Dota 2 Hero Lore - Did Abaddon Drown & Is
Now Undead?
Abaddon
Whats popping gamers?
Abaddon is alphabetically the first hero in
the dotaverse, so he is also the first hero
who i will make an exclusive video about.
In this series i will deepdive into each hero,
and include my own theory about them. I will
first cover the heros general story across
the dotaverse, which includes dota 2, artifact
and underlords, then the heros relationships,
and lastly what their cosmetics may indicate.
But now, lets get popping shall we?
When abaddon was only an infant, he was baptized
in the Font of avernus, as is customs in his
noble family. But something did not go as
usual during this particular baptism, which
made Abaddon different from previous and contemporary
members of the house of avernus - something
that would become even more evident as he
grew up. He was expected to train in battle,
so if the ancestral lands would need defending,
abaddon could lead the familys army. But instead
of practicing swords, he instead drank deep
from the font, and meditated. While at first
people looked at him with scorn for this behavior,
they soon learned that abaddon was not just
as good as any previous defender of his house.
He had far succeeded any lord before him,
as the mist had given him power over life
and death, and also his mount netherax, the
nightmare of the mist.
Abaddon is the lord of house Avernus, a noble
family in the dotaverse. The family defend
their lands, which contains the font of avernus
- the one that produces the black mist that
granted abaddon his powers. Just like abaddon,
all infants of the house are baptised in the
mist after birth. Then they are expected to
go through military training, so they can
lead the familys army in defense of their
sacred font. Other than powers from the mist,
the family owns three special legendary blades.
We only know for sure that one of them is
the mistbreaker, but its also likely that
darkstar the mistforged is one.
The font of avernus is a crack in the stone,
within the lands guarded by house Avernus.
From the crack, mystical vapors flows, which
is breathed in, bathed in and drank by the
family members. The mist is completely black,
and absorbs all light around it. It has many
different powers, which include an undefined
power over life and death, prophecy, and even
creating new lifeforms, such as abaddons mount.
In my understanding, the mist seems parasitic.
It controls the family, and especially abaddon
who drank the deepest, to the point where
he has no will of his own. He is aware of
this though, and doesnt seem to mind. The
font may be sentient, since it can see beyond
the mist, and whispers secrets of lordship,
warmaking and dominance, so it comes as no
suprize to me that abaddon is hated and feared
by the demons of hell.
In Artifact, abaddons story is very interesting,
and its a tragedy that we didnt get a second
set. It sounds simple enough, but when you
think about it, what it means has endless
opportunities. Basically, he has heard of
a second source of the black mist, and wants
to find it, because he wants its powers to
himself. Without more information i dont even
know where to start! It could be anything
from one of the ancients, to a shard of the
mad moon, to a rift leading to the underworld,
or maybe even the omniscience? Maybe it has
to do with bane and nyctasha? Either way,
theres not enough information for me to make
a good theory about this, so we will have
to wait untill artifact 2.0.
In underlords we only know that O’nia has
respect for his house. Nothing else. We dont
even know who O’nia is yet, other than a
banished merchant from revtel. But i mean
it makes sense, that a rich person has respect
for a noble house.
In dota 1, the lord of avernus was once a
paladin on the good side, but fell in to darkness
when he was posessed by many demons. He became
a death knight and general of the lich kings
army, using his life force to aid in combat.
But just so we are 100% clear - the dota 1
lore is NOT canonical at all in the dota 2
world, other than in a theory that dota 1
and dota 2 are 2 different outcomes and sister
planets existing in the same universe. Watch
siractionslacks’ video about earth shakers
arcana for more info about that. But the rule
of thumb is - dota 1 has NOTHING to do with
dota 2, even when the lore looks similar.
Im only including this because its fun to
see what the current dota 2 lore is based
on.
Now thats the dota 2, artifact, underlords
and dotA lores simplified. But what about
IRL? We know that in ancient rome, a volcanic
crater was called Avernus. Within the crater,
is lake Avernus. Avernus was an alternate
name for the underworld, and as such the crater
an entrance to it. Apparently, birds flying
over the crater fell dead, because of the
toxic fumes emitted from it. Theres also ancient
ruins of temples devoted to apollo, and in
greek myth the oracles often inhaled vapours
before getting their prophethic visions…
some of this sounds familiar, right? A hole
in the ground that powerful gas comes out
of?
Phoenix, which in case you dont know is IRL
a type of mythological bird that rebirths
from its ashes, triggers a special response
from abaddon when killed by him. He says “the
phoenix flew too close to the mist”. In
greek myth, you have probably heard about
icarus who flew too close to the sun. he had
wax wings which allowed him to fly, but they
melted when he flew too high and close to
the sun, and he fell into the water and drowned.
Phoenix from dota 2, has a spell called icarus
dive. And he is also a bird. Remember how
the avernus volcanic crater apparently killed
birds flying over it?
Lastly, abaddon is the hebrew name of a place
of destruction and an angel. It means doom,
and is often used as a reference to a bottomless
pit and/or the realm of the dead. He is the
angel of death, and/or the destroyer, who
is the king of an army of locusts. But where
it truly gets interesting, is that the greek
equivalent of the figure, is apollyon. Doesnt
that seem awfully similar to apollon, the
god that avernus has temples dedicated to,
the god of the sun, the type of cosmic object
which icarus flew too close to? Ok, the connections
are loose, i agree, but they are there. That
is the origin and influence of abaddon, and
avernus.
Relationships
So whos abaddons friends and foes in the lore?
Well, apparently hes a friend of terrorblade.
Terrorblade seems to have a bunch of weird
friends, and according to abaddon himself
at least, theyre pals. This is depsite that
fact that demons hate him for posessing the
power of the mist. Or maybe its the cause
of it? We know terrorblade hates demons and
was imprisoned for breaking the laws of hell.
So maybe thats why they like eachother? No
idea, the only information we have is from
1 voiceline.
When abaddon kills nyx assassin, he says something
interesting: “Another emissary of nyx, crushed.”
and when nyx assassin kills abaddon, he says
this: “I despised you since the birth of
my whole entire caste.” it is quite obvious
that the two of them have a history of rivalry.
But before we talk about what went down between
them, who is nyx assassin? Well, contrary
to common belief, he is not actually called
nyx. Nyx assassin is a title, for the elite
zealot scarabs of the hidden hive. They worship
the goddess queen mother nyx, and all zealot
scarabs have telepathic abilities. Nyx is
in complete control of her select assassin,
and they will kill without question whomever
she may target. Now it could be, that a previous
nyx assassin was sent to kill abaddon, but
then he killed it, like he has implied in
his voice line, causing there to be a feud
between the kinds. But that does not explain
nyx assassin saying he despised abaddon since
the birth of his entire caste. That means
that he has hated abaddon for longer than
nyx assassins have existed. But does that
then mean that the nyx assassin caste has
existed for less time than abaddon has lived?
In that case, i think the best bet is that
abaddon is very, very old. He does have power
over life and death after all. And maybe the
mist absorbing light, has somethig to do with
nyx in greek myth being the goddess of night?
Honestly, i have no clue. All we know is nyx
and abaddon are enemies who fight eachother.
In artifact, abaddon has some peculiar relationships.
Firstly, he seems to be allied with omniknight
and lycan, as we see in the artwork of divine
intervention. What this means is unknown,
but it seems like they all are being blessed
by the divine power of the omniscience. Lycan
also says in a voice line that the house of
ambry, his noble house, will stand with the
house of avernus. I hope underlords will give
answers, since all 3 are in the game.
Most notably in artifact, theres the card
avernus’ blessing, where drow seems to be
empowered by the mist. She says that if abaddon
isnt willing to share it, shes going to have
to take it. Wether this is from the font of
avernus, or the second source of similar mist
that abaddon is looking for, is unknown.
The last relationship i wanna talk about,
is really, really interesting. Usually oracles
prophecies for the heroes are very obvious,
or make no sense at all. But this one for
abaddon, is incredible. Oracle says: “Beware
lest you drown in the font of Avernus.”
And with that, its time to take a look at
some of his cosmetics and connect some dots.
Beware lest you drown in the font of avernus
Aite, so now that we have all the basics and
details covered, lets dive deep into speculation
territory. One again, lets take a look at
some old cosmetics.
First of all, Abaddon seems to possess the
demon edge. But they dont really look similar
at all. So wether it is the one from the item
shop but altered, or a different one that
has the same name, we dont know. But he does
own it. Secondly, his mounts tend to look
like horses or dragons. But theres one version
where its an ox, and another where its…
yeah what is that? Some sort of invertibrate?
Like seriously, what the HECK is that? But
anyways, wether this means in different timelines
he has different mounts, that he owns multiple
mounts at the same time he changes between,
or that his mount just has the ability to
change its appearance is unknown. But now,
lets adress the title of this video.
Did abaddon drown, and is now undead? Lets
look at his bio again. “He drank deep from
the vapors that welled from the Font, learning
to blend his spirit with the potency that
flowed from far beneath the House; he became
a creature of the black mist.”
“the powers of the mist had given him mastery
over life and death beyond those of any lord
the House had ever known.” “He has become
a creature of the black mist” “now a being
of unnatural powers” and from mist coil,
“A mysterious vapor from the Font of Avernus
now infuses the breath of Abaddon, who releases
it at will.” so he has drank so deep from
the font, he has blended his spirit with the
POTENT mist, becoming a CREATURE with UNNATURAL
powers over LIFE AND DEATH, and he now has
the mist basically vaping out his mouth at
all times. Has abaddon just become a host
- a vessel, of the mist? He is no longer a
person, just an empty shell that carries the
sentient will of the mysterious power? Wether
or not he is… whatever he is… is he alive?
Now the next cosmetics we will look at doesnt
have lore text, so this is based on titular
and visual clues only. But i think i might
see a pattern. Almost all of the sets has
something to do with death, spirits or the
diabolic. Abaddon and avernus in greek myth
is also connected to the underworld. Wether
its a version of him where he is a oni, an
ogre-like type of yokai, which is a spirit
in japanese myth, or literally the reaper
with a scythe and dead horse - it alsmot exclusively
almost has to do with… death. But wait,
in one, he has water-themed armor, and some
sort of ocean-originating mount… and the
set is called drowned horseman. What was that
the oracle said? “Beware lest you drown
in the font of avernus” at first i assumed
this meant drowning in the blinding, mind
controlling power, getting too caught up with
its intoxicating delight that he wouldnt realize
hes losing himself. But what if it has a more
literal meaning? Instead of flying too close
to the sun, he drank too deep in the font
and fell in? In the brinebred cavalier, we
see his actual face, with a crown, and obviously
death and underwater themed set. Brinebred…
could it have something to do with the conclave
of the brine? But wait… if he is undead,
how come we see a younger face in the endless
night cosmetic?
Well… i dont think he is completely undead.
I think the stronger he gets by drinking from
the font, the more he loses and gives away
of himself, to the mist. The more he dies,
kind of. The more he slowly drowns in his
own avarice. In endless night he is obviously
young, and with batty details he is probably
some sort of emo vampire, but whats interesting
is the name of the cosmetic. Endless night.
Doesnt that, and the vampyric aesthetic hint
at immortality? Remember, we know there has
been previous nyx assassins before the one
we play in dota 2, 1 or more of which abaddon
has killed. This, coupled with the fact that
the nyx assassin sect has hated abaddon since
they started existing, means abaddon must
be very, very old.
So what if, when abaddon was baptised as an
infant and something went awry, he was chosen
by the sentient mist, as the vessel of its
intelligence? And the different sets we have
in dota 2, are different points in time, showing
the effect over time? Starting with the vampire
one which is maybe his youngest, then all
the other sets before he drowns, and he is
way older here as you can see his hair is
white, and then even later when he takes his
mask off he has grown old and moldy? And then
he goes to the surface and becomes a reaper
of sorts??
Jeez, okay, so ill admit it was really difficult
making some sense of this. And wether or not
his sets are his different stages of becoming
an undead host of the parasitic mist, his
different outcomes of different timelines,
or just there was no thought put into them
what so ever, i dont know. But what i do know
is keywords are him mastering the art of life
and death, but its not really him its the
mist because its controlling him, and also
something about drowning.
So yeah, thats it for the first episode of
this series, which will cover all dota 2 hero
lores.
I will try to have an interesting take in
each episode, hopefully with a view you havent
read before, even if youre a lore nerd. I
love abaddon so much, and i cant wait to see
what underlords and artifact 2.0 has in store
for him in the future. Thank you so much for
watching gamers, hope you have a wonderful
day. pEACE
