I have a few questions for the fans and maybe some experts that have read all of the novels to date.
We see in D3 that Tyrael without El’Druin (his angelic sword) is a feebleminded, dying mortal. Confused and unable to remember who he is and what his purpose serves, is dubbed ‘the stranger’ after his fall from the high heavens. I still stand by the strikingly familiar resemblance to the cleric that completed the ritualistic summoning of Lilith.
I read somewhere that when an angel ‘dies’ that their aspect is replaced by a new angel, in the same way that when Diablo ‘dies’ his essence returns to wherever and can be brought forth again.
So the first questions are, when was Malthael considered the aspect of Wisdom, and when did he become the aspect of Death instead?
Does the council of the high heavens consider themselves brothers, or are we to assume that since the three prime evils are brothers, such must also be the case for the angels?
Now I am of the understanding that El’Druin wasn’t able to stop Malthael because it can only combat evil, which means Malthael now as the aspect of Death is still angelic and is not interested in destroying his brethren since his essence was pure (unlike any other mortal) as his goal is to end the eternal conflict by absorbing all demonic essence (including the descendants of the Nephilim, humanity). Imperious is going to be PISSED! Surely he is going to continue pointing the finger now that the cycle repeats itself only this time the council was saved & out done by mortals. Did Malthael become corrupted from the blackstone when he grabbed it with his hands? The Horadrim were carrying it without touching it. Would you say he became evil when he destroys the blacksoul stone and absorbed the power/trapped evil within it?
With Lilith’s return brought about in D4 what is the likelihood that this time around the prime evil gets all possessive with a nephalem and tilts the balance in favor of evil as alluded to at the end of ROS? Deviating away from lore discussion momentarily, how many people would complain if such happening spawned World Bosses that took an entire year before a ‘world first’ slain occurred? I for one think it would be great if the challenge was so remarkably difficult that it simply took a very long time before any combination of players were able to slay some of these bosses. How do you make a game ‘solo friendly’ not impossibly easy for group play? If it is possible for a single individual to defeat at some point, simply ‘scaling the difficulty’ won’t suffice for extending the challenge to group players as they say, 2 minds are better than 1. So the real question is, how do you maintain a journey for the solo player all the while preventing a group of players from solving the ‘solo experience transformed for several’ challenge so easily? The line has to be drawn somewhere and it is going to draw negative criticism eventually.
I am biased. I want more traditional RPG than action for Diablo. There is plenty of action when you have designated roles such as tank, healer and damage. I realize that is not the direction being taken. However, if D3 being ‘endless’ is not enough why redo the same thing? Is that not the definition of insanity, repetition with expectation of differing results? If it is enough - why not stick with what works and let D4 be something else? I believe that IS the direction they’re taking.
It just dawned on me that author Richard A. Knaak wrote all of the Diablo novels. He is also an author of another series I enjoyed from The Dragonlance saga, the Legend of Huma. I just may have to pick these up!