Changes to the Diablo Lore
I am merely delivering this to you, as it was delivered to me.
Hi, Avi -
All what I wrote in the Sin War was as Blizzard has decided the
official story shall now be. I agree, it differs from the original
Diablo material, but that is because they have expanded well beyond
that now, just as they did with WoW. Even at the time of Mel's book,
this was not so, but was decided shortly after. Obviously, what
happens after Inarius is turned over to Mephisto is up for conjecture.
Best
Richard A. Knaak
So what, now the books are more canonical than the games, which intoduced the lore?
What are your guys' thoughts?
"Accurate reports on the nature of the horrors that lie below the church come to light more rarely than survivors. I have attempted to provide a base knowledge of what awaits you by searching through our vast libraries for historical and scientific tomes recounting the Horadrim's epic war against the three.
I have summarized the information that I discovered. Due to the length of time that has passed since most of the original accounts were written, and the uncertainty surrounding the present evil that plagues this land, I cannot guarantee the veracity of this information. I do, however, believe that this information is as accurate as possible under these trying circumstances."
- Vischar Orous
Cheif Librarian
Zharaesh Covenant
Brotherhood of the Vizjerei
That is part of the intro in the manual before describing the minions of hell, including the Overlords and including the part about Inarius. So we were right, the change in lore is more like a new discovery to update old information, rather than just scrapping previous information. Blizzard already covered themselves by having these paragraphs lol. Lucky.
BUT
there is one thing that really annoys me. They changed something that did not need to be changed. The symbol for Baal used on the LoD cover was originally the symbol for Mephisto. I actually noticed the change years ago, and it has been annoying me the whole time. This goes back to my 'upgrading is better than changing' thing that I said before. This is an unecessary change/swap. If however, Baal's symbol was upgraded, aka, made better, then it would be okay. But using something that was previously there is not okay. And what's the point? Baal's symbol looks just as cool as Mephisto's, its not like it was complete crap.
Solomir is d3.com's foremost lore expert. If I have a lore question I ask him.
Though I did forget he made that earlier thread, might have been something with the title, informative as it was.
Diablo game canon forever
So far from what I've read in the Sin War Trilogy is doesnt seem that "canonical" or w.e. Ever since Diablo 1 its been moving further and further away from the simplistic Judeo-Christain mythology. I beleive that the original idea in Diablo 1 that Hell was actually bellow the surface of the earth (sanctuary) then with Diablo 2 opening up portals and the different 'continents' of Sanctuary like Kehjistan it brought a bigger variation of mythologies into the game which have been taken from the real world aswell (but dont nessessarily mean it follows the real world exactly). Alot of people say the atmosphere in Diablo 2 suffered because it brought in different surroundings and mythologies which just couldnt compete when it came to creepyness. Although I disagree with this myself, I think sandy tombs and overgrown jungles can be just as creepy as cathedral/catacombs type surroundings.
The Sin War Trilogy moves even further away from this yet again, bringing in the idea of Nephalem (although I'm aware theyre taken from the Old Testement, like I said before, real world ideas dont have to keep exactly the same) who are super strong. Then theres multiple religions, multiple "gods" and more than just 3 realms/dimensions. There are a few mentions that there is more realms than that of Heaven, Hell, Sanctuary and Trags place, and in Legacy of Blood it mentions the "Dreamers". Diablo lore is constantly moving away from what it originally was in Diablo 1 and towards... well, Diablo 3 itself will be the point where we can tell for sure whether this new lore and new style has effected the gameplay
I hope that made sense
And that messes up what Inarius is as well as the demons known as overlords. Which is rather a shame as the game lore regarding these beings was very interesting.
Ahhhh!... Thats a pretty big change, I mean 95% of the lore fits in without contridictions but the overall 'feel' I get from the Sin War Trilogy isnt as Diabloesque as the original lore of the games by far
So annoying, but also fun. The Diablo novels are always good. Well the ones I have read are anyways.
Now I don't have to read the book...
Soul has uploaded The Veiled Prophet now, in the Diablo E-Books thread
***SPOILER!***
***/SPOILER!***
Personally, I never got far in Diablo 1, although I've had my good share of lvl 90's in D2, so I'm missing out on alot of the gaming diablo lore that you talk about.
Regardless of changes, diablo lore is incredible.
Edit: Lets count how many times I say... "Diablo lore"
And that is pretty much the issue at hand. Some of us love the punishment he got. It's so brutal and cool at the same time, it makes you think to some of the Tartarian punishments some of the characters in greek mythology got. They usually reflect the way in which the person lived in some way, or are twistedly ironic. And that's why we loved it. Now we don't even know if it's still the case. We can guess it is and Blizzard didnt say it isn't. Yet neither did the say it still is. Kinda how Blizzard works.
They won't say they are, yet neither will the say they aren't.
4! =P
Diablo Lore has always amazed me.. I just love it!