Diablo is finally invading Sanctuary in Diablo Immortal. However, after speaking to the game’s developers, The Lord of Terror’s return will have ramifications beyond the mobile game.
The first three Diablo games established Diablo, the satan of this universe, as a major threat from the beginning. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that The Lord of Terror would be the final boss of the base game. However, Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4 tried something different.
While Diablo 4 presents Lilith as the morally complicated main antagonist, Immortal would tell another story set between Diablo 2 and 3. This gave the developers room to explore what Diablo was without the villain and write in his return when they were ready to do so.
Shattered Sanctuary
Two years later, Diablo is now set to return in Diablo Immortal’s Shattered Sanctuary expansion. Senior Narrative Designer Ryan Quinn and Lead Artist Emil Salim spoke to us about the challenges of writing Diablo into a game that serves as an interquel.
“I like the idea of Diablo looming over every Diablo game,” Quinn told us. “We know Diablo does not completely destroy the world between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3, so the question for us then becomes, ‘how do we still make that scary?’”
“We know Diablo technically did not win,” Emil Salim added.”But that doesn’t mean that the battle doesn’t have to be intimidating.”
In previous Diablo games, the villain has returned from Hell by possessing those close to him however, in Diablo Immortal, the spiky demon will return by using a shard of the Worldstone, something the angel Tyrael destroyed at the end of Diablo 2, ironically, to prevent it from being corrupted by Diablo and his brothers, Baal and Mephisto.
By using a shard of the Worldstone, Diablo can bend time, space, and reality to his will, merging Sanctuary with Hell and allowing him to cross over without a ‘Vessel of Terror’.
Of course, these events will happen before he possesses Leah in Diablo 3, and the heroes from Diablo Immortal are almost certainly going to defeat him. So, it begs the question, what other plots will Diablo set in motion using the Worldstone?
Ripples into Diablo 4
Diablo owning even a shard of this powerful item means he can impact events well into the future, and his defeat in one game doesn’t prevent him from returning in a later chapter. Essentially, this plot device changes the Diablo series forever and could lead to the Lord of Terror’s return in Diablo 4 – with Shattered Sanctuary serving as a prologue to another rampage further down the line.
Ryan Quinn elaborated on Diablo’s new reality-bending powers, saying, “Diablo gets his claws around a shard of the Worldstone, all bets are off. He doesn’t need a host. He has creation itself in his hands.”
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“I think of Diablo as a plans within-plans guy, he continued.“He doesn’t look at linear time the way that we do. His plans are measured in centuries and millennia. Could that have ripples long-term in Diablo 4 and beyond? We’ll have to wait and see.”
While players are yet to learn how Diablo’s return in Diablo Immortal will impact the wider series, the events of Shattered Sanctuary could change the way we see certain moments from Diablo 3 and 4.
The dev teams of both Diablo Immortal and 4 often collaborate on the series timeline, so it’ll be fascinating to see what “ripples” the events of Immortal have on Diablo 4. The suggestion that Diablo may not need to possess another character to return in a future expansion of Diablo 4 is also a game-changer.
Terror rises
Diablo owning a piece of the World Stone may also go some way to explain why characters like Lilith or Mephisto were keen to try and build alliances with powerful humans in Diablo 4. While demonic characters themselves, they know the Lord of Terror is a bigger threat than ever and that they cannot stand against him alone.
Lilith is the creator of Sanctuary, and while she wanted to conquer it for herself, she also wanted to defend it from Diablo. After all, she sees humanity as her wayward children. She also has no love for the destructive forces of Heaven or Hell.
As for Mephisto, his alliance with his fellow Prime Evil ended in Diablo 3 when Diablo consumed both him and Baal. Chances are, Mephisto hasn’t forgotten this callous slight – and likely wants to conquer all of reality himself rather than share it with his treacherous brothers.
Mephisto was able to escape into Sanctuary in the body of Akarat at the end of Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, and Season 7 will likely see the start of the hunt for him.
But while the characters are busy chasing Mephisto, Diablo is likely plotting his own comeback, and Diablo Immortal’s Shattered Sanctuary expansion gives us the biggest clue yet on how he’ll achieve it.
Perhaps we all should have heeded Lilith’s warning after all.
