Okay, before I start with this, I'd like you to read this excerpt from Kingdom of Shadow:
Ichor dripped from a scaly, barely fleshed skull that almost appeared to have been stretched long. Two wicked, scaled horns rose high above bat-winged ears. Over the deathly crevices that were all that formed a nose, the thick-browed orbs of the demon lord glared at the impudent human, the hatred and evil within them matching exactly that which the horrified mercenary had noted in the image of the false archangel Mirakodus.
This is the description of Diablo's appearance, as he appeared to Kentril Dumon. Now look at this picture:
The description matches perfectly, especially the part about "two wicked, scaled horns that rise above bat-winged ears".
Now take a look at this picture:
Now, to the second and smaller pair of extensions that are located at the base of his cheeks (they are actually closer to his mouth than to his cheeks). You can see those in both the first and the second pic, and if you look at the animation, you can see that those things are moving in the same manner as their larger counterpart. If we take another look at the first pic, we can notice small, claw-like things that are located right by the horns. Now, let's take a look at this picture:
Notice those small sharp endings right by the side of his horns? I know, it's not the same, but they are conveniently placed at the same position.
Horns aside, there is something else I want to show you. This is the last thing, I promise!
If we take another look at the first picture, we can see a sign, some kind of a seal or even a rune, on the demon's forehead.
Now if we look at any of the remaining pictures, we can see a bright spot on the demon's/Diablo's forehead. Many people claimed that this is a hole where his Soulstone used to be. But, the Wanderer's body was destroyed in Diablo II, which means that this can't be the before mentioned hole!
The first picture is the artistic representation of Diablo's true form. Pay attention to the word "artistic"! I would like to compare this picture to a group of images that can be found in Collin de Plancy's "Dictionnaire Infernal", a book on demonology. Kingdom of Shadow tells us that Diablo has bat-winged ears, and the first picture is showing this perfectly. If we look at the other pictures, there are clearly no bat-winged ears, but the extensions I mentioned before could represent them, since the first pic is an "artistic" representation. After all, what do we know about demonic anatomy! Also, the excerpt from Kingdom of Shadow shouldn't be taken literally, since you can never know what the writer wanted to say. The best example for this is J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. To this day, there are some fans that doubt that the Balrog was indeed a fiery 20-foot tall horned demon or that Sauron literally took a form of a great fire eye. They think that those are just a bunch of metaphors. I think we can say that the bat-winged ears in our case is just another metaphor.
The sign/seal/rune on the demon's forehead is probably telling us that there is something of great importance located here. It is also an artistic representation of what we see as a bright spot on Diablo's forehead. What could it be, it's open to debate, but the artist clearly wanted us to know that there is something going on there.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
-Dauroth
Anyway about the symbol- that's a cool find! :thumbsup:
As for understanding...me can't read hieroglyphs...alas... :sad:
Maybe Voldemort cursed the shit out of him. Rumor goes that the guy has a thing for foreheads.
I just cannot be serious today...ate too much pizza. Yes these two are linked!
But seriously though, thats a GREAT find about the artistic rendering. I have all the original manuals and I always wondered what that was and simply assumed it to be some random demon.
You forgot to tell us what you think it is though... :turned:
Still, something remains on the D3 trailer. What that is I do not know.
You can call the "main" boss of the game Diablo if you want but lore wise that's not the lord of terror.
Nice read over all tho
Thanks
~Mike~
so, it might not be the actual model for Big D, wich makes dauroth's idea still possible
Did anyone notice at the link to Dictionnaire Infernal that the image for "Bael" looks like an artistic approach to what our Baal looks like?
Spider legs, a long face and nose. The frog and cat heads on his shoulders aren't exactly in the game, but I would assume that Blizz thinks that the heads of a cat and a frog aren't exactly scary. I think it is safe to assume that the LOD design team may have been somewhat influenced by this book.
Which leads me to believe that there might be other demons in this book that Blizz has or will take reference from. Azmodeus is noted as one of the 7 princes of Hell, and is the lord of Lust, one of the 7 sins. Azmodan Lord of Sin?
It is really an interesting subject when you take "artistic freedom" into account.
In Dante's Divine Comedy, Lucifer (Satan, Diablo) has 3 mouths, which he uses to chew Judas and 2 other guys. Our new Diablo also has 3 mouths.
Just another example.
I may be wrong about the protrusions since he may have looked like that due to Kentril's fears. If you ask me, Blizzard should make Diablo look different according to the character you are using to reflect this fear thing.
And, Septar, is this what you were looking for?
Do you have any idea how game development goes down? I'm going to assume no since you've drawn these conclusions from the sources you chose.
For one, the description of the statue wasn't even written by an employee involved with the Diablo 3 development. He was probably just shown the statue and was told to write up something about it.
And the music composer?
Really? Do you honestly think he is involved with the game development in depth enough to know whether or not that creature is actually Diablo? Guess what, he's not. In most cases music composers are told of what kind of music to compose and they do it, and the actual game developers listen to it and see if it's a fit. He might be shown clips(as is this case, for the D3 cinematic trailer music) and some concept art to get an idea of what to compose, otherwise he knows as much about the game and story as you do. So naturally, he thinks that the big mean monster at the end of the trailer is the big mean monster the game is named after. A foolish conclusion, but he's just composing music for it and not picking apart every follicle of the damn demon.
Give me a quote from Jay Wilson or Leonard Boyarsky confirming that the monster is Diablo, and you'll have a case.
I forgot about Bashiok.
Yeah, he's barely involved with game development too. He mostly just parrots what he's told from the actual game developers.