Phew! That's a lot of stuff to cover Iva!
Oh well, here I go!
Quote from "Ivaron" »
The Prime Evils were on Sanctuary in their bodies, but they were defeated by the Horadrim and their souls were trapped into Soulstones so that they could not return to Hell. Why did they do this? Maybe they couldn't destroy the Prime Evils entirely, and so settled for emprisoning them?
Close... But not quite. The Prime Evils were never on the mortal realm with their bodies. If I recall, "The Sin War" even states "The lesser evils overthrew the three Prime Evils, and banished their spirit forms to the mortal realm" It does not say anything about their physical forms going to Sanctuary. So, in other words, the Horadrim imprisoned their souls in the soulstones, with nothing else to work with. My guess is, they imprisoned them so they wouldnt ever cause anymore trouble... Perhaps they knew simply killing them wouldnt be permanent, and they'd have to deal with them coming back at some point, and thought the Soulstones would be permanent?
Quote from "Ivaron" »
Regardless, the Prime Evils' bodies were probably sent back to Hell while their souls remained on Sanctuary. After their defeat, I would assume their souls could immediately return to their bodies rather than spending time in the Abyss, as their bodies were still alive. Which would mean Mephisto and Diablo are now in Hell, and Baal is not unaccounted for.
Right, but, again, nothing has told us their physical forms have ever left hell. We've only had the books in Diablo to tell us their spirit forms -only- have left hell.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
This brings up the question, but didn't we defeat Diablo in Hell already? Why didn't he return to his body immediately and kick our arse? Well I think that was only a part of hell, like a bigger variant of the small Hell levels you can find portals to in Act 5. This part of Hell was the part that housed the Hellforge. Think about it. There was basically nothing else of importance there. Izual was there, but that only makes sense because that is where he was captured and corrupted.
Why would Diablo choose to return to that particular part of Hell? Maybe he wanted to talk to Izual, to make him give the player false information or to discuss their plan..
Thats entirely possible. I agree with this statement. We were in the sector of hell that housed Diablo's new lair. Unlike in Act 5, where you can find "Abaddon" and other parts of Hell that are very out of place and unusual.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
Baal's soulstone could have been destroyed when the Worldstone got destroyed. Remember that in the cinematic the whole crystal explodes, and the parts that break off are blown into smaller and smaller parts until they are finally completely destroyed. Wouldn't the shockwave that did that also destroy Baal's soulstone?
That... Or, create millions of tiny shards of Worldstone/Soulstone.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
For those who think that the Prime Evils just wanted to be killed and have their soulstones destroyed so they could return to Hell - Ask yourself why, then, does Izual speak of some great plan that the Prime Evils had plotted in which they were banished to Sanctuary?
Because the Prime Evils would never want any mortals knowing they were overthrown unwillingly. I don't trust anything Izual says. I think the whole character Izual is a lying character to begin with. Perhpas I'm looking to far into it, but, "Oh, we didnt get thrown out... We had it PLANNED..." sounds like a cover up for getting their asses kicked.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
However, if they did something on Sanctuary that no one noticed... This could be lots of things... And then wanted to return to Hell to prepare their armies for the assault which is now somehow apparently possible whereas it wasn't before, then that could make sense.
They got the Worldstone destroyed, so it's easier to find Sanctuary now... On top of that, Baal wasnt the first person to mess with the Worldstone. 10,000 years prior, Lilith, Mephisto's bitch daughter, warped a tiny piece of its internals in order to reactivate the Nephalem (Edyrem) powers in humans so she could use it to her advantage. So, I don't know how powerful the Worldstone is, or what its overall powers really are. My guess is that it controlled just about everything in Sanctuary, including its protection.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
Remember, however, that whatever they did it has to have something to do with the soulstones. Why? Because they roamed around Sanctuary for a long time before they got captured, and they could have done whatever they wanted to do then. But apparently they wanted to be captured with the soulstones, before their plan could be carried out. Izual's speech confirms this:
"Tyrael was a fool to have trusted me! You see, it was I who told the Prime Evils about the soulstones and how to corrupt them. It was I who helped the Prime Evils mastermind their exile into your world."
A last question then comes to mind... How did Izual know about the soulstones before the Prime Evils were exiled? Didn't Tyrael think up the soulstone plan as a response to the Prime Evils causing chaos on Sanctuary? Or did he already have something with soulstones to trap evildoers in mind beforehand and told Izual about this plan? There's something weird there.
More of a reason I believe Izual to be a gut sucking liar and nothing other than that. I honestly believe everything he says is to throw the mortals off of Diablo, in any way. Because if he was really as "big and bad and evil" as he claims and talks, he would've never told the mortals anything helpful.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
Well anyway. Perhaps the big plan of the Prime Evils was very simply to achieve immortality.
Not sure I've ever read anything that doesn't say Demons, especially Arch-Demons or Demon Lords, aren't already immortal. They don't have to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, and cannot die by mortal means... Right? I've read that in about 2,000 game manuals dealing with demons, so, I dont think thats it.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
All you are fighting is Diablo's spirit in the Warrior's body.
Right, its even said somewhere that the demonic form while in the Warrior's body looks nothing like Diablo's -true- form with no soulstone restriction.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
So you defeat his spirit, but you do not defeat his body.
Nope, his body is most likely in hell locked up by Azmodan and Belial.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
His spirit returns to the soulstone. Then it gets freed when you smash the soulstone.
If he was in true hell, technically, smashing the soulstone would effectively have -killed- Diablo forever. Or, in this case, banished him to the abyss.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
His spirit is then probably returned to his body... However, it is unclear where his body is at the moment. It is either on Sanctuary, hidden somewhere by the Horadrim, or the body died when the spirit was captured and Diablo's body has since respawned through the abyss into hell. In that case, his spirit which is now free will likely join with his new body, reviving Diablo in his true form. Which is bad news for Belial and Azmodan...
Like I said, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal's bodies were never said to have left Hell. So, yeah, -BAD- news for Azmodan and Belial.
By the way, Diablo's design, assuming it IS Diablo, for Diablo 3 has changed monumentally. He looks completely different in the pictures and whatnot for the Diablo logo's... Perhaps you are correct. Perhaps this IS what Diablo's true demonic form looks like, as its lost all scope of its "human like" form from Diablo 2 or Diablo 1.
Diablo 3 - http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/diablo-3-logo.jpg
Diablo 2- http://d2.xhost.ro/images/Diablo-2.jpg
Up to you, I think his face looks radically different in the Diablo 3 logo, though.
Quote from "Ivaron" »
So, to summarise: Diablo's spirit was in another part of Hell than Diablo's body. The spirit was inside the soulstone, which was in turn inside the Warrior's head. Now that the soulstone has been smashed, the spirit has likely returned to its body.
It has nothing to do with him being in his home place or not.
Technically, it does. Because I know I've read that if the Demon is killed on its home pl...
Hmm, wait, that trumps that statement... Technically, you never KILLED Diablo, you only smashed the prison he was in... I'm guessing you have to effectively KILL the -real- Diablo, in his -real- physical form, for him to be banished to the Abyss. I don't think simpyl killing his Warrior form and breaking his Soulstone would banish him to the Abyss... I think you're right, it would simpyly send his spirit back to his -real- body. Hmm... Interesting...
So, perhaps, Diablo 3 is, in a nutshell:
"Hey, we killed his host, we busted his prison, now lets go to the source and stop it for good."
Now! To give my take on the questions we need to be asking.
* Why did Mephisto stay in Kurast? To buy time for his brothers to do whatever they were supposed to do?
Mephisto already had his empire going on there. What every Prime Evil wants, I assume, is domination, and he held the entire travincal as well as most if not all of Kurast. I doubt he'd leave. Baal's original plan was to hold Lut Gholein, I believe, but that didnt pan out for him.
* Why did Diablo go to the area in Hell where the Hellforge is? To visit Izual?
This isn't able to be answered. At least, I cannot recall any type of information that would point anything out. It's possible the whole Pandemonium Fortress was demons, and, once again, the heroes were being led to kill Diablo so he could reclaim his original form. However, I dont think the "Hero characters" in Diablo 2 were stupid enough to not realize something isnt right about the pandemonium fortress... however, it does seem odd that Heaven's NEVER interacted in Mortal affairs before, but, for some reason, allows them full and total sanctuary and help to kill Diablo in Hell. Its just a little odd of Angels from what I've read, as Tyrael was like the only angel I've heard of that meddles with Humans.
* Why did Baal corrupt the Worldstone? To hide it from Heaven?
Ultimate power!!!! Effectively, as I said earlier, Mephisto's daughter corrupted it 10,000 years ago to gain power already. I don't see why Baal wouldn't try to take over the very crystal that controls all of Sanctuary himself.
* Why did the Prime Evils wait until they were imprisoned in Soulstones before they executed their plans?
I'm not really sure any plans were executed, other than corrupting local villagers to help get them out of their prisons to begin with... It's all really fuzzy, to me. Odd plan of theres... To get imprisoned, then corrupt people to help get them out, then go on a rampage, then get killed... It seems sloppy and completely ludicrous.
* How could Izual tell the Prime Evils about the soulstones even before their banishment, when logically the soulstones weren't needed yet and so Tyrael wouldn't have thought them up yet? He must have even known about the soulstones before he was corrupted.
Its possible Izual just gave the idea to Tyrael. Who knows. Again, I dont trust Izual at all.
* If the Prime Evils are now simply back in Hell, what did they actually accomplish?
They probably accomplished, well, being back in hell! Taking it back over, and putting Azmodan and Belial where they belong. I still don't believe they were purposefully kicked out. Seems more like, if it was a plan to be kicked out, they wanted to do a few scouting missions on Sanctuary and chillax until they knew it was time to be "defeated" and go back to Hell.
* What's the big plan the prime evils and Izual cooked up?
Only foundationless speculation can be made at this, as there aren't any facts backed up directly by the Diablo lore.
Anyways, I think I hit all of that. Really good ideas, concepts, and thoughts Ivaron. Lets try to make the next posts shorter though, as I'm sure this one is going to take up half a page!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have then given views to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities"
No I mean, the Worldstone is still standing during Diablo II, however there are tons of monsters running around everywhere, so apparently entering Sanctuary isn't that hard. Even Lesser Evils are called into the world just to stand on guard duty.
So where does the majro fear of an invasion come from?
Diablo summoned most of these demons, like you said. You answered your own statement, in a way.
Not only that, but, apparently the prime evils can draw other demons to them...
"Many demons followed the Prime Evils to the mortal realm... These demons were hunted by angels throughout the vast cities of the east. The Angels allied themselves with a mortal order of magi deemed the horadrim, who quickly became adept at hunting demons" blah blah.
So, I think its safe to say all the monsters running around are because of the Prime Evils on Sanctuary. They didnt just find it by themselves, nor are they freely aligned. They are controlled by the prime and lessers.
Also, what I meant earlier about killing Diablo... If the Hell in Diablo 2 is the true hell, and you're right, they just didnt want to create more of it for fear of redundancy, then Diablo is effectively banished to the abyss. If you kill a prime evil in its home plane, its banished (dead) forever... Supposedly. Then there are always the rumors that Diablo was not always the ruler of the abyss, and something came before the Prime Evils themselves.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have then given views to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities"
That's kind of lame, though, don't you think? I mean... I'd rather them go further while keeping things the same. Expanding can still be done without changing things.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have then given views to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities"
If the lore's changed, it's definitley not good. I hate it when things are retconned. I don't think the Diablo 3 team should change anything the Diablo 1 and 2 team set in motion, in my opinion.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have then given views to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities"
This however is entirely speculation on your part.
Mephisto was weaker because your character was lower level. It's a game balance issue, it has nothing to do with lore.
Lore dictates game balance, especially with Blizzard North. If Mephisto was not inherently weaker than Diablo, he would not have been able to be killed earlier in the game. He also wouldnt have been content for lower level characters, but he was. I'm not going to say this as fact, however, I do know Baal was so powerful, they decided to use him in an expansion of his own... Aka, at level 20 or so, you got to kill Duriel... But Baal wasn't there... Its a question of why they chose Baal for the expansion. Almost simply put, because you couldnt of killed Baal at level 20 so they removed him entirely and gave you Duriel.
Quote from "PhrozenDragon" »
Which is also speculation, because what would be the point of killing Diablo in Hell and then smash his soulstone, just to get him back.
The general consent is that Diablo and Mephisto have both been banished to the Abyss, and smashing the soulstones was necessary to stop them from coming bakc by possessing another being.
Because it removes Diablo and Mephisto from Sanctuary, in effect, they have to find it all over again. You were only fighting their Spirit forms, after all. Their physical forms were still in Hell waiting for their spirits to return, at least, I don't know where else their physical forms would be.
Also, the "hell" in Diablo 2 may not be the actual, real hell, as Azmodan and Belial were nowhere to be found, nor any of their followers.
Also, smashing the soulstones was needed so they would be banished back to Hell again, and no longer be present on Sanctuary. This is simple, because, the prime evils were on Sanctuary without Soulstones to begin with. In other words, they only needed to possess a human being because they were imprisoned. Without the soulstones, they have free reign and are in their "true demonic" forms. They don't need a host without being imprisoned in the soulstone.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have then given views to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities"
A common misconception is that the Worldstone stopped Angels and Demons from freely entering Sanctuary... This is not so.
The Worldstone only stopped Sanctuary from being instantly discovered by the High Heavens and the Burning Hells... In other words, it hid Sanctuary.
Trag'Oul is the one mainly responsible for helping to keep Sanctuary hidden. He's basically a giant dragon of pure stars who is unknown in existance even by the greatest demons and angels. He's basically the god of secrecy for Sanctuary. He keeps it hidden from heaven and hell...
However, in the Third Sin War book, he failed, and -even with the worldstone in place- massive armies of Angels and Demons swarmed the planet when they found Sanctuary. It was just much harder for them to find it.
Now, all this conjecture about angels and demons FLOODING Sanctuary the moment the Worldstone is destroyed...
Mephisto himself made a pact with the Angiris council 10,000 years ago that they would leave Sanctuary as a Neutral Zone, lest the angels would destroy Sanctuary instantly. All the angels agreed and so did Mephisto that they'd let the humans decide for themselves to join Heaven or Hell, because they both agreed humans could be valuable. So, I don't know whats happened in Diablo 3.
As for the soulstones...
In order for a prime evil to take over a host on the mortal realm WHEN THEY ARE IMRPISONED, aka, the Prime Evils were on Sanctuary a long time before they were actually imprisoned into the Soulstones, the largest shard must be plunged into the head or body somewhere I'm assuming.
If there is a large shard, and many smaller shards, the smaller shards will only bring forth lesser to moderate demons, whereas the largest shard will bring forth the prime evil, albeit much weaker if his stone was not complete and split into shards. We can see this clearly from Diablo 2, as Mephisto is cake whereas Diablo takes a lot more effort to down, even though Mephisto is the oldest of the brothers.
As for shattering the soulstones... All the demons in soulstones return to their original plane of existance, in this sense, true Hell. In hell, Azmodan and Belial are having a lot of fun after the Dark Exile of the three brothers, but, now, for the most part, Diablo and Mephisto -should- be back, and completely fucking up Azmodan and Belial now. I don't know what hapened with Baal, as we never saw his soulstone smashed.
EDIT: There is also a large consensus that states the Prime Evils wanted to be killed and have their soulstones destroyed, simply because that would send them back to true hell, where they wanted to be ever since The Dark Exile.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have then given views to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities"
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Oh well, here I go!
Close... But not quite. The Prime Evils were never on the mortal realm with their bodies. If I recall, "The Sin War" even states "The lesser evils overthrew the three Prime Evils, and banished their spirit forms to the mortal realm" It does not say anything about their physical forms going to Sanctuary. So, in other words, the Horadrim imprisoned their souls in the soulstones, with nothing else to work with. My guess is, they imprisoned them so they wouldnt ever cause anymore trouble... Perhaps they knew simply killing them wouldnt be permanent, and they'd have to deal with them coming back at some point, and thought the Soulstones would be permanent?
Right, but, again, nothing has told us their physical forms have ever left hell. We've only had the books in Diablo to tell us their spirit forms -only- have left hell.
Thats entirely possible. I agree with this statement. We were in the sector of hell that housed Diablo's new lair. Unlike in Act 5, where you can find "Abaddon" and other parts of Hell that are very out of place and unusual.
That... Or, create millions of tiny shards of Worldstone/Soulstone.
Because the Prime Evils would never want any mortals knowing they were overthrown unwillingly. I don't trust anything Izual says. I think the whole character Izual is a lying character to begin with. Perhpas I'm looking to far into it, but, "Oh, we didnt get thrown out... We had it PLANNED..." sounds like a cover up for getting their asses kicked.
They got the Worldstone destroyed, so it's easier to find Sanctuary now... On top of that, Baal wasnt the first person to mess with the Worldstone. 10,000 years prior, Lilith, Mephisto's bitch daughter, warped a tiny piece of its internals in order to reactivate the Nephalem (Edyrem) powers in humans so she could use it to her advantage. So, I don't know how powerful the Worldstone is, or what its overall powers really are. My guess is that it controlled just about everything in Sanctuary, including its protection.
More of a reason I believe Izual to be a gut sucking liar and nothing other than that. I honestly believe everything he says is to throw the mortals off of Diablo, in any way. Because if he was really as "big and bad and evil" as he claims and talks, he would've never told the mortals anything helpful.
Not sure I've ever read anything that doesn't say Demons, especially Arch-Demons or Demon Lords, aren't already immortal. They don't have to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, and cannot die by mortal means... Right? I've read that in about 2,000 game manuals dealing with demons, so, I dont think thats it.
Right, its even said somewhere that the demonic form while in the Warrior's body looks nothing like Diablo's -true- form with no soulstone restriction.
Nope, his body is most likely in hell locked up by Azmodan and Belial.
If he was in true hell, technically, smashing the soulstone would effectively have -killed- Diablo forever. Or, in this case, banished him to the abyss.
Like I said, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal's bodies were never said to have left Hell. So, yeah, -BAD- news for Azmodan and Belial.
By the way, Diablo's design, assuming it IS Diablo, for Diablo 3 has changed monumentally. He looks completely different in the pictures and whatnot for the Diablo logo's... Perhaps you are correct. Perhaps this IS what Diablo's true demonic form looks like, as its lost all scope of its "human like" form from Diablo 2 or Diablo 1.
Diablo 3 - http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/diablo-3-logo.jpg
Diablo 2- http://d2.xhost.ro/images/Diablo-2.jpg
Up to you, I think his face looks radically different in the Diablo 3 logo, though.
Technically, it does. Because I know I've read that if the Demon is killed on its home pl...
Hmm, wait, that trumps that statement... Technically, you never KILLED Diablo, you only smashed the prison he was in... I'm guessing you have to effectively KILL the -real- Diablo, in his -real- physical form, for him to be banished to the Abyss. I don't think simpyl killing his Warrior form and breaking his Soulstone would banish him to the Abyss... I think you're right, it would simpyly send his spirit back to his -real- body. Hmm... Interesting...
So, perhaps, Diablo 3 is, in a nutshell:
"Hey, we killed his host, we busted his prison, now lets go to the source and stop it for good."
Now! To give my take on the questions we need to be asking.
* Why did Mephisto stay in Kurast? To buy time for his brothers to do whatever they were supposed to do?
Mephisto already had his empire going on there. What every Prime Evil wants, I assume, is domination, and he held the entire travincal as well as most if not all of Kurast. I doubt he'd leave. Baal's original plan was to hold Lut Gholein, I believe, but that didnt pan out for him.
* Why did Diablo go to the area in Hell where the Hellforge is? To visit Izual?
This isn't able to be answered. At least, I cannot recall any type of information that would point anything out. It's possible the whole Pandemonium Fortress was demons, and, once again, the heroes were being led to kill Diablo so he could reclaim his original form. However, I dont think the "Hero characters" in Diablo 2 were stupid enough to not realize something isnt right about the pandemonium fortress... however, it does seem odd that Heaven's NEVER interacted in Mortal affairs before, but, for some reason, allows them full and total sanctuary and help to kill Diablo in Hell. Its just a little odd of Angels from what I've read, as Tyrael was like the only angel I've heard of that meddles with Humans.
* Why did Baal corrupt the Worldstone? To hide it from Heaven?
Ultimate power!!!! Effectively, as I said earlier, Mephisto's daughter corrupted it 10,000 years ago to gain power already. I don't see why Baal wouldn't try to take over the very crystal that controls all of Sanctuary himself.
* Why did the Prime Evils wait until they were imprisoned in Soulstones before they executed their plans?
I'm not really sure any plans were executed, other than corrupting local villagers to help get them out of their prisons to begin with... It's all really fuzzy, to me. Odd plan of theres... To get imprisoned, then corrupt people to help get them out, then go on a rampage, then get killed... It seems sloppy and completely ludicrous.
* How could Izual tell the Prime Evils about the soulstones even before their banishment, when logically the soulstones weren't needed yet and so Tyrael wouldn't have thought them up yet? He must have even known about the soulstones before he was corrupted.
Its possible Izual just gave the idea to Tyrael. Who knows. Again, I dont trust Izual at all.
* If the Prime Evils are now simply back in Hell, what did they actually accomplish?
They probably accomplished, well, being back in hell! Taking it back over, and putting Azmodan and Belial where they belong. I still don't believe they were purposefully kicked out. Seems more like, if it was a plan to be kicked out, they wanted to do a few scouting missions on Sanctuary and chillax until they knew it was time to be "defeated" and go back to Hell.
* What's the big plan the prime evils and Izual cooked up?
Only foundationless speculation can be made at this, as there aren't any facts backed up directly by the Diablo lore.
Anyways, I think I hit all of that. Really good ideas, concepts, and thoughts Ivaron. Lets try to make the next posts shorter though, as I'm sure this one is going to take up half a page!
Diablo summoned most of these demons, like you said. You answered your own statement, in a way.
Not only that, but, apparently the prime evils can draw other demons to them...
"Many demons followed the Prime Evils to the mortal realm... These demons were hunted by angels throughout the vast cities of the east. The Angels allied themselves with a mortal order of magi deemed the horadrim, who quickly became adept at hunting demons" blah blah.
So, I think its safe to say all the monsters running around are because of the Prime Evils on Sanctuary. They didnt just find it by themselves, nor are they freely aligned. They are controlled by the prime and lessers.
Also, what I meant earlier about killing Diablo... If the Hell in Diablo 2 is the true hell, and you're right, they just didnt want to create more of it for fear of redundancy, then Diablo is effectively banished to the abyss. If you kill a prime evil in its home plane, its banished (dead) forever... Supposedly. Then there are always the rumors that Diablo was not always the ruler of the abyss, and something came before the Prime Evils themselves.
Lore dictates game balance, especially with Blizzard North. If Mephisto was not inherently weaker than Diablo, he would not have been able to be killed earlier in the game. He also wouldnt have been content for lower level characters, but he was. I'm not going to say this as fact, however, I do know Baal was so powerful, they decided to use him in an expansion of his own... Aka, at level 20 or so, you got to kill Duriel... But Baal wasn't there... Its a question of why they chose Baal for the expansion. Almost simply put, because you couldnt of killed Baal at level 20 so they removed him entirely and gave you Duriel.
Because it removes Diablo and Mephisto from Sanctuary, in effect, they have to find it all over again. You were only fighting their Spirit forms, after all. Their physical forms were still in Hell waiting for their spirits to return, at least, I don't know where else their physical forms would be.
Also, the "hell" in Diablo 2 may not be the actual, real hell, as Azmodan and Belial were nowhere to be found, nor any of their followers.
Also, smashing the soulstones was needed so they would be banished back to Hell again, and no longer be present on Sanctuary. This is simple, because, the prime evils were on Sanctuary without Soulstones to begin with. In other words, they only needed to possess a human being because they were imprisoned. Without the soulstones, they have free reign and are in their "true demonic" forms. They don't need a host without being imprisoned in the soulstone.
The Worldstone only stopped Sanctuary from being instantly discovered by the High Heavens and the Burning Hells... In other words, it hid Sanctuary.
Trag'Oul is the one mainly responsible for helping to keep Sanctuary hidden. He's basically a giant dragon of pure stars who is unknown in existance even by the greatest demons and angels. He's basically the god of secrecy for Sanctuary. He keeps it hidden from heaven and hell...
However, in the Third Sin War book, he failed, and -even with the worldstone in place- massive armies of Angels and Demons swarmed the planet when they found Sanctuary. It was just much harder for them to find it.
Now, all this conjecture about angels and demons FLOODING Sanctuary the moment the Worldstone is destroyed...
Mephisto himself made a pact with the Angiris council 10,000 years ago that they would leave Sanctuary as a Neutral Zone, lest the angels would destroy Sanctuary instantly. All the angels agreed and so did Mephisto that they'd let the humans decide for themselves to join Heaven or Hell, because they both agreed humans could be valuable. So, I don't know whats happened in Diablo 3.
As for the soulstones...
In order for a prime evil to take over a host on the mortal realm WHEN THEY ARE IMRPISONED, aka, the Prime Evils were on Sanctuary a long time before they were actually imprisoned into the Soulstones, the largest shard must be plunged into the head or body somewhere I'm assuming.
If there is a large shard, and many smaller shards, the smaller shards will only bring forth lesser to moderate demons, whereas the largest shard will bring forth the prime evil, albeit much weaker if his stone was not complete and split into shards. We can see this clearly from Diablo 2, as Mephisto is cake whereas Diablo takes a lot more effort to down, even though Mephisto is the oldest of the brothers.
As for shattering the soulstones... All the demons in soulstones return to their original plane of existance, in this sense, true Hell. In hell, Azmodan and Belial are having a lot of fun after the Dark Exile of the three brothers, but, now, for the most part, Diablo and Mephisto -should- be back, and completely fucking up Azmodan and Belial now. I don't know what hapened with Baal, as we never saw his soulstone smashed.
EDIT: There is also a large consensus that states the Prime Evils wanted to be killed and have their soulstones destroyed, simply because that would send them back to true hell, where they wanted to be ever since The Dark Exile.