2. Narrative Design
Eleni Rivera: Hi, BlizzCon and everyone at home. I’m a little nervous, but I’m excited. My name is Eleni Rivera, and I am a narrative designer on Overwatch. And I wanna address the shadow in the room. As you may notice, Doctrine is really giving vampire, but he’s not actually one, right?
Let’s break down how we even got to this. One day our lead narrative designer, Miranda Moyer, wondered aloud what a vampire would look like in this universe. How could we mix Overwatch’s futurism and technology with a folklore archetype and still stay grounded and believable?
The answer ended up being Doctrine. He’s hyper-intelligent, eccentric, and a visionary. No idea is too grand. He’s sophisticated, magnetic, and poetic. Doctrine carries a quiet certainty that his choices and his beliefs are correct. No matter the human cost or casualties involved. As you saw in the opening ceremony cinematic, Doctrine’s been locked up for a long time for his crimes.
But his story doesn’t begin in the halls of the Watchpoint: GrÃmsvötn Prison. It actually starts in Zimbabwe, right before the Omnic Crisis. After the death of his parents, Doctrine was left to care for his younger brother, who suffered from an incurable ailment. Even the best scientists and doctors couldn’t help him.
So Doctrine took things into his own hands by mastering cybernetics and bioengineering in pursuit of a cure. But no matter your intelligence or dedication, the ability to restore life to dying cells takes energy. It takes sacrifice.
I’m not gonna give away spoilers, but it was bad enough that Anna Amari and Freja Skov threw him into the depths of GrÃmsvötn, where he’s been ruminating on that particular interaction. If you’re doing the Omnic Crisis math back home, you’re probably wondering how Doctrine looks this good for being 70 to 80 years old. His technology can turn the clock back by draining the life force from others.
It’s a very questionable skincare routine; I’m not going to lie. The effort put forth to break him out of prison begs the question: why him and why now? Doomfist and Doctrine go way back, with a history rooted in the advanced studies of synergies, as well as some surprising shared beliefs. To them, their causes are righteous and undeniably correct, no matter the destruction that they may cause.
Now that he’s free from GrÃmsvötn, that can’t possibly bode well for Overwatch or the rest of the world. So I guess you’ll have to tune in and see what happens.
| BLIZZCON 2026 OVERWATCH: WHAT'S NEXT PANEL TRANSCRIPT | ||||
| 1. Intro | 2. Narrative Design | 3. Art Direction | 4. Hero Design | 5. Animation/Audio |
