His soulstone was shattered prior to Diablo 1. Tal'Rasha had one shard and used it to contain Baal for a long long time, but eventually lost the battle.
So, while it is shattered, it is not completely destroyed.
Which brings up the question: When you smashed Diablo's and Mephisto's soulstones, did you just shatter them, or did you completely obliterate them?
As for the use of the Soulstones, they were used to imprison The Three centuries(?) ago, by Cain's ancestors I believe.
Diablo's soulstone was also shattered in a similar manner to Baal's; the soulstone which was eventually embedded in the Wanderer's head was technically just a splinter of it.
It was stated fairly clearly that, by smashing a soulstone on the Hellforge,
you banish the soul within from the world. The destruction of the Worldstone seems to be the only loophole around this.
Back on the topic post:
At the end of LoD, it simply would've been anticlimactic to see your character or Tyrael trek all the way to Hell just to smash the stone, and it would basically confirm that the world survived (which we didn't necessarily know yet) or that Tyrael was still the same being.
The Diablo III writers, who may be working on prior frameworks left by Blizzard North or may be creating the story from scratch, can interpret this either way.
could it be possible that some randoms phsyco gathered all the shards from baal mephisto and diablos soulstones and somehow reforge them togerther to make a superduper coul stone than is the demon featured in posters. And indoing so combinin gthe primeevils forever?? just an idea
While it's fun to make guesses, all of our predictions are based off current game history. Keep in mind the game and the lore surrounding the soulstones was created more than 13 years ago, with (probably) little intent to continue their involvement in the storyline. So...things may not make sense as is, and the history will have to be 'tweaked' a bit to fit the current storyline.
Blizzard has probably already started doing this, with editing the Arreat Summit page about the soulstones. As such, any info we have from it in the past is probably going to change so that the new story makes sense.
They had to do similar things with Warcraft's lore when WoW came out to make the story work. From small things like editing the Warcraft III game manual to change a demon group's race from Eredar to Nathrezim, to larger all-encompassing details from previous games. Such as... in Warcraft I, Sargaeras wasn't the main antagonist. His involvement in the lore escalated over time, and the lore had to be re-written sometime during the release of WC3 so that it would all make sense.
In any case... it's not unlike Blizz to go back and edit its own history to make the story evolve the way they want it to. I'm guessing we'll see a revamp of some of the history surrounding the soulstones before/during D3's release.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
- (The) Crowmaster "Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies.
By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed
To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Diablo's soulstone was also shattered in a similar manner to Baal's; the soulstone which was eventually embedded in the Wanderer's head was technically just a splinter of it.
It was stated fairly clearly that, by smashing a soulstone on the Hellforge,
you banish the soul within from the world. The destruction of the Worldstone seems to be the only loophole around this.
Back on the topic post:
At the end of LoD, it simply would've been anticlimactic to see your character or Tyrael trek all the way to Hell just to smash the stone, and it would basically confirm that the world survived (which we didn't necessarily know yet) or that Tyrael was still the same being.
The Diablo III writers, who may be working on prior frameworks left by Blizzard North or may be creating the story from scratch, can interpret this either way.
Blizzard has probably already started doing this, with editing the Arreat Summit page about the soulstones. As such, any info we have from it in the past is probably going to change so that the new story makes sense.
They had to do similar things with Warcraft's lore when WoW came out to make the story work. From small things like editing the Warcraft III game manual to change a demon group's race from Eredar to Nathrezim, to larger all-encompassing details from previous games. Such as... in Warcraft I, Sargaeras wasn't the main antagonist. His involvement in the lore escalated over time, and the lore had to be re-written sometime during the release of WC3 so that it would all make sense.
In any case... it's not unlike Blizz to go back and edit its own history to make the story evolve the way they want it to. I'm guessing we'll see a revamp of some of the history surrounding the soulstones before/during D3's release.
"Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies.
By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed
To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Seeing as that's the older thread about it. (not just because it's made by me. :P)
Thanks!