Heroes of the Storm is a crossover MOBA, featuring characters from various Blizzard properties, including Overwatch, Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. However, for their newest character, Blizzard will be introducing an original hero in Heroes of the Storm: an assassin named Qhira.

Qhira is an assassin whose design is centered around her chainblade and grappling hook, which allow her to move quickly towards enemy heroes and deal enough damage to pick them off before they can escape. Her chain allows her to close the distance between herself and her opponent and stick to them, but at a cost. A clever opponent can capitalize on her dives and put her into bad positions. Still, if played correctly, she can be a terrifying hunter on the battlefield.

Off the battlefield, Qhira is a bounty hunter from Iresia. Unlike most character’s in Heroes of the Storm, Qhira’s homeland is not found in Azeroth, the Koprulu Sector, or any other location in any Blizzard games. Iresia is located in the Nexus, the trans-dimensional storm that is the setting for Heroes of the Storm.

Qhira is one of only three “Nexus Heroes” in Heroes of the Storm, and one of only two that don’t come from another game (The Lost Vikings are considered a Nexus Hero, but come from a puzzle-platformer developed by Blizzard’s predecessor Silicon and Synapse). The only other hero to hail from the Nexus itself is Orphea, who was released in November of 2018. Orphea was the daughter of one of the game announcer characters, the Raven Lord. Between the fact that the Heroes of the Storm developers decided to give the Raven Lord a family and Qhira having a backstory that ties into their home in the Nexus, it seems that Blizzard is introducing a story to what was previously a fairly lore-less crossover MOBA.

This Nexus-specific lore might seem strange to players, especially since it follows Blizzard’s decision to cut back on Heroes of the Storm in the last year. In December, Blizzard moved developers from Heroes of the Storm to other games and cancelled eSports events for the MOBA game. It seems like it would take more effort to design heroes from scratch rather than to just base them off of other games.

Maybe Blizzard hasn't completely abandoned Heroes of the Storm just yet.