Arcane, League of Legends' excellent anime spin-off, will end with Season 2 - but with news that Riot and animation studio Fortiche haven't finished telling stories in its universe, fans are already theorizing where future series might be set.
"Arcane is just the beginning of our larger storytelling journey and partnership with the wonderful animation studio that is Fortiche," Arcane co-creator Christian Linke told fans. "From the very beginning, since we started working on this project, we had a very specific ending in mind, which means the story of Arcane wraps up with this second season. But Arcane is just the first of many stories that we want to tell in Runeterra."
The League of Legends community has long since latched onto the other stories that could be told in a manner similar to Arcane. There's the Ruination, a tragic story of lost love that's the origin story for several champions and has already been adapted and expanded in both a game and a novel. There's the Demacian civil war, depicted in part in a musical trailer several years ago, or the conflict over the Freljord, a frozen waste home to both a trio of gods and three warring tribes, or the Fall of Icathia.
Runeterra is a land rich in stories, but there are two that currently stand out as strong follow-ups for Fortiche. The first takes our attention to Targon, an isolated land a long way from the mean streets of Zaun, where civilization is built around the foothills of a mythical mountain. There, the religious groups of the Solari and Lunari fight over their respective worship of the Sun and Moon. Champions Leona and Diana are 'sun and moon canon lesbians' mentioned in the tweet below, with an angsty rivalry that feels like the perfect fit for Arcane's storytelling, but there are plenty of champions that would be an excellent tangential fit for the world.
if you like caitlyn and vi but don't know about leona and diana (sun and moon canon lesbians) i urge you to look up their angsty story immediately pic.twitter.com/UEfRTi5eM4June 11, 2024
An even more compelling theory, however, pertains to the Noxian invasion of Ionia. Noxus, a warmongering nation, is already working with the citizens of Piltover in the final episodes of Arcane's first season. In the recent trailer, we see the Enforcers come face to face with Singed, the scientist who appears briefly in season one and is a key part of one major season two characters' arc. In his official biography, Singed eventually finds his way toward working with Noxus - "who contracted the alchymist to help [...] break the bitter stalemate of the war in Ionia."
Noxus is working with Pilties and they arrest Singed and he tells them he knows how to make shimmer and he can sell that to Noxus as war chem weapon, boom, lead-up to Ionia series pic.twitter.com/l5KhFdQ9MhJune 11, 2024
It would be a strong setup for a new series. Not only is the Ionia conflict one of League's oldest yet least well-told stories, but it would work as an ideal bridge for a new Fortiche project. Neither directly linked to Arcane nor so distant from it as to be entirely brand-new, it would offer an excellent next step into a story that could still involve a wide array of champions.
We've still got several months to wait for Arcane, so I imagine we're several years away from discovering what Riot and Fortiche are cooking up next. Nevertheless, there's a treasure trove of stories to pull from, so I'm excited to see what's to come.
