Lately I've been listening to a lot of original Diablo music; most of it was provided to me by Jetrall. This music is kind of addicting and it's also a bit thought-provoking and as I've been cleaning my room today while listening to these songs, I started thinking a lot about the first Diablo and its many aspects. While I was doing so, many ideas came to my head. Things I'd never really thought about. I've always felt strongly about Diablo and have talked at great lengths concerning its lore. But some things about the game I realize I have never really discussed before. And as some of those things have been articulated inside my brain, I thought I better start writing this now as it is all fresh in my mind.
So the following is basically my own quest-by-quest, character-by-character, level-by-level analysis of the Diablo game. Mostly I'll be proceeding in a linear fashion with commentary following each aspect of the game that has captured a lot of my interests and imagination. I do apologize for my constant shift in verb tense. When I write quickly like this, I tend to shift back and forth from past to present tense. So I hope that doesn’t throw anyone off.
And on a sidenote, I’d like to cite Solomir’s site where he has so meticulously documented Diablo lore. I would not have been able to cross-check my information without his site. http://sanctuary.info.googlepages.com/diablo.html
First, I'd like to talk about the town of Tristram. Obviously for gameplay reasons, they couldn't make this town too large. So you have to imagine that it probably is indeed larger than those few buildings, bridges, and denizens. I imagine that Tristram was akin to the scale of Partha (as mentioned in the Sin War trilogy). The town seems fairly isolated as towns under Khanduras might be. With the exception of course of the Monastery which King Leoric had renovated and turned into an outpost for the Order of the Light. And so initially, the Monastery seems like it may have become a symbol of pride for the people of Tristram. Until of course Diablo awakened underneath it and turned it into a horrible place. And I think that is something you can sense about the townsfolk of Tristram: that they once had this place that they took pride in, and then they got smacked down by it. And so besides fear, there is also an overall sadness and weariness throughout the town that you can really sense when talking to people. What I've never been able to figure out though is why every member of this town hadn't already fleed by the time everything started happening. Perhaps it was just something unique about the culture of the people their that made them stubborn and willing to fight for what little they had.
And so now we get to wander in this town with one of three different characters. One option being the Warrior.
There is no specific background or training that the Warrior in Diablo comes from. But this is what makes him seemingly tougher than any class found in Diablo II. The Warrior seems more self-styled and self-taught. Probably someone who grew up in very adverse conditions, was never truly happy, never loved by anyone, and never had any close friends. But despite all this, he seems cold and calculating. As a person who has very little, he feels he has nothing to lose by venturing to Tristram, yet he desire nothing for gain either. Whatever motives the Warrior had for going to Tristram, one can imagine that they were above all other adventurers' and this was how he managed to succeed. I think that despire Diablo's possession of Albrecht, the Warrior may have felt even before then an instinct that his destiny was inextricably mixed with that of the evil that was beneath Tristram. I also think that he found a temporary peace while fighting the demons to reach Diablo. While some may disagree with this assessment, I think it was only after he thrust the Soulstone into his head that he became as disturbed and tainted as he would be as the Wanderer. But during his quest to vanquish Diablo, it was his time of glory, his time of vindication, and the highlight of his life that he immensely enjoyed; all up until the moment it had to come to an end and he had to sacrifice himself in an effort to contain Diablo. But whether he would've enjoyed himself or not, this was also his destiny he felt.
As we learned more about the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye in Diablo II, we can retrospectively gain some insight into the Rogue class of the first Diablo. I never felt that the Rogue might have gone to Tristram for personal reasons except for her sense of duty to the Sisterhood. While the Sisterhood is a loosely based organization, there still must be a command structure within it as also demonstrated in Diablo II. I sensed that the Rogue was sent by her order to investigate the incident at Tristram. Probably being one of the strongest of her kind, it was likely that maybe not the Rogue herself, but one of her masters felt it was her destiny to confront the evil underneath Tristram. Feeling empowered by this supposed destiny as well as her strong sense of duty, the Rogue made her way to Tristram and with an opportunity to ultimately prove herself as well as her method of combat, she also fought her way down into the depths of the labryinth.
Of the Sorcerer, we know for certain that he was sent to Tristram by the Vizjerei to investigate what was happening there. While the Sorcerer's order claimed to be on a mission to destroy the evil, I think what was more important to them was learning new magical secrets and better understanding the mind of a demon. And so they sent many of their members to the West to learn what they could about the evil underneath Tristram. The Sorcerer that we see however, probably managed to survive as long as he did because what became more important to him than learning about the evil was destroying the evil. The more wrapped up his peers became in the knowledge they found the less likely they were to survive. But as the Sorcerer saw many of his peers die in a quest for knowledge, he knew that it would become necessary to shift his priorities and focus almost exclusively on exterminating evil. I think in the way he was possibly neglectful to his order, but it would suggest that he was able to assess the situation first hand and realize that extermination was his top priority.
So now, we begin with our first fighting location, the Monastery. We can see why Leoric wished to renovate this place because it is seemingly vast with tons of rooms. I do wonder though if it was less featureless before evil had invaded it. Perhaps more wall hangings, more furniture, more of everything you would expect at a place of worship and education. But since everything would have been themed with the Order of the Light, it makes sense that the demons and undead would have immediately destroyed everything bearing that theme. One thing we notice is that there are a lot of undead in the first four levels of Diablo. Makes sense since a lot of it is crypt, slain heroes and defenders of Khanduras, Tristram, and possible kingdoms that predate Khanduras. And we see mostly lesser demons here and creatures that seem more like former regular creatures that were twisted by the Prime Evils into Hells’ minions.
One of the first quests we receive in the first four levels is the Poisoned Water Supply. I liked the practicality of this mission. That while there are greater concerns to be addressed eventually, an immediate concern was a lack of fresh water. This quest also amused me because I always imagined the Goat Men were simply peeing in the water because it is a bright yellow color and this is what tainted the water supply. More likely though it was a demonic aura or specific magic that was tainting the water supply. And I also think it was the communal effort of the Goat Men and Carvers(?) that were maintaining the taint. This would explain why the water goes back to normal after slaying all of them.
Next is The Butcher. The Butcher himself is a very renowned monster in the world of computer gaming. His famous line, Ahh, fresh meat! as well as his lair instills a sense of panic and fear in first time players. Obviously we can discuss it now more comfortably cause we’ve all played it so much, but back then, it was a pretty intense moment for me, anyway. You see a lot of dead mangled bodies everywhere in Diablo games. But the sheer concentration of blood and gore in the Butcher’s lair makes it particularly ominous. I also found it interesting that the Butcher was found only on the second level. I even began to hypothesis why that was. I think the further down the Butcher was, the harder it was to get fresh meat. Perhaps he would send some of his own minions to the surface to retrieve people, but the further down the minions had to bring live people, the less likely the Butcher would receive his deliveries unspoiled. So the closer he was to the surface, the fresher he could get his meat. I think he probably also enjoyed the fear the townspeople had of his being so close to the surface. Cause everything about the Butcher was pure evil and sadism. And that’s what made him such a great monster to fight.
The Curse of King Leoric. What makes this quest such a great one is the relevancy to the overall story. And at the time of doing the quest, you don’t even realize what is significant about it. What you do know is that the king’s son was kidnapped, and the king had gone mad and accused all the townsfolk of abducting Albrecht. And then right before the king died, he cursed everyone. Any monster who was once a noble and generous person, but turned evil is always interesting cause you know that their level of corruption is inversely proportional to their level of good. I actually think what King Leoric says is far more brooding than The Butcher. “The warmth of life has entered my tomb. Prepare yourself, mortal, to serve my Master for eternity!” Clearly this is a creature who loathes all living things. Leoric mocks you as someone who is merely going to be another one of his hundreds of skeleton minions. Like The Butcher, there is no reasoning with this monster, no rational for his actions except for what pure evil typically entails. And through it all you also feel a bit of sadness to think that Leoric was once this kind and just ruler. But then you also felt good about slaying him (I liked to think my Holy Bolt was redeeming him) cause you were putting his tortured soul to rest. Then your character assures Leoric that you will find his son. And when you do find his son, it is all too glorious and you look back on this quest with a greater appreciation for it.
In the quest of Ogden’s Sign, there is a lot more going on than some might realize. The first thing one might realize is that the mind of a demon is difficult to comprehend. While one could easily chalk up the stealing of a sign with a sun painted on for the sake of gaining power as a sign of stupidity, it actually proves that even lesser Carver demons are thoughtful and somewhat intelligent. It suggests that they understand the sun is something important. It is a symbol of great power (no matter how you look at the sun, and I’m going to assume that Sanctuary’s sun is like Earth’s, it is a thing of power) and these demons understand this. Even though their actions are silly, you kind of want them to succeed in their little quest to invoke the power of the sun through this sign that they’ve stolen. What we also learn through this quest is that it is common for one kind of demon to fight with another. Maybe this isn’t too surprising to learn, but what did surprise me is how Snotspill refers to those Overlords as big uglies. Do the Carvers not even know who the Overlords are? And did the Overlords take the sign because they also thought they could invoke the power of the sun with it? It’s all very interesting conjecture when you think about it.
By about this time in the game is when you reach the Catacombs. For me, these four levels were the most nerve wracking claustrophobic levels in the game. What I found unsettling about these four levels was the idea that maybe the Catacombs were once a part of another city that existed long before Tristram. I think sometimes that is what catacombs are. In things that are so ancient, there is a greater sense of the unknown in them. When starting the game, we are consulted about the Monastery and what it was used for. But no one really seemed willing to provide any information about the Catacombs and that really bothered me. I wondered though if the average Tristram resident knew of their existence. Perhaps they knew of a greater city that was eventually built over long ago. A city perhaps that was thriving during the era of the Sin War. It would possibly make sense because the armor Valor was hidden by Arkaine during the time of the Sin War in a secret vault. And this vault is located in these Catacombs. Which leads me to discussing the Valor quest.
I’ve always wondered why in Diablo II how we didn’t get more opportunities to learn about the Sin War. But the first Diablo makes so many marvelous references to this very interesting time period. One of them is in the Valor quest where we are looking for the Valor armor that was hidden by Arkaine during the Sin War. Arkaine, Cain tells us, was the first mortal to turn the tide of the Sin War and drive many of the Burning Hells’ legions back into Hell. I’m not sure how this tidbit might conflict with the Sin War trilogy. I still have yet to read the Veiled Prophet, but I do know in the first two books there was no mention of Arkaine and this seemed unfortunate to me. I liked to think that Arkaine would be a more influential character in Diablo lore, but it would seem that his story didn’t really survive beyond the first game. At any rate, the armor itself is totally wicked looking. It was too bad though that the armor wasn’t of a more heavy set with slightly higher stats, being that it was supposedly this incredibly powerful armor.
Gharbad the Weak is possibly the most obscure side quest in this kind of game. You can’t talk to anyone in town about Gharbad. And to move the quest along, all you needed to do was go around a corner, come back and talk to Gharbad, then repeat the process until he tries killing you. I think Gharbad would probably be a tough match against average mortal, but against our hero and other Goat Men, he probably really was weak. I also sensed he was ostracized from the Goat Men community because he was so weak; probably he was incessantly ridiculed by the other Goat Men. Seems like maybe if there were such a weak link in Baal’s legions, it would probably just be exterminated. But you can’t help but wonder who gave him that title and what his story really was. Why was he there all by himself? Why was he acting so cowardly, begging you to let him live; only to eventually attack you and be easily killed? It’s the most isolated incident in the entire game next to Zhar the Mad.
What I liked about The Magic Rock quest was the implication that objects such as meteors can actually have magical properties. Or at least, they are prime objects for enchantment. The stone itself had not recently fallen to Sanctuary, but had been there for some time and was being transported to another location for further study. But the convoy that was transporting the stone fell under attack and the stone was misplaced during the process. The thing I actually remember most about this quest was the cool sound the stone made when you put it in your inventory. I would constantly put it in and out of my inventory just to hear the sound repeatedly.
On to the Chamber of Bone. What’s great about this quest, is you get it by reading a passage in a book that was quoting Diablo word for word. “Beyond the Hall of Heroes lies the Chamber of Bone. Eternal death awaits any who would seek to steal the treasures secured within this room.” This is my favorite quest to use the Infravision spell on. Cause there are tons and tons of skeletons waiting behind the door that leads to the final chamber in the chamber. And you see tons of red skeletons just waiting for you, with thousands of bones strewn about the floor. A classic pillaging quest to be sure, but the final reward was that arcane knowledge gained, or in other words the Hydra spell that was by far one of the coolest looking spells in the game. This quest also makes me laugh because it is yet another example of how useless the NPC Gillian was as is shown in this response to being asked about the Chamber of Bone, “I am afraid that I haven't heard anything about that. Perhaps Cain the Storyteller could be of some help.” Haha! She’s so useless in that game.
Halls of the Blind is one of my favorite quests in the game. It’s easy to acquire, shrift, and very rewarding. It’s not just rewarding cause of the Optic Amulet, but because you get to kill tons of those Hidden creatures that no matter how you kill them, it always ends in their decapitation. And their heads falling on the ground sounds like a tumbling plastic bottle. The purpose of the Halls of the Blind is mostly unknown. It seems like either a place that blind minions were sent to patrol, or maybe a place where you were rendered blind if you dared venture there. The Hidden themselves are servants to Diablo. So anything to do with sight, blindness and illusion would be perfect to associate with the Hidden who materialize in and out of the physical realm. Above all else, the Halls of the Blind were most likely a torture chamber dedicated to Diablo, occupied by his Hidden.
Maybe one of the most humorous quests in the Catacombs was Zhar the Mad. It’s not just funny cause of how our character replies after killing Zhar, but just cause of how you can walk around the room and whichever angle you are at, Zhar will move to watch you accordingly. You can talk to him once and he’ll give a tome if you just leave him alone. Or you can stay in that room and keep rummaging through all his shit which pisses him off. I like the idea that this Acolyte can be so caught up in his studies that he’s not even concerned that you are on your way to kill his master, Diablo. Again, I acknowledge that many of the Burning Hells’ minions are self-interested. But you would also think that if they encounter a mortal who has made it this far into the labyrinth, that that mortal probably made it that far by killing many minions. But this does not seem to occur to Zhar. Perhaps he was insane even by Hell’s standards and that was how he got his title. He was probably so insane that he was useless as an Acolyte in terms of defending Hell in any way. So they didn’t mind if he went off and studied.
By about this time is when we reach the Caves, levels 9-12. I think the Caves existed as they were with the streams of lava before Diablo ever awakened and stationed his minions there. Perhaps during when the Catacombs was an actual city on the surface, they had discovered these Caves and did a lot of mining there. It definitely looks like a place where mining would have taken place. So there are some rudimentary structures there; mostly gates and wooden sheds. When Hell’s minions arrived, they merely took advantage of the Hell-like atmosphere of the place. Flowing lava or magma seems like a common Hell characteristic, so it was merely logical for many monsters to make it an effective bastion of Hell, stopping any mortals who dared to venture so far down. Some had made it that far nonetheless. Like the slain hero where the player usually finds their first set of heavy armor.
The most significant quest in the Caves is the Anvil of Fury. Another marvelous reference to the Sin War, and is interesting for a few other tidbits as well. The more I think about why the Anvil of Fury was there, the more it occurs to me that the Anvil was probably placed there for the sake of recreating another Hellforge. If this location of the Caves was to become an serious outpost of Hell, and a location from which to launch attacks onto the surface, then it seems logical that in the center would be the place where demons’ weapons are forged. What is most interesting to me about this quest is the response of Adria in regards to the quest, “Securing the Anvil from below could shift the course of the Sin War towards the Light.” I wonder if some people in Sanctuary consider the Sin War to be over, while others consider it a continuing active campaign. It does seem by at least the time of Diablo II, the fighting between the Burning Hells and the High Heavens had moved from the covert and subterfuge methods of the Sin War to an all out battle that was eroding the all the surface of Sanctuary. Yet in the Sin War books, there seems not much covert about what is happening between order and chaos. The Great Conflict seems like an all out fight even during the Sin War. However, it is important to realize the differences of how the Sin War is portrayed in the original Diablo manual compared to the detailed accounts portrayed in the Sin War books. And so lately when I think of the Sin War, I think one might define it merely as the Great Conflict when it is being fought on a mortal plane. So there is the Great Conflict outside of Sanctuary, but when the Great Conflict’s front is in the mortal realm of Sanctuary, it is then more commonly referred to as the Sin War. Like Arkaine’s Valor, I was also a little disappointed in the stats of Griswold’s Edge. With the background story of how the Anvil of Fury was made, I really thought it would produce a more heavy duty weapon than the one we get in the game. Still a great sword at any rate though and an overall fun quest.
The Black Mushroom was always a confusing quest for me. Mainly because I could never quite figure out how a demon’s brain got involved in it. All I really remember about this quest was going back and forth between Pepin and Adria. One demanding a brain, the other a black mushroom, and then one turning you down for what you brought them depending on who first got their desired item. The reward in this quest is pretty nice though. I think it was an elixir of dexterity, or maybe it was the elixir of strength. Either way, the elixir was taking a trip to duping town.
By this time we reach the last four levels 13-16, or Hell. This is pretty interesting when you think about it. There are a few ways to interpret the nature of this Hell we see in the first Diablo. In Diablo II, Hell seemed only reachable through the Infernal Gate found in the Durance of Hate in Act 3. Obviously the scale of Diablo II is larger than the first one, but even then, there seems to be no crossing over from a mortal realm to one such as Hell. We literally just seem to walk down some stairs and the just like that we arrive in Hell. Strange, no? Did Diablo establish a kind of ethereal anchor that allowed Hell to spawn all around him in a lesser form? Is the actual stairway to Hell more significant than it seems? Maybe it acted like a magical chute that transported us to a small pocket of Hell in which Diablo was regaining his strength. I struggle with times like these in games when obvious gameplay motives seem to get in the way of providing an explanation of how something occurs. In Diablo, we obviously have to go to Hell, so the game just kind of makes that happen. But I think there was little regard to the audience concerning this transition. I wish there had been a device similar to the Infernal Gate found in Diablo II at least just to explain how we got to Hell so easily. I mean, there are portals in the first Diablo game. One even to Lazarus’ lair, so why not a portal to Hell at least?
In Hell, we get the quest for the Warlord of Blood, whom if I’m not mistaken, is supposed to be Bartuc himself; commander of one of Hell’s legions and brother to Horazon. We don’t really get this information about him in the first game. All we really know at this time was that he was someone who fought for the Burning Hells during the time of the Sin War-another reference that the Sin War is actually over by this time. The Warlord of Blood isn’t really a demon. He doesn’t seem to be undead either. He merely seems a mortal who was made immortal overtime as he gave his humanity up to forever quench his thirst for human blood, which in turn was consistent with Hell’s aims as well. I always felt that the setting for the Warlord of Blood should have been a bit more dramatic looking, like how the Butcher’s lair appeared.
Next is Lachdanan. Another one of my favorite quests in the game. Lachdanan was one of King Leoric’s knights who fell under the curse of the king. All of the other knights who were cursed soon lost their humanity, but Lachdanan being one of the strongest and purest of heart, managed to maintain what was left of his humanity and seeked for an elixir that would free him of his curse. The quest really throws you off at first, cause you’re used to seeing this huge sword-wielding Hell Knights coming at you only to kill you. And when you first see Lachdanan, you think he might be a unique monster like the Warlord of Blood. But instead he just stands there waiting for you to talk to him. I remember feeling a bit sad when this quest was over. I was hoping Lachdanan would share some more information with me. But once you give him the Golden Elixir, he just seems eager to be on his way. The negative light radius on his helm seemed an appropriate attribute for someone who was under a curse and at risk of losing his soul. Oh, and of course we get to see once again how useless Gillian is. ” I've never heard of a Lachdanan before. I'm sorry, but I don't think that I can be of much help to you.” Haha!
The last quest besides actually hunting down Diablo is Archbishop Lazarus. I like the small scale plot that surrounds Lazarus. A corrupted priest who kidnaps the king’s son to deliver unto Diablo. And yet the implications of what such an act means, if you read all the books that you find throught the labyrinth, then the way everything seems to come full circle toward the end is much more likely to fill you with dread. There is the knowledge that Diablo tried to possess Leoric, but ultimately failed. So Lazarus was corrupted and ordered by Diablo to bring Albrecht to him. Many of the books that you find throughout the book are supposedly narrated by Lazarus. You get all these great insights into his madness and corruption. You wonder what he and the king were like before Diablo corrupted either of them. I also wondered how King Leoric did not play a larger role as one of Diablo’s guardians as opposed to just the keeper of his own crypt. So in the end, you think about the corruption of Lazarus and Leoric, two men who were once noble and good, you think about what happened to Albrecht, what happened to Tristram, and ultimately what became of the hero who sought to slay Diablo. I think what many people probably wonder about is why he felt it necessary to drive the Soulstone into his own head. I don’t actually think he really did it out of his own pride in thinking he could contain the demon. I think in the end, he realized before it was too late that he was fighting an evil beyond his comprehension and before he could escape, Diablo had already invaded his mind, compelling the hero to thrust the Soulstone into himself.
Despite the sad and extremely open-ended ending of the first Diablo, I still managed to feel pretty satisfied with the way everything ended. You have to acknowledge how incredible Blizzard is at packing in so much background to a story that you know in your heart that a sequel is definite and legitimate. Diablo felt more like a prelude as opposed to an entire game in itself. I picture if Diablo II were to be a movie, then the story of the first Diablo would be told in the form of occasional flashbacks by the Wanderer. In the opening cinematic to Diablo II, it does seem as if the game is going to feature a lot of flashbacks to the first game. But luckily for us, it goes back even further to show us pivotal moments that we only had small pieces of in the first Diablo manual. Pieces regarding Tal Rasha and the Soulstones.
I also wondered how King Leoric did not play a larger role as one of Diablo’s guardians as opposed to just the keeper of his own crypt.
Ogden says something about how the townspeople buried Leoric in a tomb, 3 levels down. I forget the rest of his dialog though. It's an interesting fact enough, but it doesn't really offer any insight as to why he is such a noobish boss.
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-Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth.
We literally just seem to walk down some stairs and the just like that we arrive in Hell. Strange, no? Did Diablo establish a kind of ethereal anchor that allowed Hell to spawn all around him in a lesser form? Is the actual stairway to Hell more significant than it seems? Maybe it acted like a magical chute that transported us to a small pocket of Hell in which Diablo was regaining his strength.
I think you're reading a bit too far into this. As sigmund freud once said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. The same applies to the stairs in my opinion. The writers for the plot seem to be playing with different concepts in this entirely new game they had created. I doubt they ever thought it would have the popularity it did, so i doubt they spent i huge chunk of time on thinking about sequel potential. Plus, in Diablo II the way you have to enter hell being the way it is, is simple. A portal from within the sanctuary of one of the most evil beings that has ever existed is a much more exciting plot point.
By the way though, i enjoyed your analysis. It helped me to remember some of what i used to love and spend hours playing. Which lately i can barely remember the plot points.
And sometimes a cigar is something more. (sorry just felt like being an ass). I rather enjoy taking a deeper look into the games, exploring/discussing the nature of things.
If I remember correctly, the last set of stairs, that is going from level 15 to level 16 (which Diablo is on), isn't even a set of stairs. You click on the Pentagram and are "teleported" to level 16, yet if you go back up to level 15 from level 16, you initially ascend a staircase.
So prehaps being transported through the planes or just to another portion of the same location (Hell) is not such a farfetched concept. Though having stairs for going back up kinda kills that theory a bit.
And yes the difference between Hell (levels 13-16) in Diablo 1, and the portion of the Burning Hells you are able to enter in Diablo II are vast different.
Prehaps there is a bit of Dante's Inferno going on here. Both area are part of a larger "Hell'. In Dante's Inferno you had nine various layers of Hell, each one as different, and yeh one was a burning Hell of sorts. When creating games designers often borrow from literary works, DnD borrows the concept of the Nine Hells from Dante's Inferno, The nine layers of Baalor, or the Nine Hells. It could be possible BLizzard has done a similiar thing here with the two different Hells present in the two games, whether intentionally or simply by not being consistant. Though no character makes mention of another portion of Hell other than the Burning Hells. Either they say Hell or Burning Hells, at least that I can recall.
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-Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth.
If I remember correctly, the last set of stairs, that is going from level 15 to level 16 (which Diablo is on), isn't even a set of stairs. You click on the Pentagram and are "teleported" to level 16, yet if you go back up to level 15 from level 16, you initially ascend a staircase.
What's strange is that you have to take a portal to reach Lazarus. And that cinematic makes it appear as though Lazarus is inside a church that is out on the surface like anything else. But yes, you do have to click on the pentagram to reach Diablo's level. I still kind of think in my mind though that basically with all the demonic powers surrounding Diablo and his minions, that they were creating a tear in the mortal plane that the powers of Hell were seaping in to and culturing a new realm of Hell.
Quote from name="Elfen Lied" »
So prehaps being transported through the planes or just to another portion of the same location (Hell) is not such a farfetched concept. Though having stairs for going back up kinda kills that theory a bit.
Yeah, and I think we have to assume a bit that the stairs is just there for consistent gameplay design, that it had no bearing on the nature of the location of level 16.
Quote from name="Elfen Lied" »
And yes the difference between Hell (levels 13-16) in Diablo 1, and the portion of the Burning Hells you are able to enter in Diablo II are vast different.
Prehaps there is a bit of Dante's Inferno going on here. Both area are part of a larger "Hell'. In Dante's Inferno you had nine various layers of Hell, each one as different, and yeh one was a burning Hell of sorts. When creating games designers often borrow from literary works, DnD borrows the concept of the Nine Hells from Dante's Inferno, The nine layers of Baalor, or the Nine Hells. It could be possible BLizzard has done a similiar thing here with the two different Hells present in the two games, whether intentionally or simply by not being consistant. Though no character makes mention of another portion of Hell other than the Burning Hells. Either they say Hell or Burning Hells, at least that I can recall.
I think even in Diablo lore it has been alluded to that there are many different layers (or planes) of Hell. It doesn't always need to be fire and brimstone. I would imagine Andariel's realm has little fire in it at all.
What's strange is that you have to take a portal to reach Lazarus. And that cinematic makes it appear as though Lazarus is inside a church that is out on the surface like anything else.
Yes, it would lead you to believe he is in the cathedral at the top of the village, it has the tall bell tower and same design, yet he appears to be on the first floor. But then again it is just a cinematic, such discrepiencies in games are not uncommon.
I think even in Diablo lore it has been alluded to that there are many different layers (or planes) of Hell. It doesn't always need to be fire and brimstone. I would imagine Andariel's realm has little fire in it at all.
I've always thought there were more layers to the diablo universe's Hell, but without a dialog or excerpt from a book to prove it I can't be sure.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
-Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth.
I've always thought there were more layers to the diablo universe's Hell, but without a dialog or excerpt from a book to prove it I can't be sure.
Clearly though there are least many realms of Hell. Each Prime Evil and Lesser Evil do have their own domains, albeit the Prime Evils hold ultimate dominion over all of Hell; with the exception of when the Lesser Evils overthrew the Prime Evils. But my point is that it makes perfect sense that one area of hell be completely different from another, enough even to be considered another layer of Hell. I can't remember the description of Kabraxis' realm, but it sounded unlike any description of Hell I had ever seen. There are sections of Hell that are truly fire and brimstone, and others like the Desolate Plains that is just a seemingly endless wasteland of featureless landscape.
Then the Hell in the first Diablo seems more decked out in blood and guts then fire and brimstone. And we know that Andariel hates fire so one can imagine that her realm might be totally devoid of any fire at all.
Thats one damn fine comprehensive, insightful and interesting commentary there Siaynoq.
Different parts of Hell, there has to be. Take the City of the Damned for example; it looks completely different to the River of Flame.
From the Crystal Arch at the very heart of the High Heavens to the arcane Hellforge of the Underworld,
I found that quote from Arreats-Summit when looking at the description of Uber Izual (thought it might mention his location in hell), and it looks like there is different parts of Heaven aswell. Note that its called the "Underworld"... Damn these inconsistencies!
You said that the Sorcerer from Diablo1 thirsted for Diablo's death more so than the natural Vijzerei thirst for demonic knowledge. But what about after Diablo is slain and that Sorcerer supposedly is the one who finds the Arcane Sanctuary (In search for demon knowledge or escape from corruption?).
Was demonic knowledge his primary motive for killing Diablo? Personally I'd have to say yes, but thats just my opinion
I like the part about the Butcher... Utilizing his position for "fresher meat"
As far as the portals to hell go. I think they just altered the 'theme' of hell from one game to another. At first it was the more traditional view with Hell being the center of the Earth and then in Diablo II it changed to being a different 'dimension'
I completely forgot bout Arkaine, and I still havent read the Sin War books but its a shame that he was never mentioned
You said that the Sorcerer from Diablo1 thirsted for Diablo's death more so than the natural Vijzerei thirst for demonic knowledge. But what about after Diablo is slain and that Sorcerer supposedly is the one who finds the Arcane Sanctuary (In search for demon knowledge or escape from corruption?).
Indeed. In the end, all three character classes ultimately underestimated Diablo. At one point or another, they all had fallen from the Light. As one would go on to become the Wanderer, the other the false Summoner, and the last as Blood Raven.
The Sorcerer in my opinion merely managed to stave off his corruption and/or defeat longer than the other Sorcerers because his motives became more focused on destroying evil rathern than studying. But in the end, he would still succumb to corruption.
Quote from "Genesis" »
Was demonic knowledge his primary motive for killing Diablo? Personally I'd have to say yes, but thats just my opinion
That's certainly one way to look at hit. Perhaps he was even self-interested beyond his order, for the sake of himself he wanted to learn more about Diablo. When he was not satisfied with the events surrounding Tristram, he made his way to Lut Gholein in search of the Arcane Sanctuary. Still corrupted by then, of course.
Quote from "Genesis" »
As far as the portals to hell go. I think they just altered the 'theme' of hell from one game to another. At first it was the more traditional view with Hell being the center of the Earth and then in Diablo II it changed to being a different 'dimension'
The player I think definitely has to come up with his own explanation for it since the game does little to explain how this entrance to Hell is even possible.
Quote from "Genesis" »
I completely forgot bout Arkaine, and I still havent read the Sin War books but its a shame that he was never mentioned
As supposedly the first mortal to turn the tide in the Sin War, you can't help but wonder why he isn't mentioned in the Sin War trilogy at least once. If someone has read the Veiled Prophet, perhaps you can at least tell me if here is mentioned in it.
Maybe Arkaine was the first mortal to turn the tide after the memory wipe? Because when their memories were refreshed and everything kind of started from scratch, it would have taken a while before anyone would become 'enlightened' and be able to fight in the Sin War. Arkaine could have been the first one here.
I dont know if i agree with the blood raven and the false summoner being the other 2 characters in diablo 1. The warrior turning to diablo is canon and so the other 2 cannot exist. It is just by chance that they happen to fit into the story.
And as for the warrior sticking that soul stone into his head which seems extremely painfull... I would think the most likely explanation is that he was corrupted badly because he fought so deep in the bowels of the earth that Diablo was able to get to him- or at least get to him enough so that sticking a soul stone in your head seems like a good idea
and as for the stairs going directly into hell. Perhaps it was an outpost on sanctuary and not hell itself. Or it was simply a gateway to hell.. like the one in the dark road (diablo book) where a guy walks through an ancient door and all of a sudden he is in hell. There was no portal at all in this case just a door in a mountainside which led to hell. Very similiar to the one in diablo 1, it seems because in the book they had to tunnel to get to it.
Also, having just finished the Diablo books myself (i have already made a topic about this but i want to bring it up again) i am very dissapointed about how the Angels are portrayed. Inarius most of all... In no way were the angels ever supposed to be like that if you follow the lore that the diablo games themselves laid down. I do not like what the books have done. How ironic is it that the 'true' good guys are actually Necromancers.. LOL i actually laughed when it occured to me that both angels and demons are more evil than necromancers... sigh... I hate how inarius wants to simply blow up sanctuary and the demons want to control it and torture everyone... So basically would you rather live and suffer or die lol? I like the traditional sense of good vs evil that the diablo games put down. Angels = good, and demons = bad. Humans would allign themselves with which ever side best suited them. Those seeking power would probably go with the demons where as those seeking a peaceful world would go with the Angels..
I also hate the idea of nephalem... not only is the name gay sounding.. (i know it was taken from the Hebrew language meaning gigantic stature and superhuman strength) but again it just doesnt fit with what the diablo games were about. How is it possible that humans being mortal are stronger that angels and demons... that makes no sense at all...
damn im actually starting to dislike the story A LOT after reading the books. I loved the lore set down in the games but the bookks just ruined it for me.
anyways here is a little video on the sin war which takes the talking from Diablo 1 and puts it into a pretty cool video. I really enjoyed it
There is evidence to support that the Rogue was actually Blood Raven.
As Kashya put it, "My Rogue scouts have just reported an abomination in the Monastery graveyard! Apparently, Andariel is not content to take only our living. Blood Raven, one of our finest captains in the battle against Diablo at Tristram, was also one of the first to be corrupted by Andariel."
Then Charsi, "Blood Raven was the leader of a Rogue band that once fought Diablo at Tristram."
Then Akara goes on to say, "Blood Raven fought valiantly against Diablo in the catacombs beneath Tristram... She was never quite the same afterwards. It is now obvious she brought an evil influence back with her."
Then Charsi again, "Akara felt something was wrong even before Andariel descended upon us. She feared that Blood Raven had stumbled upon some evil force beneath Tristram. I wish we had acted then."
Then for the Sorcerer possibly being the False Summoner, Jerhryn first says, "There was an eastern mage... a Vizjerei, I believe... who visited me almost a year ago. He was very interested in the history of this site, and he seemed particularly fascinated with the palace architecture. I gave him a tour. When he found the ancient seals over a passageway in the cellar, he became very agitated. He asked for some time alone to study them, and I granted it. Shortly after, he left with no further word and I never saw him again. Odd... Don't you think?"
Then something Drognan said, "Yes... The man you speak of sounds like the mage who came here many months ago. He claimed to have fought Diablo in the passages beneath Tristram. No doubt the fool wandered into Horazon's Sanctuary and lost whatever was left of his ravaged mind. He is beyond salvation. It is possible that the fool has been possessed by the spirit of Horazon. If that's true, then you'd better put an end to his tortured existence. Once done, I believe the demons who were summoned and imprisoned within the Sanctuary will cease to exist as well."
Then there's Cain's comment, "The appearance of the mage you describe sounds like one I met back in Tristram. Many Vizjerei came to fight against Diablo, the Lord of Terror. Perhaps, this is one of them. You know, fate seems to have frowned upon all of the heroes who confronted that terrible Evil. Take care or the same may happen to you."
And so I think I've supported my theory well enough.
So the following is basically my own quest-by-quest, character-by-character, level-by-level analysis of the Diablo game. Mostly I'll be proceeding in a linear fashion with commentary following each aspect of the game that has captured a lot of my interests and imagination. I do apologize for my constant shift in verb tense. When I write quickly like this, I tend to shift back and forth from past to present tense. So I hope that doesn’t throw anyone off.
And on a sidenote, I’d like to cite Solomir’s site where he has so meticulously documented Diablo lore. I would not have been able to cross-check my information without his site.
http://sanctuary.info.googlepages.com/diablo.html
First, I'd like to talk about the town of Tristram. Obviously for gameplay reasons, they couldn't make this town too large. So you have to imagine that it probably is indeed larger than those few buildings, bridges, and denizens. I imagine that Tristram was akin to the scale of Partha (as mentioned in the Sin War trilogy). The town seems fairly isolated as towns under Khanduras might be. With the exception of course of the Monastery which King Leoric had renovated and turned into an outpost for the Order of the Light. And so initially, the Monastery seems like it may have become a symbol of pride for the people of Tristram. Until of course Diablo awakened underneath it and turned it into a horrible place. And I think that is something you can sense about the townsfolk of Tristram: that they once had this place that they took pride in, and then they got smacked down by it. And so besides fear, there is also an overall sadness and weariness throughout the town that you can really sense when talking to people. What I've never been able to figure out though is why every member of this town hadn't already fleed by the time everything started happening. Perhaps it was just something unique about the culture of the people their that made them stubborn and willing to fight for what little they had.
And so now we get to wander in this town with one of three different characters. One option being the Warrior.
There is no specific background or training that the Warrior in Diablo comes from. But this is what makes him seemingly tougher than any class found in Diablo II. The Warrior seems more self-styled and self-taught. Probably someone who grew up in very adverse conditions, was never truly happy, never loved by anyone, and never had any close friends. But despite all this, he seems cold and calculating. As a person who has very little, he feels he has nothing to lose by venturing to Tristram, yet he desire nothing for gain either. Whatever motives the Warrior had for going to Tristram, one can imagine that they were above all other adventurers' and this was how he managed to succeed. I think that despire Diablo's possession of Albrecht, the Warrior may have felt even before then an instinct that his destiny was inextricably mixed with that of the evil that was beneath Tristram. I also think that he found a temporary peace while fighting the demons to reach Diablo. While some may disagree with this assessment, I think it was only after he thrust the Soulstone into his head that he became as disturbed and tainted as he would be as the Wanderer. But during his quest to vanquish Diablo, it was his time of glory, his time of vindication, and the highlight of his life that he immensely enjoyed; all up until the moment it had to come to an end and he had to sacrifice himself in an effort to contain Diablo. But whether he would've enjoyed himself or not, this was also his destiny he felt.
As we learned more about the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye in Diablo II, we can retrospectively gain some insight into the Rogue class of the first Diablo. I never felt that the Rogue might have gone to Tristram for personal reasons except for her sense of duty to the Sisterhood. While the Sisterhood is a loosely based organization, there still must be a command structure within it as also demonstrated in Diablo II. I sensed that the Rogue was sent by her order to investigate the incident at Tristram. Probably being one of the strongest of her kind, it was likely that maybe not the Rogue herself, but one of her masters felt it was her destiny to confront the evil underneath Tristram. Feeling empowered by this supposed destiny as well as her strong sense of duty, the Rogue made her way to Tristram and with an opportunity to ultimately prove herself as well as her method of combat, she also fought her way down into the depths of the labryinth.
Of the Sorcerer, we know for certain that he was sent to Tristram by the Vizjerei to investigate what was happening there. While the Sorcerer's order claimed to be on a mission to destroy the evil, I think what was more important to them was learning new magical secrets and better understanding the mind of a demon. And so they sent many of their members to the West to learn what they could about the evil underneath Tristram. The Sorcerer that we see however, probably managed to survive as long as he did because what became more important to him than learning about the evil was destroying the evil. The more wrapped up his peers became in the knowledge they found the less likely they were to survive. But as the Sorcerer saw many of his peers die in a quest for knowledge, he knew that it would become necessary to shift his priorities and focus almost exclusively on exterminating evil. I think in the way he was possibly neglectful to his order, but it would suggest that he was able to assess the situation first hand and realize that extermination was his top priority.
So now, we begin with our first fighting location, the Monastery. We can see why Leoric wished to renovate this place because it is seemingly vast with tons of rooms. I do wonder though if it was less featureless before evil had invaded it. Perhaps more wall hangings, more furniture, more of everything you would expect at a place of worship and education. But since everything would have been themed with the Order of the Light, it makes sense that the demons and undead would have immediately destroyed everything bearing that theme. One thing we notice is that there are a lot of undead in the first four levels of Diablo. Makes sense since a lot of it is crypt, slain heroes and defenders of Khanduras, Tristram, and possible kingdoms that predate Khanduras. And we see mostly lesser demons here and creatures that seem more like former regular creatures that were twisted by the Prime Evils into Hells’ minions.
One of the first quests we receive in the first four levels is the Poisoned Water Supply. I liked the practicality of this mission. That while there are greater concerns to be addressed eventually, an immediate concern was a lack of fresh water. This quest also amused me because I always imagined the Goat Men were simply peeing in the water because it is a bright yellow color and this is what tainted the water supply. More likely though it was a demonic aura or specific magic that was tainting the water supply. And I also think it was the communal effort of the Goat Men and Carvers(?) that were maintaining the taint. This would explain why the water goes back to normal after slaying all of them.
Next is The Butcher. The Butcher himself is a very renowned monster in the world of computer gaming. His famous line, Ahh, fresh meat! as well as his lair instills a sense of panic and fear in first time players. Obviously we can discuss it now more comfortably cause we’ve all played it so much, but back then, it was a pretty intense moment for me, anyway. You see a lot of dead mangled bodies everywhere in Diablo games. But the sheer concentration of blood and gore in the Butcher’s lair makes it particularly ominous. I also found it interesting that the Butcher was found only on the second level. I even began to hypothesis why that was. I think the further down the Butcher was, the harder it was to get fresh meat. Perhaps he would send some of his own minions to the surface to retrieve people, but the further down the minions had to bring live people, the less likely the Butcher would receive his deliveries unspoiled. So the closer he was to the surface, the fresher he could get his meat. I think he probably also enjoyed the fear the townspeople had of his being so close to the surface. Cause everything about the Butcher was pure evil and sadism. And that’s what made him such a great monster to fight.
The Curse of King Leoric. What makes this quest such a great one is the relevancy to the overall story. And at the time of doing the quest, you don’t even realize what is significant about it. What you do know is that the king’s son was kidnapped, and the king had gone mad and accused all the townsfolk of abducting Albrecht. And then right before the king died, he cursed everyone. Any monster who was once a noble and generous person, but turned evil is always interesting cause you know that their level of corruption is inversely proportional to their level of good. I actually think what King Leoric says is far more brooding than The Butcher. “The warmth of life has entered my tomb. Prepare yourself, mortal, to serve my Master for eternity!” Clearly this is a creature who loathes all living things. Leoric mocks you as someone who is merely going to be another one of his hundreds of skeleton minions. Like The Butcher, there is no reasoning with this monster, no rational for his actions except for what pure evil typically entails. And through it all you also feel a bit of sadness to think that Leoric was once this kind and just ruler. But then you also felt good about slaying him (I liked to think my Holy Bolt was redeeming him) cause you were putting his tortured soul to rest. Then your character assures Leoric that you will find his son. And when you do find his son, it is all too glorious and you look back on this quest with a greater appreciation for it.
In the quest of Ogden’s Sign, there is a lot more going on than some might realize. The first thing one might realize is that the mind of a demon is difficult to comprehend. While one could easily chalk up the stealing of a sign with a sun painted on for the sake of gaining power as a sign of stupidity, it actually proves that even lesser Carver demons are thoughtful and somewhat intelligent. It suggests that they understand the sun is something important. It is a symbol of great power (no matter how you look at the sun, and I’m going to assume that Sanctuary’s sun is like Earth’s, it is a thing of power) and these demons understand this. Even though their actions are silly, you kind of want them to succeed in their little quest to invoke the power of the sun through this sign that they’ve stolen. What we also learn through this quest is that it is common for one kind of demon to fight with another. Maybe this isn’t too surprising to learn, but what did surprise me is how Snotspill refers to those Overlords as big uglies. Do the Carvers not even know who the Overlords are? And did the Overlords take the sign because they also thought they could invoke the power of the sun with it? It’s all very interesting conjecture when you think about it.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
I’ve always wondered why in Diablo II how we didn’t get more opportunities to learn about the Sin War. But the first Diablo makes so many marvelous references to this very interesting time period. One of them is in the Valor quest where we are looking for the Valor armor that was hidden by Arkaine during the Sin War. Arkaine, Cain tells us, was the first mortal to turn the tide of the Sin War and drive many of the Burning Hells’ legions back into Hell. I’m not sure how this tidbit might conflict with the Sin War trilogy. I still have yet to read the Veiled Prophet, but I do know in the first two books there was no mention of Arkaine and this seemed unfortunate to me. I liked to think that Arkaine would be a more influential character in Diablo lore, but it would seem that his story didn’t really survive beyond the first game. At any rate, the armor itself is totally wicked looking. It was too bad though that the armor wasn’t of a more heavy set with slightly higher stats, being that it was supposedly this incredibly powerful armor.
Gharbad the Weak is possibly the most obscure side quest in this kind of game. You can’t talk to anyone in town about Gharbad. And to move the quest along, all you needed to do was go around a corner, come back and talk to Gharbad, then repeat the process until he tries killing you. I think Gharbad would probably be a tough match against average mortal, but against our hero and other Goat Men, he probably really was weak. I also sensed he was ostracized from the Goat Men community because he was so weak; probably he was incessantly ridiculed by the other Goat Men. Seems like maybe if there were such a weak link in Baal’s legions, it would probably just be exterminated. But you can’t help but wonder who gave him that title and what his story really was. Why was he there all by himself? Why was he acting so cowardly, begging you to let him live; only to eventually attack you and be easily killed? It’s the most isolated incident in the entire game next to Zhar the Mad.
What I liked about The Magic Rock quest was the implication that objects such as meteors can actually have magical properties. Or at least, they are prime objects for enchantment. The stone itself had not recently fallen to Sanctuary, but had been there for some time and was being transported to another location for further study. But the convoy that was transporting the stone fell under attack and the stone was misplaced during the process. The thing I actually remember most about this quest was the cool sound the stone made when you put it in your inventory. I would constantly put it in and out of my inventory just to hear the sound repeatedly.
On to the Chamber of Bone. What’s great about this quest, is you get it by reading a passage in a book that was quoting Diablo word for word. “Beyond the Hall of Heroes lies the Chamber of Bone. Eternal death awaits any who would seek to steal the treasures secured within this room.” This is my favorite quest to use the Infravision spell on. Cause there are tons and tons of skeletons waiting behind the door that leads to the final chamber in the chamber. And you see tons of red skeletons just waiting for you, with thousands of bones strewn about the floor. A classic pillaging quest to be sure, but the final reward was that arcane knowledge gained, or in other words the Hydra spell that was by far one of the coolest looking spells in the game. This quest also makes me laugh because it is yet another example of how useless the NPC Gillian was as is shown in this response to being asked about the Chamber of Bone, “I am afraid that I haven't heard anything about that. Perhaps Cain the Storyteller could be of some help.” Haha! She’s so useless in that game.
Halls of the Blind is one of my favorite quests in the game. It’s easy to acquire, shrift, and very rewarding. It’s not just rewarding cause of the Optic Amulet, but because you get to kill tons of those Hidden creatures that no matter how you kill them, it always ends in their decapitation. And their heads falling on the ground sounds like a tumbling plastic bottle. The purpose of the Halls of the Blind is mostly unknown. It seems like either a place that blind minions were sent to patrol, or maybe a place where you were rendered blind if you dared venture there. The Hidden themselves are servants to Diablo. So anything to do with sight, blindness and illusion would be perfect to associate with the Hidden who materialize in and out of the physical realm. Above all else, the Halls of the Blind were most likely a torture chamber dedicated to Diablo, occupied by his Hidden.
Maybe one of the most humorous quests in the Catacombs was Zhar the Mad. It’s not just funny cause of how our character replies after killing Zhar, but just cause of how you can walk around the room and whichever angle you are at, Zhar will move to watch you accordingly. You can talk to him once and he’ll give a tome if you just leave him alone. Or you can stay in that room and keep rummaging through all his shit which pisses him off. I like the idea that this Acolyte can be so caught up in his studies that he’s not even concerned that you are on your way to kill his master, Diablo. Again, I acknowledge that many of the Burning Hells’ minions are self-interested. But you would also think that if they encounter a mortal who has made it this far into the labyrinth, that that mortal probably made it that far by killing many minions. But this does not seem to occur to Zhar. Perhaps he was insane even by Hell’s standards and that was how he got his title. He was probably so insane that he was useless as an Acolyte in terms of defending Hell in any way. So they didn’t mind if he went off and studied.
By about this time is when we reach the Caves, levels 9-12. I think the Caves existed as they were with the streams of lava before Diablo ever awakened and stationed his minions there. Perhaps during when the Catacombs was an actual city on the surface, they had discovered these Caves and did a lot of mining there. It definitely looks like a place where mining would have taken place. So there are some rudimentary structures there; mostly gates and wooden sheds. When Hell’s minions arrived, they merely took advantage of the Hell-like atmosphere of the place. Flowing lava or magma seems like a common Hell characteristic, so it was merely logical for many monsters to make it an effective bastion of Hell, stopping any mortals who dared to venture so far down. Some had made it that far nonetheless. Like the slain hero where the player usually finds their first set of heavy armor.
The most significant quest in the Caves is the Anvil of Fury. Another marvelous reference to the Sin War, and is interesting for a few other tidbits as well. The more I think about why the Anvil of Fury was there, the more it occurs to me that the Anvil was probably placed there for the sake of recreating another Hellforge. If this location of the Caves was to become an serious outpost of Hell, and a location from which to launch attacks onto the surface, then it seems logical that in the center would be the place where demons’ weapons are forged. What is most interesting to me about this quest is the response of Adria in regards to the quest, “Securing the Anvil from below could shift the course of the Sin War towards the Light.” I wonder if some people in Sanctuary consider the Sin War to be over, while others consider it a continuing active campaign. It does seem by at least the time of Diablo II, the fighting between the Burning Hells and the High Heavens had moved from the covert and subterfuge methods of the Sin War to an all out battle that was eroding the all the surface of Sanctuary. Yet in the Sin War books, there seems not much covert about what is happening between order and chaos. The Great Conflict seems like an all out fight even during the Sin War. However, it is important to realize the differences of how the Sin War is portrayed in the original Diablo manual compared to the detailed accounts portrayed in the Sin War books. And so lately when I think of the Sin War, I think one might define it merely as the Great Conflict when it is being fought on a mortal plane. So there is the Great Conflict outside of Sanctuary, but when the Great Conflict’s front is in the mortal realm of Sanctuary, it is then more commonly referred to as the Sin War. Like Arkaine’s Valor, I was also a little disappointed in the stats of Griswold’s Edge. With the background story of how the Anvil of Fury was made, I really thought it would produce a more heavy duty weapon than the one we get in the game. Still a great sword at any rate though and an overall fun quest.
The Black Mushroom was always a confusing quest for me. Mainly because I could never quite figure out how a demon’s brain got involved in it. All I really remember about this quest was going back and forth between Pepin and Adria. One demanding a brain, the other a black mushroom, and then one turning you down for what you brought them depending on who first got their desired item. The reward in this quest is pretty nice though. I think it was an elixir of dexterity, or maybe it was the elixir of strength. Either way, the elixir was taking a trip to duping town.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
In Hell, we get the quest for the Warlord of Blood, whom if I’m not mistaken, is supposed to be Bartuc himself; commander of one of Hell’s legions and brother to Horazon. We don’t really get this information about him in the first game. All we really know at this time was that he was someone who fought for the Burning Hells during the time of the Sin War-another reference that the Sin War is actually over by this time. The Warlord of Blood isn’t really a demon. He doesn’t seem to be undead either. He merely seems a mortal who was made immortal overtime as he gave his humanity up to forever quench his thirst for human blood, which in turn was consistent with Hell’s aims as well. I always felt that the setting for the Warlord of Blood should have been a bit more dramatic looking, like how the Butcher’s lair appeared.
Next is Lachdanan. Another one of my favorite quests in the game. Lachdanan was one of King Leoric’s knights who fell under the curse of the king. All of the other knights who were cursed soon lost their humanity, but Lachdanan being one of the strongest and purest of heart, managed to maintain what was left of his humanity and seeked for an elixir that would free him of his curse. The quest really throws you off at first, cause you’re used to seeing this huge sword-wielding Hell Knights coming at you only to kill you. And when you first see Lachdanan, you think he might be a unique monster like the Warlord of Blood. But instead he just stands there waiting for you to talk to him. I remember feeling a bit sad when this quest was over. I was hoping Lachdanan would share some more information with me. But once you give him the Golden Elixir, he just seems eager to be on his way. The negative light radius on his helm seemed an appropriate attribute for someone who was under a curse and at risk of losing his soul. Oh, and of course we get to see once again how useless Gillian is. ” I've never heard of a Lachdanan before. I'm sorry, but I don't think that I can be of much help to you.” Haha!
The last quest besides actually hunting down Diablo is Archbishop Lazarus. I like the small scale plot that surrounds Lazarus. A corrupted priest who kidnaps the king’s son to deliver unto Diablo. And yet the implications of what such an act means, if you read all the books that you find throught the labyrinth, then the way everything seems to come full circle toward the end is much more likely to fill you with dread. There is the knowledge that Diablo tried to possess Leoric, but ultimately failed. So Lazarus was corrupted and ordered by Diablo to bring Albrecht to him. Many of the books that you find throughout the book are supposedly narrated by Lazarus. You get all these great insights into his madness and corruption. You wonder what he and the king were like before Diablo corrupted either of them. I also wondered how King Leoric did not play a larger role as one of Diablo’s guardians as opposed to just the keeper of his own crypt. So in the end, you think about the corruption of Lazarus and Leoric, two men who were once noble and good, you think about what happened to Albrecht, what happened to Tristram, and ultimately what became of the hero who sought to slay Diablo. I think what many people probably wonder about is why he felt it necessary to drive the Soulstone into his own head. I don’t actually think he really did it out of his own pride in thinking he could contain the demon. I think in the end, he realized before it was too late that he was fighting an evil beyond his comprehension and before he could escape, Diablo had already invaded his mind, compelling the hero to thrust the Soulstone into himself.
Despite the sad and extremely open-ended ending of the first Diablo, I still managed to feel pretty satisfied with the way everything ended. You have to acknowledge how incredible Blizzard is at packing in so much background to a story that you know in your heart that a sequel is definite and legitimate. Diablo felt more like a prelude as opposed to an entire game in itself. I picture if Diablo II were to be a movie, then the story of the first Diablo would be told in the form of occasional flashbacks by the Wanderer. In the opening cinematic to Diablo II, it does seem as if the game is going to feature a lot of flashbacks to the first game. But luckily for us, it goes back even further to show us pivotal moments that we only had small pieces of in the first Diablo manual. Pieces regarding Tal Rasha and the Soulstones.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Ogden says something about how the townspeople buried Leoric in a tomb, 3 levels down. I forget the rest of his dialog though. It's an interesting fact enough, but it doesn't really offer any insight as to why he is such a noobish boss.
I think you're reading a bit too far into this. As sigmund freud once said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. The same applies to the stairs in my opinion. The writers for the plot seem to be playing with different concepts in this entirely new game they had created. I doubt they ever thought it would have the popularity it did, so i doubt they spent i huge chunk of time on thinking about sequel potential. Plus, in Diablo II the way you have to enter hell being the way it is, is simple. A portal from within the sanctuary of one of the most evil beings that has ever existed is a much more exciting plot point.
By the way though, i enjoyed your analysis. It helped me to remember some of what i used to love and spend hours playing. Which lately i can barely remember the plot points.
If I remember correctly, the last set of stairs, that is going from level 15 to level 16 (which Diablo is on), isn't even a set of stairs. You click on the Pentagram and are "teleported" to level 16, yet if you go back up to level 15 from level 16, you initially ascend a staircase.
So prehaps being transported through the planes or just to another portion of the same location (Hell) is not such a farfetched concept. Though having stairs for going back up kinda kills that theory a bit.
And yes the difference between Hell (levels 13-16) in Diablo 1, and the portion of the Burning Hells you are able to enter in Diablo II are vast different.
Prehaps there is a bit of Dante's Inferno going on here. Both area are part of a larger "Hell'. In Dante's Inferno you had nine various layers of Hell, each one as different, and yeh one was a burning Hell of sorts. When creating games designers often borrow from literary works, DnD borrows the concept of the Nine Hells from Dante's Inferno, The nine layers of Baalor, or the Nine Hells. It could be possible BLizzard has done a similiar thing here with the two different Hells present in the two games, whether intentionally or simply by not being consistant. Though no character makes mention of another portion of Hell other than the Burning Hells. Either they say Hell or Burning Hells, at least that I can recall.
Yeah, and I think we have to assume a bit that the stairs is just there for consistent gameplay design, that it had no bearing on the nature of the location of level 16.
I think even in Diablo lore it has been alluded to that there are many different layers (or planes) of Hell. It doesn't always need to be fire and brimstone. I would imagine Andariel's realm has little fire in it at all.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Yes, it would lead you to believe he is in the cathedral at the top of the village, it has the tall bell tower and same design, yet he appears to be on the first floor. But then again it is just a cinematic, such discrepiencies in games are not uncommon.
I've always thought there were more layers to the diablo universe's Hell, but without a dialog or excerpt from a book to prove it I can't be sure.
Then the Hell in the first Diablo seems more decked out in blood and guts then fire and brimstone. And we know that Andariel hates fire so one can imagine that her realm might be totally devoid of any fire at all.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Different parts of Hell, there has to be. Take the City of the Damned for example; it looks completely different to the River of Flame.
I found that quote from Arreats-Summit when looking at the description of Uber Izual (thought it might mention his location in hell), and it looks like there is different parts of Heaven aswell. Note that its called the "Underworld"... Damn these inconsistencies!
You said that the Sorcerer from Diablo1 thirsted for Diablo's death more so than the natural Vijzerei thirst for demonic knowledge. But what about after Diablo is slain and that Sorcerer supposedly is the one who finds the Arcane Sanctuary (In search for demon knowledge or escape from corruption?).
Was demonic knowledge his primary motive for killing Diablo? Personally I'd have to say yes, but thats just my opinion
I like the part about the Butcher... Utilizing his position for "fresher meat"
As far as the portals to hell go. I think they just altered the 'theme' of hell from one game to another. At first it was the more traditional view with Hell being the center of the Earth and then in Diablo II it changed to being a different 'dimension'
I completely forgot bout Arkaine, and I still havent read the Sin War books but its a shame that he was never mentioned
The Sorcerer in my opinion merely managed to stave off his corruption and/or defeat longer than the other Sorcerers because his motives became more focused on destroying evil rathern than studying. But in the end, he would still succumb to corruption.
That's certainly one way to look at hit. Perhaps he was even self-interested beyond his order, for the sake of himself he wanted to learn more about Diablo. When he was not satisfied with the events surrounding Tristram, he made his way to Lut Gholein in search of the Arcane Sanctuary. Still corrupted by then, of course.
The player I think definitely has to come up with his own explanation for it since the game does little to explain how this entrance to Hell is even possible.
As supposedly the first mortal to turn the tide in the Sin War, you can't help but wonder why he isn't mentioned in the Sin War trilogy at least once. If someone has read the Veiled Prophet, perhaps you can at least tell me if here is mentioned in it.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Heh, sorry. Had to do it.
Not bad for a second post. Funny
And as for the warrior sticking that soul stone into his head which seems extremely painfull... I would think the most likely explanation is that he was corrupted badly because he fought so deep in the bowels of the earth that Diablo was able to get to him- or at least get to him enough so that sticking a soul stone in your head seems like a good idea
and as for the stairs going directly into hell. Perhaps it was an outpost on sanctuary and not hell itself. Or it was simply a gateway to hell.. like the one in the dark road (diablo book) where a guy walks through an ancient door and all of a sudden he is in hell. There was no portal at all in this case just a door in a mountainside which led to hell. Very similiar to the one in diablo 1, it seems because in the book they had to tunnel to get to it.
Also, having just finished the Diablo books myself (i have already made a topic about this but i want to bring it up again) i am very dissapointed about how the Angels are portrayed. Inarius most of all... In no way were the angels ever supposed to be like that if you follow the lore that the diablo games themselves laid down. I do not like what the books have done. How ironic is it that the 'true' good guys are actually Necromancers.. LOL i actually laughed when it occured to me that both angels and demons are more evil than necromancers... sigh... I hate how inarius wants to simply blow up sanctuary and the demons want to control it and torture everyone... So basically would you rather live and suffer or die lol? I like the traditional sense of good vs evil that the diablo games put down. Angels = good, and demons = bad. Humans would allign themselves with which ever side best suited them. Those seeking power would probably go with the demons where as those seeking a peaceful world would go with the Angels..
I also hate the idea of nephalem... not only is the name gay sounding.. (i know it was taken from the Hebrew language meaning gigantic stature and superhuman strength) but again it just doesnt fit with what the diablo games were about. How is it possible that humans being mortal are stronger that angels and demons... that makes no sense at all...
damn im actually starting to dislike the story A LOT after reading the books. I loved the lore set down in the games but the bookks just ruined it for me.
anyways here is a little video on the sin war which takes the talking from Diablo 1 and puts it into a pretty cool video. I really enjoyed it
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hO43UYJonRo
this one is for a diablo movie and i think its pretty cool (assuming you havent already seen it) http://youtube.com/watch?v=BXyMgRMLrVg&feature=related
As Kashya put it, "My Rogue scouts have just reported an abomination in the Monastery graveyard! Apparently, Andariel is not content to take only our living. Blood Raven, one of our finest captains in the battle against Diablo at Tristram, was also one of the first to be corrupted by Andariel."
Then Charsi, "Blood Raven was the leader of a Rogue band that once fought Diablo at Tristram."
Then Akara goes on to say, "Blood Raven fought valiantly against Diablo in the catacombs beneath Tristram... She was never quite the same afterwards. It is now obvious she brought an evil influence back with her."
Then Charsi again, "Akara felt something was wrong even before Andariel descended upon us. She feared that Blood Raven had stumbled upon some evil force beneath Tristram. I wish we had acted then."
Then for the Sorcerer possibly being the False Summoner, Jerhryn first says, "There was an eastern mage... a Vizjerei, I believe... who visited me almost a year ago. He was very interested in the history of this site, and he seemed particularly fascinated with the palace architecture. I gave him a tour. When he found the ancient seals over a passageway in the cellar, he became very agitated. He asked for some time alone to study them, and I granted it. Shortly after, he left with no further word and I never saw him again. Odd... Don't you think?"
Then something Drognan said, "Yes... The man you speak of sounds like the mage who came here many months ago. He claimed to have fought Diablo in the passages beneath Tristram. No doubt the fool wandered into Horazon's Sanctuary and lost whatever was left of his ravaged mind. He is beyond salvation. It is possible that the fool has been possessed by the spirit of Horazon. If that's true, then you'd better put an end to his tortured existence. Once done, I believe the demons who were summoned and imprisoned within the Sanctuary will cease to exist as well."
Then there's Cain's comment, "The appearance of the mage you describe sounds like one I met back in Tristram. Many Vizjerei came to fight against Diablo, the Lord of Terror. Perhaps, this is one of them. You know, fate seems to have frowned upon all of the heroes who confronted that terrible Evil. Take care or the same may happen to you."
And so I think I've supported my theory well enough.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs