Like, if we go into Hell in D4, or he could be revived as a Super Unique Monster, or something.
This guy is directly responsible for the entire Diablo series happening:
He drives Leoric mad, in an attempt to allow Diablo to possess him.
He kidnaps Albrecht, one of Leoric’s sons, to be a vessel for Diablo.
He then leads villages into the Cathedral, sacrificing them to The Butcher.
He helps Diablo possess Albrecht.
This leads to Aidan fighting his way down to the depths of the Cathedral, where he beats Diablo, which causes Albrecht’s death.
In his madness over killing his brother, and the horrors he witnessed on his quest, Aidan drives Diablo’s Soulstone into his head in a misguided attempt to contain Diablo, which leads to Diablo 2, the freeing of all 3 Prime Evils, and the destruction of the Worldstone.
This guy is responsible for almost everything. He should make a comeback.
Laz is dead, and he was just a mortal tool of Diablo’s. Diablo discards his tools once he has no use of them. However, it would be a nice easter egg to have, say, his journal make an appearance.
I mean, all that can be said of Leoric, too, and he came back. Twice.
Just because they died and stopped being useful does not mean they are gone forever.
Leoric is undead. Lazarus never was. Like I said, a reference to him is better than bringing him back. Death needs to have meaning, or it has no meaning.
Which is why I suggested him appearing in Hell.
He’s dead, and corrupted. We’ve already seen souls dragged to hell when they die (The traitor of the Barbarians in Act V of D2 for example).
We’ve also had multiple people come back from death; Leoric, who was NOT undead before he returned the first time in D1. And Inarius came back in D3 after being killed in D2.
You’re acting like the one NPC responsible for everything happening is somehow going to ruin the concept of death in the Diablo universe if he shows up as a Super Unique in Hell of all places.
Which makes 0 sense, since people have returned before.
He would not be alive; he could be a tortured soul. Or a demon.
I don’t see Hell as a whole ignoring a powerful wizard’s soul.
To be fair, this was because of the team they hired to do cinematics and had nothing to do with the game devs. They decided it on their own and the devs had an argument about whether they could use it or needed to have a new one done.
But at this point Lazarus has been dead for over 50 years, and I don’t expect him to return. Regardless of what he’s done, he’s still a minor side character.
I’d be down to see him return in a twisted spirit form of some type. He has been dead for a very long time, and his soul, or whatever he was left with, wouldn’t be the same as it once was though.
Maybe he rambles incessantly, mostly nonsense, but some truths of his past life that may or may not lead to some thing somewhere else in the world.
He’d be a glorified journal entry with the potential to lead to a one-off Lazarus themed treasure.
Except he’s literally the last fight before Diablo in D1. Not really a side character.
Also; thank you for the background. I do love background info on games and movies.
Be that as it may; lore-wise, he’s important as heck.
I could see him being a Super Unique mob or something. I mean, that’s not exactly the same as making him come back in the story. It’s just a ‘Remember this guy?’ easter egg. And I don’t get why people are against him showing up as a non-lore mob
As I’m saying; He could show in in Hell
The place his soul was dragged too after he died.
As a Super Unique mob. An Easter Egg fight. To remind players where it all started and with whom.
It’s been shown that sorcerers and the like who form pacts with Hell end up pulled down into it when they die:
It happened to The Summoner in Diablo 2 (Who was the Sorcerer from the first game. He went mad and found the Arcane Sanctuary and made a pact with demons).
And it happened to Nihlathak in Act 5 of Diablo 2 after you slay him; You can see his skeleton get pulled into a hole in the ground that closes afterwards.
I know you ment Izual, so I would not have mentioned anything about that mistake, but Izual was an Angel, not a mortal. The lore had already established that Angels and Demons DO NOT die. As for dragging the servants of evil to hell, it’s not to remake them into demons, it’s to torture their souls for the rest of eternity. Could we find his tortured aoul? Maybe. But better would be to find his journal. But it’s not necessary.
