When you first boot up Heroes of the Storm (Blizzard’s MOBA featuring characters from games’ various universes, including Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch), the tutorial encourages you not to worry too much about the setting. Why are all these people (and aliens, and demons, and robots, and…) gathered in the same place? Why do killing minions generate health recovery orbs? Why do heroes reappear instead of staying dead? The answer to all three questions is:

*shrugs*

The real answer is of course obvious: because this is a MOBA and these are the conventions of the genre. But Blizzard wants to change that, highlighting HotS not just as a playground that exists “because of MOBAs,” but as a unique place separate from the more established world. And it all starts with a free digital comic called Rise of the Raven Lord, which will be released later this month.

A raven rises

At first, you might wonder why Blizzard would bother with all this. MOBAs aren’t exactly known for coherent storylines. Heroes of the Storm is a game that pits magically gifted warriors against guys in power armor who speak with Southern accents. And that’s before you get into the effects created by cosmetic skins that turn psychic aliens into Egyptian reapers or angels into anime-style mechas.

Heroes of the Storm has always been based on the idea that this is not just an invention for gameplay, but a universe in itself. The Nexus is not just a concept or an excuse for Warcraft’s Thrall to kill Overwatch’s Tracer. It’s a standard parallel dimension in which the game takes place. The announcer who tells you what’s going on on the map is represented as a universal presence that speaks directly to the characters, not a disembodied voice that exists for the player’s benefit.

Admittedly, this all feels a bit vague, but the foundations have been there since day one. Rise of the Raven Lord takes the existing design philosophy a step further, reinforcing the idea that HotS not only exists as a mashup of existing properties, but also stands out on its own merits. This comic is by Valerie Watrous, lead author of StarCraft 2 (since 2016) and Diablo 3 (since 2017). It expands on the hero structure and gives more life to its world, so fans looking for lore can enjoy the game in a new way.

The story follows the titular Raven Lord, a character who was previously a disembodied voice on the two battlefields of HotS. It turns out that the Raven Lords, along with the other announcers featured in the game, rule their realm in the Nexus, using heroes from other dimensions as enforcers. Is that weird? Think of it like a feudal duke conscripting knights to serve him and enforce his will.

Only here the duke is a reality-warping wizard and the knights are video game characters.

Overwatch’s influence

There’s no word yet on exactly how many issues of the Heroes of the Storm comic will be released (or how often), but Blizzard sees this as an opportunity to tie the game’s updates more closely to the lore. “As more information about the game is released, we go in and out of the story arc, so we have a seasonal arc that tells one story throughout the year,” production director Kaeo Milker told me at PAX East 2018.

“We put out machinima and cinematics and stuff. They come out and focus on little moments or specific pieces of content. We want to weave more information into this overarching story arc and into the story of Heroes of the Storm. So, let’s get started.” If this all sounds a little familiar, it’s probably because we can already see this design philosophy at work in another Blizzard game, Overwatch, with a new map and a selection of skins for the hero shooter. This came at the same time as the trailer above. While Overwatch doesn’t have a full-fledged story campaign, the company has managed to gain appeal by tying updates and seasonal events to the lore. Players “[Overwatch] is definitely a source of inspiration for us,” Milker said. “They did a great job right from the beginning, building a whole new game world from the ground up. We wanted to make sure that we had this amazing gameplay experience, but at the same time we understood who these characters are and why we should care about them. I think Heroes had all these characters that people already associated with, but now we’re looking inward — what is Nexus, what’s going on with it?” Milker said he wanted to get to a point where Overwatch’s gameplay updates and lore updates are inextricably intertwined.

When he thought about crossovers between Overwatch and his multimedia projects (such as a “casual” Hanzo skin based on his appearance in the Reflections comics), he wondered if the same thing would happen with Heroes of the Storm. We’ll soon meet Raven Lord and some other characters that are definitely unique to the HotS universe. Could we see original heroes from the comics added to the game’s playable roster?