But, Ancestral, Demonic and/or Angelic powers don't make sense thematically

General Discussion
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That’s it! the Title. There’s nothing left to say.
In closing I’d like to say, Please Hire a PH.D in English or Literature or somebody, anybody, with experience in this or a similar genre to write D4!

Apart from the abilities or numbers that are to be associated with these three powers, it wouldn’t (or should I say; WON’T?) make sense in this thematic universe. The Nephalim are supposed to be far and away more powerful than both the Angels and Demons. Why would they create or use armors, weapons, items with those two other powers?

I understand it was the StarCraft Kid’s baby. And, we all know where he got it from. the Protoss, Zerg and Terrain. Those are the three factions from StarCraft, right? (Idk, I’ve never played it.) And, it would probably make sense in the StarCraft universe. But, in Diablo, or rather, in the current Diablo thematic universe, it doesn’t make a bit of sense. So, here we can see the effect of someone who has no interest in an A/rpg developing an A/rpg.

It may be intended to add depth and complexity to item affixes, however, thematically it doesn’t make any sense at all.

Not to say that the current Diablo thematic universe makes sense, it doesn’t. As numerous other people have pointed out; If there are three factions, and the Nephalim are NOT dependent on Heaven the way Humans are dependent on heaven in Christian mythology, then why would the Nephalim save Heaven, time and time again, and gain nothing from it???

Hey look! My nuclear powered Submarine gains a 10% bonus for having Steam engine!

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It makes sense thematically because nephalim are both from demon and angel. Even if they are more powerful they still come from the background of both

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In d4, you are not a nephalem
k, sry, bye

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It’s not a question of blood. It is a question of power.
And who cares what you call them? Nephalim, Terrain, who cares?

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I mean, they are not as strong as in D3
So it does make sense

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What are you talking about? All current humans in the Diablo lore spawned from Lillith and Inarius. Then the world stone was used to reduce the power of humans to their current power, but nephalim are humans that still have some power.

So how are they not nephalim?

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Well technically the world stone got destroyed but AFAIK, the d3 heroes were kinda some fully developed nephalem and fought the prime evil. It doesn’t even make sense if the D4 heroes will have the same power.

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My original point still stands though. The playable heroes in D4 are nephalim and they hail from both angelic and demonic backgrounds.

As such the angelic and demonic power makes sense. The OP is wrong in this thread

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Are they really though? That would be bad storytelling, and if the case, probably should be rewritten.

In the end, those affixes are just names, but they seem to fit perfectly fine thematically.
What could be interesting though, would be if those 3 stats had more influence that just between affixes.
Like if you lean heavily into Demonic stat, it affects your skills directly (basically skill runes depending on your main ADA power), and could even affect how your character looks.

Was that actually confirmed?

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Please read my original post above, or quoted below

Nephalim is a term used for powerful humans in the Diablo universe. As long as the game is apart of that universe then yes

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I’m just questioning that, while nephalems are powerful humans, it might not mean that all powerful humans are nephalem.

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Looking up the lore of it, it does make a distinct difference between the early nephalem and human. The worldstone caused the nephalem over multiple generations to become the humans.

Without the worldstone though, it’s possible for human to become like the old nephalem again however not all powerful humans are considered nephalem.

The characters from Diablo 2, for example, are not confirmed nephalem. Only the characters from Diablo 3 are.

I also can’t find anything about if modern nephelem powers is something that any human can “unlock” or if it’s something you have to be born with.

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This is why better writers are desperately needed. You guys are trying to bestow sense of a set of very confused ideas.

If this is Christian mythology, (and, it may very well be) then a human demonstrating good/angelic behavior or evil/demonic behavior, because good and evil reside in us all, then all is fine and well.

If Diablo is a distinct fictional universe where A (Angels) and B (demons) once mated and produced AB (nephalim) then A is A, B is B, and AB is not a combination of A and B, AB is AB, it is it’s own distinct entity. It is not the manifestation of, at times, one form of power and at other times another form of power. And the power of AB is supposed to surpass the power of both A and B. If the power of AB does NOT surpass the powers of A and B, then there is no Story at all. They would be of no interest to A or B.

“Ancestral” powers opposed to Demonic and/or Angelic powers should have been enough to confuse everybody in the room when the StarCraft kid proposed it. Why the heck would the Nephalim want to use lesser powers if “Ancestral” power exists???

And then there’s the question of who crafted these weapons, armors, items proposed by the StarCraft Kid? Did the Nephalim Ancients craft items using the lesser powers of Angels and Demons? or, are current day Nephalim using weapons, armors, items crafted by Angels and Demons? Why the heck would they do either of those two things??? And then there’s a Lore issue. What’s the status of Zolton Kulle??? If the Ancients had been crafting items with Angelic and Demonic powers imbued in them, then Zolton Kulle’s idea for the Black Soulstone wasn’t revolutionary at all. It’s been done. and Done for ages!

But, it’s an idea that would (or for all I know, HAS BEEN) be a great addition to StarCraft. Where three different cultures naturally tend to specialize in different technologies, and all three cultures would see a benefit from borrowing from the other two. But, in the current Diablo it makes no sense at all.

Solar Energy??? No thanks, there’s a creek right down the road, aways.

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Maybe the items weren’t crafted with demonic power, but it is a matter of who the item have been in contact with over time. Imprinting some of their essence on the item or whatever (lol lore)

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yea i mean it also really doesnt matter if you are “stronger” than angels and demons
tribes of humans are stronger than poison frogs but they are using their poison for arrows

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Let’s, I know crazy, assume that the labels were being used to describe a Nephalem (whether we’ve eclipsed into that power level in D3 or not doesn’t matter) embracing aspects of the sides more… then the label makes perfect sense:

Demonic : Rage, Hatred, Destruction
Angelic: Healing, Compassion, Benefiting
Ancestral: Patience, Balance, Discipline

Humans would naturally begin to attribute disciplines to one of the ‘aspects of their nature’ and the attribute system is, to my understanding, suppose to unlock additional benefits (maybe cons would be cool too) of those aspects. So a Nephalem (D4 character) who is embracing the ‘Demons’ Side isn’t less powerful, per se, but using his power for greater destruction.

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The Black Soulstone was specifically created to trap and harness the power of the most powerfull demons in existence.

Saying that this isn’t revolutionary because ancients suposedly have been using demonic powers for ages is like saying the Hornsdale Power Reserve is not impressive because you have a lithium-ion battery in your pocket right now as cellphones have been using those for ages.

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I don’t know as I’d call it very confused considering the powers do different things.

That’s kind of like asking why you’d ever want a truck when you have a sports car. Those two things are designed for fairly different jobs.

Or why we haven’t replaced all our power plants with nuclear reactors since they’re so much more powerful than the alternatives.

The only one that gets a benefit in Starcraft is the Terrans.

Protoss tech is more advanced than Terran tech is. The only reason the Protoss don’t outright wipe Terrans out is A. They’ve never put their full armada behind trying it since they aren’t actually enemies with the Terrans and B. Terrans outnumber them even if they did.

As for the Zerg, they’re purely evolutionary based. They don’t actually use or have technology.

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Im kinda interested to see if these powers actually are like Fable. Where they end up influencing your Story line or if they are more like factions like horde alliance and offer specific town hubs to you and or places exclusive to that. Would be kinda cool if you had 2 opposites of the world one light and one dark and u could go full out war against the other faction. That would definatly be new and interesting.

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sigh

Zolton Kulle wanted to enhance his powers by using an item imbued with the souls/essences of the most powerful demons or angels.
the StarCraft Kid is proposing an Affix system in which the powers of the Nephalim will be enhanced by items imbued with the essences of demons or angels.
the StarCraft kid hasn’t fully developed his system, we don’t know the extent of the affixes, but its possible that one of them could be “Mephistophlian Aura: a toggled debuff that reduces hit chance, hit speed … etc”

We are talking about an Affix system. we are not talking about a Character Alignment system. We’ve touched on the notion that it could be a system reflective of, or binding on, the character’s alignment. That would make “Diablo” a modern Christian story.

The affix system as proposed by the StarCraft kid functions exactly like existing systems in D3. Like the Set systems. (Quin did say; “I hate Sets!”) Or, iirc, like the ring that gives you a bonus if you only have Ancient items equipped. Items will have one of the three Affixes, demonic, angelic or ancestral, and for each item equipped with one of those affixes it will raise your score in that Affix and at a certain score it will unlock other, more powerful affixes. JUST LIKE SETS. 2 pieces of a set, unlocks a more powerful ability. 4 pieces of a set unlocks an even more powerful ability…etc…etc. So, the Demonic/Angelic/Ancestral system is just SETS!

Since the system being proposed by the StarCraft kid has no logic whatsoever, as I am saying, it does NOT fit thematically into the current Diablo thematic universe, there is thus no reason, especially not logic, why the StarCraft kid couldn’t insert this system into StarCraft. A Terran being randomly given an ability that only the Zerg previously possessed, by accruing points in the tech tree.