Is the Valkyrie Freya the next Dota 2 hero?

Valve recently announced their plans for the near future and revealed that a new hero would be headed to Dota 2 in mid-December. With still a couple of weeks until then, let’s speculate who might become the 120th hero to join the roster.

There are precious few official hints for the new upcoming hero, but that leaves us plenty of space to speculate. So far we only know that the new hero will be female, but there are a couple of more aspects that are hinting towards a Valkyrie hero named Freya being released next.

The Case for Freya

As usual there is plenty of speculation floating about a new hero in Dota 2, but some of the rumours are just a bit more likely. Several months ago the first hints regarding a potential “Valkyrie” hero were discovered by dataminers within Dota 2’s code. These findings were shared by Redditor Skauzers on the Dota 2 subreddit.

Freya (or Freyja) is a goddess of Norse mythology associated with war, love and the Valkyries that choose fallen fighters for the afterlife. A hero based on these concepts should fit in nicely with Dota 2’s lore.

Speculation regarding Freya was further intensified by several voicelines that seem to refer to her. Especially the already exisiting hero Mars, her Greek mythological counterpart as deity of war, has lines that can be linked to her.

Another puzzle piece for Freya’s case is the fact that the Dota 2 support staff on Steam is named after Dota 2 heroes. In a recent Reddit-Thread observant users could see that one of the support team members signed off as “Freya”, a name that does not correlate to any Dota 2 Hero in the game so far.

Another not to be underestimated factor that points towards Freya or Valkyrie is the fact that The International 10 was supposed to be held in Stockholm. Traditionally the place to unveil new heroes it would have been the ideal stage to unveil a Nordic-themed hero.

Heroes from Artifact

While we just listed out quite a lot of compelling arguments for Freya, there of course is the chance that we might get someone else instead with Freya pushed back further. Ready candidates are also at hand. Although Artifact, the Dota card game, performed poorly with players it expanded Dota 2’s lore with lots of new characters that could find their way into the main game. One of the fan favorites in Artifact was Kanna, a Priestess of the Dire, that manipulated creeps.

Kanna from ArtifactKanna from Artifact
Kanna from Artifact

Other characters from Artifact like Sorla Khan, Axe’s successor as leader of the Red Mist, or Prellex, Priestess of the Radiant, could also be candidates for an eventual port to Dota 2.

Or Underlords?

For even more candidates we can also look at the other Dota offshoot game, Underlords. The only female member of its cast so far would be Anessix, Mistress of Secrets but with her being a rather recent addition to the Dota universe and no signs of her in the current clients she seems more like a longshot.

While Freya seems to be the most likely candidate for mid-December, Valve might as well just surprise is with a hero entirely out of left field. The lore for Dota 2 offers almost limitless options with characters that can be introduced to the game. We are eagerly awaiting the release of the 120th Hero of Dota 2.

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