DiabloFans

One of the things I wanted to see is a "failure cinematic". Like you fail to kill Malthael, do you see him destroy humanity?
I don't think we'll be able to do such thing as cinematics are expensive and time consuming. If we could do it in the expense of the opening cinematic? Don't wouldn't be cool. We are expericing with things that happen if you, but we can't talk about them yet.

In Sanctuary the main Barbarian is called Bul Kathos, however the Immortal King set mentions Worusk
He was a king by uniting the tribes. Bul Kathos was pretty much a semi-deity. Worusk guy come out a lot later and put the tribes together. He was given the tittle of Immortal King.

Where's Trang Oul?
There just hasn't been an appropriate place to introduce him. He has made an appearance since quite some time ago.

I was wondering if the Templar and Crusader differ in ideaology
They differ quite a bit. The Templar was from the order that came out of the Paladins. The Crusaders were created in the same time in the Order and went East. They disappeared into the Marshlands in the East and haven't been heard from a while ago. They chase their origins back to the early days of the Zacharum faith.

In Zoltun Kulle's archives are some coffins in the backgrounds, what do they contain?
Kulle was interested in a lot of different things. What you find around the archives is what's left over from his experiments.

At the end of Diablo II the Worldstone was shattered. Where is it?
The Worldstone as we know it was shattered into pieces. Where those pieces are and what has been done to them is unknown at this point. As far as we know it's gone.

We know that Demon + Angel = Human/Nephalem. If Tyrael gets rid of his angel-ness he appears human. Would you call Tyrael human?
He is not human, he's mortal. He chose the form of a human. He's always been on the side of the humans, has a lot of respect for humanity and really thinks humanity is the way to the future. Even during the cinematic between him and Imperius he tries to convince him to side with the humans. He is not Nephalem though. He is not part-demon.

The theme of Reaper of Souls is death and Decard Cain is a pretty big character. Is there going to be a reference to his life?
Absolutely, there's a lot of references to him in Reaper of Souls. He's a huge part of the Diablo universe and there's no way that this expansion can play out without hearing his voice and feeling his influence.

Decard Cain's death felt really premature. Is that to develop Leah's character more?
The reason we decided Decard Cain was going to pass on is to up the emotional stakes for everyone, including the player. It was to pass the torch from a storytelling standpoint. We meant for there to be a lot of drama and emotional depth

What is Imperius going to be doing in response to Malthael?
It's definitely a big deal in Heaven that this is happening. The factions will react in different ways. Imperius is not quite as big a fan of mortals as Tyrael is. He's going to be representative of this other perspective.

A lot of the classes in Diablo III have really long histories in Sanctuary but the Demon Hunters seem really new. What's their history?
The events of Diablo I and II started this tremendous effect on the world and the people living withing it. While you were trying to defeat Diablo other people took note, they gathered north to the Dreadlands and started training.

It's pretty clear that you guys have been inspired by a bit of Christianity when creating the story of Diablo. Have there been other religions you've took inspiration from?
There's two things. The Diablo universe as a whole and the Story of Diablo III and Reaper of Souls. Obviously it relies a lot on judeo-christian mythology, but there are things pulled from a lot of different religions. Like Monks for example. In terms of the narrative the Universe has taken a life of its own and the story is now drawing from the Universe itself. But in its creation there are definitely influence from all major religions

I really think of Diablo being similar to our world, but with magic, demons, fantasy. We could take things from our world and see what they look like in a darker setting.

Leah's soul. Tyrael alluded to the fact they could maybe save her. Are there plans to go back and maybe redeem her soul?
We're always trying to figure out how to share information with you without spoiling things so I'll just say that right now we don't have any plans to revisit Leah... She's definitely on our radar but we're not looking at doing anything with her right now

The Nephalem a race of powerful beings. Is there more than one Nephalem culture? Did their powers going away affect their culture?
When they realized their powers were failing they did panic.

The ancients were the first Nephalem like Bul Kathos. They had very different cultures that developed with different lines. They were raised by Angels and Demons so they did each have different cultures and that did influence the different parts of the world.

If you can imagine a race of people who begin at their Golden Age and everything goes down from there that's what happens after Inarius changed the Worldstone. It was a crushing development for them. Their powers were lost, their tradition was lost.

In Reaper of Souls you will see a bit more about their culture. In the lands through which you go you'll see some of their architecture. It's kind of weird and unknowable.

When it's first described in Diablo III you get a feeling that everybody knew about what was happening in the Worldstone. Living in different parts of the world and not having communications the different tribes thought different of their falling powers.

Monks and gods
Monks have gods for everything. The intention is that there are Gods of Order and Gods of Chaos. The religion of the Monk is that they have a small glimpse in the greater reality.

A lot of the different cultures interpret differently how the world was created.

What's going on with Adria?
Adria's very interesting. She's ticked us off a little bit with what she's done. We haven't forgot about her. Her time will come.

She's definitely still a disciple of Diablo.

Does the Angiris Council have the ability to reinstate Tyrael as an angel and would he have wiped the floor with Malthael?
If Tyrael was an angel during the cinematic he could've had more powers, but not wipe the floor with Malthael. As a member of the council Malthael was one of the most power angels but since he's transformations he has become much more powerful. He feeds on the souls of the dead. As he consumes the souls of the Horadrim in the cinematic he goes far above the other angels.

And about reinstating Tyrael as an angel?
No, I don't think the Angiris council has that ability necessarily.

What happens with the human souls after they're killed?
We haven't said where souls go and I think for the moment we're not going to explore that too much. I don't think we're ready to reveal the ultimate destination for human souls. But with the advent of Malthael a lot of souls haven't gone where they were supposed to. You'll see that in the beginning of Reaper of Souls as his minions steal and consume the souls of people.

In the Diablo series the hero doesn't get much love. In Diablo I he sticks a stone into his head, etc. I wonder what happens with the hero in Diablo II?
We haven't said what happens to every class specifically, but generally speaking when you face the Prime Evils it's tiring and you then pass it on to the next generation.

One of the things that we struggle with is that we can't show your character in the cinematic. We can show the origin at the beginning, but once you start equipping your character we want to make sure when they appear on screen to know that it's your character.

At one point, and we haven't announced it, the Barbarian was supposed to be the Barbarian from Diablo II. But as we went with development we had to explain so much compared to the other classes, that we decided to make it a new Barbarian.

Covetus Shen - anymore plans for him or background to add?
Absolutely, yes.

He's indeed a very mysterious character. We love our side-characters and we definitely plan to go in more detail with their background stories. There are even going to be some adventure you can go with your Followers. You'll get to find about more about Eirena and the Prophet and what happened with her sisters. Covetus is looking for that jewel...

The Templar is also upset with the Order and wants to do something about it.

Kingsport - when are we going to see it?
You're going to go to Westmarch, which is very, very close to Kingsport. Unfortunately you're very busy, but the Scoundrel will surely mention a few things about it.

The End of Days prophecy. It is entirely dualistic in meaning isn't it? Could it be Tathamet behind it all?
Prophecies are always multilayered by nature. As events happen people go "oh so that's what it meant". I would say Death spreading his wings is pretty indicative of Malthael but there could be a lot more, for sure.

Are you guys writing the rest of the story based on the Prophecy?
The events of the story are influenced by the people who are living that story. What's particularly forceful is the player's character. He's not going to let events happen as they're supposed to.

Is Inarius still alive?
Last I heard he was still being tortured in Hell. I'm sure someone has been looking after him.

Is Zoltun Kulle's moral ambiguity intentional?
At the basic level it comes down to whether or not you think that giving him the key to ruling the world is right or not. At certain times you really think "he has a point, he seems cool". He thinks angels and demons don't have our best interest in heart. But does he?

At the end of Diablo III you see the Black soulstone fall into Heaven and at the beginning of Reaper of Souls you see Tyrael pick it up in Heaven. How?
Heaven is tiered place, so it might've looked like it was falling somewhere else, but it did fall back on Heaven. The angels retrieved it and they brought it into the council chamber. We actually have a novel coming out that will detail the journey of Tyrael reforming the Horadrim and carrying the soulstone.

The Book of Tyrael was recently launched and was really good. At the end there's an encyclopedia that lists a lot of different characters. That's the first time some are mentioned like Morbad(?)
He'll be appearing in an upcoming fiction of Reaper of Souls.

When Tyrael ripped his wings off and became human. Can the entire council 'dewing'?
We had a long discussion about that. The wings was more of a symbolic gesture. He needed to lose them to become mortal, but it was simply symbolic. It wasn't the cause of it.

Are we revisiting the Pandemonium Fortress in Diablo II?
Yes. We'll actually revisit the Fortress. It is a constantly changing structure. It has been owned by angels and demons so who ever controls it "remodels" it. It's a mystical place, it reflects the appearance of its current owner. We will be going back to the Fortress but it will not look like the Fortress in Diablo II.

Since Tyrael made the soulstone for the Horadrim is there a reason when the amber soulstone shattered Tyrael can't just remake it?
The original soulstones were made from the Worldstone, but there's no more Worldstone. Also he didn't really have time to do that. They had to act really fast.

When Tyrael shed his wings why hasn't a new Archangel of Justice formed from the Arch?
We haven't really explored yet what this means that he become a mortal but is still a member of the council. Was he still Justice until he declared himself Wisdom? When an angel dies a replacement is not instantly born. I believe it has to achieve alignment. It's not instant. Also Tyrael wouldn't die, he's just transformed into a different being. It's a completely unprecedented thing.

He's no longer the Archangel of Justice, but he's still the Aspect of Justice.

In Act I where Leah sees skeletons, but doesn't believe in demons?
Because we live in a world where I don't run into angels and demons and skeletons I take them as a whole thing. But if you did live in a world where these things exist you'd accept them as a normal part of the world.

The bigger issue is that she didn't believe in this over arching angels vs demons things. She studies with Decard, but her and a lot of other people just believe it's a chaotic universe.

At the end of Diablo II the player destroys the soulstones, how did the lords come back?
Adrias has spent 20 years setting that up.

No one really knows what the Abyss is and the belief was once you send something there it never comes back. Adria has been going around searching for knowledge and figuring out a way to bring their souls back. So she finally did.

In the intro to Heroes of the Storm we see Tyrael with Kerrigan. If he can't handle Malthael can he handle Kerrigan?
Since it's its own universe the things that happen there will not be cannon in their respective universes.

I think Tyrael can take Kerrigan.

They may be links between Adria and Belial? Is there something like that? That Belial might be Adria and things like that.
Nope. You defeated Belial for sure.