Regarding Adria, the Black Soulstone, and how she supposedly traveled abroad and 'marked' the souls of the Lords of the Burning Hells for capture within it. The narrative was very vague in its explanation of these events and I've been confused for some time. I thought that the souls of the Prime Evils were trapped in the abyss since the events of Diablo II. I also don't understand how the souls of Andariel and Duriel were captured.
Anyways, I imagine that Adria must be considerably powerful to have been able to mark the souls of the Lords of the Burning Hells. Perhaps Aiden (Diablo) bestowed her with the demonic powers that would be necessary for her to accomplish this task before he left Tristram to travel east.
That's just a theory that I have. It might fall apart under scrutiny.
I hope that a future expansion will explain all of this for us, unless someone here has the answers. If anyone can elaborate on what is going on in regards to Adria and the Black Soulstone I would like to hear it. Even if it's just theory crafting.
"Corruption has the strength of deceit, but innocence holds the power of purity." - Adria, Diablo
Is Adria just a 'cultist' or corrupted mortal, or is she something more than that?
I'm skeptical that they were planning it way back then, but the townsfolk in D1 cast her as a super duper magic user, or something not human.
Why don't that old crone do something for a change? Sure, sure, she's got stuff, but you listen to me - she's unnatural! She doesn't eat or drink, and you can't trust somebody that desn't drink at least a little.
The witch, Adria, is an anomaly here in Tristram. She arrived shortly after the Cathedral was desecrated while most everyone else was fleeing. She had a small hut constructed at the edge of town, seemingly overnight, and has access to many strange and arcane artifacts and tomes of knowledge that even I have never seen before.
Adria is wise beyond her years, but I must admit - she frightens me a little. Well, no matter. If you ever have need to trade in items of sorcery, she maintains a strangely well-stocked hut just across the river.
While I use some limited forms of magic to create the potions and elixirs I store here, Adria is a true sorceress. She never seems to sleep, and she always has access to many mystic tomes and artifacts. I believe her hut may be much more than the hovel it appears to be, but I can never seem to get inside the place.
Adria truly bothers me. Sure, Cain is creepy in what he can tell you about the past, but that witch can see into your past. She always has some way to get whatever she needs, too. Adria gets her hands on more merchandise than I've seen pass through the gates of the King's Bazaar during High Festival.
Doesn't eat, drink, or sleep allegedly, able to get whatever she wants, most of the town is scared of her.. She seemed to know a lot about what was really going on too.
"No Mortal can truly understand the mind of the Demon. Never let their erratic actions confuse you, as that too may be their plan."
"There are many artifacts within the Labyrinth that hold powers beyond the comprehension of mortals. Some of these hold fantastic power that can be used by either the Light or the Darkness. Securing the Anvil from below could shift the course of the Sin War towards the Light."
"This is a place of great anguish and terror, and so serves its master well. Tread carefully or you may yourself be staying much longer than you had anticipated."
"You will become an eternal servant of the Dark Lords should you perish within this cursed domain. Enter the Chamber of Bone at your own peril."
"The Heaven Stone is very powerful, and were it any but Griswold who bid you find it, I would prevent it. He will harness its powers and its use will be for the good of us all."
So since we now know she was apparently an agent of Diablo, we can assume she was there to make sure things went according to plan. What is this plan?
From the D2:LoD instruction manual:
"And a child will cradle Terror in his breast as the heart of man falls under the shadow.
A Wanderer will pass through the ancient lands trailing chaos in his wake.
The Three Brothers will be reunited as the mortal world trembles before their might.
And so it was foretold that the Three, once reunited, would be shattered again—
And the last of them would set his sights on the holy mount. The warnings held that
Their defeat would be illusory—that the final gambit had yet to be played..."
+ + +
And now at last the storm surges forth from the southlands, and the hand of Destruction
Reaches out to undo the workings of the Ancients. The tides of Hell surge—ready to smash
Down upon the shores of the mortal world—to drown the guilty and the innocent alike.
That was from something called Prophecies of the Final Day by the way.
Druid lore excerpt:
They created a new culture and language, cutting themselves off from their Barbarian cousins and their ways, vowing not to return to the Steppes of Mt. Arreat until the time of the Uileloscadh Mór, the final battle between the men of the world and the demons of the Burning Hells.
At the Túr Dúlra, the greatest of the Druid Colleges, stands the magnificent oak Glór-an-Fháidha. This tree is the most revered source of the Druids guidance and teachings. Under its branches, for centuries, the Druids of Scosglen have been honing not only their powerful arsenal of natural magic, but also the martial skills they have retained from their Barbarian forefathers. They have done this because they believe themselves to be the world’s last line of defense when the time of the great conflict comes, a time they believe is at hand. Lashing out in fury at the recent insurgence of denizens of the Burning Hells, and at the Leathdhiabhala, demonic corruptions of the very creatures they have vowed to defend, the Druids have, at last, emerged from their forests, marching toward their final stand against the minions of Chaos.
In D3 we have the Prophecy for the End of Days, which is a 'warning about Hell's ultimate invasion of our world,' and the pieces of the puzzle mentioned in it seem to be coming true. We were also supposed to learn why the Hells didn't invade 20 years ago in the game.
And at the End of Days, Wisdom shall be lost (Malthael being gone, or the mortal Tyrael's demise in X1?)
as Justice falls upon the world of men. (Obvious events of D3, or that Tyrael became aspect of Wis., leaving Justice to Nephalem)
Valor shall turn to Wrath - (Imperius raging over Hell invading, or Imperius waging war on the impudent Nephalem)
as all Hope is swallowed by Despair. (In-game events, or tied to the above, Imp's betrayal. sends Auriel into despair)
Death, at last, shall spread its wings over all -(All these lines reference angels/aspects, Malthael returns as Death?)
as all Fate lies shattered forever. (In-game event of the Hero 'shattering' the fate that Heaven lost that day, or a future event where Ithereal gets destroyed, probably by Malthael/Imperius)
So we know the culmination of this storyline, which they have claimed will get resolved in D3, is this final battle/ultimate invasion of Sanctuary by Hell. Something that has been prophecized for centuries and something that the Evils themselves seem to know all about.
I think Diablo/Evils knew what would happen in D3 as well, I forget what he says exactly but why would he send Adria away to be used later if he, and the angels, were sure he would succeed in the attack on Heaven, since it was kind of 'written in stone' on the Scroll of Fate?
My answer, he wouldn't, he knew he would be stopped, in fact, he and Belial/Azmodan wanted to be stopped. Ever look at the various forums and see all the complaints about 'beLIEal more like beFAILal amirite?? lol y is azodon tellin me where he attack??? teh gaem say he the gr8est general. y iz diab0 tellin me bout his hell gaets????' They were leading you along to do exactly what they wanted you to do.
Sidebar: The Prime Evil, supposedly Diablo in the game. The following is said by Tyrael while on the quest, Prime Evil.
Player:
What do you speak of when you say the Prime Evil? Tyrael:
It is the sum total of all seven Evils housed within one body. There is an ancient legend, known only to a few, of the great Dragon, Tathamet, who was the original embodiment of evil.
The legend says that he was ripped apart during an epic battle with Anu, and that the Burning Hells are composed of his remains. Player:
Who is Anu? Tyrael:
Just as Tathamet was the ultimate evil, Anu was the ultimate good. It is said by some that the Crystal Arch is all that remains of this great warrior. Player:
Then Diablo seeks to become the Dragon once again? Tyrael:
In a manner of speaking, yes.
So, either one Nephalem can be more powerful than what is basically one of the (accidental) creator gods of the entire universe, or Diablo was merely supercharged with the souls of the other Evils, and not really the Prime Evil, which even the CE artbook shows as a hydra thing. (Coincidence, D3 was codenamed Project Hydra?)
Also said by Tyrael:
But the Black Soulstone is flawed and cannot contain that many demons for long. We must capture Azmodan within it and shatter it... lest all these Evils be reborn.
Obviously that didn't happen because for reasons we will likely only know in the expansion, Diablo's body was just tossed over the side of Heaven, and the Black Soulstone was left intact.
Now, I don't know if it means anything, but it's near the end of the artbook. They're either concept art for the Child Emperor, or possibly for the future plot. Right below what looks to be a Cultist drawing, there are 3 children sitting 'Indian style' with elaborate headdresses. The middle one has a mostly different clothing style than the other two, while the other two are almost identical to each other. They both have 'face paint' or tattoos in red and blue on their face and bare chests, their eyes are shut with the 'paint' filling in their eyelids, and have what looks to be a 'third eye' possibly tattooed on their forehead. They also have some black jewelry on around their neck, upper left arm, and wrists.
"There is much about the future we cannot see, but when it comes it will be the children who wield it." - Adria, Diablo, talking about Wirt
So, we know if the BS isn't destroyed, the evils will get loose. The Nephalem are super powerful. Diablo possibly wants to re-make the Tathamet hydra. Theory: the Evils will possess children that Adria and/or Triune cultists have been raising after the Worldstone was destroyed, giving them massive power. Enough power to reform into Tathamet and smash the Heavens once and for all. (We, of course, thwart this plan by rescuing Princess Leah (has to be a reason they retconned Warrior into Prince Aidan) and find out her family's destiny is to bring back Anu and/or defeat Tathamet, which is why Diablo and the Evils were working to corrupt and destroy the Leoric bloodline)
Update: Some support for Princess Leah/Leoric bloodline's greater purpose?
So as we know, Mephisto was soulstone'd under the Zakarum Temple of the Light and was eventually able to corrupt them. What did those manipulated leaders do? Proclaimed Leoric king of Khanduras. The Archbishop Lazarus (bastard led us into a trap!) was 'intent' on Leoric choosing the 'broken-down monastery' as his seat of power. (Hmm, wonder why.. )
We have just arrived in Tristram, and I must say I'm a bit dismayed. This place is a backwater filled with serfs and an ancient, broken-down monastery, hardly fit for the king of Khanduras! I cannot fathom why Lazarus was so intent on this becoming our new seat of power.
The Zakarum high priests in Kurast proclaimed Leoric king of Khanduras many years ago. He ruled well until Diablo's influence drove him mad, and the loyal knight Lachdanan was forced to slay him. Afterward, Diablo himself raised Leoric from the dead as the Skeleton King until the monarch's son Aidan vanquished him.
However, the Diablo 1 lore almost seems to imply that Lazarus wasn't under demonic control until they had 'settled' and Diablo used his powers to coerce and eventually corrupt him.
Sensing that freedom was within his grasp, Diablo entered the nightmares of the Archbishop and lured him into the dark, subterranean labyrinth. In his terror, Lazarus raced throughout the abandoned hallways until he at last came to the chamber of the burning Soulstone. No longer in command of his body or spirit, he raised the stone above his head and uttered words long forgotten in the realm of mortals. His will destroyed, Lazarus shattered the Soulstone upon the ground.
...
Lazarus too, had fallen under the sway of the Demon, keeping close to Leoric at all times.
He also was apparently "a guardian of Mephisto's soulstone in Kurast" so it's up in the air, but I think he wasn't, as far as D1 is concerned, corrupted until they got to Tristram and Diablo reawakened, while in Diablo 3 he likely was corrupted from the get-go.
The wording is kind of vague, for what we are talking about here, but this piece also sounds like Leoric just came in on his own volition in D1 and was all 'For the glory of the Light! I am your king! I shall save you from the ever encroaching darkness! I claim this ancient Monastery as my seat of power in the name of the Zakarum!'
It was then that the great northern lord Leoric came unto the lands of Khanduras and, in the name of Zakarum, declared himself King. Leoric was a deeply religious man and had brought many Knights and Priests with him that comprised his Order of the Light. Leoric and his trusted advisor, the Arch Bishop Lazarus, made their way to the city of Tristram. Leoric appropriated the ancient, decrepit Monastery on the outskirts of the town for his seat of power and renovated it to match its time-lost glory.
It could just as easily be interpreted as what we know from the D3 lore, (although it has been retcon'd that he is an eastern lord now) that the corrupted High Priests told him 'Go be king here, in the name of Zakarum' and Lazarus was all 'Hey look, this building looks cool, right? What do you mean it's a dump? Castles are like so last year, you should just pick this place, I mean, we're already here, no?'
Personally, I'm thinking it was some minor retcons to go along with their current plotline, if solely for the fact that they felt the need to give the Warrior a backstory as a son to King Leoric of all things. For all that we saw of it in the game, the Warrior might as well have been just some nameless Warrior or Gheed's brother, as from what I remember, the whole 'Oh my Heavens, Leah is actually the heir to the throne!' plot hasn't come into play....yet.
Possibly going along with the whole 'The Evils were/are playing you like a fiddle' theory, Jay Wilson in some 2011 interviews (although he's talking about Diablo 2's perspective of course):
If the player thinks they outsmarted the forces of Hell and evil and they basically won, well, they are in for a big shock. Because what they are going to discover in Diablo 3 is that things have gone pretty exactly the way Hell wanted them to go all along.
What we really wanted was the idea of a story where we do have some time away, it’s about 20 years later, and things have actually gotten better because evil’s been “destroyed”. But the truth is that it’s actually all just been a ruse, it’s all part of the plan. It’s really just making sure everyone’s nice and complacent for the real war that’s coming.
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Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam.
Pyrrhic, I just want to let you know: that was the best thing I have read in a long long time. In fact, I enjoyed reading your theories so much, that I now fear being disappointed by the actual outcome of it all.
Pyrrhic, I just want to let you know: that was the best thing I have read in a long long time. In fact, I enjoyed reading your theories so much, that I now fear being disappointed by the actual outcome of it all.
Pyrrhic, I just want to let you know: that was the best thing I have read in a long long time. In fact, I enjoyed reading your theories so much, that I now fear being disappointed by the actual outcome of it all.
Thank you!
Then give the guy a well deserved rep point!!!
Do you mean that up-arrow next to the post? If so, done! I have no idea about that system, so let me know if you mean something else
I tried to dissect more of the in-game and out of game clues over here if you haven't seen that topic.
Does make you wonder where the original Diablo 3 MMO version, if it was a continuation of the story and not set in the Sin War or something, was going to go. (CTRL+F 'diablo version') Hmm, wonder if anyone has ever asked him, if he is able to say.
In another interview he did say that as of 2003 when he and the others left, the game wasn't set in Heaven, like the leaked screenshots of what must be the 2003-2005 Blizzard North version show.
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Adria has decieving skills (decieved even Tyreal!) like Lilith.
Adria has seducing skills (seduced Aidan in order to have Leah) like Lilith.
Adria gotta've dimensional traveling skills (gone to the Abyss in order to catch the Evil's souls) like Lilith (scaped the Void once).
She might 've revived Diablo and turn him into the Prime Evil (and maybe tricked him) because she knew you (the next gen Nephalem) could kill him, as Lilith believes the power of Nephalem like anyone does. By doing that she crushed both Heavens - she made the invasion possible in the first place - and Hell - the 7 evils dead. By crushing both and showing humans Nephalem are OP she did execly what she allways wanted to do.
I think that it could be a good story for the next game. Adria being a disguise of Lilith, pretending to be Diablo's agent and helping him collect the Great Evils souls in one stone but actually planning to save the power of all evils for herself. I didn't worked out the part where she knew that Diablo would be ultimately defeated by the end of D3. I don't like the idea of nephalem being greater than Angels and Evils, I prefer the idea of extremely talented mortals that defeated the Evils. Anyway, I see beggining of the next game as Adria finding the Blacksoulstone that fell from Heavens but something goes horribly wrong and the Evils are released and something like a civil war between Hell and maybe something tasty like Imperius in league with some Prime Evil to take his revenge on Diablo for corrupting Heaven.
Why would she want the seven lords of hell, if she knew a single DH would be able to kill him in 2 min?
Lilith is angry, angels and demons have been messing around with her children for a long time now, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole adria thing is lilith trying to help the nephalem to destroy both, heaven and hell.
btw pyrrhic, you either go to work with blizz or stop posting those theories, now I'm certain that the expansions are going to disappoint me
I am glad that my topic has spawned such excellent discussion. I do not have the time to read through everything right now (fucking dentist) but I will later tonight. My interest is definitely piqued. From what I have read of your post already, Pyrrhic, you deserve a +1. It is nice to know that there are people out there that find the lore of Diablo as interesting as I do.
Edit: I thought that the souls of Mephisto, Diablo and Baal were trapped in the abyss, following the events of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. How did Adria mark their souls for capture within the Black Soulstone?
I am glad that my topic has spawned such excellent discussion. I do not have the time to read through everything right now (fucking dentist) but I will later tonight. My interest is definitely piqued. From what I have read of your post already, Pyrrhic, you deserve a +1. It is nice to know that there are people out there that find the lore of Diablo as interesting as I do.
Edit: I thought that the souls of Mephisto, Diablo and Baal were trapped in the abyss, following the events of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. How did Adria mark their souls for capture within the Black Soulstone?
In the Behind the Scenes DVD, they talk about how they were throwing around ideas for what to do with the story, and they decided that since the Dark Exile, Diablo has been conspiring to kill off the other Evils and unite all their souls into one body, his body.
Paraphrased a bit for some quotes (bold is my emphasis):
"Leah represents innocence. Leah represents hope. She is smart, she is resourceful, she has powers of her own. She represents everything that humanity can be."
"What happens to Leah is sort of the ultimate tragedy and is what is going to happen to everybody if you, the player, doesn't stop it."
(The people will die, or they will become hosts for demons/corrupted...?)
"One of the guys had this idea for this kind of cool NPC girl you meet out in the woods with a bow, and there was some suggestion, that she might have been the daughter of the Wanderer from Diablo 2"
"Her mother was the witch Adria, Adria was a character that occurred in Diablo 1. I think we look at her as this woman who was obsessed with the occult, the arcanum. You know, chasing mysteries and magical powers over the course of her life."
"She meets with the Dark Wanderer and falls in love with him, and at this point he has been corrupted by Diablo, and she bears his child, and this child is Leah.."
"It was clear that she was not fit to be a mother, and potentially she had her own dark mission, such that Adria gave up Leah for adoption."
"Ultimately it was Cain that recognized this baby was very special and kept her safe for the past twenty years."
"He potentially knows that evil is lurking within her, but because he carries so much guilt from the past games, trying to help people understand that the sky is falling, and not really taking action, he felt he needed to take her on and raise her the right way. And on the other hand, he knew if this girl so much as looked sideways, he knew it would be his job to take her out."
"Since she was a little girl, Cain's been roaming around this map looking for pieces of this prophecy of the End Days. All that while, he's teaching Leah to be his apprentice. He would have been constantly talking to her about this prophecy, you know, 'At the End of Days, angels and demons will fight on the land of man.' but she has never seen angels or demons so she doesn't believe it, but at the same time she closes her eyes and sees these nightmares and doesn't know if they are real or just her uncle's stories blending together."
(Yep, called it that the End of Days isn't fully manifested )
"Leah eventually has to come to terms that everything he had been telling her was real, and she finally realizes that and starts fulfilling this and becomes this new Cain for us. Tyrael, as a mortal now, begins to rely on Leah as that Deckard Cain role. Together, they help pretty much uncover Diablo's maneuverings and what he's been planning under the surface of all of this all along."
"In trying to solve this riddle of how Diablo comes back again, we kind of had the idea that maybe this time he comes back through his mortal offspring."
"For the first time all the essences of these 7 prime evils now, go into Leah and she turns into Diablo and becomes the one prime evil."
(That's a direct quote, confirming that the Diablo in game was not the Prime Evil aka Tathamet, and just all the 'essences' supercharging Diablo?)
"It fits with a lot of the stories that were told in the original Diablo and Diablo 2, where we see really precious characters succumb to this kind of corruption and madness and evil, and so this was an opportunity for us to take a character that a player directly interacted with, and hopefully that the player really likes, and see that exact thing happen to her. It was just too evil for us to resist."
(Must have been fun compiling this story, wish I could have been on that team. )
"To see her father Diablo take her over and turn her into a demon lord is the greatest tragedy we could think."
"It's tragic what happens to her. But I think the truth of Leah is she's innately heroic. She's a good person. But this evil was rooted at a genetic level. And the turn that her life takes was inevitable to some great degree. When ultimately her turn comes, it feels terrible. We want you to feel like you've been socked in the gut, like you know, "anyone but her." Her spirits still out there somewhere. There's a good girl there that deserves to be saved and brought back from the Abyss. While we don't have any clue yet what subsequent chapters will be, a couple clues (Metzen winks), I'd bet that we would chase that down because it feels right from a story level, and it feels right from a character level."
(Covetous Shen: Do you think that Leah is lost forever? Player: Diablo consumed her. She is gone. Covetous Shen: Do you not think Leah's soul is stronger than that? But, oh, but then sometimes I-I forget that you have not seen everything that I have seen.)
So this is Diablo's plan he has been going after for centuries. The whole 'Adria marked the souls' thing? Well, for one, do we actually trust her at her word? No, not after what she does and the fact we have been 'played like a fiddle' by Diablo the entire time.
For all we know, Izual could have been the one that rigged up the Black Soulstone. Or Zoltun Kulle, who the other characters pretty much drilled into our skulls was untrustworthy, set it up himself to suck in the big boss Angels and Demons and feigned surprise to try and get us to let him use it on his own. Or the Evils/Diablo themselves at some point, since as far as I know, the events of Diablo 2 were the first time they had ever been 'smashed' and Tyrael was likely the one that thought smashing their stones would send them to the Abyss. (The same soulstones we know were flawed and used as tools by the Evils, thanks to Izual)
Tyrael's my man, but like he says in the game:
Angels do not, in fact, know everything.
I'd have to look for a precise timeline/in-game dialogue, but:
Tyrael:Three hundred years ago, I selected Kulle and six others to form the Horadrim. He was a great man who was driven mad with his long quest to hunt evil. Player:
Tell me, why did the Horadrim have to kill Zoltun Kulle? Tyrael:
He delved into powers not meant for men, trying to fashion an artifact that could fill his empty heart with the souls of angels and demons. The Horadrim had no choice but to slay him. The order... never recovered.
So potentially, the Black Soulstone may have been around for hundreds of years, around the same amount of time, as stated in the BtS quote above, that Diablo has been planning his big 'middle-finger' to his brothers and sister. Again, would have to look up references, but now is possibly the first time in centuries the Evils were ever vanquished, since the Primes were running amok on Sanctuary and the Lessers were chilling in Hell due to the Eternal Conflict going to a standstill as all eyes focused on Man.
Although the Great Conflict burned hotter and longer than any of the stars in the sky, neither side could gain dominion over the other for long. Both factions sought some way to turn the tides of the war to their favor. With the ascension of Man and his mortal realm, the Great Conflict ground to a mysterious halt. Both armies paused in a breathless stalemate, waiting to see to whose side Man would eventually turn.
So, it is possible that the souls were 'marked' centuries ago, and Adria was just making sure all the pieces came together, like getting Deckard Cain out the picture, guiding the Nephalem hero to find ZK's bits, making sure Belial and Azmodan got the kibosh put on them, etc.
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'At the End of Days, angels and demons will fight on the land of man.' but she has never seen angels or demons so she doesn't believe it, but at the same time she closes her eyes and sees these nightmares and doesn't know if they are real or just her uncle's stories blending together."
(Yep, called it that the End of Days isn't fully manifested )
"For the first time all the essences of these 7 prime evils now, go into Leah and she turns into Diablo and becomes the one prime evil."
(That's a direct quote, confirming that the Diablo in game was not the Prime Evil aka Tathamet, and just all the 'essences' supercharging Diablo?)
I didn't believe that Diablo became Tathamet in the first place. I don't see this as possible within the lore. Following his death, the seven heads of Tathamet spawned the Great Evils. His headless corpse became the Burning Hells. I don't see how Tathamet could become whole again. If Diablo did transform into Tathamet, wouldn't he have been unstoppable? Wouldn't Sanctuary have burned? I don't think that anyone but Anu himself would be capable of stopping Tathamet. Plus, if Diablo did become Tathamet during the events of Diablo III, I'm sure that they wouldn't have left us guessing. Shit would have been explicitly stated during the narrative of Act IV.
So this is Diablo's plan he has been going after for centuries. The whole 'Adria marked the souls' thing? Well, for one, do we actually trust her at her word? No, not after what she does and the fact we have been 'played like a fiddle' by Diablo the entire time.
Adria has undoubtably been lying through her teeth. We shouldn't trust anything we have heard from her. I went from loving Adria as a character in Diablo to despising her as a character in Diablo III. I can't wait to embed a knife in her skull with my DH.
I don't think that we know what is going on at all. I think that the expansions to Diablo III are going to blow us away. I'm hyped as fuck because I am dying to see how this shit plays out.
Thank you for the insight. You know, this is exactly why I joined DiabloFans in the first place. I've been craving lore discussion such as this for a long time.
Lastly, Pyrrhic, you should read Diablo III: The Order by Nate Kenyon.
I didn't believe that Diablo became Tathamet in the first place. I don't see this as possible within the lore. Following his death, the seven heads of Tathamet spawned the Great Evils. His headless corpse became the Burning Hells. I don't see how Tathamet could become whole again. If Diablo did transform into Tathamet, wouldn't he have been unstoppable? Wouldn't Sanctuary have burned? I don't think that anyone but Anu himself would be capable of stopping Tathamet. Plus, if Diablo did become Tathamet during the events of Diablo III, I'm sure that they wouldn't have left us guessing. Shit would have been explicitly stated during the narrative of Act IV.
Yeah that's one thing that they did kind of strangely, hyping Diablo as the Prime Evil and this super mega badass. On other forums, I've seen people saying things like 'lol how can there be an expansion, we killed the prime evil' 'yeah right, we killed the prime evil and now we gonna fight the sin lieutenants or something?'
They should have done a better job of explaining what exactly the Prime Evil was in context of Diablo's 'prime evil' aka all the evils in his body. (Or Leah's body I guess technically ) Especially since they have Tyrael randomly mentioning Tathamet (which like you said, should have roflstomped whatever went against him, unless we are to believe one Nephalem is that powerful) when asked what the Prime Evil refers to. I guess that may be intentional though, as it seems 'prime evil' seems to refer to a few different things, like in that quote from one of the devs the 7 Evils are all 'prime evils,' the 3 brothers are also the 'prime evils,' then of course the 7 Evils in one body is the 'prime evil' and Tathamet was the original Prime Evil.
I'm not sure if it ended up in the game, but in the beta files Diablo had bunch of curses from the other Evils:
Diablo_CurseOfAnguish_name Curse Of Anguish
Diablo_CurseOfDestruction_name Curse Of Destruction
Diablo_CurseOfHate_name Curse Of Hate
Diablo_CurseOfPain_name Curse Of Pain
Adria has undoubtably been lying through her teeth. We shouldn't trust anything we have heard from her. I went from loving Adria as a character in Diablo to despising her as a character in Diablo III. I can't wait to embed a knife in her skull with my DH.
I don't think that we know what is going on at all. I think that the expansions to Diablo III are going to blow us away. I'm hyped as fuck because I am dying to see how this shit plays out.
Thank you for the insight. You know, this is exactly why I joined DiabloFans in the first place. I've been craving lore discussion such as this for a long time.
Lastly, Pyrrhic, you should read Diablo III: The Order by Nate Kenyon.
I'm definitely looking forward to the expansion, not just for the inevitable new features, but to see where this story is headed. Sucks that it is likely over a year away still, but we'll probably get some info on it sooner than that. (Probably will get the name first via trademarking like with Mists of Pandaria, a 'blue' then saying "Well, usually when we trademark names like Diablo 3: Queen of the Abyss, it's for a Diablo series book or comic." and then the official press release comes out a bit later confirming Queen of the Abyss or whatever is the expansion.)
At least with DiabloFans, you know the people here should be, well, fans of Diablo, and if they are wandering into the Lore & Storyline forum, they should be interested in the lore and story. As I mentioned earlier about the 'other forums,' other night I looked at a 'what will the expansion be' topic, and they were discussing why Westmarch is more than likely going to be a setting (which it seems is probably 98% chance that it is, unless they pull a fast one and just happened to have 2/3 followers have strong ties to it, with their plotlines both ending with them wanting to go there or you going there with them) and saw some jagoff saying something like "lol u guys probably think the stuff ur foloowers say is releveant too." (Which is hilariously stupid, especially when you watch that Behind the Scenes thing about how they went about telling the story while still letting it be a fast-paced game, and how they wanted the followers to be involved characters.)
I'll probably pick up the Diablo books at some point, but currently I am reading WW I era or earlier books since I've always found the Great War intriguing and most of them are free for my Kindle.
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Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam.
I didn't believe that Diablo became Tathamet in the first place. I don't see this as possible within the lore. Following his death, the seven heads of Tathamet spawned the Great Evils. His headless corpse became the Burning Hells. I don't see how Tathamet could become whole again. If Diablo did transform into Tathamet, wouldn't he have been unstoppable? Wouldn't Sanctuary have burned? I don't think that anyone but Anu himself would be capable of stopping Tathamet. Plus, if Diablo did become Tathamet during the events of Diablo III, I'm sure that they wouldn't have left us guessing. Shit would have been explicitly stated during the narrative of Act IV.
Yeah that's one thing that they did kind of strangely, hyping Diablo as the Prime Evil and this super mega badass. On other forums, I've seen people saying things like 'lol how can there be an expansion, we killed the prime evil' 'yeah right, we killed the prime evil and now we gonna fight the sin lieutenants or something?'
They should have done a better job of explaining what exactly the Prime Evil was in context of Diablo's 'prime evil' aka all the evils in his body. (Or Leah's body I guess technically ) Especially since they have Tyrael randomly mentioning Tathamet (which like you said, should have roflstomped whatever went against him, unless we are to believe one Nephalem is that powerful) when asked what the Prime Evil refers to. I guess that may be intentional though, as it seems 'prime evil' seems to refer to a few different things, like in that quote from one of the devs the 7 Evils are all 'prime evils,' the 3 brothers are also the 'prime evils,' then of course the 7 Evils in one body is the 'prime evil' and Tathamet was the original Prime Evil.
I don't think that all seven of the Great Evils are considered Prime Evils. Just Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal. Tathamet was the original Prime Evil, and Diablo became the Prime Evil. You're right, this is confusing! Tyrael mentioning Tathamet doesn't help either. I think that they could have done a better job explaining this within the narrative. Regardless, I am very impressed with the story of Diablo III and the way that it's told. I am sure that the first expansion will elaborate on everything that has happened regarding Adria and the Black Soulstone. Also, I think that both you and I know for certain that Diablo did not become Tathamet.
At least with DiabloFans, you know the people here should be, well, fans of Diablo, and if they are wandering into the Lore & Storyline forum, they should be interested in the lore and story.
I'm glad that I've taken the time to get into a discussion such as this.
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Anyways, I imagine that Adria must be considerably powerful to have been able to mark the souls of the Lords of the Burning Hells. Perhaps Aiden (Diablo) bestowed her with the demonic powers that would be necessary for her to accomplish this task before he left Tristram to travel east.
That's just a theory that I have. It might fall apart under scrutiny.
I hope that a future expansion will explain all of this for us, unless someone here has the answers. If anyone can elaborate on what is going on in regards to Adria and the Black Soulstone I would like to hear it. Even if it's just theory crafting.
Is Adria just a 'cultist' or corrupted mortal, or is she something more than that?
I'm skeptical that they were planning it way back then, but the townsfolk in D1 cast her as a super duper magic user, or something not human.
Doesn't eat, drink, or sleep allegedly, able to get whatever she wants, most of the town is scared of her.. She seemed to know a lot about what was really going on too.
"No Mortal can truly understand the mind of the Demon. Never let their erratic actions confuse you, as that too may be their plan."
"There are many artifacts within the Labyrinth that hold powers beyond the comprehension of mortals. Some of these hold fantastic power that can be used by either the Light or the Darkness. Securing the Anvil from below could shift the course of the Sin War towards the Light."
"This is a place of great anguish and terror, and so serves its master well. Tread carefully or you may yourself be staying much longer than you had anticipated."
"You will become an eternal servant of the Dark Lords should you perish within this cursed domain. Enter the Chamber of Bone at your own peril."
"The Heaven Stone is very powerful, and were it any but Griswold who bid you find it, I would prevent it. He will harness its powers and its use will be for the good of us all."
So since we now know she was apparently an agent of Diablo, we can assume she was there to make sure things went according to plan. What is this plan?
From the D2:LoD instruction manual:
A Wanderer will pass through the ancient lands trailing chaos in his wake.
The Three Brothers will be reunited as the mortal world trembles before their might.
And so it was foretold that the Three, once reunited, would be shattered again—
And the last of them would set his sights on the holy mount. The warnings held that
Their defeat would be illusory—that the final gambit had yet to be played..."
+ + +
And now at last the storm surges forth from the southlands, and the hand of Destruction
Reaches out to undo the workings of the Ancients. The tides of Hell surge—ready to smash
Down upon the shores of the mortal world—to drown the guilty and the innocent alike.
That was from something called Prophecies of the Final Day by the way.
Druid lore excerpt:
In D3 we have the Prophecy for the End of Days, which is a 'warning about Hell's ultimate invasion of our world,' and the pieces of the puzzle mentioned in it seem to be coming true. We were also supposed to learn why the Hells didn't invade 20 years ago in the game.
And at the End of Days, Wisdom shall be lost (Malthael being gone, or the mortal Tyrael's demise in X1?)
as Justice falls upon the world of men. (Obvious events of D3, or that Tyrael became aspect of Wis., leaving Justice to Nephalem)
Valor shall turn to Wrath - (Imperius raging over Hell invading, or Imperius waging war on the impudent Nephalem)
as all Hope is swallowed by Despair. (In-game events, or tied to the above, Imp's betrayal. sends Auriel into despair)
Death, at last, shall spread its wings over all -(All these lines reference angels/aspects, Malthael returns as Death?)
as all Fate lies shattered forever. (In-game event of the Hero 'shattering' the fate that Heaven lost that day, or a future event where Ithereal gets destroyed, probably by Malthael/Imperius)
So we know the culmination of this storyline, which they have claimed will get resolved in D3, is this final battle/ultimate invasion of Sanctuary by Hell. Something that has been prophecized for centuries and something that the Evils themselves seem to know all about.
I think Diablo/Evils knew what would happen in D3 as well, I forget what he says exactly but why would he send Adria away to be used later if he, and the angels, were sure he would succeed in the attack on Heaven, since it was kind of 'written in stone' on the Scroll of Fate?
My answer, he wouldn't, he knew he would be stopped, in fact, he and Belial/Azmodan wanted to be stopped. Ever look at the various forums and see all the complaints about 'beLIEal more like beFAILal amirite?? lol y is azodon tellin me where he attack??? teh gaem say he the gr8est general. y iz diab0 tellin me bout his hell gaets????' They were leading you along to do exactly what they wanted you to do.
Sidebar: The Prime Evil, supposedly Diablo in the game. The following is said by Tyrael while on the quest, Prime Evil.
So, either one Nephalem can be more powerful than what is basically one of the (accidental) creator gods of the entire universe, or Diablo was merely supercharged with the souls of the other Evils, and not really the Prime Evil, which even the CE artbook shows as a hydra thing. (Coincidence, D3 was codenamed Project Hydra?)
Also said by Tyrael:
Obviously that didn't happen because for reasons we will likely only know in the expansion, Diablo's body was just tossed over the side of Heaven, and the Black Soulstone was left intact.
Now, I don't know if it means anything, but it's near the end of the artbook. They're either concept art for the Child Emperor, or possibly for the future plot. Right below what looks to be a Cultist drawing, there are 3 children sitting 'Indian style' with elaborate headdresses. The middle one has a mostly different clothing style than the other two, while the other two are almost identical to each other. They both have 'face paint' or tattoos in red and blue on their face and bare chests, their eyes are shut with the 'paint' filling in their eyelids, and have what looks to be a 'third eye' possibly tattooed on their forehead. They also have some black jewelry on around their neck, upper left arm, and wrists.
"There is much about the future we cannot see, but when it comes it will be the children who wield it." - Adria, Diablo, talking about Wirt
So, we know if the BS isn't destroyed, the evils will get loose. The Nephalem are super powerful. Diablo possibly wants to re-make the Tathamet hydra. Theory: the Evils will possess children that Adria and/or Triune cultists have been raising after the Worldstone was destroyed, giving them massive power. Enough power to reform into Tathamet and smash the Heavens once and for all. (We, of course, thwart this plan by rescuing Princess Leah (has to be a reason they retconned Warrior into Prince Aidan) and find out her family's destiny is to bring back Anu and/or defeat Tathamet, which is why Diablo and the Evils were working to corrupt and destroy the Leoric bloodline)
Update: Some support for Princess Leah/Leoric bloodline's greater purpose?
So as we know, Mephisto was soulstone'd under the Zakarum Temple of the Light and was eventually able to corrupt them. What did those manipulated leaders do? Proclaimed Leoric king of Khanduras. The Archbishop Lazarus (bastard led us into a trap!) was 'intent' on Leoric choosing the 'broken-down monastery' as his seat of power. (Hmm, wonder why..
http://d3db.com/lore/i/leorics-journal-part-1
http://d3db.com/lore/i/the-skeleton-king
However, the Diablo 1 lore almost seems to imply that Lazarus wasn't under demonic control until they had 'settled' and Diablo used his powers to coerce and eventually corrupt him.
He also was apparently "a guardian of Mephisto's soulstone in Kurast" so it's up in the air, but I think he wasn't, as far as D1 is concerned, corrupted until they got to Tristram and Diablo reawakened, while in Diablo 3 he likely was corrupted from the get-go.
The wording is kind of vague, for what we are talking about here, but this piece also sounds like Leoric just came in on his own volition in D1 and was all 'For the glory of the Light! I am your king! I shall save you from the ever encroaching darkness! I claim this ancient Monastery as my seat of power in the name of the Zakarum!'
It could just as easily be interpreted as what we know from the D3 lore, (although it has been retcon'd that he is an eastern lord now) that the corrupted High Priests told him 'Go be king here, in the name of Zakarum' and Lazarus was all 'Hey look, this building looks cool, right? What do you mean it's a dump? Castles are like so last year, you should just pick this place, I mean, we're already here, no?'
Personally, I'm thinking it was some minor retcons to go along with their current plotline, if solely for the fact that they felt the need to give the Warrior a backstory as a son to King Leoric of all things. For all that we saw of it in the game, the Warrior might as well have been just some nameless Warrior or Gheed's brother, as from what I remember, the whole 'Oh my Heavens, Leah is actually the heir to the throne!' plot hasn't come into play....yet.
Possibly going along with the whole 'The Evils were/are playing you like a fiddle' theory, Jay Wilson in some 2011 interviews (although he's talking about Diablo 2's perspective of course):
Thank you!
Then give the guy a well deserved rep point!!!
Do you mean that up-arrow next to the post? If so, done! I have no idea about that system, so let me know if you mean something else
Yes I mean that up-arrow next to the post!
I tried to dissect more of the in-game and out of game clues over here if you haven't seen that topic.
Does make you wonder where the original Diablo 3 MMO version, if it was a continuation of the story and not set in the Sin War or something, was going to go. (CTRL+F 'diablo version') Hmm, wonder if anyone has ever asked him, if he is able to say.
In another interview he did say that as of 2003 when he and the others left, the game wasn't set in Heaven, like the leaked screenshots of what must be the 2003-2005 Blizzard North version show.
what if Adria = Lilith o.O ?
Adria has decieving skills (decieved even Tyreal!) like Lilith.
Adria has seducing skills (seduced Aidan in order to have Leah) like Lilith.
Adria gotta've dimensional traveling skills (gone to the Abyss in order to catch the Evil's souls) like Lilith (scaped the Void once).
She might 've revived Diablo and turn him into the Prime Evil (and maybe tricked him) because she knew you (the next gen Nephalem) could kill him, as Lilith believes the power of Nephalem like anyone does. By doing that she crushed both Heavens - she made the invasion possible in the first place - and Hell - the 7 evils dead. By crushing both and showing humans Nephalem are OP she did execly what she allways wanted to do.
Rofl i kind think thats a decent theory
Why would she want the seven lords of hell, if she knew a single DH would be able to kill him in 2 min?
btw pyrrhic, you either go to work with blizz or stop posting those theories, now I'm certain that the expansions are going to disappoint me
Edit: I thought that the souls of Mephisto, Diablo and Baal were trapped in the abyss, following the events of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. How did Adria mark their souls for capture within the Black Soulstone?
In the Behind the Scenes DVD, they talk about how they were throwing around ideas for what to do with the story, and they decided that since the Dark Exile, Diablo has been conspiring to kill off the other Evils and unite all their souls into one body, his body.
Paraphrased a bit for some quotes (bold is my emphasis):
"Leah represents innocence. Leah represents hope. She is smart, she is resourceful, she has powers of her own. She represents everything that humanity can be."
"What happens to Leah is sort of the ultimate tragedy and is what is going to happen to everybody if you, the player, doesn't stop it."
(The people will die, or they will become hosts for demons/corrupted...?)
"One of the guys had this idea for this kind of cool NPC girl you meet out in the woods with a bow, and there was some suggestion, that she might have been the daughter of the Wanderer from Diablo 2"
"Her mother was the witch Adria, Adria was a character that occurred in Diablo 1. I think we look at her as this woman who was obsessed with the occult, the arcanum. You know, chasing mysteries and magical powers over the course of her life."
"She meets with the Dark Wanderer and falls in love with him, and at this point he has been corrupted by Diablo, and she bears his child, and this child is Leah.."
"It was clear that she was not fit to be a mother, and potentially she had her own dark mission, such that Adria gave up Leah for adoption."
"Ultimately it was Cain that recognized this baby was very special and kept her safe for the past twenty years."
"He potentially knows that evil is lurking within her, but because he carries so much guilt from the past games, trying to help people understand that the sky is falling, and not really taking action, he felt he needed to take her on and raise her the right way. And on the other hand, he knew if this girl so much as looked sideways, he knew it would be his job to take her out."
"Since she was a little girl, Cain's been roaming around this map looking for pieces of this prophecy of the End Days. All that while, he's teaching Leah to be his apprentice. He would have been constantly talking to her about this prophecy, you know, 'At the End of Days, angels and demons will fight on the land of man.' but she has never seen angels or demons so she doesn't believe it, but at the same time she closes her eyes and sees these nightmares and doesn't know if they are real or just her uncle's stories blending together."
(Yep, called it that the End of Days isn't fully manifested
"Leah eventually has to come to terms that everything he had been telling her was real, and she finally realizes that and starts fulfilling this and becomes this new Cain for us. Tyrael, as a mortal now, begins to rely on Leah as that Deckard Cain role. Together, they help pretty much uncover Diablo's maneuverings and what he's been planning under the surface of all of this all along."
"In trying to solve this riddle of how Diablo comes back again, we kind of had the idea that maybe this time he comes back through his mortal offspring."
"All the way back to the Great Exile, this has all been Diablo's plan. At a certain point he discovered the idea of the Prime, the idea that all the Evils can become one, and become exponentially more powerful than they had ever been before, and that essentially the last 300 or so years have been his plan to off all the other Evils."
"For the first time all the essences of these 7 prime evils now, go into Leah and she turns into Diablo and becomes the one prime evil."
(That's a direct quote, confirming that the Diablo in game was not the Prime Evil aka Tathamet, and just all the 'essences' supercharging Diablo?)
"It fits with a lot of the stories that were told in the original Diablo and Diablo 2, where we see really precious characters succumb to this kind of corruption and madness and evil, and so this was an opportunity for us to take a character that a player directly interacted with, and hopefully that the player really likes, and see that exact thing happen to her. It was just too evil for us to resist."
(Must have been fun compiling this story, wish I could have been on that team.
"To see her father Diablo take her over and turn her into a demon lord is the greatest tragedy we could think."
"It's tragic what happens to her. But I think the truth of Leah is she's innately heroic. She's a good person. But this evil was rooted at a genetic level. And the turn that her life takes was inevitable to some great degree. When ultimately her turn comes, it feels terrible. We want you to feel like you've been socked in the gut, like you know, "anyone but her." Her spirits still out there somewhere. There's a good girl there that deserves to be saved and brought back from the Abyss. While we don't have any clue yet what subsequent chapters will be, a couple clues (Metzen winks), I'd bet that we would chase that down because it feels right from a story level, and it feels right from a character level."
(Covetous Shen: Do you think that Leah is lost forever?
Player: Diablo consumed her. She is gone.
Covetous Shen: Do you not think Leah's soul is stronger than that? But, oh, but then sometimes I-I forget that you have not seen everything that I have seen.)
So this is Diablo's plan he has been going after for centuries. The whole 'Adria marked the souls' thing? Well, for one, do we actually trust her at her word? No, not after what she does and the fact we have been 'played like a fiddle' by Diablo the entire time.
For all we know, Izual could have been the one that rigged up the Black Soulstone. Or Zoltun Kulle, who the other characters pretty much drilled into our skulls was untrustworthy, set it up himself to suck in the big boss Angels and Demons and feigned surprise to try and get us to let him use it on his own. Or the Evils/Diablo themselves at some point, since as far as I know, the events of Diablo 2 were the first time they had ever been 'smashed' and Tyrael was likely the one that thought smashing their stones would send them to the Abyss. (The same soulstones we know were flawed and used as tools by the Evils, thanks to Izual)
Tyrael's my man, but like he says in the game:
I'd have to look for a precise timeline/in-game dialogue, but:
So potentially, the Black Soulstone may have been around for hundreds of years, around the same amount of time, as stated in the BtS quote above, that Diablo has been planning his big 'middle-finger' to his brothers and sister. Again, would have to look up references, but now is possibly the first time in centuries the Evils were ever vanquished, since the Primes were running amok on Sanctuary and the Lessers were chilling in Hell due to the Eternal Conflict going to a standstill as all eyes focused on Man.
So, it is possible that the souls were 'marked' centuries ago, and Adria was just making sure all the pieces came together, like getting Deckard Cain out the picture, guiding the Nephalem hero to find ZK's bits, making sure Belial and Azmodan got the kibosh put on them, etc.
Holy shit...
I didn't believe that Diablo became Tathamet in the first place. I don't see this as possible within the lore. Following his death, the seven heads of Tathamet spawned the Great Evils. His headless corpse became the Burning Hells. I don't see how Tathamet could become whole again. If Diablo did transform into Tathamet, wouldn't he have been unstoppable? Wouldn't Sanctuary have burned? I don't think that anyone but Anu himself would be capable of stopping Tathamet. Plus, if Diablo did become Tathamet during the events of Diablo III, I'm sure that they wouldn't have left us guessing. Shit would have been explicitly stated during the narrative of Act IV.
Adria has undoubtably been lying through her teeth. We shouldn't trust anything we have heard from her. I went from loving Adria as a character in Diablo to despising her as a character in Diablo III. I can't wait to embed a knife in her skull with my DH.
I don't think that we know what is going on at all. I think that the expansions to Diablo III are going to blow us away. I'm hyped as fuck because I am dying to see how this shit plays out.
Thank you for the insight. You know, this is exactly why I joined DiabloFans in the first place. I've been craving lore discussion such as this for a long time.
Lastly, Pyrrhic, you should read Diablo III: The Order by Nate Kenyon.
As bad a rap Blizzard got for their writing in SC2 and D3, (and, i would say, as bad as they have always been), they do know how to write ambiguously.
Yeah that's one thing that they did kind of strangely, hyping Diablo as the Prime Evil and this super mega badass. On other forums, I've seen people saying things like 'lol how can there be an expansion, we killed the prime evil' 'yeah right, we killed the prime evil and now we gonna fight the sin lieutenants or something?'
They should have done a better job of explaining what exactly the Prime Evil was in context of Diablo's 'prime evil' aka all the evils in his body. (Or Leah's body I guess technically
I'm not sure if it ended up in the game, but in the beta files Diablo had bunch of curses from the other Evils:
I'm definitely looking forward to the expansion, not just for the inevitable new features, but to see where this story is headed. Sucks that it is likely over a year away still, but we'll probably get some info on it sooner than that. (Probably will get the name first via trademarking like with Mists of Pandaria, a 'blue' then saying "Well, usually when we trademark names like Diablo 3: Queen of the Abyss, it's for a Diablo series book or comic." and then the official press release comes out a bit later confirming Queen of the Abyss or whatever is the expansion.)
At least with DiabloFans, you know the people here should be, well, fans of Diablo, and if they are wandering into the Lore & Storyline forum, they should be interested in the lore and story. As I mentioned earlier about the 'other forums,' other night I looked at a 'what will the expansion be' topic, and they were discussing why Westmarch is more than likely going to be a setting (which it seems is probably 98% chance that it is, unless they pull a fast one and just happened to have 2/3 followers have strong ties to it, with their plotlines both ending with them wanting to go there or you going there with them) and saw some jagoff saying something like "lol u guys probably think the stuff ur foloowers say is releveant too." (Which is hilariously stupid, especially when you watch that Behind the Scenes thing about how they went about telling the story while still letting it be a fast-paced game, and how they wanted the followers to be involved characters.)
I'll probably pick up the Diablo books at some point, but currently I am reading WW I era or earlier books since I've always found the Great War intriguing and most of them are free for my Kindle.
I don't think that all seven of the Great Evils are considered Prime Evils. Just Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal. Tathamet was the original Prime Evil, and Diablo became the Prime Evil. You're right, this is confusing! Tyrael mentioning Tathamet doesn't help either. I think that they could have done a better job explaining this within the narrative. Regardless, I am very impressed with the story of Diablo III and the way that it's told. I am sure that the first expansion will elaborate on everything that has happened regarding Adria and the Black Soulstone. Also, I think that both you and I know for certain that Diablo did not become Tathamet.
I'm glad that I've taken the time to get into a discussion such as this.