User blog comment:YurdleTheTurtle/LoL & DotA 2 - AMA and Information Blog/@comment-60764-20121121154514/@comment-60764-20121121213727

Dota's lore extends back to the mod for Warcraft. Invoker is a Mage who could learn far more spells than anyone else (hundreds as opposed to the normal 1-2), Silencer was 'created' to be Invoker 2.0, Rubick (shitty wizard) is Ahganim's son, etc etc. All that about every hero has been there and remains unchanged, even as the game translates out of a mod.