I would imagine heroes as a normal villagers getting some kind of status and opinion from the other villagers for their great deeds. Like, that one soldier who singlehandedly defended a whole village from raiders. Or a medic who saved a lot of lives. Hunters that gathered a lot of food when stocks were empty.
Hard to implement, as it would require some kind of system to track villagers statistics, and add some randomness to resource gathering and combat, if there is no such thing already.
But it would add so much potential to immersion and make us able to connect more deeply with our beloved villagers.
I remember that there was this guy who was chopping firewood for the entire game. I imagine him at the top of his physique, greek god’s body, absolute chad of a worker.
One day animals attacked our village. When situation became critical he stood up, left his workshop and slain two boars and a wolf single-handedly, only to go back and continue to work as if nothing happened.
Now that’s a hero.