What kind of Virtue is Fate?

Lore & Story
1

As the title says its about Itherael. I just don’t get it, or maybe the lore writers of the game get confused or tangled among their own ideas, its something that can happend i know it. For as far as we all know and agree the lore about the Angiris Council says each one of the Archangels represent one of the virtues of Anu (who has 5 virtues while Tathamet had 7 counterparts, something not really symmetric but it’s not a great issue to complain).

  • The Valor as courage to overcome the fear i guess wich takes form in Imperius. (Thus imperius also show some kind of “dark side” related with the wrath)
  • The Wisdom that is represented by Malthael. (Before he gets mad of getting so much “info”, like when you study for finals maybe and decide to solve the Eternal Conflic with Death, to cleanse the last remnants of evil in the hybrids those humans in Sanctuary are).
  • The Justice to give anyone that wich deserves is the best friend of humanity, a.k.a. Tyrael (The first “mortal” angel i guess).
  • The Hope wich is good to keep going on like the Valor, that is Auriel. (For this case i would prefered “Love” as a virtue to counterbalance the hatred of Mephisto BUUUT we have seen also that its not a matter of counterbalance because there is no simmetry in the numbers of the leadership of each side of the eternal conflict forces.)

And then it’s the great and unconsistent elephant in the room… Itherael, the Archangel of… Compassion? Solidarity? Empathy? Kindness? …nope. The archangel of “Fate”.
I just don’t get it, its not something simple or logical to consider. I know someone could reply: “Yo, and wich logic do you find in Azmodan for example?”
Well Azmo carries the “Sin” word as his domain wich can be consider the “excesses” of desires, i mean we don’t have an Archangel of measured desires and pleasures but again symmetry does not apply because we don’t have an Archangel of Creation or an Archangel of “Truth”.
My own answer is this: the people behind the storymaking made some brainstorming that sound cool but they just make bad choices, we aren’t perfect and we make mistakes like when we mess with time travels and alternate realities… but Fate? No, i don’t understand what kind of virtue it is. Vision? Isn’t that related with hope or plannification?
Well women and men of Sanctuary i await for your answers full of wisdom and not with the words whispered by Mephisto and Belial.

2

Well as you may already know, powerful angels and demons possess a greater amount of essence which shows their strong connection to their origin (Angels-Anu, and Demons-Tathamet). Now in the case of the Great Evils (seven demon lords) and the Angiris Council members (five Archangels), they don’t just represent their essences, they also embody, define, and in some cases feed off it. For example, Diablo doesn’t just inflict fear upon people; his use of fear is akin to an artist painting upon a canvas, or so says Deckard Cain.

Now regarding Itherael, his essence or embodiment is Fate, one of the five virtues of Anu. As a result of this, he’s somewhat all-knowing when it comes to the fate of all things (excluding Nephalem, humanity, and things created by the aforementioned), and not only is he capable of seeing a myriads of potential futures but he’s also able to read the writings of fates, something of which that the other angels won’t attempt as they believe such things are indecipherable to them.

With that said, I believe, and this is pure speculations on my part, that Itherael’s essence or virtue of Fate possesses an additional component beyond being able to see or read fate, and that is acceptance. The ability to accept what is written in Fate unflinchingly and with no hesitation regardless of what may be written there. Itherael’s ability to accept Fate’s whimsical turns has been told and shown to us before.

For example:

  • Itherael, despite his ability to read Fate, has rarely (if ever) gave his insight on how the Heavenly Host should attack and instead accepts and follows Malthael, Imperius, and Tyrael’s command, despite having the ability to potentially see his enemies formations.
  • Itherael didn’t prevent certain events from happening despite possibly knowing of them or knowing what would follow after they happened:
    • Izual’s ill fated assault on Hell, which led to his capture.
    • Tyrael’s creation of the soulstones and plans to use them against the Prime Evils, despite the possibility that Izual had already revealed said plans to the Prime Evils.
    • Malthael’s location after leaving the Angiris Council, or parts of his heinous plans.

Just some of the possible things that Itherael could’ve known about, and yet still chose to not act.

But the greatest example of this imo would be the events of Diablo 3. Itherael had long ago foreseen that the Eternal Conflict would be won by Hell, and that Diablo himself would bring about the destruction of the High Heavens. And yet, despite knowing of this fate, Itherael never told this fate to Imperius despite his constant questioning, nor had he made any attempt to change it. Instead he had accepted it. The only time Itherael is known to act to change fate is when there’s a presence of an unknown element with the potentiality and influence to change fate, for example the Nephalem, a being who’s fate is unwritten. However, despite the Nephalem’s arrival during the fated day, Itherael himself still did not directly act and instead had tasked the Nephalem themselves with the act of changing fate.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the matter.

4 Likes
3

who said anything about virtue,
In the general lore, angels take aspects of creation, that does not mean that they have to be necessarily “good” things.

I’m not going to answer with a, this should be like that or I would have approached this aspect in another way… because here everyone can have their opinion.

The only thing I will say is that all this lore comes from the Sin War, it would be very obvious to contrast the way of naming an angel with a demon, and it is not done that way, in the story the prime evils with their false cult adopt opposite identities, the Hate is Love, Destruction is Creation and Terror is Determination, in this way when contrasting them with their opposite it is better to use a not so obvious nomenglature.

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4

So what you mean is in his acceptance of the events that could be, he represents some kind of “inner peace” i mean some temperance? That could work yeah, but is still too complex or intricate. Sorry if i’m tedious but maybe is like Arkan said and im imposing the idea of virtue in the aspects.

5

It’s np, as I said it’s mostly speculation on my part. That said, you’re not wrong to wonder about the virtues of the aspects as Deckard Cain himself had stated that the angiris council members are living representations of Anu’s chief virtues.

6

I think it is about obedience. The angels nature it’s about order. Auriel virtue i think it is about beauty.