Calling all Diablo Lore experts!

[Jokubas]

In Diablo lore demons/angels simply don't die. When their incarnations die, their souls go back to Chaos/Crystal Arch and stay there an amount of time before being able to take over another material/mortal form. That's the main reason why we can actually fight Diablo in multiple games.

The weird thing is, if you think about it, despite that lore for the Eternal Conflict, it actually hasn't been relevant to us fighting Diablo. Prior to Diablo 1, he was trapped in a Soulstone, and used his influence to convince Lazarus to free him. In Diablo 2, the hero of the first game failed to contain Diablo's power once again and became Diablo's host. The entire point of destroying the Soulstone in Diablo 2 was to destroy Diablo forever, banishing him to a realm he couldn't return from. He's only back in Diablo 3 because they invented the Black Soulstone which apparently intercepted the souls of the Prime Evils on their way to being banished.

Frankly, it kinda annoys me. There is no shame in an artifact title. The Diablo games can be fun without Diablo himself appearing in them. Diablo 2 ended with the main three gone for good, but Sanctuary was about to change forever thanks to losing the protection of the Worldstone. Diablo 3 retconned the nature of the Worldstone and retconned in the Black Soulstone in order to more or less retread old ground. I think the barriers between realms being shattered would have felt more than enough like a Diablo game without Diablo himself. If the story doesn't move on from that, there'll be nothing to be invested in because we've seen it before.

As for the ending of Reaper of Souls, the other evils have not been released, it's just the super Diablo still:

After the death of Malthael, the combined Prime Evil Diablo was released, rather than the individual Evils.

http://www.diablofans.com/news/48075...tream-gambling

I've speculated on where the story might go next, but I'm really not sure. I doubt we'd just go right back after Diablo, even though that would be a pretty logical action to take, because it would feel redundant. Diablo 3's story is definitely of the Nephalem though, in both the base game and the expansion, and I think a second expansion, at least, would continue that. In the base game, we discovered our nature as Nephalem and came into our power, and in Reaper of Souls, even the angels came to realize the implications of that power. While they were too busy worrying about Diablo and Malthael before, the player now has the attention of both Heaven and Hell, and I think the Nephalem will now take center stage. Inarius and Lilith definitely seem like potential candidates to appear, considering their connection to the Nephalem, but I can't say in what capacity.

If I had to make a guess, I'd say that the events of Diablo 3, and especially Malthael's mass extinction, will have awakened the powers of many other Nephalem out there, and they're going to be very upset. The villain might end up being a new Nephalem who kills the angels and demons equally. I could also see Imperius being his most sympathetic at a time when he's openly after us, even if it's still misguided, because the Nephalem are truly threatening the angels.

[MechaCThun]

Given the ending cinematic of RoS with the implications that the nephalem (your character) can be our savior or our doom, I would like to see an expansion or D4 about the nephalem crusading to end all demons and all angels.

But not in an evil way. Perhaps a misguided away. A zealous, fearful way.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

D3: The prime evils are defeated, sealed in Black Soulstone. RoS: Prime evils escape, Nephalem can kill angel lieutenants now, and everybody is going "oh crap!" now that they realize that the player character is effectively the most powerful physical being in existence, who will do whatever he so pleases.

The D3 story so far is about Nephalem, and given the cliffhangar ending of RoS, it wouldn't make sense to drop his story right there and skip to a new protagonist in D4. I sincerely hope we get another expansion to finish our story.

[Xilurm]

-snip-

Diablo has nice lore, until they add "something something void" in there. Then we'll need a champion that gets fused with all of the Angels powers and becomes a God.

Edit: Shit, didn't realize this thread was so old.

[KrazyK923]

All the seven evils' souls are freed unless Blizzard pulls some BS that somehow they're still all only trapped within Diablo's soul as Tathamet reborn.

Tathamet's corpse basically formed the evil version of the Crystal Arch, and its still unclear whether or not if a Prime/Lesser Evil dies, they will be reborn, or just a NEW one of those is spawned instead. Honestly the lore seems to indicate the latter rather than the former.

However I think Blizzard will end up going with the same idea as they do in Warcraft, since they can't seem to not copy/paste their ideas from game to game, and will have the Evils return.

The irony about the end of RoS that a lot of fans missed or didn't know is that in Malthael's desperation to kill the Nephalem, he destroyed the Black Soulstone, which housed all 7 Evils and absorbed them into his self. And with his death, they are freed.

Honestly we need to see Andariel, Duriel, Mephisto, and Baal back again in current-gen Diablo, so that's my hope.

Edit: Shit, didn't realize this thread was so old.

Oh well. Its an interesting topic with all the swirling Diablo rumors coming in 2 days.