Diablo IV Story/Lore - Where are they now? (D3 classes)

General Discussion
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The title is lighthearted but, this post is about one of the key story issues i remember being promised by the development team of Diablo 3 that was hardly kept, and the places they tried, fell woefully short. Story Spoilers for Diablo’s I-III

What I’m referencing is a trend that started in Diablo II and in all honesty would have been amazing to continue in 3 and was a serious missed opportunity, story wise, and larger world building as well, namely; What happened to the Diablo 2 heroes after Baal’s defeat?

For those who started in Diablo I or have even played it recently, you’ll remember there were three heroes: The Warrior, which we find out later was the first-born prince of Khanduras and son to King Leoric, Aiden. The second was the Rogue, a member of the secretive female society of archers called the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye. The third and last hero was the Sorcerer, a magic-weilding member of one of the Vizjerei Mage Clans from the far East.

The unique thing about Diablo, as an RPG at the time that honestly not a lot of games were doing, was that when making the sequel, they didn’t give you 3 choices of who the hero would be in the first installment, then either ignore your choice and just pick one that was the “right” one, nor did they just make the first hero irrelevant and continue on as if they did nothing. They chose to write all three into the sequel as if they took on Diablo as a team and went their separate ways after defeating him.

The encounter utterly devastated all three of them, leaving them either insane or possessed. We all know that The Warrior, Aiden, became The Dark Wanderer, possessed by Diablo. The Rogue went back out west to her order, but left emotionally, magically and psychologically tainted and scarred, became Blood Raven, disfigured and able to raise the dead in order to make an army of evil minions. The Sorcerer, after finding an ancient tome of forbidden knowledge in the levels beneath the cathedral in Tristram, became obsessed with what he found within it, to the point of insanity and sought out the Arcane Sanctuary, truly believing he was Horazon himself( The Summoner). We, as the heroes in Diablo II, no matter which of the ultimately 7 classes we chose, encountered these poor former champions and put them to rest in our quest to succeed where they failed. This was such an amazing story element, and a cool way to sort of get closure on what these heroes went through and ultimately the price they paid for taking on the Lord of Terror.

With Diablo III announced at the time, and soon to come out, i remember back in 2010-2011 reading a post on the forums that had to do with this very story topic. The question was asked if we were going to get the opportunity to find out what happened to the heroes from Diablo II in the game, and we were told by the staff, in an uncharacteristically forthright answer from them that yes, we would in fact get to experience what had become of them. (I apologize that i cant link a source to this, but it was now 10 years ago and it was impossible to track down. )

Fast Forward to Diablo III release and…nothing. We have a short story that references a Sorceress that claims to be the very one from D2 that knows and mentors the Female Wizard character in D3, and a random Necro NPC that references his “master” who he claims took on Diablo himself. With few exceptions that was it. Nothing about any of the others. Their fight isn’t referenced by anyone of consequence. Ever. Its as if Diablo II had no heroes in it and what they did just made the world of Diablo III what it was and, who cares? That was a HUUUUGE let down, and a broken link in what could have been a truly great, franchise identifying trend in Diablo games. Just another item to add to the, at this point, long, long laundry list of things that, in the long memory of gamers, will have made Diablo III a failure in more ways than it was a success, in the eyes of many and this is from someone who put hours upon hours into D3.

However, all is not lost. With Diablo IV, and a promise from its development team that a return to the look, feel, and spirit of the first 2 games is what they strive for, we have hope. Diablo III had 7 unique class heroes, that were in fact more powerful than the Diablo II heroes ever were. The Nephalem. Imagine these past heroes, either as paragons to seek out for help in our new adventure, or as twisted demi-god villains, corrupted by their god-like powers that we have to try to take down with our allies. Hell, they could be part of the main story, or as large sidequest/side-dungeon bosses that we find and get unique items from. Better yet, imagine an entire expansion later on in Diablo IV’s development cycle, Fall of the Nephalem, where they truly are huge boss encounters and we have to track them down across the open world. Maybe even one didnt become corrupted but instead went into hiding, fearing the power they wielded and not wanting to be corrupted like their cohorts. Maybe it was the Barbarian, old, white hair, but still strong, unsullied due to his devotion to the land, to Arreat, living as a hermit, wishing to be forgotten. You might have to fight the Crusader, full of twisted zeal, unable to see how dangerous they have become, believing themselves to be righteous, when they are possibly committing heinous acts? The sky is the limit. Anyway, just wanted to put this out there. I truly hope this trend from D2 is brought back.

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Very interesting post.

So when it comes to story and lore, we have to check at the Writing team (or individual). I did a quick check since I didn’t remember by heart:

Diablo 1 Writers

  • Chris Metzen
  • Bill Roper
  • Eric Sexton
  • Erich Schaefer

Diablo 2 Writers

  • Kurt Beaver
  • Stieg Hedlund
  • Matthew Householder
  • Phil Shenk
  • Robert Vieira

Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction Writers

  • Evan Carroll
  • Matthew Householder
  • Chris Metzen
  • Joe Morrissey

Diablo 3 Writer

  • Chris Metzen

Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls Writer

  • Brian Kindregan

So from what I can see here, a team of writers worked on the first game, then a different team worked on the second… then another team worked on its expansion (Lord of Destruction). And only one person (Chris Metzen) in that whole group worked on the third. The only person who apparently made a ‘come back’ between the three main games was Chris Metzen, who had worked on the original game, and Diablo 2’s expansion specifically. And interestingly enough didn’t work on the vanilla version of Diablo 2… only to later come back for Diablo 3. It’s sort of a mixed bag really, isn’t it. A collaborative effort among a group of about a dozen writers.

That’s interesting, because the ‘link’ so to speak between Diablo 1 and 2 in terms of the lore was probably not a known factor to Chris Metzen himself since he didn’t work as a writer for Diablo 2 vanilla, and only worked on Lord of Destruction. Which could explain why he didn’t particularly pay that much attention to that aspect of the story. To the “linking” of the games’ respective Heroes together in specific manners, when he worked on the story for Diablo 3. Or he actually knew about it, but - just maybe - he didn’t want to focus on that too much even when he worked on Lord of Destruction and his colleague writers instead did that part of the story (for Lord of Destruction, I mean).

Now obviously, he was a professional at work and knew what he was doing, but in his own ways. He must have of course looked back at both previous games to see where the general beats of both game’s stories had brought the franchise to before writing for the 3rd game. However, himself not having been part of the 2nd game’s [original, vanilla version’s] writing team he probably unintentionally ignored certain details or methodology of story telling that had been done for it (in relation to Diablo 1, to connect both games’ Heroes in the lore).

But here’s another thing… Mr. Metzen retired in 2016. So, he’s definitely not writing this time for Diablo 4. Whomever is going to write for Diablo 4’s story and lore will be either new (to the franchise at least, although not necessarily new to the company itself), or will be making a come back from having worked on either Diablo 1 or maybe at least Diablo 2 before.

With all this said, I DO agree with you here. I always thought that Diablo 3 actually had a pretty solid story, in general (yeah, in general… because some parts of it are rather ‘cringe’ to put it lightly) IF looked at it in an isolated way. Meaning that, in my opinion, Diablo 3 is self-contained and doesn’t “connect” well with the previous two games. Actually I hated Diablo himself in Diablo 3 (Act 4, and particularly Diablo himself, was written in such a way that made me think that it must have been either rushed-out, or Mr. Metzen just didn’t feel like it for a few weeks, which coincided with him having to write for Act 4 at the time).

But as far as Diablo 3 goes, things changed with Reaper of Souls. And, that’s because it was written by a different person, again.

However, in terms of writing, I think that Diablo 3’s expansion is where things got better indeed, to decent levels. I much preferred Malthael as a villain. But not because I actually prefer Malthael over our beloved Diablo, character-wise, but because he happened to have been written in a MUCH better way than Diablo 3’s take on Diablo himself; that “Diablo” couldn’t hold a candle to Diablo 2’s version. But, with this said, even though I did prefer Reaper of Souls in general (I do think the expansion has the best writing for its main story arc for Diablo 3 in general) I STILL think that, yes, Diablo 3’s Nephalem stuff just doesn’t “connect” well (I.E. pretty much not at all) with Diablo 2’s Heroes.

Now here’s what I think might happen for Diablo 4, just based on my own ‘gut feelings’ really, no evidence:

Mr. Brian Kindregan, the writer for Reaper of Souls, if he was available for it of course SHOULD at least be part of the team; because from what we know Diablo 4 is a sequel indeed (to Diablo 3 and obviously Reaper of Souls) and not a would-be “soft reboot” of the franchise. It’s not a re-telling of either D1 or D2’s story (and thank God for that). I would be very happy if Brian Kindregan made a come back since, yes, I did like how Reaper of Souls was written (compared to vanilla D3 that is). However, they should ALSO ‘task’ him with truly exploring the franchise’s lore at large. Not just playing the games per se but doing whatever it takes to CREATE links where none had been made before, as well. He’s a writer, after all.

That’s part of his job. And obviously I’m sure he would be able to do it, only IF he thinks about it… I guess that’s the trickiest part. Because if HE doesn’t think of it, then WHO else within the company would sort of ‘remind’ him to “Hey btw Brian, don’t forget those D2 Heroes this time! The fans would want to know what happened to them!”? I think I know the answer to that: No one else would.

So this is where your thread comes in. This should be a reminder.

I don’t mind that Diablo 3 took a different ‘turn’ with the Heroes and brought the Nephalem thing to the front line and then some. However, prior to D3’s Nephalem(s), there were others that preceded them and they ARE part of the canon lore of the franchise. And almost completely ignoring them (or “forgetting” about them) doesn’t help with connecting, in terms of story-telling, and lore information. I do hope that Diablo 4 will dig into that.

Actually one thing I HOPE Diablo 4 does, is to bring us “back” to at least some of the locations we went to in D1 and D2 (or at least D2’s locations). I could absolutely imagine making a return to the D2’s Act 1 locations, or perhaps going back to Mount Arreat’s vicinity, and finding some nearly forgotten Barbarian village (or heck, maybe it could be us returning to Harrogath itself) where some elders there would tell the story of a “Hero”, who would later (as we’d find out more over quests and dialogue) turn out to have been any one of the D2 Hero we could have played as.

But yeah, the gist is: Diablo 4 will probably have a new writer (or a new team of them) and there’s always a risk that they just won’t pay much attention to the story telling methodology that was employed at the time by the D1 and D2 writing teams. But we can hope. For now all I really want for D4 is that if Diablo himself makes a come back, however corny and filled with plot armor that may be to us, that he is NOT written the way he was in Diablo 3. Oh please dear Lord if it takes Tyrael’s intervention to ensure that doesn’t happen then so be it. That would merely be justice.

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Maybe you were just not paying attention; but they DID continue that pattern.

Isendra, the D2 sorceress, got the most love, but the others got small mentions as well. Isendra was the mentor of the D3 wizard. There’s a whole story here IN THE D3 WEBSITE about her death at the hands of Natalya (the D2 assassin). And come act 5, before facing Malthael, the wizard talks to her spirit.

The others have much smaller appearances, but still present.

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considering that diablo 4 takes place decades later, i wouldnt be suprised if they all just died due to injury, old age, illness, and so on, and arent refrenced in any way, shape or form. let them stay in diablo 3 and die in peace.

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Thus, here comes the saying “Story got Metzen’d”.

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The op is an excellent post. In fact the barbarian in D3 was originally supposed to be the exact same barbarian from D2. That is why the early concept art had him older with gray hair, etc. It was an excellent idea to build continuity and story between games and I don’t know why they didn’t end up putting this in D3.

The reality is, the D3 story was just a debacle all around. It completly fell on its face. Hopefully they will actually be able to build a good story with D4 that adds in cool elements from previous games like D2 did.

Some people argue that story isn’t important in a game like Diablo. I strenuously disagree, it sets context and atmosphere for (hopefully) all the replay-ability and is one of the primary reasons D1 and D2 are considered such classics.

I reread the game manual with the lore several times in D1. Hopefully they find the time and talent to put cool lore into the game.

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diablo 1 and diablo 2 arent classics because of the story. its because of the gameplay.

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I would argue it is partly due to the story.

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