The Vigil Codex isn't just made up of incoherent roaring
The description of Sven's Warcry shows that he calls lines from the Vigil Codex to grant him and his allies morale. But in-game, all Sven does is let out an intimidating roar. But the Vigil Codex belongs to the caste of knights that Sven should hate, according to his lore. So what's really happening is, he reads the lines of the Vigil Codex to himself, and much like what happens when Bill O'Riely hears someone say "The Theory of Evolution is a plausible theory", he gets pissed off by what they say. This fuels his rage, and like with his ultimate, this is channeled into energy to kill his enemies with.- Although War Cry isn't a skill used to kill his enemies, but to pump up allies' defenses and minorly speed. And somehow, Sven still makes his roar 'poetic' because only he lets out something, you can't expect other heroes to peek on what he read and then conclude that it's poetic.
- Alternatively, the language the Vigil Codex is in sounds to us english-speakers as incoherent roaring.
Arc Warden's lore will somehow be related to Visage and Razor.
Visage and Razor are both guardians of a maze in the afterlife, with Razor policing it, so it stands to reason he'll be a warden of some sort. In addition, he also attacks with lightning like Razor.- Jossed. His lore has nothing to do with the Narrow Maze.
The source of Anti Mage's abilities really aren't using the magic he wants to eliminate
- One of Anti Mage's gaping holes in his character is his presumed hypocritical use of magic in his abilities (his blink and mana void) despite having an agenda against magic. However, there are possible explanations that his abilities, however magic they may seem, are not explicably 'magic'.
- His status as a monk possibly suggests that his powers draw from Life Energy, or something equivalent, and that abilities using them are more or less Ki Manipulation. This would imply that his power stems from physical mastery, and not magic.
- Anti Mage's hatred for magic refers to a very particular and difficult to interpret class of magic. As in the sort most mages use. It's not certain what could possibly be the boundaries for this class of magic, but Anti Mage's abilities fall outside of them, one way or another. This might also apply to the store's enchanted items, that may also not be strictly 'magic'.
There isn't one Final Battle - all the battles played in real life actually do happen in-universe
- From the developer forums, the Ancients bestow "kinetic energy, mana, protection, even resurrection" in addition to influencing the surrounding landscapes and civilizations. It's not unreasonable to assume they can warp reality in other ways - like, say, creating illusory copies of themselves and their towers. Each side's forces perceive that they are destroying towers and bases, but the actual Ancients go untouched. This reality-warping can also explain how nominally Radiant or Dire heroes fight for the opposite side (that they sometimes do is acknowledged in-game in the item description for Morphling's Radiant Crystal Bracer cosmetic). Since souls exist in the DOTA universe, it can be assumed that if the Ancients can get a soul before it goes to the Underscape, they can resurrect its owner. But if a hero dies and their soul is claimed/resurrected by the opposing Ancient, they would end up fighting for the other side. So to sum up, the Ancients are powerful enough to endlessly create perfect decoys of the battlefield, and they constantly snipe the souls of the other side's heroes. Thus, every battle fought in real life has actually taken place in-universe.
- In any case, it is stated in the lore that multiple Radiant and Dire shards fell after the moon shattered; there could, indeed, be thousands scattered across the world, and each battle in-game simply takes place at a different crash-site, with heroes wandering the world to reach them.
The Fundamentals literally represent the four forces.
Not much of a guess, given how heavily it's implied, but here are my justifications:- Enigma: He's gravity. His ultimate is called "black hole" and his lore states that he might be one.
- Keeper of the Light: Electromagnetism. Light is electromagnetic radiation.
- Io: The strong force. Its lore describes it as holding particles together. (So does EM, but that fits Keeper of the Light to well to give it to the Wisp.)
- Chaos Knight: Has to be the weak force, which sounds a bit odd, but remember that the weak force governs some forms of radioactive decay — an inherently random process.
- More likely, Io is a generic representation of atoms (Spirits are electrons, Overload for radiation, tether for bonds, Relocate for quantum tunneling) and Chaos Knight is a representation of Entropy. It's worth noting that Fundamentals are basically stated to be embodiements of laws of nature, so they can be a little hard to pinpoint.
- On the other side, Sven has these 4 fundamental forces in a way. Storm Bolt, as the name says is EM force, Cleave makes sense if you oppose strong force, Warcry is some some sort of RADIOactive power and God Strength, well gravity is also known as relativity. Also, Omniknight works in a similar way, but the "Religious" (His skills are named: Purificating Light, Repel, Degen Aura, Guardian Angel) sort of stuff, rather than Sven "SCIENCE!".
- According to Enigma's kill quotes, however, Keeper of the Light is the Weak Force [1]
[2] [3] while Chaos Knight is Strong Force [4] [5]. Since Enigma himself is obviously Gravity, this leaves Wisp to be Electromagnetism.
Troll Warlord is actually secretly a nice guy.
But of course, trolls being trolls, Ja'rakal got nothing but humiliation after humiliation from his fellow trolls for daring to be different. Ja'rakal, suffering from a severe case of insecurity and inferiority complex, he decided to merely act like a major jerkass in the belief that it would bring him some respect from his fellow trolls. It turns out that he was too unpleasant even for them, getting him kicked out. He slew them later out of either anger or thinking that he wasn't enough of a jerkass (or even both). The reason he keeps acting like a jerkass to everyone else is because he believe that's the only way to get respect. That final battle happened long time ago.
Gameplay is those two guys from comicbook arguing with friends at the bar 'Who would win'. That explains things such as two Rapiers at once: for the sake of argument they make an assumption 'what if Drow Ranger and Windrunner fought each other? And if they both had THE Rapier?'. This also explains inconsistency of having 'good' hero on the 'evil' side. And how supposedly unbeaten heroes are beaten again and again. This also means that Sentinels won in the Final Battle.- This also explains things such as why Gyrocopter or Viper would need boots, or all-mighty powerful fundamental gods like Enigma or Chaos Knight being beaten by a tiny midget with a sniper rifle.
The Ancients reduce heroes to a basic state before every battle.
In the lore, most of the heroes are described as being incredibly powerful – elite warriors, brilliant mages or godlike elemental beings. In-game, these descriptions are fitting for a fully farmed level 25 hero, but not for a level 1 hero, who can easily be killed by a single tower or a few regular creeps. Why are these incredible heroes so weak to start with? Because the auras of each Ancient strip away the power of opposing heroes at the start of each battle as a kind of sabotage; thus, friendly Ancients have to compensate by giving them an aura that lets them level up and magically gain gold. Pugna was transformed into whatever he is at a very young age.
And that is why he is so short, as his body hasn't aged since then. His voice matured normally for some reason however..- Pugna became what he is when Viper, well, Vipered him. Could have been when he was young though. But regarding what he is, I assume he isn't undead, but more like animated dying. Viper's ult (which is what was canonically used on him) deals high damage over a fairly long duration. I can imagine Pugna using nether magics such as life drain to prevent himself from totally dying. Because of this lack of flesh and poison would explain his ABYSMAL strength stats and decent movement speed in short order.
The "truth of the universe" that Leshrac discovered was that the universe is, well, a video game.
Nerf Now brought this theory up as a joke, but it's an entirely reasonable idea. The notion of existing purely for someone's else's entertainment has been explored in fiction before, and not everyone takes it well. Similar to the above, the Sealed Evil in a Can that Outworld Devourer is talking about is the people who code the game
Valve has a lot of potential power to damage the Dota 2 universe, having the power to weaken even the Fundamentals (io tether nerf) or create chaos at a moment's notice (Year beast event, Wraith-Night) and fears that they'll do something even worse. This is how Outworld Devourer knows about game terminology (such as his line for killing Tinker), and the reason he alludes to knowing what's going to happen is because he's been in many a Dota match before. Windranger needs to use wind magic to hit her targets.
Windranger is usually played more like an agility hero than an intelligence hero, so why is INT her main attribute? Because unaided, she's only a middling archer, and so she's actually helping her arrows along with minor wind magics. Future Dota 2 Heroes WMG
We are only down to Arc Warden and Abyssal Underlord (and possibly Sun Wukong) for the old DOTA veteran heroes. Once they are ported, Valve would need to add brand new heroes. Let's use this WMG as our guessing pool: What new heroes will be featured later once the crews are together? With the new revamped lore, it would be... interesting.- Vengeful Spirit's (as of yet) Nameless Sister, the Skywrath Queen. She has been mentioned in two separate backstories (Skywrath Mage's and, of course, Vengeful Spirit's) and has often been suggested to become a hero in her own right. In addition to the interesting interactions she would have with Vengeful Spirit and Skywrath Mage, she could also have potential for interactions with fellow royalty such as Sand King, Wraith King and Queen of Pain. Since she would likely be tagged as a Radiant Hero, she could perfectly embody the Radiant's Light Is Not Good-ness. As a bonus, a Skywrath themed update featuring her would have potential for Arcana sets for either Vengeful Spirit or Skywrath Mage, or both.
- (Name unknown), The Vigil Knight. Sven betrayed them and took away their Outcast Blade. There's no way the Vigil Knights would let that be. This hero would be a representative of that group, and from him, we may finally know if they're being an Asshole Victim, or Sven was being an Ungrateful Bastard. He'll definitely have interactions with not only Sven, but fellow Knights (Omniknight, Chen, Chaos Knight, Dragon Knight, etc... though judging with how discriminated Sven with his half-breed status... they might have a few words to say with a fellow half-breed like Dragon Knight). They may even have interactions with those related to the Meranth such as Tidehunter, which may explain why they discriminated Sven for being a half-Meranth.
- (Name unknown), The Prince of Misrule. When Lina was taken to the Desert of Misrule and mastering her fire magic, she was courted with many men, and rejected. Even princes. This is one such prince, one that ended up lusting over Lina and did not take her rejection well, now using his skills to not only prove the might of his region, but also to take Lina by force. This Prince might be a sand-based mage, which makes him rivals with Sand King as well. He might also be a counterpart to Tusk, who befriended Crystal Maiden, Lina's sister, only this time the relationship with Lina was much harsher, setting up yet another polarizing state the two sisters have (or even being compared with Sven, who's often pegged as Crystal Maiden's 'boyfriend' by Fan-Preferred Couple). Plus you gotta admit, the title 'Prince of Misrule' would sound damn cool.
- A Skeleton Strength Hero. Ever since Ostarion became a wraith, there is a big need for a skeleton hero to act as the strength counterpart to Clinkz and Pugna. Maybe to tie it in with Wraith King, this skeleton was the Wraith King's younger brother who, for one reason or another, the king himself erased all public information about and transformed into a skeletal servant during his reign as the Skeleton King. However, when Ostarion became the Wraith King, he lost control over his little brother, who took the opportunity to escape from Ostarion's castle and go into hiding (being a reanimated skeleton, people didn't react well to seeing him) until the fateful day where he grows strong enough to have the opportunity to get revenge on the Wraith King. For interactions, this skeleton would obviously have a large number of rival lines for Wraith King and lines for fellow Undeads Clinkz, Undying, Lich and Pugna. Out of these, this hero would likely sympathize with Clinkz, since they were both unwillingly turned into reanimated skeletons. Would this hypothetical hero be a decent being with Dark Is Not Evil qualities, or would his horrible existence as a skeleton servant have driven him to raving madness? That is probably up to Valve.
Enigma was the mastermind behind EVERYTHING!
Would such a powerful being work for the Ancients? I can imagine even Kaldr being turned to them, but Enigma?No. He has his own goals.
Enigma is an ancient. He was not sealed away successfully, but was weakened. That is why he can make eidolons out of people (remember what he did to that poor alchemist??) just like the ancients make creeps. Now he is playing Radiant and Dire against each other, constantly siding with one or the other. This is for their benefit, however. He is trying to train them, making them more powerful with each victory. Eventually, they will break out, and enigma will return to his former status.
Their leader.
After Underlord, Dota 2 new heroes may include 'ports' from Heroes of Newerth
Newerth has some old Dota ports that stayed that way. Dota 2 might return the favor and take some of Newerth's exclusive heroes and then fit it to the Dota 2 aesthetics and lore, it's just fair game. Not to mention, with HON's rather dwindling community, if the more popular Dota 2 showcases some of its more unique heroes, it might do good to some publication.
Monkey King will have a certain response line for Riki
In All-Stars, Riki's Smoke Screen was required to summon Monkey King in the 6.79 quest. Monkey King will reference this in Dota 2 as a response line for meeting Riki, most likely when they meet as allies. Old removed non-Allstars Dota heroes will return after Monkey King
And refined and balanced so it wasn't as ridiculous as before.- Well, Gambler is the most popular request when it comes to bringing back removed heroes, even if many requesting Gambler's comeback is joking about it.
Ancient Apparition destroyed the former universe.
Given that he is the heat death of the universe and that even the Fundamentals consider him old, it's not farfetched to think that Ancient Apparition may have ended the other universe, making way for the new Dota 2 universe. Gambler will be announced during TI7
TI7 will take place in 2017 during the 7.x balance version (probably). 7 times three = 777. 777 = Gambler. It only makes sense. Guesses on French Pangolin Musketeer's Abilities
- Stylish Jump: Similar to Mirana's Leap, Musketeer leaps to bypass terrain and trees. Unlike Mirana's leap, the Musketeer's jump has a lower range but allows him to target his jump point.
- Evasive Maneuvers: Grants him bonus movement speed and evasion when activated, allowing him to avoid attacks and then use the next ability once he's within range.
- Skillful Cut: He skillfully cuts an enemy unit, damaging them while inflicting Disarm and Break in the progress.
- Deathball: His ultimate ability, he rolls up into a ball that temporarily grants him the ability to walk through terrain and damage enemies on collision, possibly while slowing or stunning them in the progress. He can move freely in this form, but cannot stop while rolling.
Terrorblade used to be a human
Along with Anti-Mage who may or may not be his brother, he was a Tuskaturi monk. But unlike Anti-Mage, he wasn't so lucky, when the Demons came raiding. So while he was raised from the dead and corrupted by the Dead God's priesthood, he retained the hatred for the demons that slaughtered him. So after thinning his own rank one time too much, he was sent to double hell, and the rest is history.