Void Spirit DOTA 2 Lore Theory: New Hero’s Identity Revealed?

This year’s headlining DOTA 2 tournament, The International, added not just one, but two new heroes to the game’s roster. First, we saw Snapfire, who we did a trailer breakdown of here. At the end of the tournament, Valve also announced the second new hero and the fourth of the elemental spirits, Void Spirit.

There has long been speculation that the fourth Celestial elemental spirit will be announced this year, following Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, and Earth Spirit. This was also hinted at by the purple theme at TI9 this year, most notably visible in the purple Aegis of the logo.

However, theories have already surfaced on Reddit regarding the nature of the Void Spirit’s identity, keeping in mind lore snippets provided by character bios. The identities of Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, and Earth Spirit are all known through lore comics and character bios, but the theory states that Void Spirit is someone almost every DOTA 2 player knows and loves.

Lore Background

User techteller96 on Reddit posted on the DOTA 2 subreddit regarding the identity of Void Spirit. There are two main parts to this theory.

This mainly stems from the character bio on the new Invoker persona called ‘Acolyte of the Lost Arts’. The bio text states, “…the Invoker endured scholastic life as the adolescent star pupil at an ancient wizard’s academy…[he] dreamt of a future in which he answered to no one but himself…Now, harnessing dangerous magics purloined from his headmaster’s secret archives, young Carl has discovered the means to journey forward into his own timeline.”

One of the most important parts of this bio is that Invoker studied under an ancient wizard, who was also the headmaster of the academy he studied in. More importantly, he stole the magic from the headmaster’s secret archives.

A wizard who has a long-standing rivalry with the Invoker is Rubick, the Grand Magus. Rubick is the son of famed ancient wizard Aghanim, and has sealed his father’s scepter into his own staff. 

Since Aghanim is also said to have declined in the later years of his life, (according to this voice line from a Pudge Arcana) it can be assumed that he established an academy for magic during the later years of his life. This is the beginning of the rivalry between Invoker, the genius magician, and Rubick, a wizard trying to outgrow his father’s shadow while studying at the academy.

This theory is strengthened by some of Rubick’s voice lines, such as, “ Invoker now, eh? No longer the Arsenal Magus?”, and, upon defeating Invoker, “Even the Arsenal Magus falls before my magic”. Since both Rubick and Invoker are said to be ancient, it is quite possible that they had a rivalry at one point in time.

For background, Rubick’s lore states, “…he [Rubick] did what any wizard seeking to ascend the ranks would do: he announced his intention to kill a Magus. Rubick quickly discovered that to threaten one Magus is to threaten them all, and they fell upon him in force.”

Rubick then proceeds to defeat all of them, and was awarded the title of Grand Magus, which was given to him by a mage council known as the “Insubstantial Eleven”. There have also been theories that the names associated with Invoker’s 10 spells are wizards who used to make up the Insubstantial Eleven. 

Void Spirit’s Identity

Looking at the text from the ‘Acolyte of the Lost Arts’ persona, we can see that the Invoker has travelled to this timeline using dangerous magics stolen from his headmaster. This is where one of the most important details lies. Let’s take a look at what happens during time travel in DOTA 2, featuring Faceless Void.

Darkterror, the Faceless Void, is said to be from a land beyond time known as Claszureme. He is able to travel between the mortal realm and Claszureme by ripping voids in space-time. Thus, by manipulating time itself, Darkterror is able to travel between realms.

Looking at the trailer for Void Spirit, he is also able to do the same. He opens a portal directly into the real world, similar to Darkterror being able to travel between The Seven Planes and Claszureme. Thus it is possible that the Void Realm contains Claszureme, with the travel to and from the realm being possible through time travel.

Going back to the ‘Acolyte of the Lost Arts’ description, these time-travel spells are stolen from the headmaster of the academy, Aghanim. Why were they hidden away in a “secret archive”? What actually happened to Aghanim? Other voice lines also seem to doubt the circumstances of Aghanim’s death, such as this one from Grimstroke, who says, “Is it true about Aghanim’s demise? I’ve heard conflicting reports.”

The theory states that Aghanim actually entered the Void Realm while trying to time travel, thus getting taken over by the Void Spirit. Earth Spirit and Ember Spirit have also manifested as heroes by taking on the physical bodies of powerful warriors. Earth Spirit took on the form of a great general known as Kaolin, while Ember Spirit took on the form of warrior-poet Xin. Even Storm Spirit, who was sealed in Thunderkrieg’s body by a suicide spell, still inhabits the powerful wizard’s body willingly.

Similarly, when Aghanim entered the Void Realm, he was taken over by the Void Spirit. This is not only echoed by similar clothing worn by Void Spirit, Rubick, and Invoker, but also in Void Spirit’s hair, which is similar to Rubick’s.

Moreover, the elements required to create Aghanim’s Scepter in game also reflect the blue, red, green, and purple elements that have been revealed. This could be another indicator in-game to the true identity of Void Spirit as Aghanim.

Conclusion

Even though these factors point towards Void Spirit taking on the mantle of Aghanim and joining the battle for the ancients, it must be kept in mind that this is simply a theory. While many items in the lore point towards this being the case, it simply might not be. Valve is set to release the character during the Outlanders update, coming fall of this year.