Jacob Staalek

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Jacob Staalek^[2] is a youth unsure of his path in life.^[3] Tyrael regarded him as "a mortal of incredible resolve and virtue."^[2]

Biography[]

Early Life[]

"So leave fancy tricks to noble fools with hired guards, Jacob, and don't go rushing in like a wounded bull unless you want it to be your last fight. You're not scoring points with a crowd for a tourney, and never think your anger makes you unbeatable. Just do what you must and do it quickly. Put aside any joy or lust for glory. Think only of the duty you fulfill."

- Jacob's father^(src)

Jacob was a native of Staalbreak,^[4] and the son of Geoffrey Staalek, the city's constable,^[3] and Marenna Staalek, a Barbarian. Theirs was the last such coupling before relations with the Barbarians soured.^[5] His father instructed him in swordsplay, and stressed the need to keep his cool in a fight. To do what had to be done, and take no pleasure in shedding blood, for one day, he might have to draw his blade on his own kin.^[4]

Splintered Souls[]

Jacob was a young boy when the Worldstone was shattered. In the wake of its destruction,splinter-storms ravaged the Southern Dreadlands, and people caught in it fell ill to what the locals called storm sickness. Laird Aymer, in his paranoia exiled most of the residents from Staalbreak. His parents made a camp for the refugees, which was led by his mother,^[6] while his father along other volunteers, plotted a revolt against the laird.^[7]

Sword of Justice[]

Blood is the Spark[]

"I am the heir of the constable of Staalbreak and this...this man is under my protection! His life is not yours to take, Barbarian!"

- Jacob to Kehlric^(src)

One fateful day, sometime after the destruction of Mount Arreat, Staalbreak was attacked by a Barbarian force. While the men fought the Barbarians in the field, Jacob and Ivan were among those ordered to man the walls. Following Ivan's lead, Jacob climbed over them, and the pair rushed ahead to join the fray, despite Jacob's misgivings. Arriving in the battle, they found things to be much bloodier than they'd imagined, and Ivan was pinned by Chieftain Khelric. Jacob took up his sword and declared his intention to defend his friend. Khelric laughed and brought down his axe, cleaving Jacob's sword in two, but otherwise sparing the boys.^[5]

The battle ended in Staalbreak's favor, though it was a hollow victory, as many of their own had been maimed or killed. Jacob's father found him by Ivan's corpse, and berated Jacob for following Ivan over the walls. Jacob angrily pointed out that his father often spoke of his oath to protect their people, and asked how he could let Ivan or anyone else go into danger without protecting them himself. Jacob's father hugged him in response. Afterwards, Jacob worked with Staalbreak's blacksmith to mend his sword.^[5]

Years later, things took a turn for the worse. While none knew it at the time, the Barbarians Staalbreak had fought against had been infected with the Rage Plague, and on that day, Jacob's father had been infected as well. This drove him to paranoia, and he accused his wife of being a traitor. On the day of her execution, Jacob's father told him that he would attend the execution and remain silent. That if he detected the slightest whiff of treason, he would share his mother's fate. Jacob bid his mother a tearful goodbye before she was executed.^[5]

Later that day, Jacob confronted his father, declaring that instead of the justice his father preached, all he'd seen was the murder of an innocent woman. His father, his rage increasing, drew his sword on his son.^[5] To Jacob's horror, he saw that his father had rent his own flesh, but had little time to dwell on that as the two began their duel. Jacob impaled his father, who in his last words, seemed to regain a modicum of sanity. He told Jacob to run and never return, lest blood find him. Jacob fled Staalbreak,^[4] but was charged with murder in absentia, and was hunted by his former kinsmen.^[8]

Aranoch[]

Still on the run, Jacob fled to Aranoch. While in Lut Gholein, he listened to a storyteller named Bahman tell the history of Creation, from the Eternal Conflict to the then-recent destruction of Mount Arreat. After his story concluded, Jacob snidely told him to get the story of Arreat's destruction correct. However, to Jacob's surprise, Bahman grabbed him, revealing that one of his countrymen from Staalbreak was a mere ten paces behind him. Jacob was astounded that Bahman knew his place of origin, let alone his name, to which Bahman explained that he had the gift of foresight. He instructed Jacob to head to Lut Gholein's northwestern gate and walk until he saw a great peak. Under it lay a boon that Jacob could claim as his own.

Jacob went with Bahnuk to the northeastern gate and thanked Bahman for his aid (unaware that Bahnuk had pickpocketed his sword). To his surprise, Jacob kept heading northwest, despite his self-assurances that Bahnuk was mad. He travelled through the night and into the next day, considering himself a fool to have trusted the beggar's words. However, he came across a mountain that appeared to have been cloven in two. Entering it, he came across water inside, and a shadowed figure who conjured water inside it. Jacob greatfully gulped it down, but when he looked up to thank them, found that the figure had vanished.

Events became even stranger, as a flash of golden light enveloped Jacob. In it, he saw the outline of an angelic figure, and further into the mountain's interior, a sword before him. On the mountain walls, he saw a carving of a boy facing up to a giant Barbarian, seemingly depicting the day when he and Ivan had faced the Barbarian outside Staalbreak.^[5] The carvings told his story to the moment where he killed his father.^[4] Turning his attention back to the blade, he saw the shadowy figure beside it. He heard music, and wondered if the blade was making it, the figure, or both. He took the blade in hand, and in a flash of light, the figure was set free, able to speak and interact with Jacob normally. Her name was Shanar, a Wizard, and explained that the blade had been forcing her to guard it. She claimed that Jacob had been chosen by "a higher power," and that she'd made the carvings, as she'd had little else to do besides wait for Jacob to arrive. Now that he'd taken up the blade, the angelic resonance that had kept her here for months had disappated.^[4]

Their meeting was interrupted as Jacob's kinsmen closed in on them. Jacob begged Shanar not to kill them, but that was easier said than done as a fight brought out. Jacob came face-to-face with Ivan, somehow alive, and intent on avenging Jacob's father. At first, Jacob heeded his father's words, on the need to keep his cool in a fight, but within his mind's eye, a more violent version of his father took hold. The one who'd been corrupted by the Rage Plague. The two fought with increased ferocity, until Ivan knocked Jacob out.^[4]

Khanduras[]

The following day, Jacob awoke to find himself in chains. Ivan told him that Shanar had saved her own skin, before marching into Khanduras. That night, Ivan returned to camp with a still living boar and threw it into the camp. Jacob watched in horror as his kinsmen devoured the still-living beast, tearing it apart with their hands and teeth. He was approached by Shanar, who explained that she'd been given the choice of leaving, or watching Jacob die in that mountain. She freed him and they fled into the night with El'druin, as the hunting party began devouring one of their own.^[4]

The following afternoon, the pair discussed their next move. Jacob suggested that he return home, but Shanar pointed out that he'd be relying on the mercies of madmen, given the horror they'd seen last night. Jacob angrily claimed that the Barbarians had brought their curse to Staalbreak, but Shanar, who was familiar with Barbarian history, told him that the Barbarians who'd attacked his town weren't the same ones who'd once stood in vigil over Mount Arreat. Ivan and his crew closed in on them, but Shanar teleported them to safety, landing them in the Black Marsh. Later, they arrived outside the Forgotten Tower. Shanar bid them hide, just in time to escape the eyes (if not the noses) of khazra.^[4]

The two hid, and watched Jacob's kinsmen and the khazra converse. Ivan, his eyes bleeding, began to speak, as if possessed, offering an alliance with the khazra, and referring to the humans as his slaves. An alliance formed, the khazra revealed where Jacob and Shanar were hiding (thanks to their sense of smell). Unable to flee, all they could do was fight, and while Jacob sought to avoid the deaths of his kinsmen, he had no problem slaughtering khazra. Even then, however, the flow of battle directed him to again face Ivan, who appeared unaware of what had happened earlier, who had apparently blanked out when the entity had spoke through him.^[9]

Jacob eventually surrendered, and agreed to return home, on the condition that he be allowed to do so freely, and not as a prisoner. That he would be given a fair trial upon his arrival. Aside to Shanar, he expressed his concern for his people, and that he still felt responsible for his father's death. The two had a falling out, as Jacob mocked Shanar's suggestion that the sword was acting through him. She headed north with him, but the two remained on non-speaking terms for much of the trip.^[9]

Return to Staalbreak[]

Shanar eventually responded to Jacob as they entered the Dreadlands. She discussed the marks Jacob had made on Ivan's chest, how they resembled divinity glyphs. She pointed out that Jacob couldn't have known what they were, but the sword might have guided his hand.^[9]

They arrived at Staalbreak, and Ivan reminded Jacob that he was on a short leash, and that while Shanar would enter Staalbreak, the use of magic was forbidden. As they trudged across the snow, Jacob pointed to the frozen bodies in the snow, claiming it as proof that the Barbarians had wished them harm, but Shanar pointed out that such attacks did not match the Barbarians she'd read about, and besides, the more immediate issue was the madness that had beset Staalbreak. Outside the town walls, they witnessed countless heads of townsfolk mounted on pikes, and inside the gates, piled khazra skulls. Circumstances deteriorated further as upon entering, Jacob was pelted by stones from the townsfolk, accusing him of being a murderer. Battered and bruised, he was turned over to Constable Varik, who despite Jacob's demands for a trial, stated that Jacob had been found guilty the moment he ran away. He offered Jacob the chance to address the crowd provided he remove El'druin (which he did), but Jacob was strung up. He could, as Varik pointed out, address the people, but he didn't specify how, or whether the people would listen to him. Rocks were pelted at him until he lost conciousness.^[9]

Jacob was later awoken by Varik and the town council. Before the nobles, Varik claimed that Ivan and his band had found Jacob far to the south, betraying Staalbreak to the Barbarians to sack the city. That he'd sworn under oath that he'd killed his father, that the Wizard he was in league with was involved in the plot. Ergo, he did not require a trial. Jacob begged them to see reason. To see the scars on their flesh that they seemed oblivious to. Each of the nobles gave their own excuses as to why they were so scarred, as if unable to comprehend what was happening to them. His execution was scheduled for the morrow.^[9]

As night fell, Jacob was visited by his father's spirit (or hallucinated it), who reassured him that he wasn't a murderer. That he had to save Staalbreak before it was too late. The vision transformed into the madman his father had been in his last moments, but the hallucination/vision ended as Shanar, wielding El'druin, cut Jacob's bindings. Unfortunately, their escape was noticed by the town guards.^[9]

Shanar teleported them into the Gray Wards, but they lost El'druin. To make matters worse, they were attacked by giant rats, infected by the same disease that had consumed the townsfolk. She fried them with her magic, and they headed to their goal; a structure that was owned by Bertram the Apothecary. Only his body remained as a twisted, distorted mess. Shanar revealed that he was actually a Mage, and that he had been studying Mount Arreat and an artifact. When the plague hit, he tried to study its effects. While dead, his writings gave the pair insight into its origins and means of transmission. His body was the end result of the infection.^[9]

The guards caught them, and Jacob once again gave himself up, still intent on trying to save his people by explaining what had happened to them. Varik confronted him, 'thanking' Jacob for giving him the impetus he needed to have Staalbreak march on the Barbarians, and claim the mantle the Owl Tribe's kin abandoned. Like Ivan before him, Varik began to speak as if possessed, and like Ivan, appeared unaware of what had happened when the moment passed. Come dawn, Varik addresed the gathered townsfolk, declaring that Jacob's execution would occur before they marched. Jacob pleaded with them to see reason, but his people were too far gone. The executioner stood ready, but instead, turned his axe on Varik, before freeing Jacob. It was Ivan, who appeared to have regained his senses. He held off the other guards while Shanar freed Jacob.^[9]

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Interim[]

Sometime after his adventure, word of Jacob's deeds reached the ears of Deckard Cain, and he expressed interest in writing more on the hero.^[10] However, the scholar was killed before this could come to pass.^[11]

Storm of Light[]

Following Tyrael's reformation twenty years after he was seemingly destroyed at Mount Arreat, El'druin returned to him leaving Jacob's possession. The sudden disappearance of El'druin devastated Jacob. Without its power and guidance he was no longer the avatar of justice he once was. The loss of El'druin was followed by a second, possibly greater one, as Shanar left Jacob soon after. Jacob fell into depression after this, and began wandering Sanctuary.

After the defeat of Diablo by the Nephalem, Jacob found himself in Caldeum. Following a mention of El'druin's whereabouts Jacob stumbled into a trap set by a demon out for revenge. Fighting the demon he slew a few of its cultist minions but was helpless without El'druin. He was saved by Shanar, who foresaw this event, killing the demon and cultists. Jacob then accompanied her to journey to New Tristriam. He came to be recruited into the newly reformed Horadrim by Tyrael^[1]