Listen to this Article

The world of Dota 2 is immersive and expansive, and serves to enrich the Dota experience. In our Dota Lore Spotlight column, we will attempt to shine a light on the lore of Dota 2, and hopefully add further depth to your gameplay. Our first subject of examination is Arc Warden – a fragment of a primordial mind that was present at the very beginning of the universe, and continued to evolve through the eons. Without further ado, here is the story of Zet.

As is the case with most lore, the narrative is inclined to begin where the inception of the universe unfolds. Be it stories of world parent deities, theories of creation from chaos, or something else entirely, video game mythologies strive to present a unique and engaging creation myth, and though it may not be utilized to its full potential within the game itself, the lore of Dota 2 is no different. In order to learn how the Dota universe came to be, and what ignited the grand feud between the Radiant and the Dire, one must look to the primordial mind, a fantastical but cryptic tale of creation that explains the chain of events that led to the conflict of the Nemesis Stones, and serves as the biography of Zet, the Arc Warden.

At first, Dota 2 seems to present us with a deceptively simple concept; two factions, in this case the Radiant and the Dire, meet on a square battlefield with the goal of destroying the opposing factions base and specifically the glowing stone structure that dwells at the base center. It’s a tried and true video game scenario, and it’s easy to mistake it for being somewhat lacking in depth, but the Radiant and Dire are not waging war without reason – and their reasoning dates back to a time before time, where there existed a single enigmatic presence.

Before the universe took shape, there existed a consciousness, vaguely described as a “primordial mind”. Seemingly omnipotent, omnipresent, and infinitely incomprehensible, this presence was all that existed, and it existed beyond human concepts of time, space, and purpose. The being is assumed to have had the power to manipulate reality at will, but there are no records of such powers ever being exercised. Instead, the primordial mind lay dormant for uncounted eons, until one day, the great cosmic silence was broken through means hitherto unexplained, when the universe suddenly exploded into existence and the primordial mind suffered the consequences of the dramatic event. What had once been a singular godly being had been shattered by the sheer force of a universe being born and was torn into several fragmented minds, each one with its own identity and powers. The two greatest fragments of the previously unified primordial mind had taken the separate identities of Radinthul and Diruulth, soon to become known to us as the Radiant and the Dire.

Radinthul and Diruulth had become each others polar opposite, and wielding infinite, yet evenly matched power, one sought to destroy the other by bending reality as it saw fit. This conflict went on seemingly without end, until one day, when a third fragment of the shattered primordial mind revealed itself as Zet, another powerful entity spawned from the calamity that birthed the universe. Zet yearned for unification and harmony, the endless conflict between two fragments of what had once been a single mind proved itself appalling to Zet, and it decided to once again unify his siblings, by force if that was what it would take.

Using its vast cosmic powers, Zet imprisoned its siblings within one celestial body that soon became known as the Mad Moon and flung it into orbit around a lone planet in the now expansive universe where he hoped for the warring entities to drift aimlessly forever, effectively putting an end to their conflict. And, for a time, it worked. Zet served as the warden watching over the imprisoned fragments but since the primordial mind itself had been shattered, neither Zet nor his sibling fragments wielded the once infinite power of the unified entity. For this reason, Radinthul and Diruulth continued their struggle from within the Mad Moon and Zet’s power started steadily waning, until one day, its power had been so severely diminished that it could no longer contain its siblings. The Mad Moon had been deteriorating as Zet grew weary and the decay culminated in the moon violently bursting at the seams, flinging stones infused with the warring consciousnesses down to the planet below, marking the beginning of the Nemesis Stones and their warfare on Earth.

The debris infused with the warring siblings became known as Radiant Ore and Direstone, due to the influence of Radinthul and Diruulth, and with their presence in the stone came their impact on the planet they now found themselves inhibiting. The Radiant favored intelligence and creation, while the Dire retained its role as a polar opposite, and favored strength and destruction. The entities exercised a powerful mind altering effect on living beings, causing creatures on Earth to take the side of whichever stone formation was closest to them. This is how the Dota-conflict began – heroes from all corners of the Earth felt the pull of the Radiant and the Dire, and as the stones continued to dominate their minds. Gatherings of heroes began to champion the nemesis causes of the Radiant and the Dire on the battlefield. The Defence of the Ancients had begun.

Zet, however, had not given up despite being severely drained of its once great power. As this took place, the severely weakened Arc Warden called on a corporeal body and made itself known on the battlefield to join the fray, not championing the Radiant or the Dire, but still fighting to achieve the unity it had known as part of the primordial mind. A shattered entity, Zet wields the power of its lesser fragments in combat, infusing enemies with arcs of volatile electricity, patrolling areas with wraiths of sparks, twisting the space around him to shield himself with magnetic fields, and ultimately calling upon a fractured mirror image of itself to briefly aid it in its battle to destroy both the Radiant and the Dire, so that it may achieve unity once again.