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An Examination of Diablo 3 lore - Discussion


This the place to comment on, and discuss Roland's long view on Diablo 3.
http://www.d3armory.com/forums/topic/2843/

Great Article! One thing that always puzzled me, is that through out D2 Tyrael would state that the his ties to Sanctuary were fading, or his powers were fading, so i don't think he could have stayed in Sanctuary for those 20 years. Which would make the reality of punishment more of a possiblity, seeing as he would have had to return to heaven.

In the Sin Wars, Tyrael was the deciding vote to save Sanctuary, if he was stripped of his vote, that might have shifted the balance of power, especially if the vote was constantly tested by Imperious and the Archangel of death. Any maybe the neutral angel was swayed. Sanctuary might be doomed...nah


As far as Lilith, I was surprised after reading the Sin Wars that she appeared in a D2 event.

Inarius imprisoned her and minimized her encasing to a inconceivably small size, to the point it couldn't be seen, even by an angel. I have doubts Lilith will reappear, she was extremely crafty, but Inarius was by far the stronger, and by far more dangerous than Lilith could ever have been. I think her banishment is permanent, if you do not consider that pandemonium event canon that is, (in which you have Diablo, Izual, and Duriel resurrected by Lilith).


What would be weird, is if the players had to free inarius either by will or being tricked. Even if he was defeated in the Sin Wars, he was clearly leagues above most angels/demons and has more knowledge about the in workings of Sanctuary than anyone besides Trang'oul (spelling?). He was capable of remaking sanctuary if he wanted to, something that may be beyond any of the angris council or the prime evils. If anything if Inarius was freed, he would be the super villain, especially after being tortured for 3000 years.

Quote by Nil

Great Article! One thing that always puzzled me, is that through out D2 Tyrael would state that the his ties to Sanctuary were fading, or his powers were fading, so i don't think he could have stayed in Sanctuary for those 20 years. Which would make the reality of punishment more of a possiblity, seeing as he would have had to return to heaven.

It's been implied that only extremly powerful entities from heaven or hell could stay in Sanctuary, like Diablo and his brother could hold on themselves, all the little demons you fight are just holding on by their master's powers. Tyrael could also hold on, but not for as long as the prime evils which could not only stay forever, but keep all their minions in Sanctuary also. Another thing is that Tyrael fought Diablo (in human form) and Ball (partly human) at once. That probably drained him massivly. You missed that the worldstone is what made it difficult for divinities to stay, when it was destroyed any little demon from a fallen up could walk into Sanctuary no problem, if the demons capture Sanctuary they would have the advantage of Heaven. I'll finishin your next question.

Quote by Nil

In the Sin Wars, Tyrael was the deciding vote to save Sanctuary, if he was stripped of his vote, that might have shifted the balance of power, especially if the vote was constantly tested by Imperious and the Archangel of death. Any maybe the neutral angel was swayed. Sanctuary might be doomed...nah

The only practical reason for Heaven not to destroy Sanctuary is that Hell couldn't use it against them and it's a whole other war to fight. Now Tyrael destroyed the worldstone they may have essentially banished him to Sanctuary, where he can now stay, and when they saw Hell beginning their invasion the archangel of neutrality realized that logically, Sanctuary was a threat to heaven and voted to invade it which Imperius did.

Quote by Nil

As far as Lilith, I was surprised after reading the Sin Wars that she appeared in a D2 event.

Inarius imprisoned her and minimized her encasing to a inconceivably small size, to the point it couldn't be seen, even by an angel. I have doubts Lilith will reappear, she was extremely crafty, but Inarius was by far the stronger, and by far more dangerous than Lilith could ever have been. I think her banishment is permanent, if you do not consider that pandemonium event canon that is, (in which you have Diablo, Izual, and Duriel resurrected by Lilith).

The Pandemonium event is confirmed not canon, just end game. If Lilith was in Sanctuary she may have ententionally let her self slip out to.. somewhere else from where she could escape.

Or Andariels sister or something.

Quote by Nil

What would be weird, is if the players had to free inarius either by will or being tricked. Even if he was defeated in the Sin Wars, he was clearly leagues above most angels/demons and has more knowledge about the in workings of Sanctuary than anyone besides Trang'oul (spelling?). He was capable of remaking sanctuary if he wanted to, something that may be beyond any of the angris council or the prime evils. If anything if Inarius was freed, he would be the super villain, especially after being tortured for 3000 years.

Trag'oul is to powerful to come in, he would just end it all.

The player may free Inarius, to work with Lilith (or whoever) to create the Nephalem to stop Heaven/Hell to save Sanctuary. Expansion material there.

Hmm... so its basically like 3 forces converging on one point..


Oh and Roland, you said that Tyrael (theory) loses his power. BUT... later on.. you mentioned that the picture of was Angel of War... turning into Liar or something.

O__O.. I agree with the stripping of power. Especially in here:
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#35

If you will do the honors Roland, and increase the Gamma (thru Photoshop), you'll see something new. On that topic, I agree with your article, the helm and the armor disappears after the 2-3 slides of that picture.

Oh.. and btw.. I don't know where you got that last "sword" picture from.

Quote by lom109

Hmm... so its basically like 3 forces converging on one point..

Oh and Roland, you said that Tyrael (theory) loses his power. BUT... later on.. you mentioned that
the picture of was Angel of War... turning into Liar or something.

I think I more meant that Tyrael is weakened and potentially, banished to Sanctuary. I thought I put the link below in my article...

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#48

You see that's separate but one is Tyrael, and the one you linked below is Imperius, who is MAYBE turning into Beliel.

Quote by lom109

O__O.. I agree with the stripping of power. Especially in here:
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#35

If you will do the honors Roland, and increase the Gamma (thru Photoshop), you'll see something new. On that topic, I agree with your article, the helm and the armor disappears after the 2-3 slides of that picture.

Thanks for the tip

Quote by lom109

Oh.. and btw.. I don't know where you got that last "sword" picture from.

I got the sword from, here:

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#48

Underneath Tyrael their or 5 emblems, the sword is one of them, but like I said, the image I posted is rotated, so it may not be clear.

As a start I would like to say I have read all the Diablo books, infact all the Blizzard books and Manga so what I say comes from experience, at least I hope you take it as such.

Very well placed plot. I believe Roland you hit the nail on the head. Altho one thing, I don't think Tyreal has been corrupted. I don't think I understand your explination there. Perhaps you could help me understand more.

With the end of the Sin War trilogy and the heavens leaving Uldyssian ul-Diomed, a Nephalem of great power and possibly immortality, alive and free on Sanctuary. What are the odds do you think of an appearance of this protector of Sanctuary?

Quote by isadorts

With the end of the Sin War trilogy and the heavens leaving Uldyssian ul-Diomed, a Nephalem of great power and possibly immortality, alive and free on Sanctuary. What are the odds do you think of an appearance of this protector of Sanctuary?

I have read the first two of the trilogy, but not the last, however at the end doesn't Uldyissian and all of the other nephalem, lose their memories and live their lives as if nothing happened? I doubt we will see Uldyissian, but I would not be surprised if blizz tried to work in a little bits or hints of the story for the fans. If they were going to put hints/characters from the books I would expect the necro Zayl. I would love to see some mentioning of the black road, I really did enjoy the end of that one.

Now if only the author didn't get so sucked in to repeating certain words like macabre or host.

Quote by isadorts

As a start I would like to say I have read all the Diablo books, infact all the Blizzard books and Manga so what I say comes from experience, at least I hope you take it as such.

Very well placed plot. I believe Roland you hit the nail on the head. Altho one thing, I don't think Tyreal has been corrupted. I don't think I understand your explination there. Perhaps you could help me understand more.

With the end of the Sin War trilogy and the heavens leaving Uldyssian ul-Diomed, a Nephalem of great power and possibly immortality, alive and free on Sanctuary. What are the odds do you think of an appearance of this protector of Sanctuary?

Thank you, and welcome to the armory. For Tyrael, I'm not entirely sure he's corrupted either, I think throughout the game he may be activley becoming corrupted, and die before it sets in (I think he has certainly been punished and mortality may be part of the punishement.) Blizzard kind of hinted that he may have been "affected" by the worldstone blast, but it's uncertain wether or not he was really corrupted or weakened or what. For now though their is no evidence he is not corrupted and some evidence he is. Until more emerges I have to say he is corrupting.

Oof, I quite frankly don't know about this guy much. He could make a return and side with Lilith/Inarius to save Sanctuary. I'll research him and see if I can add a segment later.

See I find that odd that you enjoyed the Black Road, as it was my least favourite. Altho i am not trying to offend by saying that. And yes you are right an appearance of Zayl would be very cool, seeing as how he was featured in two of the books.

At the end of the Sin Wars all lost their memory as you say but Uldissian's brother kept his he changed his name to Kalan, for some reason that name doesn't ring any bells to me other then from the book. ( any further information you can find would be nice.) He leaves the world to work under Trag and Rathma. I assume to start the forming of the Priests of Rathma.

I hope they do not completely take out the necromancer class in D3, that would depress me alot and would be taking away from a large portion of the lore. Necromancer type of class had been around during almost every important step in the evolution of sanctuary, from Bartuc the Bloody, to the demon spider, who so well served the son of Mephisto in the Sin Wars, to even saving Sanctuary from the heavens and hells in Sin Wars.

Aside: you are welcome to take all my minerals and gas, i really don't care about them I only like to contribute to this interesting topic.

Great article roland !!
it filled a huge gap in my understanding of the diablo universe
especially since im too lazy to read the books :p

but i had some speculation of my own and i think that the picture with the ascending angel
even though it is like a strip of pictures following one another i think these might be two different
angels in two different events or two ways to depict one event

notice that there are two sets of background and two sets of weapons,armor..

anyways i think you did a great job and i think you shoud post the url to this article in other forums
(i got to see it because of your reply in the d3 battle.net forum)

one more thing:
when i read about your speculation with lilith it sprang into my mind that lilith might be the narrator in the cinematic trailer

Thanks, but I haven't read the books either, I just began looking around for lore the day the splash pages showed up until I knew enough to write, but I'm still researching Ureh and Lyth (spelling)

I'll have to look at this one, it actually could explain a couple things...

Ha! Stick around, new members are always welcome. I have already posted this on diablofans.com and blizzforums though (my rep almost doubled.)

It's been accepted that the voice was Leah, the young girls seen around artwork and cinema's, but I'll have to record the voices and do an examination....

actually the last time i wached the trailer was about two weeks ago,and now that i wached it again it does seem less likely to me that lilith is the narrator (stench of terror and all of that).

but it did feel really good to think that i found out something important!! (at least for a couple of
hours x) )

Hey Roland, here's something for you to look into:
Compare this picture...

with this picture...


The first is from the Act IV cinematic in Diablo 2 as they were opening the gate to hell. Just after this, bones fly up into the air and some come up from the blood to make a bridge for Big D to walk into the gate on. Do you think the similar circle that Tyrael is seen in is part of the ritual to open the gate to Heaven? Maybe he's sacrificing himself to complete it or something. Just a thought.

(If that IMG code didn't work, I'll post the links in an edit in a second.)

Shisou that's very interesting. Its possible that the 5 angel runes in the 2nd image could be in the Sanctuary. however I highly doubt that.. as no one was supposed to 'know' of Sanctuary when it came to Heaven.

Ofc.. I could be wrong....

Interesting, I'll have to add on about this, Lilith, Ureth Lyth (spelling,) and I'll have to find a way to prove without interviews that Diablo is out and I have to really prove Inarius as well as go into the spider-lady artwork.

Not even to mention the Harrogath thing....