Dota 2 reborn pentagram

Thread: Pentagram and Satanic in DotA

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Pentagram and Satanic in DotA

I would like to start a discussion about these item and the pentagram graphic in DotA. Please keep it civil: this is intented as a serious discussion on the subject. Any flamewar starting or igniting posts will be reported to the mods immideately, and I except them to be taken care of.

The question of this thread is to not question each others religion or lack of religion thereof: I presume we all have our reasons to believe or not to believe, what those reasons are, and wether they be good reasons or not, is not relevant in anyway to this discussion we’re having. I’ve cleared this now upfront, so don’t try and bring them to this context and discussion we’re having now, please. Thank you.

Now let us take a look at the symbols “Pentagram.” Historically, Pentagrams have been used in various religious rituals from what I know of, and are even common practice of some Wiccans today. This sign is clearly not of christian origin, even though it may have been used by “christians” in the past – by christians I mean people who were forced to convert into a Christianity, but were allowed to keep a part of their paganistic habitats. Now what’s interesting to know is wether or not this has been used by x, y in the past when it comes to the revelance of this context into DotA; it’s certain that the notion and usage of this pentagram is clearly derived from the common “devil worship” of our past or our CURRENT century, as this pentagram is the ultimate ability of the “Doom Bringer,” who is called Lucifer A. K.A, the Satan.

Even though I admit and know that the notion of “Lucifer” is based on a misintepration of a certain part in the bible, it doesn’t matter: what matters is how this is wished to have been portrayed in the current DotA game as we know it, and it’s also how I presume majority of the people understand it, becouse in current popular culture Lucifer is basically a Satan.

Im going to draw an example, it’s from my old language here in Finland. It’s a teaching from my old man, who used to say, that he won’t quit saying “nigga’s” “nigga’s,” becouse to him, he had grown with the concept that, nigger basically meant a black person and to him, there was nothing offensive in it.

However, there’s also the a fact that if certain world is used in the wrong context too often, then it may as well become a curse word. Such is the case of the “nigga” world in our Finnish culture. There weren’t many somalians in our country before, but there are now, and as such, this has even become an issue of a political correctness. So I believe this word has actually changed it’s meaning: from a neutral word describing a black person, to a racist word portraying a black person.

As such you can clearly see that, worlds change in our different culture if they are used in certain context too often. Same is for Lucifer: term means the “light-bringer” and the place in bible may not neccessarily describe Satan, but becouse the concept of “Lucifer” has been used in our common culture so much as a description of Satan, the meaning of this word has changed. Such is the case for the N word in my country, the Lucifer words, and presumably alot of other words to come.

Now I just wanted to clear up that front so we don’t have to have discussing about the meanings of the word, or meanings of the Pentagram becouse it’s obvious that in the context of this game, they are used to describe a devilish being and are thus connected to the biblical satan as well in our current popular culture.

Now what is the point then? Someone can say: Nobody cares. But I care. I want to ask, is it really neccessary to keep in game such unoriginal reference to a malevolent real-life being? I mean, could we be more original, and would more originality hurt us in the long run? Im not saying im personally offended by the name Lucifer in game. But I don’t pick him either. So it’s kind of like 50/50. It’s more of me not wanting to promote the usage of unoriginality. In Diablo 3, the developers drifted from the original plan to use pentagrams for the same creativity reasons:

Bashiok: A lot of what we do now and have been doing for the past. 8 or so years, around the Warcraft III and initial World of Warcraft development era, is putting a lot of effort into crafting unique worlds. Meaning that we put more effort into every aspect of the game world itself. Who is this secret organization? What is their history? What’s their look? Do they have a specific accent? Do they have a symbol or mark that can identify them?

In the previous games I think there was a sense of “Oh it’s a demon, Diablo, devil, Satan, satanism… pentagram!” and while certainly there are those influences, what we’re creating now and have been creating for quite some time is evolving the game world and making something more complete. A complete world where every aspect is fully realized, maybe even if it doesn’t show up in the game.
I think that same sort of world-crafting can be seen between Warcraft II and Warcraft III. A big shift in focus to fleshing out a unique fantasy world and story.

So what’s stopping Valve from being more original in this matter? I would like to hear arguments from back and forth. Let the discussions begin.

Last edited by Kaiverrettu; 07-06-2012 at 07:50 AM .