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An Examination of Diablo III and it's plot.


An Examination of Diablo III and it's plot.

Part 1: Background:

So, the sequel to the almighty RPG title Diablo 2 has finally been announced, Blizzard has been unusually mysterious about the plot giving us virtually nothing to go off of, except some remarkably provocative artwork and a cinematic trailer. Here's what we got from them (Blizzard.)

-Set 20 yrs after Diablo 2
-There will be returning NPCs (Cain, Tyrael)
-Meteor's are the harbringers of doom, one just crashed into the cathedral at Tristram where Diablo himself once stood.
-Tyrael is being punished (confirmed)
-Hell was expected to attack as soon as the worldstone was destroyed
-Hell has not
-Hell is just beginning to come up (from where the worldstone once stood)
-The Sin War trilogy of books is considered canon
-Most hero's played in Diablo 2 have gone insane from the horrors of Hell.
-One new NPC we know is a young woman named Leah who has a direct relationship with Cain, probably apprentice or something. There's artwork further in the article to confirm this.
-The destruction of the Worldstone will have massive ramifications.

Before I continue, I must reiterate the history of the world of Sanctuary and related issues.

In the beginning, there was the Heavens and Hell. Quite obviously, by definition of their nature, they could not coexist, and so began the Great conflict. The leadership in heaven consisted of 5-6 archangels including Inarius (the beautiful,) Tyrael (archangel of Justice,) and Imperius (Archangel of war.) Hell was ruled by the three prime evils, Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo, and the four lesser evils (Duriel, Andariel, Beliel, and, Azmodan.)

After the Great conflict had continued for incomprehensible amounts of time, Inarius, and some of his followers as well as certain demons grew tired of the war and created Sanctuary (aka Earth.) To hide it from the powers of Heaven and Hell Inarius stole the worldstone from Heaven which somehow possessed the ability to hide the entire place from both powers. Through this partnership of Angels and Demons the first generation of mankind came to be, the Nephalem, were giant angel/demon hybrids of power exceeding that of both Demons and angels. Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto and lover of Inarius disagreed with her husband here, she wanted to make the Nephalem into an unstoppable army, whereas Inarius wanted nothing but lowly slaves to worship him. To protect the Nephalem Lilith killed every last Demon or Angel in Sanctuary save only Inarius and herself. Inarius could not bear the thought of no one else on his planet, nor could he stand the idea of the Nephalem, so he modified the worldstone to slowly drain their energy by generation till they lost nearly all they're power and turned into mortal humans. By rather unimportant events Inarius was captured by Mephisto and was promptly tortured, had his skin stretch out to a bloated form, was chained in a room of mirrors and his eyelids were torn out so he is being forced to stare at his destroyed self in the room of mirrors for all eternity. Like I said, the events leading up to this were unimportant, the result itself is possibly vital.

In the future, the Prime evils were banished to the mortal realm, from hell, where they were captured by the Horadrim mages led by the archangel Tyrael in the soulstones which were then spread across the world, Unfortunately, in Diablo 1, Diablo spreads his influence out of his stone, corrupts the local royalty and is reincarnated. You kill him and drive the soulstone into your head in the belief you are strong enough to contain him, well you aren't. He corrupts you and is again reincarnated after freeing his two brothers, Mephisto, and Baal from they're own prisons. You kill them all and Smash both Mephisto and Diablo's soulstone in Diablo 2.

Note: I would like to clarify something, Baal's soulstone was not destroyed, because it wouldn't do anything if it was. His stone was a mere shard of what is once was, due to it's having been cracked in the battle with the
Horadrim. Because of it's weakness, Tal-Rasha, leader of the Horadrim, allowed himself to be chained under the desserts and the stone was driven into his chest, so he could contain it in his tomb for all eternity. To simplify, Baal's soulstone was a fragment, it could never contain him, so destroying it wouldn't really kill him, although it would hurt him pretty bad, as he seemed to need it to reincarnate himself in his true form. What's likely though is he totally revoked his dependence on it using it more as an aid than a soul carrier. His essence may be somewhere in the world, but it took Daiblo hundreds of years to spread his influence out of his stone, so it's unlikely we'll see Baal making a major presence in Diablo 3.

Part 2: Debatable questions

So, now your caught up, we can start the article, I plan to cover the following subjects in no particular order.

1) What was the meteor in Tristram? What signifigance does it bear?
2) Is Tyrael corrupted or what?
3) Who are the real bad guys?
4) What are the ramifications of the destruction of the worldstone
5) What about the Nephalem, Lilith, and Inarius?
6) Where are the brothers?
7) What does Izuals speech mean (and other prophecies?)
8) What is Ureh, and how does it tie into everything else.
9) Will Imperius show up, what are his intentions? (includes analysis of new artwork.)

What was the meteor in Tristram? What signifigance does it bear?

Be ready for a barrage of images, references, and captions:



(Sorry about image quality.) All you need to see is there's a meteor, and it's headed straight towards the tallest building in town, the Tristram cathedral.)



There's a closeup (taken from cinematic trailer.) Notice the black tentacle looking things coming all around it, I think those are signifigant because they appear in every image of this meteor.



This is just to assure everyone it actually is the cathedral at Tristram, classic fans will recognize this as the entrance to the church in Diablo 1.



Here's the meteor just a second before it impacts, notice that it is actually inside the church. The red box is to point out a mysteriously crouched-human like shape right under it. The flame-red clothes appear to be Leah's



Here's a different view, same thing, but this is important, notice all my red circles, the Hydra name was one of the codenames for diablo 3 pre-announcement, and it may be the name of this artwork. (A hydra is a multiheaded, (3-7) mythological, dragon, like creature.) The person standing there is obvious, she's not Cain, proof in later art. Next, I'm not circling the frame number or anything, I'm circling the Chandelier. Keep that image in mind. It will be referred to. Also note the (uncircled) style of architecture in the arches, that will also be referred to as a referance point.



This is a view looking up from inside the whole, notice our circled friend looking down, apparently, it's been a few seconds for her to have recovered from narrowly dodging a meteor.



Stumbling on the brink of a meteor (excuse me, meteorite now) induced hole. This makes it clear (to anyone who may have thought otherwise) that it was Leah the whole time at this meteor impact, not Cain.



This is where it gets fascinating, you can tell this is still the church, by the architecture, and based on later images he's risen out of the hole and is still rising. This is NOT Tyrael. Tyrael does not wear a helm with wings, or a robe like that. More why it's not Tyrael coming up, but I would like to point out the flaming red wings don't mean anything, he just fell out of heaven in a flaming meteor. Notice though, that he does in fact have tentacles, that shows he's an archangel, regular angels (like Hadriel) only have wings, not tentacles.



Different image, actually, you can see his wings are more tangerine flavored now.



This is really vital, it seems to confirm the identity of this angel, but first you must know about the Angiris Council. They make up the five archangels, each of which has they're own paticular characteristics (all listed at bottom of article.) Anyway, one thing they don't mention there, that is mentioned in the books (I haven't actually read them, this is just what MedievalDragon (credit) told me) is that all the archangels have their own emblems, if you will, and the emblem of Imperius is an upturned sword, and blazing red armor, he wanted to destroy Sanctuary and is probably the archangel of war. So, notice the upturned sword on his chest which has appeared after his armor has apparently been stripped off him. So the archangel of war who wanted to destroy the world has come blazing down on top of the Cathedral at Tristram in a meteor the hole of which he has been ascending from as his tentacles seem to burn and his armor is disappearing off him. We've seen the archangel of justice fight, think what metaphorical Hell the Archangel of War could raise. But why Tristram? There are three possibilities.

1)He is after Cain for some reason (remember, Blizzard said Cain may be the first victim of the new evil, he may be corrupted and be trying to be stopped from doing something.)

2)He is there because of Diablo's former presence (looking for way into Hell maybe.)

3)The cathedral was first a Horadrim location, the Horadrim
know more of angels and Demons than any other mortals, they were warrior mages, not just intellectuals like Cain. They may have been interested in church archives or artifacts or something.

4) He is after Tyrael. Tyrael's appearance there will be confirmed shortly.

Now I need to backtrack and show you the sketch that was at the beginning of this series of images.




There's two angels here, Imperius (the ascending angel) and Tyrael, who you can tell by the hooded face, distinct armor design, and flowing cloak behind him. Remember, Tyrael is the one his disobeyed heaven continually to protect humanity, if someone was to come to punish his refugee self, it would be Imperius who wanted to destroy Sanctuary when it was first discovered. Another solid possibility is that he was actually after Tyrael, who was in Tristram, trying to contact Cain for something. It's not wild speculation tha Tyrael could be in Tristram, just look at
this.



(Image from diablofans.com, speculation by me)

It's difficult to read the writing, but the last slide is all you need, given below.

Meteor beams fill background with a bright golden light creating a strong rimlight on cain
Candles blowing out leaves Cain's front in shade, seen completing the shift from warm foreground/cool background to cool foreground/warm background.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml

Anyway, Golden light is the key, that's Tyrael's thing, the color gold, even if there is meteor light you can just tell it's not a streak of flaming rock light, it a aura of an angel light. Coupled with the sketch, we can safely say Tyrael was here (More evidence later.) Probably to contact Cain, but why would he want to contact Cain? Either Cain is in danger, and Tyrael is obligated to protect him as the last of the Horadrim (which he said he would in Act IV,) or he's here to stop (or contact) Imperius (or something I just can't conceive of.)

Now anyway, back to the ascending angel.



This one is heavily photoshopped so you can still see him, otherwise, he hardly looks there. It appears that the blazing light on his wings is consuming him.... Like he's losing archangeldom.



This has just been photoshopped to oblivion, but after some black highlighting, you can see he's still in there, he himself is not getting killed or anything, but his tentacles seem to be goners. Without photoshopping it's just a flash, you can look for your self at the blizzard artwork page.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2299/morningafternj9.jpgp

No real lore in this, giant hole from the meteor in the now burnt-to-a-crisp church, the morning after, Imperius has go to have one heck of a divine hangover.



You remember I told you to remember the chandelier and arches? Well here they are, and there's Tyrael, front page and no one noticed that Tyrael was in the church at Tristram. That's all the proof you need, Tyrael was there, Blizzard wouldn't use the same chandelier and arches if they didn't mean it.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#42

This could be Imperius post tentacle burn, you can see his face a little, whereas Tyrael's is invisible, he appears to have war gear on, and you can see he has what appears to be a sword hilt in his hand. Notice the lack of tentacles

OR

It's just some random basic angel warrior artwork in case we're going to be fighting them, this is what we're up against.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#48

Last one, this is important. It is clearly Tyrael, (gold armor, based on how his fists are clenched and how he's rising, and how his tentacles are red tipped, he seems to be taking something hard from somebody, being stripped of archangeldom perhaps, or some other punishment, keep in mind in the sketch I linked above, Tyrael had a disturbing lack of tentacles. Notice the glyphs on the ground, those are important, you can see one's cut out of the screen, so total there would be five, the number of the Angiris council. I'm speculating that each glyph is the emblem of an archangel, either Imperius' upturned sword is missing, or it is the image on the top left, which if viewed correctly could look like an upturned sword.



Rotated 138 degrees , that's how it would look if you stood above and behind it, like a glowing upturned sword.

Is Tyrael corrupted or what?

I do not believe Tyrael is corrupted, the main argument that he was he whole meteor thing, but now it seems more likely that it was Imperius being cast out. It's been argued that some energy/shard from the worldstone got to him and acted like a soulstone in terms of corruption, and Blizzard kind of hinted that he might have been affected. Being affected and corrupted are totally different though, affected implies harm, not instant transformation.

No real solid evidence, from here down to next section

A plot in classic Blizzard style would be that Tyrael was infected with evil, if you will, and for helping humanity/destroying worldstone/corruption has been out of heaven. Then, Imperius shows up then to destroy Sanctuary in order to prevent Hell's conquest of it, which would give them an advantage over heaven, and Tyrael has faith in mortal warriors enough to prevent an invasion so he becomes an outcast, battling both Heaven and Hell while struggling with his inner evil until he dies saving Humanity and putting his soul at rest from battling the evil within. Classic Blizzard, I have some minor support, nothing concrete, but I could see Tyrael having some corruption issues, but I can almost insure you he won't be the main bad guy, his cause is too tragic, Kerrigan and Arthas were something but Tyrael is different, especially with the whole potential of Imperius as bad angel.

As we want to allow Roland to add more to his article,

Discuss the Article here:

http://www.sc2armory.com/forums/topic/2847/

Who are the real bad guys?

I do not believe Diablo will be in Diablo 3. Why?

http://kotaku.com/5020721/the-man-behind-diablo-iii-talks-plot-lore-and-battlenet

...the brothers are gone, they've been vanquished.

Saying Diablo was killed is one thing, but say they're gone, then repeating that they've been vanquished (a very) is entirely different. Not to mention that at the WWI one of the developers mentioned he may not be in it.

Even if Diablo and his brothers did return, it wouldn't change the story, it would just change the boss fights, Diablo or whatever demon is taking over have the same motives and goals, just different looks. So that leaves a few questions. Who is the bad guy this time around, who was that 3 headed demon we saw in the trailer, and why is Diablo out.

Well, Belial/Azmodan/Imperius are probably the bad guys, they're in the position for it. I also expect Lilith to return, the pandemonium event was not considered canon and there are several artwork images of some sort of female demon, most notably the one linked below. The face in stone may be Lilith, and the giant skeletons may be dead Nephalem she's trying to resurrect now that the worldstone is gone and nothing will drain them. I really expect this in fact, the artwork link is pitifully underexamined.



Not to mention the artwork which looks mysteriously exactly like Inarius' description, check blizzard.com, he's all chained up and big and sad looking. Inarius was Lilith's parter the union of which produced the Nephalem. Keep reading, I have some interesting idea about him later.



Notice, this demon does not have three heads, it has three mouths, that's a major distinction. Three heads implies that it could be three entities in one body. It would also imply all the hydra notes apply to it. They don't Hydra's have three head's not mouths. It has been argued that the apparent scar on his forehead proves he is Diablo, as only Diablo had a soulstone mark there. That theory is flawed by definition. Diablo never had a scar, the body of the Dark Wander which Diablo occupied had a scar there. If Diablo made a return it would be straight from the Dark Abyss where his soul vanished to when the soulstone, his anchor in the world was destroyed. He would come as a spirit, not having a body to be scarred. I admit this could be the hydra, but it's doubtful, and whose to say what the signifigance of the Hydra really is? One idea is that the demon has 3 mouths so he can tell more lies, which would indicate that he is Beliel, lord of lies. Maybe 3 mouths for more lies wouldn't be practical, but it would be great imagry.

Once you get to the speculation part of this article I have some interesting theories.

One question begs to be asked though, why take the classic demon out? I think they just don't want to have the same old go to Hell kill Diablo story, it's boring to have the same villain every time, especially if you actually kill him every time. Besides, the whole Kotaku article, and if Diablo returned you would have four-five main enemies.

3) What are the ramifications of the destruction of the worldstone

I'll be brief. The worldstone had been for generations sucking the energies out of the Nephalem, quite possibly storing them the whole time, the worldstone also protected Sanctuary from Heaven and Hell giving them only very limited access. The worldstone was destroyed with Tyrael standing right in front of it. Tyrael had to destroy the worldstone because it was corrupted, it's generally agreed upon that a corrupted worldstone
would give Hell access to Sanctuary but keep Heaven out, so Tyrael destroyed it to even things up. Hell could invade Sanctuary, but it didn't for twenty years. The best three explanations I can give is that, they simply couldn't because Beliel and Azmodan were still fighting, they were held off by some force (Tyrael?) or they were waiting for the right time, when the meteor struck, possibly bringing with it something that would help them (intentionally or not). Anyway, Tyrael was probably affected by the Nephalem energy blast from the worldstone and may have been harshly punished. What's more, those same energies could be introduced to humanity again as the slowly regain they're old powers, more likely though, is that the artwork of two giant skeletons I posted above is the Nephalem somehow being revived by their own energies which are reenergizing them under the control of Lilith, they're mother. Who wanted nothing more than an unstoppable army to destroy both Heaven and Hell.

5) What about the Nephalem, Lilith, and Inarius?

Lilith has not been seen for 3000 years and has been apparently trapped in the Dark Abyss. She was supposed to be virtually dead to the world, but I believe that her, or someone like her is returning to raise the Nephalem largely because of this artwork.



Note: I'd like to state a theory here which would support the giant skeletons being Nephalem, who have not otherwise been depicted as giant. The Nephalem are hugely varied as we can tell based simply on the two we've seen, Rathma, and Bul'kathos. Rathma was tall, maybe 7 feet tall and had solid black skin, not just dark or brown like real African's but straight, true black, she was essentially the first Necromancer. Bul'Kathos, however, was essentially the opposite, he was the ultimate Barbarian, huge, strong, white and massively powerful. The Sorcerer and Sorceress from Diablo 1 and 2 were also likely members of a faction founded by a Nephalem, meaning some of them were also very adept of magic. All this variety seems to indicate a trend that whatever attribute or trait you can see in any human could be easily multiplied, advanced, perfected, and maximized in a Nephalem. So simply a large human could be an indication of absolutely giant Nephalem.

Two giant skeletons, the female face carved in stone, the liquids being poured in, all seem to point to the Nephalem and I don't think any female but Lilith would try to raise her (Lilith's) children, If that isn't Lilith her motives are the same, just a different name. I believe it is Lilith though because of the artwork below.

[img] http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#20[/img]


This seems to depict Inarius, who was chained in Mephisto's realm, had his skin drawn, his wings plucked and his eyelids torn out to force him to stare at himself forever. This artwork fairly well meets that description, and as Inarius was the father of the Nephalem, he goes hand-in-hand with Lilith one of them probably wouldn't return without the other. Now, Inarius wanted to destroy them in the first place, but after 3000 years of a former angel staring at himself in the lair of Hatred incarnate (which quite possibly has changed him to be a awfully hateful person, like Diablo made king Leoric mad with Terror) he probably has nothing on his mind than destroying hell that did this to him and heaven which he can surely blame for something. So his goals are to destroy everything, Lilith plans to conquer everything, they're children are an unstoppable army, we've got an enemy. Don't think that because humans are former Nephalem they'll get any privlege's to Lilith they are pitiful, weak, and useless. Inarius almost certainly views them essentially the same, even though he created them, they no longer fit his agenda. The Nephalem themselves probably view humans as little more than slugs comparatively.

Where are the brothers? (prime evils)

Old answer

http://kotaku.com/5020721/the-man-behind-diablo-iii-talks-plot-lore-and-battlenet

"...the brothers are gone, they've been vanquished."

Diablo and Mephisto:

That's the simple answer. They're gone and vanquished. More complicated though is that they're probably in the dark abyss, where souls beyond heaven and hell go. His anchor has been destroyed and he's drifted into the nothingness of the abyss.

Baal:

Baal is more interesting his soulstone was never strong enough to hold him, hence Tal-Rasha's sacrifice. He only took it from Marius to regain any portion of his soul that may have remained in it, his unification allowed his total transformation into is true form as seen in Act V. His body exclusively contained his soul afterwards though, so when you killed him, you might as well have destroyed his soulstone, his soul was lost just like Mephisto and Diablo's.

Note: Make no mistake, in terms of lore, I believe Lilith is and she's coming form the same place, the worldstone may have opened a path for them somehow, but I still do not believe they will.

New Answer: [/b]

Simply put, if Blizzard follows the lore and lets it guide the story, Diablo will return, if they follow their usual tendencies and just make the story up, to make it more epic, and make excuses for the loose ends, then it's impossible to tell, whatever they think will be most interesting for the players.

I think Blizzard will do whatever it is they want to do, but reading their collective mind isn't what I'm here to do, down to the lore of why Diablo would return.

Stebo88 pointed out that the only time we saw Diablo's soulstone being destroyed was in a cinema, as dictated by Marius, who was drunken, insane, and not present at the events he was describing. He said he [i]heard that the stone was destroyed, and as we know from Blizzard, the events of Diablo 2 were disregarded by most of the world as false, so any news Marius may have heard may easily have been inaccurate.

The best counter-argument I have is that in Cain's journal on Blizzard.com he says that the soulstone was destroyed, unlike Marius, Cain was there, and Cain is reliable. The only way the destruction of the soulstone could have not happened is if the Hero himself faked it, and I doubt that, the hero in Diablo games are essentially grunts, that and the Barbarian is returning, even though in terms of canon it was a group of heros who killed Diablo, the barbarian probably would have known about it.

So anyway, Diablo could still return, he's not dead, he just gone to the void and it's totally possible to return from the void. According to the Arreat Summit Izual even did the same at one point. The destruction of the Worldstone could have had a kind of snowballing effect even, like breaking the borders between Heaven and Hell rolls over and opens up the void.

One more thing, I'll go into more detail later, but Ureh is a city between Heaven, Hell, and Sanctuary, possibly a place like the void where the Brothers are is, probably not the same though, as the faded Ureh can be almost glimpsed while in Sanctuary. Diablo is responsible for them being there, he may have planned it so that he and his brothers could drift into Ureh, then have Ureh be pulled back into Sanctuary (something which would be possible, as we know simply by the fact that if it can go one way, it can probably come back, if it does come back it could take the brothers with it.

What does Izuals speech mean (and other prophecies?)

All underlined below is taken directly from the wiki.

By Mephisto:
"And the evil that was once vanquished shall rise anew. Wrapped in the 'guise of man, shall He walk amongst the innocent and Terror shall consume they that dwell upon the Earth. The skies shall rain fire, and the seas will become as blood. The righteous shall fall before the wicked, and all of Creation shall tremble before the burning standards of Hell."

This is from the cinema right before Hell where Diablo transforms to his true form. I believe it to be a prophecy for reasons soon to be revealed, but only a modified excerpt making it more of a prediction than a prophecy. Assuming it is true that Diablo will not return in Diablo 3 it was a false prediction, because it specifically refers to Terror (who was totally gotten rid of,) doing all this burning and devastating., so that part about terror is impossible, the only possible validity is that fire from heaven, and the bruning standards of hell, which could both refer to parts of Diablo 3, like the meteor (fire) and burning standards (invasion.)

Unknown man:

This is from the original Diablo 2 trailer, wether Blizzard meant to incorporate it into Diablo 3's plot, it sure fits the current concepts.

"And the evil that was once vanquished shall rise anew. Wrapped in the guise of man, shall He walk amongst the innocent and Terror shall consume they that dwell upon the Earth. Behold, the war amongst the Heavens shall not be contained and the sons of man shall be engulfed in the flood of conflict, and all hope shall be lost unto them. And He shall make war upon the Heavens, and the Heavens shall gird themselves as for battle. The righteous shall fall upon the wicked and lay siege to the very gates of Hell. And He shall take peace from mankind and loose great Destruction upon the Earth. The Lord of Hatred shall ascend his throne, and the fires of Hell shall devour all. And He shall mete out his vengeance upon all flesh. The blood of innocence shall run as great torrents. Who then shall be saved?"

The first part is evidence that Mephisto was speaking a prophecy, but the bolded parts are all that's really important.

First off, who is "he?" I'll say it's Diablo because he is the lord of all the prime evils and the only real subject of Diablo 2. It's pretty clearly not referring to Diablo 2, as nothing concerning the heavens mentioned in it actually occurred, with the meteor and all though, I'm confidant it's referring to Diablo 3. So this is virtual confirmation of Heavens involvement in the coming sequel.

There other prophecies most notably the amazon's who believed that once the Prim Evils were defeated humanity would ascend to their full power equal to angels and demons. This is great evidence for the Nephalem.

The Barbarians also had a prophecy only part of which I will post.

Their (The prime Evils) defeat would be illusory-that the final gambit had yet to be played..."

That's just blatantly saying that more strife and warfare is inevitable.
"Tyrael was a fool to have trusted me!
You see, it was I who told Diablo and his Brothers about the Soulstones and how to corrupt them. It was I who helped the Prime Evils mastermind their own exile to your world. The plan we set in motion so long ago cannot be stopped by any mortal agency. Hell, itself, is poised to spill forth into your world like a tidal wave of blood and nightmares. You and all your kind... are doomed."

This is a quote from Izual, after you've killed him and spoken to his spirit. There is nothing so fascinating to me as the bolded part, they planned their own exile, and this was said after you killed Mephisto which should have botched any plan they had, so it was intended for you to do exactly as you did. The only thing this got the Prime Evils was the destruction of the worldstone, which will allow Hell's invasion and the rebirth of the Nephalem. So that was planned, it's your call what they planned beyond that, it's totally open-ended.

8) What is Ureh and how does it tie into everything?

Just as a quick summery, Ureh was a city from the Sin War and the home of most of the most powerful living mages. They tried to move the whole city to Heaven via a portal. Diablo, however had a devious masterminding scheme to ruin the spell, he did so, and he screwed them over and they moved instead to a kind of grey area between Heaven, Hell, and Sanctuary. It's not quite the dark void as evidenced by the people of the city still being somewhat visible but more like shades than actual people. I highly recommend this thread for more info.

http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12728

The images there are clear enough evidence, plus the new wallpaper is titled Ureh.

So why would you, as the hero, even need to go there? Well, either you are going to gather some goods for whatever reason, in a city of the most powerful mages, there are bound to be some interesting artifacts. Better yet though, something is coming from there. I'm sure it's not an army of Heaven or Hell because we've seen both angels and demons come in their own way. The only thing really signifigant that is in neither Heaven nor Hell is Diablo and his brothers, they're in the void. So it is possible that they could somehow get into Ureh, and use it as a stepping stoen back to Sanctuary. The only way they could accomplish this is either to reactivate the portal which did this to Ureh in the first place, or their grand scheme is to have someone in Sanctuary reverse the spell and bring Ureh back with the brother's hitching a ride, whether the people resummoning Ureh will know Diablo is there or not is totally speculative. Now, of course it is highly speculative that Ureh and the Void are close enough together that Diablo could use it, but we do know that Diablo does have a grand scheme which has not yet come to fruitation, and we also know that he is responsible for putting Ureh where it is, so yeah, it's totally possible.

9) Will Imperius show up, what are his intentions?

Yes, Imperius will show up, and he plans to destroy Sanctuary, or at the very least, massacre every human, demon, and Nephalem on it.

Explanation: Now the whole meteor thing is enough evidence that he'll be returning, but this new artwork just about confirms it.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#55

I'll prove it's Imperius, thrice (as in three times.) First off look at him physically, he has gleaming red wings, and the silhouette has armor, the very same armor as in the image below, of Imperius in the meteor. The tentacles are just as they should be, as in they are red, which Imperius' would probably have. The inconsistency in the meteor images and in this new artwork can be credited to us knowing virtually nothing about Angel's physical characteristics. They could quite possibly change form and color at a whim, or it could be that flying in a metoer to Earth has adverse affects.



Ok, secondly, look at the so-called alter he's standing in, it's an upturned sword. It's obviously ornamental, though, it's not like Imperius is standing a giant real sword. The sword itself is like impressionistic art, it just guides your thoughts instead of simply showing you an image.

[b]More importantly though, you remember the artwork with Tyrael, and how he seemed to be lifting up, and in pain, and so on,

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/artwork.xml#48

well that's not important, what is important is that he is being lifted in the middle of five glyphs on the ground, only four of which we can see. I believe each glyph represents a member of the Angris council, and each glyph is the emblem of it's given angel, like an upturned sword is of Imperius, one of the images looked like an upturned sword to me, neither it or the alter/sword in the new artwork appear to be real practical swords you would take into battle, but they are different from a real sword in the same way. Observe.



That's the glyph, you know what the alter thing looks like, so anyway notice the blade, it's narrow then all of a sudden it bulks out and becomes bigger. The same in both.

Part 3: Summery:

Now twenty-five pages in I owe you all a brief summery in case you missed something. I'll proceed by briefly answering the seven questions I brought up previously.

1) The meteor had in it Imperius and probably is a harbringer of a war of Heaven on Sanctuary, Tyrael was also around the church when it struck.

2) Tyrael is most likely not corrupted yet, it would be boring to have things that clear cut, though he may very well be struggling with evil inside of him, much like the wanderer between Diablo 1 and 2.

3) Inarius, Lilith, Beliel, Azmodan, and Imperius are probably the real threats here. It is likely the Nephalem will be in it and there may be a female demon instead of Lilith

4) The destruction of the Worldsotne probably wounded Tyrael, allowed the rebirth of the Nephalem, the possible return of Lilith, and the invasion of both Heaven and Hell.

5) The Nephalem, Inarius, and Lilith are all probably returning to wreak havoc and destroy everybody.

6) The brothers can return, but only if Blizzard wants them to.

7) The prophecies all failed to bring forth new info, just confirm, except Izual's speech which seemed to indicate that everything was planned, including the apparent defeat of the Prim Evils.

8) Ureh is a city between Heaven, Hell and Sanctuary. Speculation below.

9)Imperius is back, and he's going to try to destroy everything.

So that's the basis for the plot speculation to come.

Speculation

This is extradinarily complicated, there are nearly limitless amounts of possibilities, so here are is my best theory that doesn't conflict with any of the facts that have been discovered throughout the article.

(Full) Theory 1:

Now Demons are beginning to pour out of the worldstone crater and assaulting Harrogath (supported by footage in cinematic trailer.) Meanwhile the supposed Imperius has crashed into the New Tristram Cathedral where he has been undergone some kind of metamorphasis transforming him into his true form, the demon with 3 mouths, Beliel, lord of lies. Beliel's abilities probably include the ability to deceive anyone and anything via lying, transforming etc. etc..The
more mouths the more lies can be told is the idea there. He infiltrated Heaven as Imperius and now is coming down to Earth either by his own choice or has been found out, and Tyrael has arrived (supported by artwork) in the cathedral to stop whatever it is he's there, probably related to Cain. The armies of Hell are invading because whatever it was Beliel was doing up there he has accomplished giving them a better chance at taking Sanctuary in one fell swoop, if Hell controlled Sanctuary there would be nothing stopping them just destroying Heaven, which may be the Prime Evils grand plan. Thankfully, Lilith has her own ideas, either she or someone else has freed Inarius (supported by artwork) and together they are reviving their children and have no intention of letting Hell get a handle on their world. Together with the beginnings of their unstoppable army a free for all between divine powers starts out, with you probably fighting with Tyrael to save Sanctuary from Heaven, Hell, and The Nephalem. Tyrael would want to do this because he obviously values Humanity, which everyone is out to kill, possibly even Lilith as she may view them as abominable mutations of her formerly wonderful children. So Tyrael and you go out to save humanity, which can be viewed as a balancing force between all the powers at stake, this second Sin War will be forced to end if all the leaders of all the powers are killed by an outside force, like humanity.

Theory 2:

This is more of a clarification of the concept that the meteor had Beliel is disguise as Imperius, all use a timeline to make myself clear.

Diablo 2: Lod ends -- something happens to Imperius allowing Beliel to infiltrate Heaven in his guise -- Beliel finishes his job, and either leaves, or is cast out of Heaven -- Whatever he did allows the armies of Hell to invade (as they began to do at the same time Beliel was exiting Heaven -- Beliel lands in Tristram where Tyrael is trying to stop him -- Beliel undergoes Metamorphasis turning into his true form -- the three headed demon.

So meanwhile Lilith is working on her Nehalem, possibly with Inarius, who may have been freed. Her motive is to simply destroy Heaven and Hell, and rule Sanctuary.

Harrogath is under-seige by the demons coming out of the worldstone crater. They are likely the invasion force of Hell sent to burn the world and use it against Heaven. I have gone into no detail on this, but I will add another segment on it later.

Theory 3: Diablo's return

This theory assumes Diablo will return, and the whole thing from his exile to Sanctuary until the end of Diablo 3 was all his devious scheme, which if he returns, that will certainly be how, it won't be any accident.

Ok, so it's been 20 yrs, Hell is finally coming out of the worldstone crater and pouring forth to the first bastion of defense against such an attack: Harrogath.

Meanwhile Imperius has gotten his vote from the Angris council and has come down via a meteor to Tristram, where Tyrael has appeared for the first time in twenty years, because he knows something has happened which is allowing Hell to invade, so he is contacting Cain, the only Human he can truly trust, unfortunately, as we know from Blizzard, Cain may be the first victim of the new Evil, meaning he could be corrupted or physically in danger.

So, then Lilith and Inarius walk in and BOOM the greatest army (Nephalem) rises up to not only conquer Sanctuary, but take advantage of Heaven and Hell's weak position to strike out and massacre them, therefore making them the overarching rulers of the universe. That's the plan, Anyway... then they move to the former city of Ureh which has the full collection of Mortal knowledge and powers relating to both Heaven and Hell in it, meaning it would probably be the perfect nursery for the budding revival of the Nephalem race, so you the hero move in to stop them (possibly after either you or they take care of the invading forces of Heaven and Hell.)

Intentionally or not though, Lilith, either trys to summon the brothers themselves, or the whole city of Ureh, with the brothers tagging along.

Note: The Pandemonium event is not canon, but it may be an indication of what is possible, in that the plot of it was essentially that Lilith returned and summoned the Brothers straight out of the void.

So then with Diablo and his Brothers back your launch a one man assault and smite down, Lilith, The brothers, Inarius, and any other nasties hanging around, I'm betting that either you or Lilith will have already taken care of Azmodan, Beliel, and Imperius. Diablo will be the finale, the apex of the end of the trilogy, he could even be the expansion boss.

Epilogue
Taken from the wiki (archangels)

Auriel
Female. Robes of soft blue. Her nature is sympathetic, and she defends the existence of Sanctuary. Possibly the Archangel of Love.
Imperius
Male. Robes of royal red with a shining breastplate upon which the image of an upturned sword blazes. His nature is fierce, and he thinks that Sanctuary should be destroyed. Possibly the Archangel of War.
Ithrael
Gray-clad angel. This Archangel is naturally neutral, being neither male nor female in aspect. Most probably the Archangel of Neutrality.
Malthael
Male. Gaunt figure whose robes and breastplate are black. Possibly the Archangel of Death.
Tyrael
Male. He likes to directly get involved with the affairs of Sanctuary, even against the wishes of the Council. Is the Archangel of Justice.
[edit]Previous Members
Inarius
Male. Tired of fighting the eternal wars of the Great Conflict, he left the Council and the High Heavens to create Sanctuary. Father of Rathma and many other Nephalem



Note: This is an incomplete article, I still need to add way more speculation, a plot tree of sorts, and expand on an entire segment of the cinematic trailer/artwork I totally skipped because anything I could have said would probably have been wrong.

Please, please ask me any questions. you have, and I'll add on just for you. Until this thing has all the information and speculation you'll ever need.

If you have any extra background I skipped (like the Sin War or what lead up to Inarius' imprisonment, it would help me a lot if you could summerize it and post so I can edit it in.

Thanks to Stebo88 for proofreading the older version.