At first, I thought the story and presentation was… suspect. I could go into that for hours, but let’s just fixate on one thing: sorcerer.
why does the sorceror have an inverted pentagram necklace in most of it’s outfits? why are half of its helmets demon horns like anton lavey would wear in photoshoots? Reminds me of the old scene from “king of the hill” where Bobby (the son) fails his English class and Hank (the dad) yells in frustration “Bobby, you speak English!”
“sorceror, you kill demons!”
A lot of the game is like this, but there is this niggling light at the end of the tunnel that I feel was bubbling up under the surface. Sure, a lot of the game’s presentation is evil (or is it just playing games with modern sensibilities and standards?), and it is regardless of what I will say next, but I always had a feeling that it wasn’t irredeemable.
Then yesterday I played the class quest for sorcerer. It is as such: a magi calls out to you because an ancient tome from zoltun kulle is stuck in an old magi vault that is overrun by demons, and he wants to get his hands on it to tap into its powers. You then get the tome and are invited into an abandoned shack.
In the shack there are four braziers representing each of the four elemental magics in the diablo universe, two of which being the “spirits” you hear the druids of scosglen always worship. The magi calls out to the “spirits” of the four magics and tells them to come out. Suddenly the multi-colored torches turn blood-red, blood splatters everywhere, and demons pop out.
The magi is freaking out, he thought he did the ritual correct. Sure some of the tome was worn away through time, but he thought he winged it adequately, and it technically did work. But where were the elements? Why demons? The magi refuses to think any more on it and leaves and never comes back, leaving you with the book and your class mechanic.
The subtext is then simple as it is clear: the elemental magics, the “spirits,” ARE demons. Whatever the magi believe about just tapping into “knowledge” that orders the universe is just bs, it’s just demons and their tricks all the way down.
Now for context. All throughout scosglen you see druids go insane and invite demons and misfortune upon themselves by trying to recapture their old roots that the church of light suppressed. In this, the people of scosglen scream in agony, wondering why the “spirits” ignore them specifically whenever demons attack. the “spirits” listen to them otherwise, but never then. Why? Well, what if the “spirits” aren’t ignoring them, what if the demons attacking ARE the “spirits?”
What about zoltun kulle? If you are up on your diablo lore, he is the first magi and directly responsible for the horadrim order. Specifically, he is responsible for going insane at the height of his power and summoning the demons to sanctuary; which lead a group of magi to team up to kill him. These magi are what we know as the horadrim order now. What if zoltun found out the “elements” were just demons tricking him and acted accordingly?
elias, the one at fault for this game’s plot, was a horadrim and was the world’s most accomplished magi too. elias was also a great student of zoltun kulle’s teachings. and lorath claims that elias was always one to find the truth even if it ended up biting him and everyone around him. elias summoned lilith when he found out how selfish and insecure inarius was, and then found out how deluded and useless rathma was.
I always wondered why there was no crusader class in this when estuar is crawling with them. It makes sense when you consider the entire game’s plot is a drama penned by belial. belial is scared of hell being destroyed without diablo around anymore, and so he set into motion everything that happens in the game. inarius’ escape, lilith’s summoning, your empowerment, the weakening of zakarum, the sudden appearance of the church of light, all due to him playing every side from behind the scenes.
there is no crusader class because why would belial empower someone who would see through it all?
rogues are presented as dumb assassins and thieves who sometimes dabble in the occult.
barbarians worship the light, but hate the church.
sorcerers and druids are tools of demons without knowing it.
necromancers follow a fool who could just be worshiping a dragon that was a demon in disguise just as the “spirits” are.
everyone who can kill demons getting in belial’s way of taking diablo’s place without ever institutionally opposing demonkind as a whole. lillith can kill inarius by exploiting his emotional damage, you can kill lilith which is something belial cannot, the zakarum and church of light can be forced into petty infighting so they cannot pose a united threat, and all your power is derived from the demonic so you can’t truly destroy the demonic without disempowering yourself meaning belial has nothing to fear from you.
In other words, the game presents negative things like the occult as negative, but in the most roundabout way, and leaves the door wide open for the Good. One could so easily just have tyrael come back from his vacation, unite the zakarum and church of light, provide you with a different source of power, and everything will be peachy keen. I’ve never gotten the feeling of nihilism from this series that some people say it has, only the message of “evil succeeds when Good men do nothing” and Pope St Pius V’s “all the evil in the world comes from bad Catholics.” In other words, evil is not powerful it is just perpetually taking advantage of people not doing their job.
