This actually came up really recently on ‘The Path to Hearth-Home’ folk song teaser for new champ Ornn. The lyrics were originally in English (as they usually would be for a Riot-produced song track) but we get a lot of feedback from players around the world that this feels like it favors NA over all other regions… so we decided to try something different, and have them sung in ancient Freljordian instead!

If we assume the people of the Freljord now speak some modern Runeterran language, this had to feel like a much older root of it, probably one that’s not been widely spoken for centuries or longer (like Latin, Old English or Old Aramaic in the real world).

Writer Matt Dunn and composer Kole Hicks worked on getting the tone of the song just right, with lots of imagery that ties into Ornn’s lore. We then sat down and discussed what kind of sound we wanted from the language — like when we name champions too, I guess? The word Freljord roughly translates as “frozen ground” in some Nordic dialects, so that was an obvious starting point. We worked in speech patterns and vowel sounds from Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, even a bit of German. It’s turned out nothing really like any of those, and yet all of them at the same time.

Language and lore are a major part of what gives the champions and Runeterra a unique style and feel. It’s a great shorthand way of tying new lore to things we already recognise, and I’d love to explore this a lot more with the writers in future.

The responses I’ve seen from players so far has been amazing! There are even a few cover versions already, with some very talented singers trying it in their own languages — yes, including English!