DiabloFans

Quote from zenithi

Unfortunately, sometimes I would go a bit too far, and suddenly I couldn't kill anything. Upon returning to levels of the dungeon where I could still win battles, I would be disappointed to find that the monsters didn't give me much experience anymore. It's so bizarre. Simply by visiting a deeper dungeon, the easier dungeon levels would grant less experience.

I don't know what you're talking about. Monsters in D1 do not have any such additional experience mechanism, they each provide a set amount of experience each time they're killed. That's it. A //www.diablowiki.com/Zombie_%28Diablo_I%29">Zombie" class="wiki-link">//www.diablowiki.com/Zombie_(Diablo_I)">Zombie"/> Zombie will always give you 54 experience regardless of what your own level is. Of course each time you level up you require more experience for each consecutive level, but each kill still grants the same exp.

Many of my answers will draw on information from the books that are canon, so there's no way you could have figured this out from just playing the game.

Quote from Zaxlor

1. When the old guy is re-calling what happened to him when he see's Baal, why does he even talk about this? He thinks the person he's talking to is Tyriel, yet constantly keeps telling him that he was there.

Exactly. He thinks it's Tyrael, so he tells him what he experienced, since except for a brief few moments in Tal Rasha's tomb Tyrael had no idea what Marius was doing.

Quote from Zaxlor

2. What do the corrupted soul stones do? Was it just a ploy to allow the Prime Evils to get to Earth, then open a gate to hell on the Earth side?

The soulstones were made by Tyrael from the Worldstone in order to trap the three Prime Evils. But the soulstones were, as Izual told you in Act IV, inherently flawed and made it possible for the Three to influence the world around them. Baal's soulstone was furthermore used as the tool by which he corrupted the Worldstone.

Quote from Zaxlor

3. Why does Heaven allow the Prime Evils to exist? If they knew about sending Diablo and Mephisto into some banished realm, why didn't they do it earlier?

The High Heavens are on an equal footing with the Burning Hells, they're not a superior force. And they've been trying for the better part of the Eternal Conflict. But since about 3,000 years ago there's a truce between Heaven and Hell, and Heaven is furthermore not even aware that the Prime Evils are on Sanctuary. So, fearful that the truce will be broken if Heaven finds out, Tyrael attempts to solve it in secret by having humans, the Horadrim, deal with the Three.

Quote from Zaxlor

4. If Diablo is banished, how is he going to return in Diablo 3? Does this link into the soul stone question?

Not really. He's been sent to the Black Abyss. We don't quote know what it is, but it's assumed to be a placed where demons go after dying, and from whence they can presumably be brought back. That's the theory at least.

Quote from Sythrasz

I've always wondered why Baal was portrayed as a cunning, subtle and devius prime evil in the cinematics (being freed by marius while appearing before him as a pleading Tal'Rasha & taking on the guise of Tyrael during the talk with Marius), while being described as a force of destruction in the lore. Is there a way to make the deception fit his overall character?

It is true that many view Baal as the dumbest of the Three, especially in the Sin War novels, but it appears that this is a somewhat incorrect image of him. He might still be the "dumbest" of the Three, which is perhaps where this image comes from, but that should still make him pretty smart. Remember, the "lore" in the games and the books is almost always told by some person who have had no actual contact with Baal.

Quote from Sythrasz

Actually, what was the point of visiting Marius in the first place?

Baal needed the soulstone in order to corrupt the Worldstone.

Quote from Wingless

Is there a list with details on what from these books aren't canon?

No. Everything in them should be assumed to be non-canonical until incorporated into canon material, such as future games or books.

I mean, some things certainly are in the canon even though they only appear in non-canonical material. Ureh for instance. But we have no idea of knowing what parts of The Kingdom of Shadow are true and which aren't. Perhaps most is true, perhaps nothing but the name and location is still canon.

Quote from italofoca

Lilith is the mother of Andariel according to some people. Is that right ?
I don't think it is since Andariel is one of the seven Evils, so she spawned from one of the Tathamet's head, not from Lilith. Right ?

It's not right. The story that Lilith was Andariel's mother comes from the Arreat Summit, but has been retconned with the Book of Cain where Andariel is stated to have spawned from one of Tathamet's seven heads.

Quote from Sojourna

Failed miserably on the quiz; 5/16. I went purely off of memory. (Plus, I've never read the books. I tend to avoid stuff written by Knaak.)

If you haven't read them, then 5/16 is pretty much where I'd expect you to land. Or maybe slightly higher

Quote from Gaurav Bhattacharjee

Could answer only 7.

Easy: 5/5
Medium: 2/5

Not necessarily bad. Have you read them?

No specific reason, it's just that no one has yet added anything about them. Speaking for myself, I do not have the comics nor have I read them, but anyone else is of course free to add information about them if they wish to do so.

And the reference has also been updated, which now covers all three books.

Quote from FreddyBenson

does the poliers Q&A about the books apply to D3?

Nope, there are no spoilers regarding D3 in the questions, so you can read them safely. They only spoil the plot of the Sin War books

And there we go, the final part of the reference has been added.

Second year economics student.

Quote from TobiasKr

I'm currently halfway through my first year of university. Still not sure its what I want. If I do finish it all the way (5 years), I'm going to be a Civil Engineer. I believe the correct title is actually "Master of Science", which is pretty badass, if you ask me!

Civilingenjör, correct? Then I believe the correct english name is "Master of Science in Engineering"

Quote from Damerflinn

It was my understanding that the Book of Cain is supposed to be a text that retcons the previous lore and superscedes any previous lore including the games, in order to create a more comprehensive story that makes sense in D3.

You are correct, and such things as Anu and Tathamet are clearly meant to establish a new foundation.

The whole point about the Book not being taken literally is because the book is written from Cain's perspective. This means they can cover their asses if minor issues or inconsistencies should arise. But the big parts like Anu, the Mage Clan Wars, the remade events of D2 etc. are clearly canonical.

Aaand //www.diablowiki.com/Diabolesques">wikified" class="wiki-link">//www.diablowiki.com/Diabolesques">wikified"/> wikified

Quote from Cloakedninja

Thanks for the reply. I guess I wasn't right

I don't mean to bring your hopes down, but so far in the series the names on items have had no tie in to the actual story told in the game, and from what we've seen in the beta this still seems to be the case.

Quote from Frostbite5

For us non-native speakers, everything in English sounds awesome.

This is totally true. I mean take an awesome name like "The Shadow Council", which translates to "Skuggrådet". Obviously that doesn't really say anything to anyone who isn't a native Swedish speaker, but at least you guys will understand what I mean.

The only time Swedish was ever cool was in the Swedish dub of Dungeon Keeper. Now that was awesome.

Oh damn, I'm not sure. I never uploaded a version of it to the wiki, so we'd better hope someone has it lying around on their harddrive somewhere.

These are merely item names, similar to a lot of what was present in D2.

Andariel's Visage existed in D2 as well: http://www.diablowiki.com/Andariel's Visage (Diablo II)
Tyrael's Might existed in D2 as well: http://www.diablowiki.com/Tyrael's_Might_(Diablo_II)

In similar ways D2 also had Atma's Wail, Duriel's Shell and Ormus' Robes. And those were just the //www.diablowiki.com/Unique_Armor_%28Diablo_II%29">armors" class="wiki-link">//www.diablowiki.com/Unique_Armor_(Diablo_II)">armors"/> armors. These names are likely just there to give some flavour to the items we acquire.