Book of Lorath is a four-part web series released on the Diablo YouTube page in the leadup to Diablo IV. It is narrated by Ralph Ineson, voicing Lorath Nahr as he addresses a young scholar.
Episodes[]
Episode 1: Creation[]
- Episode description(src)
Lorath narrates the origins of Creation, from the separation of Anu and Tathamet, to the formation of Heaven and Hell, to the angels and demons of the Angiris Council and Great Evils respectively.
Transcript[]
You traveled a long way to be disappointed, young scholar. Life has taught me well that evil is inevitable and can never be truly destroyed. It can be banished, it can be thwarted, it can be driven back, but only for a time. Men are weak, evil is seductive, and those who would do nothing in the face of malevolence are cowards.
You seek a weapon against the Darkness rising in Sanctuary. The only thing I can arm you with is knowledge, so when evil finds a foothold and flourishes once again, at least I can say it was not due to ignorance.
For untold eons, an Eternal Conflict has raged between the demonic hordes of the Burning Hells and the angelic host of the High Heavens. Scholars have spilled gallons of ink and spent their eyesight in grim scriptoriums writing and debating how these two factions began, and what came before them, before us. It is said the first being, Anu, was the sum of all things good and evil, light and dark, physical and mystical, joy and sadness. The One. Anu wished to be free from the malignance of evil, and so separated and expelled the darkness within.
But what is cast off does not simply disappear, and that darkness found its shape in the seven-headed dragon Tathamet, the Prime Evil, who fought ceaselessly with Anu to their mutual destruction. It is said, when the remains of these two titans settled, the universe as we know it, came into existence - all the realms of the High Heavens, the Burning Hells, and Pandemonium.
Tathamet's blackened husk gave birth to the Burning Hells, and each of the seven heads transformed into the Seven Great Evils, each with dominion over their own realm. The three most dominant of these inherited the title of Prime Evil, feeding off one another to maintain dominion and rule over the legions of the Burning Hells.
There was Mephisto, Lord of Hatred, intelligent and cunning, father of Lucion and Lilith, the Mother of Sanctuary. Baal, Lord of Destruction, corrupter of the Worldstone. And Diablo, Lord of Terror. As Deckard Cain once wrote, "For as long as man fears the dark, Diablo will remain the most insidious and I would argue, the most powerful of all the Evils."
The four Lesser Evils, no less dangerous to the people of Sanctuary, are not to be discounted on the basis of their title. Underestimating their capabilities and intentions is a sure path to our destruction. Belial, Lord of Lies, uses poisonous untruths to create an ever darker, fractious world. Duriel, Lord of Pain, revels in the cacaphonous screams of those in physical agony. Even demons are no strangers to his torment. Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish, is the counterpart to Duriel. Whereas he delights in bodily torment, Andariel derives pleasure from anguish of the mind and soul. Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, a clever manipulator and master of temptation, loves vice in all its forms, but revels most in the failures of others.
Demonic hordes spawned from the vile cavities of the Burning Hells - a host of ravenous, furious monstrosities that reflected the poisonous elements of their progenitor. There are demons beyond counting in the Burning Hells.
At the center of the High Heavens lies the Crystal Arch, said to be formed of Anu's spine. When it vibrates in perfect harmony, an angel is created, embodying an aspect of what Anu had once been. The purest of these became archangels, and five rose above the rest to lead the host of the High Heavens.
Imperius, Archanel of Valor, a brilliant tactician who commanded the warriors of Heaven and led them into battle with Hell, but whose pride has led to much destruction.
Tyrael, former Archangel of Justice, who abandoned his rigid dedication to Justice and took up the Aspect of Wisdom instead. He supported the many causes of humanity, renounced his angelic nature, and fell to earth as a mortal. Sanctuary would have fallen to Darkness, long ago, without his aid.
Inarius, Creator of Sanctuary, served under Tyrael, and was an advisor to the Council until he rebelled.
Auriel, the Archangel of Hope, who embodies the shining light of a bright future, and sees the potential for good in all things, but who is no less a warrior than the others, dispatching those who spread despair and darkness. She is said to lead the chorus of the High Heavens in harmony.
Itherael, the Archangel of Fate, who comprehends the tangled web of fate and time - though the future of humanity remains obscure to him, unseeable, because we are not of the natural order of creation.
Malthael, the former Archangel of Wisdom, who fell to darkness and brought ruin to Sanctuary when he abandoned the Aspect of Wisdom and took up the Aspect of Death. I encountered him once, long ago, and barely escaped with my life. Few who met him after his transformation survived. After all, no one can stop Death.
These five archangels formed the Angiris Council and ruled Heaven in harmony until Malthael abandoned Heaven. The Council fell to confusion and dissension, their unity diminished.
Alongside Heaven and Hell, there is a third realm, and this is where our story begins and ends. Where Anu and Tathamet slew one another, their violence scarred the cosmos and birthed the plane of Pandemonium. It was here the Worldstone, also called the Eye of Anu, came to rest - a mountain sized artifact of infinite power that embodied the endless cycles of birth and death, destruction and creation. Desire to control its infinite power fueled the Eternal Conflict until Inarius and Lilith stole it and used it to create Sanctuary.
The hour grows late. The fire is dying and the cold is unending. Come back tomorrow, if you're still alive, and I'll tell you the tale of our creation, of our creators, Lilith and Inarius, mother and father of Sanctuary, and the long, bloody history of the Eternal Conflict. For now, we should rest...and I pray your dreams are not as dark as mine.
Episode 2: Sanctuary[]
- Episode description(src)
Lorath narrates the creation of Sanctuary, from the theft of the Worldstone, to the rise of the nephalem, to their degradation into humanity.
Transcript[]
You've returned. And with ale this time. A wise choice for this dark story. The shadows will seem longer when it's done.
Before, we talked of Anu and Tathamet, the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, and all who reside there, embroiled in the Eternal Conflict. Now, let us speak of the creation of Sanctuary and our creators, Inarius and Lilith. Angel and demon. Our father and mother.
The Eternal Conflict raged on, endless and all-consuming. Led by the Angiris Council, the angelic forces fought countless battles against the armies of the seven demon lords who sought to conquer all of creation. Though the High Heavens often defeated their adversaries, they also failed to destroy them, allowing evil to return again, and again, and again, ceaseless, unrelenting. Both sides claimed victories. Both suffered crippling defeats. The Conflict was a never-ending slaughter.
Many of these battles were fought in Pandemonium, the plane said to be formed from the violent death of Anu and Tathamet, where the Heart of Creation lay: the mountain-sized artifact that would come to be known as the Worldstone, housed within the Pandemonium Fortress. Any who control the Worldstone would have the power to create new worlds, or unmake them with a thought. A desirable and dangerous prize indeed, it became the focus of the Eternal Conflict.
Over the eons, the Pandemonium Fortress changed hands many times, and became a strange place, embodying the warped reality of Pandemonium as a whole, a structural and liminal place affected by the High Heavens and Burning Hells alike. Angels and demons too numerous to count have fallen at its gates. Over and over and over again.
This endless cycle caused Inarius, advisor to the Angiris Council and under Tyrael's command, to eventually conclude that the war could never be won, and he resolved to abandon it. Elsewhere, Lilith, Daughter of Hatred, was arriving at a similar conclusion. On her father, Mephisto's role in the Eternal Conflict, Lilith once wrote: "My father is content to fight the same battles and the same foes while everything turns to ashes. The war will never be won so long as he and his brothers lead. There is an end to it, but fools like my father are too blind to see it."
Inarius and Lilith. Angel and demon. Separated by a vastness in distance and experience that is difficult to comprehend, they came to the same conclusion: they must escape the Eternal Conflict. I wonder if the cosmos had ever contemplated such an unholy alliance and divine union. I wonder if creation shuddered in horror and awe as Inarius and Lilith gathered others to their cause, fellow renegades seeking escape from the ceaseless fighting.
The details of their meeting, like so much of our history, is obscured by the relentless passage of time and myth. But the great Horadric scholar Deckard Cain tells us of Inarius, wounded or marooned in the Pandemonium Fortress, meeting with Lilith. Lilith was not spared the hatred of her father, Mephisto, and from time immemorial had awaited an opportunity to rebel. For the first time, combatants in the Eternal Conflict not only set aside their differences but also formed a union. It's difficult to imagine, but legends tell us that Inarius and Lilith formed an alliance that would alter the course of the war, reality itself, and all of existence.
Inarius and Lilith pledged themselves to their joint cause of escaping the Eternal Conflict. United in purpose, both resourceful and wise in their way, they managed to gain control of the Worldstone, and hide it from the watchful eyes of the Heavens and the Hells. Working together, they shifted the Worldstone into a pocket dimension, hiding it from the opposing powers of the Eternal Conflict. There, they used its extraordinary power to shape a new world. A refuge free from war, free from unending strife. A Sanctuary.
The renegade angels and demons came together to create new life, and the nature of the Eternal Conflict changed. The joining of the opposing natures within these Firstborn made beings unlike any before - beautiful abominations called nephalem, from which humanity would descend as inheritors of both lineages. The birthrights of the Firstborn graced them with the potential to resist the evil of the Burning Hells and to defy the dominion of the High Heavens. Because of this, many of the angels and demons who rebelled with Lilith and Inarius feared what these children might become.
The burden of children can strain even the strongest of allies, and it seems that angels and demons are not immune to this simple truth. Surely, Inarius and Lilith could not have foreseen the cosmic consequences of their actions. Inarius was alarmed when he realized his children might surpass both angels and demons in potential. The other angels and demons fought fiercely over what should be done - whether to spare the nephalem or exterminate them. The dissent between the two groups alarmed Inarius, who called for a period of reflection.
Lilith, driven into a mad frenzy by the threat of her children's extinction, ruthlessly murdered each and every renegade angel and demon, leaving only Inarius to discover the carnage she had wrought. Horrified by the loss of his comrades at Lilith's hand, Inarius became enraged...but still, he could not kill Lilith. Instead, he banished her from the Sanctuary they had created together. Inarius then attuned the Worldstone to diminish the powers of the nephalem over time, and disappeared in the aftermath.
As their strength faded, generation by generation, they came to resemble mortals. No longer angelic or demonic, simply human. And as their power diminished, so too did their collective memory, until only legends of what came before remained. It is said that the Firstborn remained, immortal and undying as humankind took shape, giving rise to the cultures, kingdoms, and tribes of Sanctuary, before themselves fading into myth.
Now you know the birth of our world and our inheritance, demonic and divine. The Eternal Conflict that rages ceaselessly in each of us. Think on that, young scholar, until we meet again. None of us is above sin, or immune to evil's seduction. Even the most righteous may fall, given the right push in the wrong direction.
Episode 3: Lord of Terror[]
- Episode description(src)
Lorath narrates the history of the Sin War, the Dark Exile, and the events of Diablo, Diablo II, and Lord of Destruction.
Transcript[]
Another night, and you've brought more ale.
Stronger stuff this time.
Essential for keeping warm here in the Fractured Peaks.
Pour me a cup.
Tonight is a long, sad tale of bravery and betrayal, and a great blight of destruction that changed the very fabric of our world.
When last we spoke, we spoke of Inarius and Lilith and humankind's creation, how humanity found itself caught by the Eternal Conflict, a battle that does not belong to humankind, but one we must fight nonetheless.
Two rival groups, the Temple of the Triune and the Cathedral of Light, sprang up on the world of Sanctuary and strove to win over the hearts of mankind.
The Triune was secretly backed by the three Prime Evils, Mephisto, Baal, and Diablo, who had discovered Sanctuary's existence.
Inarius secretly founded the Cathedral of Light in response, an attempt to counter their malevolent influence.
Unbeknownst to either the Prime Evils or Inarius, Lilith returned to Sanctuary to reawaken her children's dormant powers, knowing they had the ability to banish the agents of the Burning Hells and Inarius for good.
Soon after, Sanctuary was engulfed in what will become known as the Sin War, a catastrophic proxy war over the souls of humankind.
Humanity won the war, but they faced another kind of battle.
The High Heavens, too, became aware of Sanctuary and her blasphemous children, and now deliberated on humanity's ultimate fate.
With the Angiris Council split, the Archangel Tyrael cast the final vote to spare us from extermination. Instead, the memory of all that came before was taken from humankind, including knowledge of their inherited power.
In exchange for their part in leaving Sanctuary alone, the Burning Hells took Inarius into their custody, and it is said that he has suffered unending torment at their hands ever since.
Of course, it is not the nature of the Burning Hells to leave well enough alone, and before long, more attempts to corrupt humankind were underway.
The Lesser Evils, led by Azmodan and Belial, staged an uprising that upset the established order of the Burning Hells.
Convinced the Prime Evils had abandoned the Eternal Conflict in favor of corrupting humanity, the usurpers set out to banish the three Prime Evils to Sanctuary. They lost fully one third of their army, but they succeeded in banishing Mephisto, Baal and Diablo into the mortal realm, in what would come to be known as the Dark Exile. They spent decades spreading terror, hatred and destruction across the land.
It is here that the story of the Horadrim begins, when Tyrael assembled a group of powerful mages and tasked them with humanity's defense, standing fast against the tyranny of the Prime Evils and guarding against the wrathful eyes of the Heavens falling upon humankind once again.
Tyrael carved three Soulstones from pieces of the Worldstone, crystalline prisons designed to contain the malignant essence of a Prime Evil. Sapphire for Mephisto, amber for Baal, and crimson for Diablo.
Under Tyrael's guidance, the Horadrim searched across the vastness of Sanctuary for the Lords of Hell, with the aim to contain them.
The Horadrim found Mephisto and, after much struggle, imprisoned him. The sapphire Soulstone was given to the Zakarum for safekeeping.
They also battled Baal, but, in the process, the Soulstone intended for him was shattered. The order's leader, Tal Rasha, trapped Baal's essence in the largest shard of the amber Soulstone, but feared that was insufficient. The Horadrim concluded they could fuse the shard to a human body in an effort to better contain Baal's power.
Tal Rasha selflessly volunteered his own body to contain the Lord of Destruction's raging essence. Tyrael himself took up the solemn duty of driving the shard into Tal Rasha's heart. The grieving Horadrim sealed away their noble leader within a subterranean tomb, believing they were leaving him to suffer torment beyond imagination as he struggled to hold fast the monstrous Lord of Destruction for all of time.
In the wake of this tragedy, Jered Cain took leadership of the bruised and battered mages.
Together, the Horadrim spent nearly ten years following Diablo's path of terror through Sanctuary, until finally coming to blows and containing him within the crimson Soulstone. Diablo's Soulstone was carefully hidden deep in a labyrinthian cave system by the Horadrim. To guard the great evil hidden in its depths, a Horadric monastery was built atop the caves.
The hope, I believe, was that it would never be disturbed, and that Diablo would be forgotten in the great below, his influence fading with time.
But that was not to be.
No prison can last forever.
So long as a key exists, its door can be opened.
The land near that small monastery would eventually be settled when the quiet, prosperous town of Tristram was founded there. None could have known, except, perhaps, Diablo, the grim fate that would befall the unfortunate souls that called Tristram home.
Over time, foreign powers influenced the land, and Tristram became politically significant. At the behest of the Zakarum church, and guided by Archbishop Lazarus, a Zakarum lord named Leoric crowned himself King of Khanduras and made Tristram his capital. He converted the old Horadric monastery into his seat of power, unaware of the threat that lurked beneath.
Leoric was wise and just, ushering in an era of peace and prosperity for Tristram. But with time, his outlook darkened and he grew irrational, his mind slipping towards madness and paranoia. The king began ordering the execution of any who questioned him, and people started calling him the Black King.
He declared war on the neighboring kingdom of Westmarch, in part thanks to Lazarus's counsel. An unjust and unwinnable war. Leoric's eldest son, Aidan, joined the fight, seeking approval from his father.
Shortly after Aidan's departure, Leoric's youngest son, Albrecht, went missing.
Leoric tortured and executed many of his own people in his frenzy to find his son. His knights, freshly returned from the war and appalled at the state of their kingdom, were forced to slay the Black King to stop the brutality. In an attempt to honor the man he had been, Leoric was given a proper burial in the old catacombs.
Aidan, too, returned to find a kingdom in shambles. Rumors of the horrific happenings in Tristram spread, along with the news of the appearance of demonic creatures, and brought adventurers to Tristram.
Two such adventurers joined Prince Aidan when he entered the catacombs to find his brother, Albrecht. During this harrowing journey, Aidan was forced to strike down his own father, who had been reanimated as a foul entity called the Skeleton King.
Continuing on, Aidan soon found Diablo himself. After a great battle of fire and steel, the Lord of Terror was defeated. But this ending is not a happy one, for Diablo had twisted young Albrecht's body into his own demonic form. In slaying the demon, Aidan had slain his younger brother. Distraught, Aidan pulled the Soulstone from Albrecht and plunged it into his own body.
In the weeks that followed, Aidan would seek comfort with a local witch named Adria. Slowly succumbing to Diablo's influence, Aidan eventually traveled east from Tristram and became known as the Dark Wanderer, set on liberating Baal and Mephisto.
As the Dark Wanderer traveled east, a new group of adventurers arrived in Tristram. They rescued Deckard Cain from the ruins of Tristram, who implored them to give chase.
Soon, the party found themselves taking part in a dangerous pursuit of the Lord of Terror. Following the Dark Wanderer's path towards the Tomb of Tal Rasha, the adventurers would face the Lesser Evils of Andariel and Duriel, who had rallied to Diablo's aid. Instead of Tal Rasha, they discovered Tyrael imprisoned in the tomb.
Baal, still using Tal Rasha as a vessel, had escaped imprisonment to join Diablo in his guise as the Dark Wanderer. Together, they had overcome Tyrael and trapped him in the prison he'd made for Baal so long ago.
The heroes pressed on to find Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred, deep in the jungles of Kurast. Once more, the heroes were too late to stop Diablo, as he shed what little of Aidan remained, reverting to his monstrous, demonic form, before returning to the Burning Hells to rally his demonic legions.
Mephisto remained behind, believing he could defeat the brave pursuers. His confidence was misplaced. The Lord of Hatred was defeated and sealed in the sapphire Soulstone.
The heroes followed the Lord of Terror into the Burning Hells, thinking only of Sanctuary and not the grim fate that likely awaited them there.
At Tyrael's request, the heroes confronted the corrupted angel Izual on the Plains of Despair. In slaying him, the heroes freed Izual's spirit, and he informed them that the Prime Evils knew how to corrupt the Soulstones.
With this information, Cain sent the heroes to the Hellforge to destroy the sapphire Soulstone, in the hope that this would prevent Mephisto from manifesting in this world ever again.
Once there, they had to defeat a demon called Hephasto the Armorer, a towering monstrosity with wide horns, his powerful arms strengthened by thousands and thousands of strikes with his Hellforge Hammer against the Anvil.
After successfully destroying the sapphire Soulstone, the heroes traveled deep into the wastes of the Burning Hells to face the Lord of Terror himself.
They fought a fierce pitched battle against increasingly dire odds, deep in Diablo's own realm. But the heroes fought and defeated Diablo. They pulled the shard from Diablo's head, trapping his essence inside, and returned to the Hellforge to destroy it as well.
With this momentous achievement, only Baal remained to threaten Sanctuary.
Unfortunately for us, even one Prime Evil can unleash inconceivable devastation. As the heroes struggled with Diablo in Hell, Baal, Lord of Destruction, set his demonic army on a course to Mount Arreat, annihilating all in his path on the way to his prize, the Worldstone.
Survivor accounts describe the Prime Evil atop his litter, surveying the Barbarian city of Sescheron with ravenous malice and an insatiable lust for carnage.
His vision for Sanctuary was a wasteland stained with blood. It is both humbling and horrifying to know how close he was to achieving that goal.
Thanks to the bravery of the Barbarians in the town of Harrogath at the base of Mount Arreat, Baal's army was temporarily repelled, buying time enough for reinforcements, and the heroes that had slain Diablo and Mephisto, to arrive.
They fought their way through Baal's army, up the mountain and, finally, into the very heart of Sanctuary, the Worldstone Keep.
Though our heroes ultimately defeated Baal, they could not stop his poisonous malice from infecting the Worldstone.
A difficult choice had to be made, and so it was.
Tyrael chose to destroy the Worldstone rather than let it fall to corruption. He hurled his great sword, El'druin, at the Worldstone, shattering it. Some of its shards fell to earth, imbued with power. The Worldstone was nearly as large as the mountain that housed it, and its destruction turned the imposing peak of Mount Arreat into nothing more than a vast crater.
Local settlements and tribes scattered to the wind, many forced to seek new homes. And it is in this new world, deeply wounded by the treachery of the Prime Evils, that the next chapter in our history unfolded.
The tragic tale of Leah, Diablo's assault on Heaven, and Malthael's betrayal, and why so few of us remain.
Take care in the darkness.
There's more lurking out there than the wind.
Episode 4: End of Days[]
- Episode description(src)
Lorath narrates the events of Diablo III and Reaper of Souls. It concludes in the time period of Diablo IV, after Lilith's return.
Transcript[]
Come in. Sit down. You've let all the bloody heat out.
This is the coldest night I can recall in these frozen wastes.
I am no chef, but I have managed a stew from what little food remains.
Fortify yourself, for this is the final story I have to tell you, and you will need your strength to endure.
This is the tale of the End of Days.
I told you of the brave heroes that defeated Diablo and Baal, and of the destruction of the Worldstone and Mount Arreat by Tyrael, the Archangel of Justice.
In the aftermath, his essence dispersed. And though no angel had done so before, Tyrael was able to restore his form in the realm of Pandemonium.
After decades away, Tyrael returned to the High Heavens. There, he tried to convince his fellow members of the Angiris Council that they were meant to protect the innocent, and that the fate of humanity was pivotal to the future of the Eternal Conflict.
However, they remained committed to their laws, leaving Tyrael no choice but to renounce his angelic nature, shedding his wings to embrace mortality before being cast out of the Heavens. And so he fell willingly to Sanctuary, a shining star that landed in the ruins of Tristram Cathedral.
New Tristram had established itself just outside the ruins of its predecessor, a thriving settlement home to Deckard Cain and his young ward, Leah. She was the daughter of Adria, who had once lived in Tristram, and grew into a wise young woman under Cain's mentorship.
A group of adventurers from across Sanctuary set out to investigate the fallen star. Instead, they found a man who had lost his memory. In an effort to help this fallen stranger, Cain sent adventurers to recover the man's sword, broken and scattered in the surrounding lands.
The quest would cost Deckard his life at the hands of Maghda, the powerful leader of a fanatical coven devoted to Belial. With his last breaths, Cain managed to repair the stranger's sword. In doing so, he repaired Tyrael's memory, as well as the Sword of Justice itself, El'druin.
For this deed and for many, many more, I believe history will judge Deckard Cain amongst the greatest Horadrim, representing the best of what the Horadric Order can be. His contributions to the Horadrim, and to humanity, cannot be overstated.
The day he left us was a dark day for us all. In that moment of deep loss and grief, Leah was overcome by a dark power within herself. When the power burst free, it was strong enough to drive Maghda away. This was the first sign that her destiny was cruelly marked by forces greater than any knew.
After Cain's death, the adventurers, Leah and Tyrael, tracked Maghda to Caldeum, where, unbeknownst to them, Belial was impersonating the ruler of the region.
Their pursuit ended in the dry deserts of Kehjistan, where they confronted Maghda and struck her down, avenging Cain's death. The heroes found another ally in Adria, Leah's mother, who wanted to help her daughter contain the growing darkness. She helped them uncover the location of the Black Soulstone, an extraordinary artifact created by the renegade Horadrim Zoltun Kulle, which could trap multiple essences of both angel and demon, then permanently destroy them.
Black Soulstone in hand, they confronted Belial and revealed his great deception. Defeating him, they sealed him inside this Soulstone prison. But as we have seen time and time again, evil is never idle.
Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, had undertaken an audacious invasion of Sanctuary, seeking the Black Soulstone for himself. All the Great Evils, save he and Diablo, had been trapped in the Soulstone, giving Azmodan an opportunity to become the Prime Evil. His vast demonic army erupted from Arreat Crater, the scar left behind by the Worldstone's destruction.
The party hurried to aid the forces of Bastion's Keep, the only defense against Azmodan's forces. Though the fortress had been battered, the adventurers fought through legions of demons and overcame the Lord of Sin at the heart of the crater, sealing him in the Black Soulstone as well.
It seemed as though the tide was turning in humanity's favor. But Adria had other plans. She had lied about the Black Soulstone, having used it to mark the souls of all seven Great Evils for containment, while leaving Diablo unbound. The witch then offered Leah, her own daughter, as a vessel for Diablo's return - an act she had planned since her child's conception.
When Aidan sought solace with her in Tristram, Adria had already pledged herself to the Lord of Terror's service. Under the guise of her care, she used the prince's torment to her advantage, allowing Diablo to deepen his hold on the prince. When he left as the Dark Wanderer, so too did Adria. Soon after, she bore his child, Leah, whom she left in Caldeum under a friend's care. Children should not be punished for their parents' sins, no matter how grave they may be.
From the moment of her birth, Leah's fate was tied inextricably to Diablo, his essence part of her creation. With Adria's betrayal revealed, Diablo seized control of the Black Soulstone, using it to channel the essences of all the Lords of Hell into himself. Brimming with power, he twisted Leah's body into a new, horrific form - the Prime Evil.
With his newfound strength, he set his eyes on a prize far greater than our world - the utter destruction of the High Heavens. With his unheralded power, The Lord of Terror breached the Diamond Gates of the High Heavens. He single-handedly routed Imperius, leader of the Angiris Council, with barely a thought.
The Prime Evil opened Hell Rifts inside the Silver City, unleashing the minions of the Burning Hells, leaving him to continue towards the Crystal Arch. As demons ravaged the Silver City, the heroes came to Heaven's aid. They fought their way through hordes of demonkind, aiding the Heavens where they could, and soon arrived atop the Silver Spire to battle Diablo himself.
Against all odds, the Prime Evil was defeated, his essence trapped in the Black Soulstone. Tyrael returned to the Angiris Council as a mortal, now embodying the Aspect of Wisdom.
And, for a moment, it seemed like Sanctuary might see peace.
But, as you know well, peace does not last.
All was not well with the High Heavens. Decades before Diablo's assault on the High Heavens, Malthael had abandoned the Council, the Heavens, and his position as the Aspect of Wisdom. The ravages of the Eternal Conflict must have taken their toll on Malthael's mind.
I often wonder what he saw that convinced him to forsake Wisdom for Death.
Malthael had long desired an end to the Eternal Conflict, and finally saw his chance with Diablo's defeat. With the seven Great Evils gone, he turned his attention to humanity. But Malthael was not interested in winning our hearts and minds. His solution was far simpler, far colder. To Malthael, humanity would never be more than demonspawn. And for the Eternal Conflict to reach its conclusion, all demonkind needed to be eradicated.
But to achieve his ultimate goal, Malthael had to retrieve the Black Soulstone, which was now in the hands of what remained of the Horadrim. I likely owe my life to El'druin. In that first confrontation with Malthael, in the black tunnels of the Tomb of Rakkis, I faced Death himself.
As my brethren fell and died, I was protected behind a magical shield that Tyrael raised using his sword. When we emerged onto the city streets, we were met with horror beyond comprehension.
Prize in hand, Malthael and his Reapers laid waste to Westmarch. The grisly slaughter I witnessed there nearly destroyed me. They were harvesting the souls of the people, and with each death, Malthael grew more powerful. Malthael soon took the Black Soulstone to the Pandemonium Fortress, where he began to manipulate its power.
Struggling to find where he had gone, the adventurers turned to the only person on Sanctuary who might know Malthael's location - the traitor Adria. The witch, however, did not wish to cooperate, and transformed into a terrifying monster, empowered by blood magic. Delivering final justice against Adria's betrayal, they struck down the abomination and set out for the Pandemonium Fortress to confront Malthael.
By the time they arrived, it was too late. Malthael had already sent the Black Soulstone to Sanctuary, and it was fulfilling its dark purpose - tearing the demonic essence out of every single person. Freeing the spirits of their own kin and leaders, the heroes became one with death, and were finally able to fight against Malthael on even ground. A great battle ensued, and in a last-ditch effort to secure victory, Malthael shattered the Black Soulstone to take on the power of the Great Evils still trapped inside.
The heroes valiantly rallied in defense of Sanctuary, the power of the spirits within allowing them to defeat Death itself. The aftermath of Malthael's use of the Black Soulstone saw Tyrael gone from Sanctuary, and countless dead.
What happened to Diablo remains a mystery that haunts me.
I chose solitude and ale over futile efforts to bring Light back into our world. But there are times, such as this, where I feel hope struggling to take root once more. But to hope for salvation while doing nothing to attain it brings only ruin. I have learned this many times over. Judge a person by their actions, not their words.
Lilith has returned. You sense the Daughter of Hatred in the growing shadows, as do I. I can no longer fight with steel and blood, but perhaps the knowledge I've shared will act as an armor in your own battle with the coming darkness.
Take care, young scholar, wherever your path may lead you.
I hope for your sake it leads down a different path than mine.