Identity of bald summoner in D4 trailer

I agree that him summoning his mother would go against the lore, but it doesn’t make sense with the triune summoning her either despite what the panels say. Unless they are rewriting the story we cannot know for sure. If you are familiar with the triune then you should know it is the covert religion of baal, diablo, and memphisto. The hellish trinity made to look innocent to its believers. I don’t understand why they need lilith if the evils were released back onto sanctuary.

If demons no longer have the angels to fight then the balance has shifted to the hells right? Just a guess that it makes more sense if it is rathma. If cunning runs in the family then maybe he is using her for his agenda as well?

There was another guy here named runic i think that says only a few people knows of liliths exact location; inarius who banished her, rathma, and someone else.

This could be blizzard changing up the story but based on whats already been written in lore, nothing seems to make sense.

Please stop spelling his name “Memphisto”. He’s got nothing to do with Graceland. :wink:

At this point I think it’s completely certain that the lore is going to take some heavy updates, and precedence indicates that Blizzard will be willing to circumvent logic based on older lore in favor of pushing what they want to do. So, for all our theorizing, it can ultimately come out of left field, and there’s just not enough evidence that even the ‘rule of cool’ would prevail in the final decision. But I digress, thinking like this means there is no point, and how else would I get my 5 minutes of relevance if not through my mild knowledge of Diablo lore.

I’m going to try and make a few pointers to give the Triune a chance. Firstly, they cannnot be the same entity, straight up; more a many generations descended form that’s been influenced by demons and mortals into various directions over time. Too much of the top echelons had been destroyed for the Triune to represent the heart of the order, though Blizzard could easily say ‘oh but that one guy did escape!’. It’s key to note, however, that the lower orders shouldn’t know the truth of what they worship at all. This leaves what’s left of the Triune down to a cultish shadow formed by someone mid to high range that knew just enough to be able to continue the vision, or perhaps be influenced by demons proper into the right steps to survive.

Alternatively it could be a ‘reboot’ of the Triune, which I imagine would be less messy to put together, perhaps at the hands of Mephisto as a contingency plan. It would make some sense for him to be the one given his son was the leader in ages past and he had by far the best opportunity to create a foundation. I don’t find this likely, but it could well be the plans of Mephisto to plant the knowledge of Lilith at least existing in their minds. If Inarius could seal people in the void, Mephisto could surely at least deduce that it is possible his daughter was cast from existence. Perhaps this could tie in with Lilith making faint contact with demons or humans over time even in the abbyss, giving someone the hint that she does actually exist.

Given the limited amount of ways someone in current lore could know she exists, this would probably be the most continuity friendly approach - she made contact with someone, and that someone instigated a plan to bring her. That could pair with the ‘Mephisto made them happen’ deal above, or perhaps someone she contacted became the ‘prophet’, the sole champion of a being supposedly dead for thousands of years.

And finally for another possibility, Inarius could have squawked during his time, though I don’t really see how that would just turn up as something Mephisto or his forces would be looking for. And there we have a point against the prime evil having a hand - they were hardly on the best of terms, either. But, much can change with time.

Rathma would have needed to change much over time for a new cunning streak to show up. Don’t get me wrong, he was clever and deceptive when he needed to be, but he was in direct telepathic contact with Trag’Oul for the vast majority of his later years, and I don’t see the Dragon really standing for it. Both know what happens when Lilith goes on a rampage. It’s not pretty.

Bear in mind that the Ancients of that period were already considered as going ‘out the door’, so in addition to the rest above, it would be a stretch for him to even still be alive. Nephalem aren’t immortal, and he was very ancient by nephalem terms when the Sin War came to its peak.

Inarius who banished her and Mendeln ul-Diomed, first necromancer, who came in direct contact with her when looking for Rathma, who was similarly banished to the void. I need to look up the sequence exactly, because I know Rathma was in the same area, yet the void is a pretty damn big place, and it’s not certain they actually interacted. Easy stretch for Blizzard to make, though, and there’s a good chance both him and Trag’Oul were made aware of the contact at some point. I vaguely recall Mendeln not wanting to bring it up, though; that’s the trick. Next time I comment on the matter I’ll actually look up the scene where this took place.

Because a Blizzard employee said it is Rathma. Someone posted it in another thread here;

Oh no…

If this is accurate, either Rathma went completely crazy/evil or SOMEHOW unleashing evil on the world is supposed to reset the balance. How???

Maybe the rep is just misinformed?

Oh wow…

Maybe my previous theory is right ;o?

Even though the gates of heaven are closed, maybe Rathma has an inside source and he knows they’re plotting to lay the smackdown on us?

Actually visited the Blizzard post in question to see how he confirms it is “Rathma”

And through the power of Google Translate(xD) I tried to read his post.

He Quotes 2 people

First one saying

Wer ist dieser Typ, welcher aus dem Film Prometheus kommt, im Trailer?!

Which translates to

Who is this guy, who comes from the movie Prometheus, in the trailer ?!

Second guy replying to the first says

Sollte Rathma sein, oder? Wurde irgendwo hier mal gesagt.

Which translated to

Should Rathma be, right? Was it said somewhere here?!

The Blizz poster then replied with

Jau, der Sohn von Lilith und Inarius. Es gab auf unserer Webseite zum Release des Nekromanten-DLC mal einen kurzen Einblick in diesen Teil der Geschichte Sanktuarios:

Translating to

Jau, the son of Lilith and Inarius. There was a brief glimpse of this part of the history of Sanctuary on our website for the release of the Necromancer DLC:

He then links a post in german that I think is about said DLC

~https://eu.diablo3.com/de/blog/20845162/~

Then says

Wer mehr wissen will und des Englischen mächtig ist, dem empfehle ich das von der Community verwaltete Diablo-Wiki:

Translating to

If you want to know more and know more about English, I recommend the community managed Diablo-Wiki:

Then he links a Diablo Wiki about Rathma

~https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Rathma~

And closes his post with

Ich musste dabei übrigens mehr an Hellraiser als an Prometheus denken.

Translating to

By the way, I had to think more about Hellraiser than about Prometheus.

And a Hellraiser gif

Could be confirmation it’s rathma I guess, but could also just be the Blizz poster replying to a question about who Rathma actually is, and it’s just got mixed up in translation?

Translation mixup or a serious retcon of his personality and longevity per book definitions. If it’s true, I might as well give up on trying to spread accurate background, because it would be clear Blizzard has no regard for any of their precedented activities in the series.

2 Likes

Starcraft and Warcraft say “hello.”

Bugger them both, it’s Diablo itself that should have taught me that lesson by now, given the very nature of the series has changed twice and sweeping elements of the lore were completely overhauled once. I suppose I have too much hope. Auriel would be proud. Hopefully.

Would it disturb or comfort you to know that even now Diablo is the least-offending classic Blizzard IP in the realm of retcons and tonal pivots?

That’s a lie, in the Blizzcon 2019 World & Lore panel, Harrinson Pink said he was the Triune. ( min 28:35 aprox )

Ehh I’ll believe it when I see it in game.

Makes absolutely zero sense for reasons I already went over, and honestly a random Blizzard forum mod isn’t a very credible source.

I dont care if a mod or an admin says that.
Rathma despises his parents so much that he even changed the name they gave him

Outright terrifying considering Diablo has been guilty of changing tones four times now and once completely retconned founding lore and bases for various characters.

As far as all IPs, despite it being superficial in the first place, I’d say Overwatch has taken the lead in terms of actually staying consistent, and I haven’t found the Starcraft deviations to be much worse than the Diablo ones. I’d say they sit together pretty well.

Sorry for the confusing that resulted in my quote of a bluepost from germany. The translation above is correct, but the information was wrong.
Tyryndar (the CM) edited his posting today and clarified that the identity of this guy remains a mystery for now. Stating it was Rathma was nothing official, but his own personal guess.


=> it is (very likely) NOT Rathma!

2 Likes

I was figuring this would be likely. Good.

he looks like the naphelem ghost from the drowned temple and Orek, my bet is that summoner is from an old batch of naphelem.

About Rathma, his fellow necromancers are the answer I guess.

Maybe he was in the very beginning but after seeing the mistake, devs change their minds.

Remember what happened with Leah, inicially Leah DeSoto and her father Pablo DeSoto, later Leah became Cain’s adoptive daughter and the former father was removed.