Season 2 - Arena Announcements

Season 2 of the Arena will feature 100 new characters, including characters from two new universes: Diablo and The Forgotten Realms.

Introducing Diablo and The Forgotten Realms

New Planes of Existence

Characters from the universes of Diablo and The Forgotten Realms (Dungeons and Dragons) are going to be introduced into the Arena! This increases our represented universes from 7 to 9, and it is fair to expect around two more fantasy universes per year. We already have strong favorites to be considered for Season 3, but would like to hear your thoughts on what universes and characters you'd most like to see in future seasons and beyond.

New Character Ranking System

Characters are now going to be ranked across fifteen (15) attributes, rather than the original 5. This overhaul is also shifting from absolute scores to relative scores, where characters score in any particular attribute will be their percentile relative to other Arena participants. This system will be rolled out over time, and will function based on a hidden Elo score for each rating category for each character. This system has advantages and drawbacks. The coolest advantages are allowing a more nuanced ranking of characters, and eventually, the implementation of direct user feedback into our Elo calculations. The disadvantage is that these scores are no longer going to be centered around a hypothetical average fantasy character, but across the chosen characters for analysis in the Arena. I think it is fair to say, our Arena contestants represent a more talented crowd than what may be seen in the tavern of any particular universe. With that being said, we expect, as is the case with all statistical analyses, the scores in our sample to closer reflect the population as the sample size increases. We'll likely keep the original five attribute rankings, as it does help to have a baseline.

New Arena Results Outputs

For those following the action on X, we will be making some quality of life improvements to the Arena matches output. We love the scoreboard view on the website for desktop users, but have had issues with load times for mobile users. We also know that restricting the content of match results to X may not be ideal for some of you, and are continuing to ponder ways to bring this experience to more platforms, especially mobile website users.

New Characters

Right, to the cool part, by universe:

Diablo Season 2 Characters

Diablo characters enter the fray - and as one would hope, we have some angels, demons, and in-betweens. Expect big things out of the prime evils. The way too early rankings have the three highest characters as Diablo (9), Lillith, and Mephisto.

• Aidan
• Imperius
• Diablo
• Tyrael
• Lillith
• Mephisto
• Baal
• Malthael
• Andariel
• Deckard Cain

Forgotten Realms (D&D) Season 2 Characters

Dungeons and Dragons characters from multiple sources of lore are coming! With a heavy focus on the Legend of Drizzt series, but with some Baldur's Gate champions as well. The early rankings have the three most powerful of the bunch as Lolth (9.2), Elminster Aumar, and Mielikki.

• Elminster Aumar
• Lolth (Spider Queen)
• Mielikki
• Manshoon
• Drizzt Do'Urden
• Jaraxle
• Valindra Shadowmantle
• Cattie-brie
• Astarion
• Minsc
• Clacker
• Belwar Dissengulp

A Song of Ice and Fire Season 2 Characters

There must always be a Stark in Winterfell, but we didn't have any in the Arena! This batch of characters should be very familiar to those with familiar with the core novels. 

• Bran Stark
• Arya Stark
• Jon Snow
• Robb Stark
• Ned Stark
• Robert Baratheon
• Brienne of Tarth
• Sansa Stark
• Catelyn Stark
• The Hound
• The Mountain

Black Company Season 2 Characters

The Black Company roster is expanded by some additional faces seen throughout the series.

• Longshadow
• Harden
• Frogface
• Blade
• Bomanz
• Silent
• Narayan Singh

Elder Scrolls Season 2 Characters

The remaining daedric princes join the Arena, in addition to the world-eater Alduin and The Grey Fox. 

• Boethiah
• Clavicus Vile
• Mephala
• Nocturnal
• Alduin
• Meridia
• Hircine
• Vaermina
• Sanguine
• Malacath
• The Grey Fox
• Namira
• Peryite

Lord of the Rings Season 2 Characters

While the fellowship was represented in Season 1, there were no characters from the expansive Tolkien lengendarium. Morgoth is currently ranked higher than any character introduced in Season 1, but is only the second highest ranked in this new batch, you'll have to see the Wheel of Time characters...

• Eärendil
• Witch-king of Angmar
• Lúthien
• Gil-Galad
• Ancalagon
• Smaug
• Durin's Bane
• Morgoth
• Watcher in the Water
• Faramir
• Théoden

Malazan Book of the Fallen Season 2 Characters

There are just so many characters in Malazan that are perfect for this project. There isn't any true pattern to this list, except perhaps, for some more representation of characters fleshed out in the Fall of Light trilogy. 

• Dancer
• Shadowthrone
• Dassem Ultor 
• Spindle
• Vatha Urusander
• Hunn Raal
• Spite
• Malice
• Draconus
• Caladan Brood
• High King Kallor

Wheel of Time Season 2 Characters

Wheel of Time fans in Season 1 may have noticed, we didn't really include the bad guys. So, we give you all 13 forsaken, in addition to the Dark One himself, with an early ranking of 9.6!

• Shai'tan
• Ishamael
• Semirhage
• Demandred
• Lanfear
• Balthamel
• Aginor
• Asmodean
• Be'lal
• Rahvin
• Sammael
• Mesaana
• Graendal
• Moghedien

World of Warcraft Season 2 Characters

The Season 1 WoW characters were almost universally WoW Classic bosses, so, the power level is increasing drastically with several heroes of Warcraft and an additional Old God. 

• Arthas Menethil
• Yogg-Saron
• Sylvanas Windrunner
• Thrall
• Illidan Stormrage
• Gul'dan
• Jaina Proudmoore
• Tirion Fordring
• Uther the Lightbringer
• Garrosh Hellscream
• Tyrande Whisperwind

Season 2 Conferences

Previously, contestants were organized into conferences based on their plane of existence, which will still be the case, but due to the expansion, there will be two conferences for each of the existent seven universes. The same rules will apply, where conference regular season and tournament champions will be given automatic bids to the grand championship, meaning the number of at large bids will be reduced from at least 50 (and no more than 57) to at least 32 (and no more than 48). We also are expanding the randomness of the schedule, as contestants will only be guaranteed to face their conference opponents once, which will also solidify tiebreakers.

For those keeping track, there will be 204 characters in Season 2. The original 107, minus the 3 spared by Aragorn's wish, and 100 introduced in this article. The breakdown by universe is below:

• A Song of Ice and Fire - 25 Characters
• Diablo - 10 Characters
• Elder Scrolls - 28 Characters
• Forgotten Realms - 12 Characters
• Lord of the Rings - 24 Characters
• Malazan Book of the Fallen - 30 Characters
• The Black Company - 23 Characters
• World of Warcraft - 27 Characters
• Wheel of Time - 25 Characters

What's Next?

The Season 2 release date will be announced this summer. For reference, Season 1 started the second week of August, but we'll likely aim to release a tad earlier this year. In the interim, we will begin releasing character analyses of the new contestants in addition to posts on various fantasy races and factions across our explored universes. To summarize (and tease a bit of undiscussed things), planned content releases for the remainder of 2024 include:

• New Character Analyses
• New Faction and Race Analyses
• Season 2 Arena Release
• New Divination Activities (Ajah Assignment and WoW Classic Race/Class Selection)