I was responding to Galgus suggestions on why there might not be people in the Kumungu. I wasn't responding to any existing lore. It's true I made a big assumption based off what he said, but if Riot did put into their lore that the former inhabitants of the Kumungu were driven out by the Rune Wars... I think its an assumption that people would make (that the Kumungu people must have been "weaker" than everybody else engaged in the Rune Wars). I can't help but think that a lot of people would make those kind of inferences based on the patterns that they see in modern media.

I didn't say inferior primitives because I don't think less technologically developed people are either of those things, but I think some people might see it that way. I figure that since Ionia (the easternmost part of Runeterra) is inspired by a lot of Asian culture, Demacia (the western part) is inspired by a lot of European fuedalism, and Shurima (the desert part) is inspired by the middle-east, LoL players are going to assume that Kumungu (the jungle) is inspired by the Amazon/Congo/Southeast Asia. In which case I think it wouldn't be responsible to make those people extinct with no explanation. Especially since we do have champions from that area, but they are all animals.

Why weren't the animals driven out by the Rune Wars? The existing storyline reads to reinforce the idea of jungles as too dangerous for people, which isn't true at all. If every other part of Valoran gets to have a human population (even Zaun and Kalamanda -- which were also both probably pretty scarred from dark magics), I don't see why Kumungu doesn't get to have a human population too.

I didn't get the chance to reply to your original statement. I do think that the Kumungu is inspired by New-World rainforests too. The existence of cougars and armadillos, which only live in the Americas, is definitely not inspired by Africa or India. But there really isn't enough lore to get a good picture of where the inspiration for the Kumungu jungle came from. Probably because all the Kumungu lore we have to work with so far is based off animals. Rengar is a lion, and that is definitely an Old-World animal. I will go out on a limb - and I admit that I am making a big assumption here - and say that maybe it's because Riot wants to be able to use some of the more "exotic" animals in its video game without having to deal with some of the more "exotic" peoples. Much like the Lion King and Tarzan movies have avoided featuring Africans in their movies set in Africa. People want to set their stories in jungle settings so they get to draw all those cool animals... but they often ignore the people that live there.

That takes me back to my original statement: Nidalee's lore seems to borrow heavily from the "Great White Ape" stories, and I think those storylines themselves are a little outdated and unfair to tropical peoples.

You have a good point, it wouldn't make sense to have a large civilization wiped out as a complete sidenote when bitter enemies survived a sort of mutually assured destruction scenario.

Because of the aforementioned treasures, it is obvious that there was a civilization there at some point- and I don't see any good reason for them to have vanished.

Mowgli wants to know why Nidalee's lore makes her a post-imperialist. ಠ__ಠ

With all the new Freljord lore, I hope Riot puts an equal amount of thought into the regions, and hopefully just doesn't ignore them. The lands south of the Great Barrier deserve champions and civilizations too!

I think it might be better to have her lead a group to try and populate the jungles rather than retcon one in, people tired of Noxus or Piltover or Zaun or Demacia who want to live a more natural life.

Characterizing the jungle to be a place that northerners go to "live a more natural life" is sort of a problematic message. And it still doesn't deal with the fact that jungles should not be portrayed as "empty" to begin with. We have internalized messages that tropical places are full of animals, not people, because that is what the media has told us. But it just categorically isn't true, and it's illogical to think of tropical areas that way.

Having Nidalee lead a group of idealists into the jungle would fit into our expectations nicely, but I think on this issue people need to have their expectations challenged, not reinforced. I want Riot to step outside of the box and show indigenous civilization, instead of erasing it or turning indigenous people into animals the way so many books, movies, and video games have done. Tropical areas aren't playgrounds for sophisticated folks, they have there own inhabitants. It would be nice to see this reflected in LoL.