, follows in June.
The only window
Merrill’s single public statement on timing. Anything more precise is an estimate, and we will say so when we quote one.
Blog
From the atlas
Follow the latest news and know everything about Riot’s next MMO.
Janna: the Storm's Fury, explained
A wind spirit the Shuriman coast named guardian, who held back the sea the day Zaun's districts fell into it; in the Riot MMO, a god you pray to, not a character.
Ezreal: the Prodigal Explorer, explained
A Piltovan explorer with a god-warrior's gauntlet, chasing fame so his missing parents will find him; in the Riot MMO, the rival who reaches the ruin first.
Shurima: the empire under the sand and the emperor who returned
Eleven champions, a machine that made gods, and a capital that rose out of the desert in living memory. What Shurima is, and why it is the Riot MMO's end-game.
Nunu & Willump: the Boy and His Yeti, explained
A Notai boy with a flute who went to slay a monster and befriended it instead, carrying the last yeti magic across the Freljord, and a Riot MMO escort quest.
Dr. Mundo: the Madman of Zaun, explained
A chem-baron's enforcer tortured in Osweld Asylum until he mistook his restraining jacket for a doctor's coat; in the Riot MMO, a regenerating dungeon boss.
Zaun: the undercity, chemtech, and the people Piltover forgot
Fourteen champions, most of Arcane's cast, and a technology that does what hextech will not. What Zaun is, who holds it, and why it is the MMO's busiest zone.
Lux: the Lady of Luminosity, explained
A Crownguard daughter who hid her light magic in a kingdom that forbids it, and the Riot MMO's most obvious guide to Demacia's problem with mages.
The atlas while we wait
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