DOTA and Conciousness

Consciousness Meets DotA: A Deep Dive

I’ve been diving into psychology books lately, and DotA’s lore is actually making more sense to me now.

# What DotA Says

DotA’s lore suggests that our world is a “flesh illusion,” formed by the primordial mind wrestling with itself, and by the dream/song of the eight pillars of creations (dragons).

Believe it or not, some psychological theories and mystical texts, like the Kabbalah, echo similar ideas, that the world is simply God “speaking” and that the physical layer is levels removed from the Source. According to them, our minds don’t perceive reality as is, but rather dress it up with a whole lot of interpretation. This is more clearly seen when you do psychedelics. But here are some ways I’ve seen to get half way there with logic.

# The Ship Paradox

You may have heard of the Ship of Theseus paradox. You have a brand new ship. Where does it start? Where does it end? Well clearly where the boards touch the sea and the masts touch the sky. The ship goes through a bad storm, and a mast breaks. We replace it. Is it still the same ship? Is the new mast the ship? The old one? Ok, we are being silly. The new mast is attached to the ship. It’s part of the ship. But now, years later, we switch out every part of the ship. Is it still the same ship? Technically not…all the atoms of the original ship are elsewhere. But we still keep the symbol of the original ship attaching it to the arbitrary new atoms.

# Symbols and Reality

So, taking it from there, we don’t see things for what they are (a blob of atoms, or really quantum fields); we label them with symbols. A ship is not just wood and nails; it’s an object of transport, adventure, or even pirate danger. Symbols are mostly a package of emotions. We feel a certain way in our body when we think of a ship or a puppy or a gun.

# Back to DotA Characters as Archetypes

With that said, I believe that the archetypal characters in DotA are just symbols, packets of emotions that we feel within ourselves and project on others. That’s all reality is. The dragons’ dream, the primordial mind, it’s all just a bunch of emotions in the quantum fields, visualized as “the flesh illusion”.

Here’s how I see them:

• **TerrorBlade**: The inner critic, always naysaying your plans. He’s not evil; he’s just your fears given form. There’s no evil. It’s simply what our will wants vs what it doesn’t in that moment. “Us” vs “not us”. The Radiant vs the Dire. If there was no Dire, the Radiant couldn’t desire something, as there would be no “other”.
• - **Invoker**: Mr. Logic. Great for solving puzzles, not so great for heartfelt conversations. In the West we gravitate towards science and logic. And yes, on the surface we achieved some great advancements. But ultimately, the world isn’t logic, it’s emotion. And as we sink deeper into the logical hole, we get more miserable, because we’re missing the point. Unless the act of playing with logic is what you want, not the outcome. In which case, carry on.
• - **Davion**: The Actor, the brave soul, idealistic, the one who makes things happen, but is quite ineffective alone. Needs a squad. This is the part of us that desires. We want money, fame, women, achievement, whatever. We want intimacy really. All of the above are conduits, layers. But desire in a vacuum doesn’t do much. It has no real emotional charge. That’s why you need other symbols to compel action. The Other, again.
• - **Mirana**: The driving force, like a hormonal GPS that triggers actions. She is the one constant throughout all the realities and is therefore where Davion (the Actor) looks to for charge. Hormones are more powerful than meth. They are ultimately what get us to act. Without hormones we would be rocks. They “charge” an existing emotion or desire. Sexual attraction, just like any elemental force, directly or indirectly has one the highest potentials for charging an emotion. It’s the thing that got us to evolve from amoebas after all. And sexual attraction, it is all emotions in one — love, hate, excitement, despair.
• - **Fymryn**: my favorite poly elf, the divine within, offering true connection if we dare to go there. The connection to the divine is there within all of us, once we realize that we are the divine. But that connection waxes and wanes, much like the moon 🌙 , as we forget and remember who we are. Fymryn’s acolytes worship her by f***ing (I assume). Well, really, intimacy, fully surrender and connection. That’s the most “charged” version of sexuality that gets us to do things, or stops us from doing anything (unity).

# Wrapping It Up

So, what’s the takeaway? I believe that our reality is a set of emotionally-charged symbols on a quantum field, which itself is consciousness, aka the primordial mind aka the only thing that is. And just like the characters in DotA, we’re all parts of a collective consciousness choosing to see ourselves as separate entities, symbols, or packets of emotions charging other packets of emotions.

# Bonus Anime Nod

Neon Genesis Evangelion also dives into this, suggesting consciousness is like a primordial soup that’s too chicken to mix properly because it requires true and total intimacy. [20yo Spoiler] Shinji/All achieve this state but choose individuality. I never got an answer as to why.

But then I never get an answer as to why we don’t chose it in this world. I’ve been in this state before, but not right now.