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What’s hidden on Diablo 3’s Lore Books and Monster Entries?

by - 10 years ago

Hello everyone and welcome back to BlizzPro! My name is Dannie “IAmDiR23” Ray 23, and If you are familiar with my work, you know that I mainly dabble in theorycrafting and game mechanics.

But today I’ll take a 180 degree turn as I’m joined by GiantSequoia, a lore enthusiast. Today we will talk about the amazing story gems that can be found on both enemy lore entries, and the different Books scattered through Sanctuary.

But first of all, let our guest introduce himself.


 

GS: Hello everyone! My name’s Mike, aka giant-sequoia. I live in Ontario, Canada, and I’ve been an avid reader and writer for as long as I can remember. I’ve been a gamer for most of my life as well, since I was eight (I’m now 25). Blizzard’s games were among the first I ever played, and I’ve been hooked ever since. My preferred platform is the PC, though I’ve dabbled in consoles now and then. (I just can’t aim well without a keyboard and mouse.) I’m pretty introverted, so I don’t talk much whether it’s in meatspace or on chatrooms or message boards, but when I do talk I tend to follow my imagination and talk at length, sometimes excruciating length. I studied the English language and its literature in university, so my skillset leans heavily towards interpreting and analyzing fictional narratives, as well as writing about said analyses. I also write fiction myself.

DR23: That’s pretty good to know, but lets go right to the topic at hand. Diablo 3 Lore. Were you always interested in the lore behind the games, or did you have a special moment where you discovered that there was much more about the game besides just slaughtering the hordes of hell?

GS: The rich, intricate world of Diablo (and also the worlds of Warcraft and Starcraft) captured my imagination from the very beginning. The lore and story has always been the primary draw of video games for me; as a player, I was a bit timid when I was younger. The dungeon beneath the Cathedral in Diablo scared the crap out of me, but the I decided it was worth being scared just because the atmosphere and lore were so engrossing. I’m glad I did! Video games with great stories are like great books, except the worlds they create have a singularly powerful imaginative potential. With a book, you can explore its world in your mind as the narrative carries you along, but with video games you physically see and hear it, even interact and exert control over it. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gained interpretive skills and learned more about the capabilities of my own imagination, the tremendous power of human creativity. My fascination with and appreciation of Blizzard’s unique worlds and characters has only deepened with time.

DR23: Most players I know are quick to skip all the lore entries, and likely have never talked with the NPCs other than when it is strictly necessary to move the story along, what are they missing on exactly?

caincut2

GS: If you’re looking for richly detailed, complex characters and a game whose lore revolves around them, there many that do it better than Diablo 3. But even so there is a great deal of thoughtfully constructed, fascinating depth in the background world and its characters. When playing through the campaign with a new character, taking the time to explore and find every journal entry, every bit of history, and every fragment of world lore enriches the story considerably, and can be quite rewarding. There’s an entire hidden world of intersecting, interwoven stories going on behind the main plot. It’s difficult to discover the complete Diablo 3 lore experience in just one playthrough. Of course, lots of people aren’t interested in the lore at all, and I completely get that. The point of the game is to play it, and seeking out the lore is just something you do along the way. For some people it doesn’t even register. But for those who love stories and are willing to do explore and seek it out, Diablo 3’s narratives are intricate and quite compelling.

DR23: With that in mind, could you share some of your favorite books, lore entries, and NPC conversations?

GS: This is a difficult question! There is so much lore in the game that it’s hard to remember all of it. Some of my favourite lore books from Reaper of Souls are the ancient writings of Inarius and Lilith. Their voice actors both did very well, in my opinion, and it’s fascinating to see the prelude to Sanctuary’s creation from the perspectives of both its primary creators (especially after the somewhat duller version we get from Auriel in the Creation of Sanctuary entries from Act 4). The writings of Inarius and Lilith give some pretty interesting hints, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly, at the true, unsettling nature of the Eternal Conflict, and of its combatants. Neither of them is completely “good” or “evil”, and though both share many of the characteristics of their brethren (angelic or demonic), both were also clearly very unusual examples of their respective kind.

The Testaments of Rakkis are also highly intriguing, most particularly when compared with Abd al-Hazir’s History of Westmarch. On the one hand, al-Hazir presents Rakkis as superstitious and dogmatic, yet a force for “civilization” in his colonization and conquest of the land that would be called Westmarch. On the other hand, Rakkis’s journals reveal the true motive behind his crusades, one that ties into the world’s deeper cosmology: he was aware of the ancient nephalem, even of the Worldstone itself, and he wanted that power for himself.

Adria’s journals offer chilling insight into how she became what she did. Some reading between the lines is needed, but in my opinion her character was rounded out quite satisfactorily in the expansion from the somewhat flat, simplistically evil witch in the original. What her journals reveal about Adria’s past don’t justify her actions, but they do (I think) believably explain them, and even open the possibility of sympathy given the real-world resonances of how she was treated. From a young age, Adria was forced to witness awful brutality against people like her, told she was wicked and doomed to the flame simply for being what she was. When the flame appeared before her, she saw no option other than to give herself to it; and finally, she completes a subtly-traced circle of abuse. Why even consider sacrificing Leah to Diablo? Because “daughters are a cheap thing” – something I suspect her father said to her, many times.

One area rich in background conversation, which I suspect hardly anyone knows about, is the Caldeum populace. During the campaign you can walk all around the bazaar and hear updates from multiple unnamed characters. After every quest and sometimes during them, you can listen to the people of Caldeum discuss recent events and what might happen in the future. Much of the nuance of Act 2 is buried in these hidden conversations: the peoples’ perception of the emperor and his guards, the changing relationship between the commoners and the ejected nobility, the subtle but detectable influence of the Lord of Lies, the horror and shock at Magdha’s atrocities.

DR23: But not everything is gold, with so many interweaving stories, there’s bound to be inconsistencies. In fact, you were pretty critical of some stuff in a post over at the Blizzard Forums. What do you think are the weakest parts of the Diablo 3 lore?

Malthael-featured

GS: After I got a few responses, I went back and reread everything I’d written. While I was fairly critical of some of the lore, I realized in hindsight that I didn’t mean to be quite so… snide. I could have phrased a lot of that better. For that I’m sorry.

There are a few different aspects of the lore and its presentation that weaken the rest. For instance, I think Belial was very poorly characterized. As I said above, much of the atmosphere of the great trade city under the influence of a Lord of Hell is difficult to find. What we get of Belial is that he wields intrigue and artifice, but we almost never see him do it. His missives to his servants and to Magdha paint him as goofy and borderline incompetent. I thought that really detracted from the overall presentation of Act 2. His only obvious acts of deceit are the snake demons posing as guards and himself posing as the emperor. Those were decent narrative twists, but they ultimately fell a bit flat with everything else menacing and sinister about him either buried or obscured behind goofy lore entries. Did you know that Magdha’s entire coven was meant from the beginning as sacrifices to Belial? This was only ever revealed in a tooltip for a legendary crafting material, Tainted Cultist Blood or something, which has now been removed from the game. Belial was a liar, and he told his servants that he would reward them with power in return for their service – but he meant them all to die to fuel his power. Every cultist the nephalem kills in Act 1 and 2 makes Belial stronger. His final deceit was the bloody altar of Alcarnus, filled with death and torture as Magdha and her cultists performed their terrible duty, first sacrificing to Belial the innocent townsfolk, then sacrificing themselves – throwing themselves against the nephalem, expecting to be rewarded, but finding themselves absorbed by their master, damned to suffer in Hell. None of this is ever made obvious in the campaign.

Having written all this, I think the biggest weakness of Diablo 3’s lore is, ironically, also one of its greatest strengths – the need to explore to find it. Searching out and discovering these things on one’s own can be very fun and fulfilling for someone who loves the lore, but at the same time there is such a volume of nuance and atmosphere that is simply missing for those who don’t look for it. Sure, some people don’t want to look for lore and don’t need to find it to be satisfied with the game, but for those who do want the story – so much of it is obscured, hidden, or simply left unsaid that at first glance (and second, and third) the overall picture of Sanctuary is filled with holes.

Some people complain about plot holes – why did Tyrael choose to become mortal, why did we have to kill Zoltun Kulle, why is Malthael obsessed with human souls but want to exterminate human beings – etc. I’m convinced that all of those holes and most other ones I anticipate have solutions, though they’re often (as I mentioned) so buried or labyrinthine that it’s no wonder people can’t see how it works out. But one plot hole that’s always annoyed me and seemed insoluble is at the beginning of the game. Why does Tyrael’s fall wake the dead? The explanation he offers is that his power was that of Justice, which is why it woke those who died unjustly during the reign of the Black King. But that’s not quite the truth of what happens in act 1. Even the most obvious, unmissable NPC ambient dialogue makes it clear that it’s not just the unjustly murdered rising from their graves. Tyrael’s fall spawned a plague of undeath. Anyone who dies in the area will rise, including those senselessly (unjustly) murdered by zombies. Even being bitten by one will turn the victim into a maddened hungry corpse. Should Mira Eamon have paid the price she did for Leoric’s crimes? How is that just? It just doesn’t make any sense at all.

DR23: How would you like the story to progress forward after Reaper of Souls, what kind of content would you like to see in a future Diablo 3 expansion lore-wise?

GS: I would absolutely love to see the story progress further. Lore wise, I would very much like to be able to return, even briefly, to the High Heavens to see what has become of them after Malthael’s fall. The Prophecy of the End Days states that all five archangels will fall, somehow. Tyrael did, and Malthael did. Imperius, obviously, has long since degenerated from true virtue and needs to die. But what of Auriel and Itherael? How will their development reflect the deterioration of Heaven? What exactly happened to the angels who served Malthael, the ones who seemed to gain flesh and become hideous, murderous monsters? In Storm of Light, the Crystal Arch was briefly tainted by the presence of the Black Soulstone, and it spawned a strangely corrupted angel (which soon died at the hands of the nephalem who helped Tyrael retrieve the stone). What is the current status of the Arch? Does any of Diablo’s influence linger still, whether as a result of his efforts before his defeat or from the Black Soulstone? Is the corruption in Heaven a result of the presence of so much concentrated evil, or is a subtler form of spiritual decay brought on by the instability of the Eternal Conflict? (Malthael’s sickness, etc.) On that note, what is the current status of the demons? All the demon lords have coalesced into one, but Diablo currently lacks a body. Who is ruling the Burning Hells?

I would love to learn more about all of this, but on the other hand I would also love very much if the next expansion were set in Skovos. I would love to see a jungle setting like Act 3 of Diablo 2 updated with the new graphics and the superior technical capabilities of the game engine. Since it’s nearby, I would also love to see the Torajan jungles, or the Teganze area from which the witch doctors hail. Perhaps even the necromancers could make an appearance, or the ancient city of Ureh, once the holiest in Sanctuary before it descended into corruption and filth at Diablo’s hands.

I also want the next expansion to have at least some focus on the nephalem. It’s clear from ambient dialogue in Act 5 that more and more humans are beginning to awaken to their true potential. With Sanctuary devastated first by the invasions of Belial and Azmodan, then by the forces of Heaven, the death toll across the human populations must be staggering. In this new, very dangerous world, only those humans who have access to their nephalem birthright will survive. What will happen with this emerging race of super beings? No doubt many will be enemies, as is fitting – since the nephalem have defeated Malthael, who had the power of the Prime Evil, at this point only other nephalem could possibly threaten them. These beings have titanic powers – how will they use them? Will a new Worldstone ever form, or be built, or created? Will the nephalem leave Sanctuary to explore Pandemonium, perhaps to discover or create new worlds? Are there other Creations elsewhere, remnants of the Eternal Conflict, worlds created solely by angels or demons as bastions of power? The possibilities are endless.

DR23: Who are your favorite characters in all of Sanctuary, and why?

cain

GS: I was really quite fond of Deckard Cain. He was so iconic of the series, and he worked so hard and for so long trying to avert the apocalypse, to protect his world from the forces of Hell. I think killing him was a mistake, at least the way it happened. I would have liked to have seen him, for instance, survive until Act 6 and then die in peace after some closure to Leah’s story. I would have dearly loved to hear his thoughts on Malthael’s fall, and Tyrael’s (since he knew him in Diablo 2) and Imperius’s.

My favourite character from the original Diablo was Adria. I loved her mysterious nature, her secluded hut on the edge of the village, her magical knowledge. I was thrilled when I learned she would return in Diablo 3, but I was disappointed at her obvious evil after what I felt was her rich ambiguity in Diablo. I would have preferred to see her as a neutral figure that leaned towards helping the side of good. After her journals and speeches in Reaper of Souls, however, I have a much greater appreciation for her character arc, and I’m satisfied with how her story began and ended, despite the fact that both of those things only truly happen in act 5. Her final scene and her boss fight was simply chilling. She has suffered all her life (“Everyone suffers.”) but is willing to put herself through yet more excruciating agony in order to increase her power. Have you ever watched closely what happens when she transforms herself? Her body rises into the air, dies – is killed by whatever foul magic she performs – and a skeletal demon forms anew, blood and muscle coalescing around it to birth a new, hideous being. That looked agonizingly painful to me, and I think that whole scene and the fight which follows reflects Adria’s character in a darkly fitting manner. All she has ever known, learned, or been taught is pain – and so in her final moments, she acts the only way she knows how – she subjects herself to yet more pain, knowing she has little chance against the nephalem, knowing she is doomed to suffer eternally in Hell no matter what happens.

Then there’s Covetous Shen. He’s a nephalem, no doubt one of the oldest still alive, and though his power is only a shadow of what it once was, he is still seemingly immortal and endlessly resourceful. I look forward to seeing the continuation of his story and his final confrontation (assisted by us, of course) with Dirgest.

Dirgest himself is another fascinating character. He was likely a nephalem as well, but he could have been a demon. Shen describes his “very nature” as desire. A demon who fed on desire, perhaps? Or was he of a race of the earliest nephalem, an elemental being of pure need? What others from Dirgest’s generation might still be hanging around? The most interesting characters to explore in future expansions are all likely to be nephalem, both contemporary and ancient. Is Bul-Kathos still alive? Vasily, Esu, Rathma, the other progenitors of various mythologies in Sanctuary? Would their power rival those of the contemporary nephalem, or has the new blood exceeded the old with the Worldstone completely gone?

Another character I would love to see more of is Zayl, and by extension necromancers in general. He appeared briefly for the first time in-game in Reaper of Souls after developing over the course of three novels (The Kingdom of Shadow, Moon of the Spider, and Storm of Light). I would like it if he was a more permanent NPC in a future expansion – a quest giver, perhaps. Or maybe another necromancer who disappeared into the world – Kara Nightshadow. She was last seen with her companion Norric, who wore the armour of Bartuc the Bloody and even briefly gained control over its power (Legacy of Blood). What happened to those two? On that note, what happened to Darrick Lang, who wielded the magical blade Stormfury and relied on it to keep in check the immensely powerful demon Kabraxis, said to rival the Prime Evils themselves in power (The Black Road)?

The Necromancer was my favourite class in Diablo 2, and I think they have some of the most interesting history of all the tribes and groups in Sanctuary. Rathma was among the first nephalem – perhaps the very first – and his priesthood was founded by Mendeln, brother of Uldyssian, the first ascendant nephalem. Rathma and his priests are also a connection to Trag’Oul, the celestial dragon guardian of Sanctuary who (as is revealed in The Veiled Prophet) is not even the only one of his kind. Trag’Oul is a being entirely outside of the Eternal Conflict, outside even of the primordial Anu and Tathamet.  Any further insights into his nature and motivations would be welcome.

DR23: It is very interesting to see you mention characters that I didn’t even know about, and I definately see what you meant by “talking at length” now. Anyway, It’s been a blast having you around man. I hope we can do something else in the future. Be sure to let us know if you find anything interesting regarding the Diablo Universe.

GS: Thanks for the invite! It’s been amazing having this opportunity to talk about the lore and share my thoughts. I’d be happy to do it again sometime. In the meantime, may you find all your set pieces and a damage immunity amulet in your journey through the Diablo universe!


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JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


0 responses to “What’s hidden on Diablo 3’s Lore Books and Monster Entries?”

  1. Karthios says:

    Awesome article and interview! I really love the lore for the 2 Blizzard franchises I have played (Diablo and WarCraft). I played all 3 WarCraft RTS games and was given the original Diablo as a birthday present. It was love at first play. I have read almost every WarCraft and Diablo novel and short story I could put my hands on. Zayl was by far one of my favourite characters. He and Humbart Wessel’s interactions made me laugh. Kara Nightshadow was another great character. I’d love to see more of those stories in game or in another book. Please Blizzard!?