There's nothing to discuss here – I checked this myself a while ago... You start only with heroes of one class – and in the tavern at the start of the game, only they are available, no one else is there, and there can't be. As you hire heroes, others from the available ones appear... When all are hired, both windows in the tavern are empty.
I just checked this yesterday, in connection with Radic's post... I'm telling you: first, a hero appears in the tavern from somewhere, the one I canceled in the settings, but after buying him, the other heroes of the same class appear.
For example, I left only Rangers from the Fortress, and canceled all the others. I loaded the map, and I see Caitlin from the Human Castle in the tavern. How can this be explained then?
And after buying all the heroes, both windows in the tavern are indeed empty...