Dota 2 Hero Lore - Arc Warden & The Ancients,
EVERYTHING explained
the hero
Whats popping, gamers?
The Dire and the Radiant are the two ancient
nemesis stones warring against one another
in both dota 2 and artifact. You as the player
is given either side to fight for, and you
win when the other side is destroyed. Basically,
you ARE the ancient - or your team is, and
the heroes have become enslaved to either
cause, making them mindlessly and without
question fight to the death to destroy the
other. They are the two opposite supreme beings,
able to control things that surround them.
Wether its in the radiant, creative fashion,
or the dire destructive one. Surely, no hero
could be their match - let alone all on their
own. Except one… Zet the Arc Warden.
While the arc warden you see now in-game is
indeed powerful, its only a teeny tiny glimpse
of what his true power was when the universe
was still in its infancy. Back then, he was
the one who single handedly imprisoned the
ancients, flung them into the fateful direction
that would put them into the dota-planets
orbit, and then failed to keep them in captivity.
behind the hero
But before we dissect his comic, whip out
the archronicus, and dive balls deep into
the chronological sequence of events, lets
take a quick look at his origins to better
understand his basis.
In dota 1 his model was that of a gnoll, a
type of creature from warcraft that looks
very dog-like. This is often referenced to
in his dota 2 voice lines, where he says things
like (doggedly) and to lycan, (inferior form).
His lore in dota 1, was that in the far south
lands, there were heavy nether storms that
made it almost uninhabitable. However, a nomadic
tribe did still live in the barren land, and
worshipped the storms. The faith of the poeple
would will a chaotic deity into existence,
who immediately sensed the destructive battle
of the ancients growing neigh. It blessed
one of its prophets with powers over lightning,
magnetism and duplication of itself to send
to battle: zet the arc warden.
elaboration
So im aware that arc warden is genderless,
but because its voice is very deep and masculine,
im going to “assume its gender”. This
has nothing to do with politics in any way,
its simply because referring to him by masculine
pronouns makes this complicated story much
less confusing. Now with that out of the way,
lets get popping shall we?
Arc warden is the ONLY hero in dota 2 who
was part of the primordial mind, and for that
reason knows what it is exactly, and how the
universe came into existence. There are of
course other heroes about the same age or
older, such as weaver, ancient apparition,
elder titan and the fundamentals, who may
have witnessed it. But none of them experienced
it from the inside, like arc warden did. So
lets go way back, so far that there was nothing.
Back then, there was no space, matter or time
- only a presence: the primordial mind. But
just like in our own world, the universe was
created when a big-bang like event took place
- the great schism. It caused the primordial
consciousness to break into many pieces, scattered
into cosmos. Out of all the fragments, there
were two in particular that would set the
fate of the dota universe: Radinthul and diruulth,
the radiant and the dire. They were two of
the greatest fragments, and complete opposites
of one another in every aspect. The radiant
was intelligent and creative, while the dire
was strong and destructive. This polarization
made conflict between the two inevitable,
and so a war broke out. Their sibling quarrel
was so violent that their surroundings became
twisted in their fashion and service, and
the entire cosmos was at risk of cataclysm.
Thats when a third fragment of the primordial
mind willed itself into sentience - its ya
boi zet the arc warden. Even back then his
defining personality trait was the desire
to unite everything back to how it was. Thats
maybe why the dire and radiant conflict repulsed
him so much, because their incompatibility
and impossability of coexistence is an abomination
in the eyes of someone seeking to revert back
to the peaceful origin.
Arc warden, or “the self” as he refers
to both himself as, and the other primordial
fragments, gathered all his strength, and
then in one blow imprisoned his siblings.
Their cage was a huge sphere, which he flung
into space. It drifted through the cosmos
for aeons, before it would find the orbit
of a certain doomed planet, still cooling
into a habitable, solid rock. Now lets open
up the lore bible, the archronicus.
Inside their prison, which was called the
mad moon, the siblings were locked together
in one form, as punishment for their strife.
And zet the arc warden followed them, to guard
their dormancy, and make sure they couldnt
escape. But while their battle inside was
kept at bay, their influence on the outside
soon became apparent. The planet below them
started to develop life forms, which seemed
to derive power from them.
-This part about kanna & prellex is taken
from my dota theology video, linked top right-
The radiation of the ancients, not yet landed,
made life on earth evolve for ages. From diverse
fauna to primitive societies, a rich set of
species and races formed, and those intelligent
enough to wonder, gazed up at the mad moon
in curiousity. And where there is mystery
and power, faith soon follows. The mad moon
and the ancients quickly became dieties, with
loyal followers on both sides. It started
with prellex, the priestess of the radiant.
She started having visions of a violet sky,
a sundered moon, and a voice that whispered
to her “prepare for my arrival”. This
of course, meaning the arrival of the radiant.
Prellex and the other radiant followers started
building towers and an altar in preparation.
But, they also built barracks, to recruit
new followers for an army. An army in preparation
for war, because someone was not happy with
the radiant way of life.
That someone, was Kanna, who is no less than
prellex’ own daughter. The radiant creates,
but it also enslaves. Much like our own Abrahamic
religions, if adam and eve had just stayed
in the garden of eden and not taken a bite
from the apple to aquire knowledge of good
and evil, they would have lived peacefully.
Ignorance is bliss, and naturally we like
to follow orders from authorities we trust.
But humanity is also curious, and demands
freedom and rebellion when the ruler seems
unjust, and so kanna did what repressed teenage
daughters without a father figure often does,
she rebelled. She bit the apple of knowledge
of good and evil, and chose freedom and chaos
and destruction over safe enslavement within
the garden of eden. She did not actualy bite
an apple, but rather she is described as reborn
by the dire. She would lead the army of the
opposing side against her own mother, but
that is as far into the story we know. We
don’t know if either side won, and if so
who did. My guess is neither did, because
this was at least 500 years before the story
in the first dota comic.
We do know, though, that the landing of the
ancients, when the mad moon sundered and shattered
into many fragments, was an apocalyptic event.
So maybe this stopped the original feud between
the priestesses? Either way, back to zet - he
was in charge of avoiding the mad moons sundering.
But eventually, not even he could keep it
at bay, and the erosion over time made it
explode. Because of this, some of the pieces
of the rock landed on the planet below. Direstone
and radiant ore. And as the planet recovered
from the apocalypse, life boomed even brighter
than before, now under even closer influence
by the radiant and dire shards within the
land. In theory that might sound good, but
what it means is that the inevitable war and
clash of the nemesis stones now grew closer
exponentially.
Around each ancient, cultures grew in its
fashion. Entire societies and civilizations
dedicated to their divine stone, deriving
mana and protection from it, and using its
ore to craft powerful artifacts. But as the
influence spread, eventually it became unavoidable
for their teritory to meet. This is what caused
the defense of the ancients, the battle within
dota 2. Each side fighting for their ancient,
trying to destroy the other, in order for
whatever side they fight for to continue its
spread without the other side getting in the
way. But arc warden doesnt just want to end
the opposing side. He wants to end BOTH ancients,
because his ultimate goal is to seek unity.
And he thinks the way to do that, is by destroying
both of them.
But, there is a problem with this. Because
what we know from artifact, is that every
game of dota 2 is canon. Because everytime
an ancient is destroyed, the timeline resets
and it all starts over. Arc warden thinks
that by killing the ancients one after the
other, and maybe then other fragments and
himself, eventually the primordial mind will
be completely united again. But honestly,
theres no way that would work. He probably
thinks this because when he dies, he says
that he sees the origin. And when he returns
from death, he says he has returned from ancient
darkness. He says that (It is not to aid the
Ancients that this war is joined, but to destroy
them both. This disunity must end.) meaning
that he has joined the fight to destroy both
of them. But realistically, the only way this
MIGHT work, is if he killed both at the same
time. And zet, sweetie… you werent even
able to keep them in their prison. How are
you gonna KILL both of them at the exact same
time? Besides even if he did, it still may
not work, as that would probably still just
reset the timeline where they are one and
united yes, but then the schism happens all
over again. Maybe he is like everyone else
deluded into thinking destroying is the answer,
when what it always does is feed the cycle
that lets the ancients fight eachother endlessly…
Thats why in artifact, events of history are
being played in different sequences with different
characters, to try and find an outcome where
it doesnt end this predictable way. Rather
than trying to impossibly force everything
back to how it was by destroying its physical,
fragmented forms, just try to avoid the end
entirely. But wether or not this will even
work we dont know. Maybe the only way to stop
it, is if everyone stops fighting, and just
hold hands peacefully and becomes friends,
ignoring the dire and radiants call to arms.
Hey, i know thats a bit anti climactic that
nobody knows how to stop this, but maybe its
for the better. That way, even when you lose
in dota or artifact, you can always just shrug
it off because nobody really ever loses or
wins, time is just rewinded and starts over.
Really, you ARE the ancient, not the hero
you are playing. So by the ancients not being
defeated by arc warden, elder titan or the
houses in artifact, you are lore-wise always
in limbo between winning and losing, meaning
you cant actually die. Or rather, when you
do, you just start a new timeline and go again.
And if that is not a deep, unique and creative
base plot for a video game, i dont know what
is. There is a lot of people who honestly
believe valve just slaps a random bio on heroes
that doesnt really make any sense but just
sounds cool. And then add a cosmetic, which
they also just give some random vague lore
text that sounds fantasy-y and ebin and hey
maybe sometimes add elements from different
characters to make it seem like it all makes
sense. But i can guarantee you, 100% those
are a minority. Of course, im going to admit
ive found some inconsistencies and contradictory
information. But they are far between, and
can often be excused by lack of information,
or just that the narrator may be lying. The
dota lore is a true gem of a story, that just
gets more and more fascinating the more you
know about it. When first tackling it it seems
very scattered and messy, but the deeper you
go the more apparent the red thread becomes.
So thats it for this arc warden video! I love
this hero, as he brought some answers in regards
to lore, and his design is so unique. He also
has one of my favourite voices. By the way,
i dont usually include the actual voice lines
in the video like this, but decided to try
it this time. Do you prefer it this way, or
would you rather save time by skipping it?
Anyways, good luck to your favourite team
during ti, and have a wonderful day! PEACEEE
