Part of En Sabah Nur in Diablo 4?

[taishar68]

I'm also curious as to how they will treat the interaction with Inarius; does she still love him, despite him twice banishing her? Does she think x eons of torture isn't enough? I'm almost certain we will be tasked with breaking him free from his prison, probably asked by Tyrael so he can help us stave off whatever Lilith is cooking up, but perhaps Inarius won't be charitable about it, I mean, he's been tortured for some 3K years or so, I'd hope the interaction is more interesting than "Thanks hero, have any snacks?"

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I absolutely do. It's clear the demo and gameplay shown was a heavily modified d3; you can look at the undead drowned female mob is clearly using Greed's skeleton and animations. Same with the chickens running on the floor; the same hop hop jump of WD chicken form. So, either they lied about the new engine, or literally nothing is ready. The "gameplay" section of the map they showed looks to be maybe a percent of the overall landmass they are trying to fill.

I admit 2023 is definitely my pessimism, but 2022 is likely.

If you played the demo, you'd be more inclined to feel it is original art, or at the least, it is D3 models that are built in a new engine; there is a sharpness and quality to the graphics that is far past what D3 has to offer, and D3 is beautiful in its own right. I'm not a graphic artist or well versed on the tech, so I could be wrong, just saying it felt new.

That said, I doubt we'll see it any earlier than winter 2021, and that is my optimism speaking.

[Vyndion]

If you played the demo, you'd be more inclined to feel it is original art, or at the least, it is D3 models that are built in a new engine; there is a sharpness and quality to the graphics that is far past what D3 has to offer, and D3 is beautiful in its own right. I'm not a graphic artist or well versed on the tech, so I could be wrong, just saying it felt new.

That said, I doubt we'll see it any earlier than winter 2021, and that is my optimism speaking.

Oh you totally misunderstand and I 100% agree with you. I feel that it's a very nice, new set of textures and lighting... just it's also clear they're reusing old assets. Hopefully there's more new than old but I'm not too hopeful considering the CPU constraints of needing to support PS4 XB1 into 2022. The tech will be 10-11 years old by that point and the primary thing I hope they change is require ps5 +scarlett instead.

[taishar68]

Oh you totally misunderstand and I 100% agree with you. I feel that it's a very nice, new set of textures and lighting... just it's also clear they're reusing old assets. Hopefully there's more new than old but I'm not too hopeful considering the CPU constraints of needing to support PS4 XB1 into 2022. The tech will be 10-11 years old by that point and the primary thing I hope they change is require ps5 +scarlett instead.

Ah, gotcha. No harm intended

[Beet]

I absolutely do. It's clear the demo and gameplay shown was a heavily modified d3; you can look at the undead drowned female mob is clearly using Greed's skeleton and animations. Same with the chickens running on the floor; the same hop hop jump of WD chicken form. So, either they lied about the new engine, or literally nothing is ready. The "gameplay" section of the map they showed looks to be maybe a percent of the overall landmass they are trying to fill.

I admit 2023 is definitely my pessimism, but 2022 is likely.

Eh to be fair World of Warcraft is a heavily modified Warcraft 3 at its base. But take a photo of BFA and slap it beside WC3 and no one would say it’s the same. I didn’t see any D3 in the diablo 4 videos but I didn’t look as hard at it like you and some others may have. I admit it’s a possibility that you’re right, but I sure hope not. I don’t want to be in my mid 30s by the time it’s out lmao

[Varitok]

Ominious bald fanatic with a stark skin tone and calm demeanor should be a trope by this point.

[taishar68]

Ominious bald fanatic with a stark skin tone and calm demeanor should be a trope by this point.

Perhaps, but they still did it well.

[Coldkil]

It is Archbishop Lazarus.

Lazarus died in Diablo 1 by our hands. I mean, everyone comes back to life in Diablo but Lazarus is a Diablo follower, while Lilith is super opposed to the Prime Evils.

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The game might actually be about Nephalem supremacists going on powerhungry rampage and the player trying to stop them for some reason.

Yeah, it's exactly my same thoughts. However i went even ahead more.

Rathma is a servitor of Trag'Oul and balance. He puts the fate of Nephalem and humanity before anything else. The old guy in the gameplay trailer calls for "Hell is coming", but Lilith is very far from being a part of the Hell forces.

Since we also know that both Duriel and Andariel are going to be in the game, i suspect that the main issue in the short term is the Prime Evils trying to invade Sanctuary given the desolate and defenseless state it is now.

Rathma calls Lilith back because while he's not fond of her plans of control all of her children, she still fights first and foremost for their sake - as you said, she went full ballistic on angel and demons when first Nephalem were born because they wanted to kill her children.

Lilith may be an issue later on if she decides to make the Nephalem her personal army, but on the short term, i think she's going to be an "ally" of our characters.

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I like that. I thought though, that the Nephalem of old were all long dead, and in D3 we reach the potential of the Nephalem, but it is certainly possible for some to have survived, or, as we may come to learn, a powerful Nephalem was resurrected by a cult that feels only the Nephalem deserve Sanctuary, sees the current humans as not worthy of the gift of the Mother, etc.

It's kinda complicated - Rathma (or Linarian as he was the very first born Nephalem) faked his own death when Inarius went all out on them and tried to kill them all. Another survivor was Bul-Khatos for example - we don't really know the fate of all of them. Plus, when Uldyssian broke the spell Inarius had put on the Worldstone to "lock out" his children from their true powers, not only he reverted the effect, but the thing sped up dramatically.

The more time passes, the more Nephalem grow stronger. The "standard human" still takes time to train his powers and needs guidance, but an eventual survivor of the first generation at this point is something truly terrific.

Not to mention Rathma actually got banished in the Void like Lilith, and was saved by Trag'Oul and Mendeln. It's very likely that he got the grasp on how to call back "things" from it over time.

[Unholyground]

Lazarus died in Diablo 1 by our hands. I mean, everyone comes back to life in Diablo but Lazarus is a Diablo follower, while Lilith is super opposed to the Prime Evils.

She could be a means to an end, we know for a fact Diablo will be in the game or it would not be the title of the game lol.

[taishar68]

I don’t know exactly how this would work in a timeline sense, but I’m leaning towards this; the Three have decided they need better hosts, fully powered nephalem, and orchestrated Lilith’s resurrection towards that end. We can deduce from the flash of Inarius in Hell that we’ll be going there to rescue him after all these millennia, and then somehow he reunited with Lilith to make some instant Nephalem (add blood and stir?) that are stronger hosts for the three to use to reincorporate.

Given the past history of Lilith’s banishments and Inarius’ eons of torture, I admit there has to be some lore massaging to get there, but why else rez Lilith if not to make more Nephalem?

[Coldkil]

She could be a means to an end, we know for a fact Diablo will be in the game or it would not be the title of the game lol.

For once i think this time Diablo will not be the last boss of vanilla, and it will be met later on. It's not that i expect Diablo not to be in the game, but makes sense to have it later on opposed to the previous chapters in a sort of building-up threat. Or as usual Diablo will be the last boss and the expansions will bring other threats.

In the end, we will have to deal with both Lilith and Diablo, and possibly even someone from the Heavens like Imperius who clearly doesn't want us around.

[Kyphael]

Now I want to watch X-Men: Apocalypse.

[Coldkil]

I don’t know exactly how this would work in a timeline sense, but I’m leaning towards this; the Three have decided they need better hosts, fully powered nephalem, and orchestrated Lilith’s resurrection towards that end. We can deduce from the flash of Inarius in Hell that we’ll be going there to rescue him after all these millennia, and then somehow he reunited with Lilith to make some instant Nephalem (add blood and stir?) that are stronger hosts for the three to use to reincorporate.

Given the past history of Lilith’s banishments and Inarius’ eons of torture, I admit there has to be some lore massaging to get there, but why else rez Lilith if not to make more Nephalem?

I won't work for a simple reason: Inarius as far as we know is way against the existence of Nephalems. He literally exterminated most of them because they weren't prone to submission (Rathma first of all). He even reached Diablo to make a pact with him to help with the Uldyssian situation. He's prisoner of Mephisto only as a deal between the latter and the Angiris Council.

I'm not totally against the idea of the Three working behind the scenes and fooling us: it was the same plan they used to devise us in D2 and get access to Sanctuary through the Soulstones. In this specific case, doesn't make much sense to free Lilith and make us free Inarius because first of all it would be super hard to make those two work together, second if they reach some kind of agreement they would have ALL the tools needed to get rid of both Angels and Demons.

This said, i can definitely see how the Three could want a Nephalem as host or to "merge" with one of them. However, access to Sanctuary right now is free so anyone that wants to invade the pace doesn't need any special mean to reach us hence the whole "mischievious plan" thing simply doesn't click. All while pretty much is guaranteed the Three are working behind the scenes.

[Varitok]

Perhaps, but they still did it well.

Oh, I'm not saying they didn't. I just found it funny.

[taishar68]

I won't work for a simple reason: Inarius as far as we know is way against the existence of Nephalems. He literally exterminated most of them because they weren't prone to submission (Rathma first of all). He even reached Diablo to make a pact with him to help with the Uldyssian situation. He's prisoner of Mephisto only as a deal between the latter and the Angiris Council.

I'm not totally against the idea of the Three working behind the scenes and fooling us: it was the same plan they used to devise us in D2 and get access to Sanctuary through the Soulstones. In this specific case, doesn't make much sense to free Lilith and make us free Inarius because first of all it would be super hard to make those two work together, second if they reach some kind of agreement they would have ALL the tools needed to get rid of both Angels and Demons.

This said, i can definitely see how the Three could want a Nephalem as host or to "merge" with one of them. However, access to Sanctuary right now is free so anyone that wants to invade the pace doesn't need any special mean to reach us hence the whole "mischievious plan" thing simply doesn't click. All while pretty much is guaranteed the Three are working behind the scenes.

I was thinking more that Inarius would be doing this against his will, but you brought up some good counterpoints.

[Coldkil]

I was thinking more that Inarius would be doing this against his will, but you brought up some good counterpoints.

That could work, but at this point couldn't Mephisto, current Inarius' captor, made him mate unwillingly with random demons to generate other branches of nephalems? They wouldn't need Lilith and all of the newly born hybrids would be under demon's dominion right from the start and easily corrupted by them.

Until this procedure for some reason isn't just as straightforward and it's prone to many failures.