Many people think that the Lilith’s Summoner from Diablo 4 cinematic is Rathma. But many poeple say he can’t be.
I think I have an undeniable proof, and it is a leak from the Blizzard itself.
Here’s the link to the video:
So does this mean that the Priests of Rathma will be villains in Diablo 4?
Unfortunate, I think. But eh. We’ll see where this one goes.
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Simply destroying lore…
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usually the way balances work is if it is tipping 1 direction then you add counter weight to balance it out. so you can add counter weight to either side. as far as we know the high heavens has taken their ball home and do not wish to play anymore. so… the balance has tipped enormously and counter weight has to be added. if making sure the balance is the single most important agenda in your life then why should you care who’s side you are helping as long as the balance is maintained? in the lore’s case if the high heavens has exerted too much control then you throw in a character like diablo into the mix. if the burning hells are in too much control then you throw in the nephalim into the mix. if this is indeed rathma then he can still maintain balance indirectly without having to get deeply involved. like selling weapons to the cartel or arming the militia to defend themselves.
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Thanks for the work, OP.
Now let’s see how Blizzard justifies this character shift.
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I want to believe Blizz left that labels on purpose, after what happened with Sombra in OW.
I’ve been fighting loretrolls for a month, even after that “german blue”,
if this is Rathma at the end, this is totally out of place, completely unjustifiable.
In the other hand, Harrison Pink said in the World & Lore panel, the Triune was behind Lilith’s summoning.
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i copy my post from other discussion here 
Some info from lore lover
1 - Possible not Rathma
Looking back to “Moon of Spider” story we have Necromancer named Karybdus
He tried to bring Astrogha to Sanctuary “in the name of Balance”
He not died - Zayl imprisoned him in pearl with Astrogha, and instructed 3 summoned Vizjerei to bury a pearl in ocean depths.
Now in Diablo 4 we have drowned people
And someone who looks like Necromancer summoning Lilith, and he need 3 of the “willing”.
2 - Possible not Rathma
We must remember about Lucion - brother of Lilith - he signed servant Malik with his symbol (one hand of Malik morphed - with claws and four fingers, not five). He is representing truine
3 - Possible not Rathma
World and Lore panel Blizzcon 2019
There’s a lot of history buried in the sands under Kehjistan; and speaking of buried, we have these ancient Triune Cult ruins that radiate this dark power — sort of thrumming with dark energy; the triune who is responsible for helping Lilith return to Sanctuary, as you saw in our cinematic, they also worship the Prime Evils; and they are hastening their master’s return to Sanctuary.
The people who live in Kehjistan have just lost any hope of any kind of rescue. Demons are looking in the sands around them, Lilith’s agents wear the smiling faces of their friends and trusted family members. There’s this horrible paranoia and suspicion that beats down on the people who live in Kehjistan like the hot sun above them.
4 - Possible not Rathma
- Rathma have dark hair and beauty face (i think summoner from D4 trailer is ugly)
- He never kneel before father Inarius, but now kneeling before hated mother Lilith naming her “Blessed Mother”?
- Rathma have different methods.
5 - Possible he is Rathma
Because #Blizzard, stop asking
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theres been discussion about why would he be reverent to her on other media outlets. like he should act in a different way. but if anyone is going to read into the emotions then they need to read it through multiple lenses not just 1. why cant it be like
rathma: ok mom (blessed mother), you were right i’m sorry (save us)
lilith: she does not look at him like who the F are you. she definitely seems like she is familiar with who he is. she does not look at him until he says “save us”. why cant it be like she’s thinking “ok he’s at least calling me mom so what big deal” but once he says “save us” then she looks at him like he finally said something important and perhaps is thinking “ooooooh… now you want my help?”
also one other thing. i wonder if he will be calm and “stoic” (as others has labeled rathma) throughout d4. in the trailer his demeanor was pretty consistent throughout. soft spoken, calm, very little emotion even when he had to sacrifice the 3 willing and addressing lilith.
i’m just trying to read into like everyone else. i do not know if its rathma, but i would love it to be him so the storyline can be more interesting. i didnt think i would get into diablo lore until the trailer surfaced so i’m curious more than ever.
also can people quit saying its malic. check out the lore first. lilith killed malic. mendeln summoned malic’s spirit to use but then banished him supposedly forever. the last part can be retconned. but 1 would assume lilith would know if its malic or not and she’d kill him again if given the chance i’m sure.
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I agree with the points, but also we can add 2 points more…
if you read the books, Rathma showed two traits more,
one related to his being,
another with his power.
Well, I still hope that this is still under development and it would eventually be scrapped or that this is merely a placeholder.
If not… I would be kind of disappointed to it. I understand that Moon of the Spider has described and set that Priests of Rathma are not necessarily “good” but can be “evil” depending on what direction of balance they want to seek.
But I could hardly think that there will be an appropriate storytelling and twist in which Rathma himself can be so gladly welcoming his mommy.
There’s a lot of skipped logic in this post. I somewhat agree with most of the possibilities, but all of the logic sits wrong; if you’re curious I’ll elaborate why, otherwise I’ll just leave my reaction,
I’d want to hear your opinion - we’re all learning something new all the time 
Very well, my apologies for the delay.
Completely incidental. Firstly, that book may or may not even be canon as it came prior to the Sin War Trilogy, and all books of that era work on older premises. While Zayl is in D3 and thus acknowledged canon at this time, his events and their background remain unclear and very much ‘pick and choose’ business, particularly Ureh, where his character started in a background that would require solid adjustment to fit into canon given the nature of of the tales it uses. In other words, possible is a very long stretch for the premise. As to the argument, be it for the Visjeri or the Necromancer. I’m not entirely sure which you imply, but both have logic against.
And in Diablo 2 there were dead people coming out of rivers; this does not by any means correlate with either Karybdus or the Visjeri. Karybdus would not simply slip out of the stone in the middle of the ocean. The logic here is incomplete, but I don’t see it being functional in the completions I make. Perhaps you can make a better correlation.
Buried in water and ‘well the game has drowned people’ is not a link, neither is ‘the guy looks like a necromancer’. By that logic it could be Zayl. He’d only be slightly less likely than Rathma in my mind, so why not >.>
While I imagine Blizzard is playing fast and loose on the Triune, it’s important to note that Lilith was never front and center for the triune. In fact, they weren’t even aware it was her that pulled the strings save for a scant few characters with thier respective loose ends tied up. They would have no reason to know she still exists. The only way I see this panning out is if she was to hoodwink them into believing she’s some mysterious helpful long lost power without playing on a name that means little to their group (after all, in the scope of greater evils, she is more of a traitor than anything else) or casting an illusion of being her brother. Looking back at this with a cleaner eye, perhaps that is possible, and would lend some credence to point 3. Malic? Aside from being straight up dead and an eyebrow raiser if he possibly came back, he had even less reason than Rathma to bring her into the picture. Not to mention he would definitely not be privy to her survival. That’s part of the problem I have with her coming back without strong explanation to draw from - the amount of characters who have any right to do anything with her is extremely low unless she exercised agency ‘from beyond’ and put herself out there.
Missing a finger is also a pretty wide stretch, and just because Lilith is Lucion’s brother doesn’t mean there’s a shred of kinship. In fact, as noted above, the opposite would likely happen; knowing it’s her could be a definitive negative to her efforts to be brought into play.
In slight defense of Blizzard here, characters can certainly change over time, and if Rathma went off the deep end, there’s no reason he would retain the exact same appearance, especially being so aged as he is. The case for him looking the same would be slim at best; I imagine it would hinge around ‘the last ancient’ seen in D3, and that’s no case for what all nephalem over time would end up like.
Bottom line, there’s a slim opportunity, flimsy as it is, to play on background character development. General appearance cannot disprove things. That said, specific features might. Going against my own point, a video game character tends not to change too terribly much to remain iconic for whatever reason, and any change would demand an explanation from the audience. Missing a finger and his complete oddity of a behavior compared to old portrayals… well, we’ll just have to see what logic is employed.
I felt more strongly when I made my bash, and honestly I feel mildly bad, because I hadn’t gone terribly far into what-ifs at that point. Truly, you can justify anything if you care to. My main problem was with point 1, which made virtually random connections between bolded concepts.
@runic
Nice logical responses. There are no bias in your answers. There are definitely theories we can rule out. Case and point malic. You did bring up a possible idea. Lilith disguised herself as lucion with the intention of destroying the triune from within. So would it be possible that while disguised as lucion, maybe she left breadcrumbs of her existence and how to summon her so that maybe 1 day some zealot would have the knowledge to do so? The fact is we really have no idea at this point until d4 comes out.
Logically speaking, this seems most viable to me coming back down the line.
Isn’t pentagram a sign of Trag’Oul, who is Rathma’s mentor? From wiki:
The Priests of Rathma use a five-sided pattern to represent Trag’Oul, the five points each holding a symbol representing one of the five elements they believe Trag’Oul to be linked to—earth, air, fire, water, and time. As the fulcrum of the Balance, they believe that the elements of Creation are tied to him.
The necromancer in the trailer looks stoic, ancient and wears a pentagram. Metadata in the files name him as Rathma and I believe he is.
Also stop disregarding this theory based off of “But he didn’t like his mother at all!” point of view. He’s an agent of balance and as an ancient being who was a desciple of Trag’oul and as a nephalem who is more powerful than an angel or a demon, he is wiser in this plot than he was before. For some reason he wants his mother back.
Remember how the archangel of wisdom Malthael decided to wipe humanity from the surface of Sanctuary? That doesn’t sound like a wise move but he did it anyway because he had his own reasons. I’m sure Rathma has his too. We’ll just wait and see.
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Really don’t get why anyone would think this is Rathma.
Rathma is all about maintaining the Balance. The angels closed the gates of heaven and retreated from Sanctuary between D3 and D4 - the balance has already swung heavily towards Hell. Why would Rathma choose to help the forces of darkness when it already has the advantage?
The only scenario where I could see Rathma being on Lilith’s side is a timeline where Tyrael isn’t around to keep Imperious in check. Imperious goes full scorched earth in Sanctuary to screw over Hell’s plans (basically the original story of Reaper of Souls) - at that point I could see Rathma trying to bring someone like Lilith into Sanctuary in order to maintain the balance.
There’s just no part of Rathma’s personality or beliefs that would end with him helping Lilith in the current state of the world in D4.
Maltheal found a way to stop the eternal conflict which is wiping everything out so there will be no left overs to start the war up again. This was his solution which make sense since both parties don’t want to die but they still want to fight each other. This is a common troupe on how hypocrisy it was to have it both ways of no end while a outsider or insider becomes the outsider to get rid of all conflict in a non discriminations attempt.
It was a wise move because with out humans there will be no endless war but he had doubts which players hear in the recordings logs. After beating him all things return to how it was back to the fighting to make a full circle around.
I think by adding back ground information of the necro then revealing Lilith in the trailer appearing before all does have a huge impact of what’s to come. Like you said a agent of balance necro was that class. Now the question remains what’s the overall purpose for Lilith to appear? This is the most interesting part of the story as it being told in a backwards approach of where everything begins. =D
Let’s say that there have been dangerous beings in the waters for millennia … that does not imply a relationship. In fact in Knaak’s first book it is the first time that one is mentioned, in D1 there was no possibility of them appearing, in D2 there are some in act 3, but there were not too many technical possibilities to do more.
Let’s say that Rathma changes his appearance a couple of times, that meeting with Inarius did not end very well … also his “real” form is quite different from that of a human.