BlizzCon 2019 Diablo IV: World and Lore Panel Transcript

Q&A

Elizabeth: Thank you, thank you so much Candace. Thank you for punching us in the face with your words. It was amazing.

Candace: That’s what I do, man.

Elizabeth: Alright. So you guys submitted questions to us yesterday, both online and at our Diablo experience in the back. I am going to start off with one of our more higher rated questions, and we’re gonna read through them and give you some answers. This first one is from I think it’s from Bull. Bull asks “With the mother of hatred coming out, will the father of the Nephalem make an appearance?” It’s a great question.

Sean: Oh, I think I can tackle that. I think I spoke about it a little bit — talked just now; but again, Lilith has been known in legends as the first mother, but that doesn’t mean that she’s the only mother. You see… when Inarius and Lilith enacted their plans to steal the Worldstone and create Sanctuary, they had other rebel angels and demons with them to help enact the plan.

So, just to talk about that, she’s definitely a first mother, not the only mother. Second of which, Inarius, if you guys had the chance to read any of the source books, or even the Sin War trilogy novel, we know where Inarius is; and he’s unfortunately been under the wonderful care of Mephisto for the past 3,000 years — being tortured. What’s he’s going on right now… I think that’d be a bit of a spoiler; but to the last we saw him — he was still being tortured.

Jesse: There’s an amazing piece of art in the dark gallery, if you haven’t checked that out of like Inarius is bound. It’s beautiful. You’ve got to check it out. But that’s the last time we saw him.

Sean: Last time we saw him.

Elizabeth: Bummer. Yeah, it’s a bummer for him. Our next question was submitted via Twitter. He asks: “Will the entire map be randomly generated like in Diablo II, or will it be just the dungeons?”

Candace: Yeah, Sanctuary is a fixed world. It’s an open world that you explore. That is not randomly generated, but we do have hundreds of dungeons that are both below the surface and in pockets of Sanctuary. That will be randomly generated — just as like that tool that we use for variety; and just like you would expect from a Diablo game.

Elizabeth: Awesome. Our next question is from Thunderclaw. Thunderclaw asks: “What happened to all the souls trapped in the Black Soulstone once it was destroyed?” It’s a great question.

Sean: That is a great question.

Elizabeth: Jesse.

Jesse: I think previously, we’ve said that they were all bound together. On further introspection and consulting with the Horadrim, I don’t know how that could be the case for such a long time if they’ve been trapped in there as separate entities, you’re gonna want to fight to separate. This has happened even up to godhood in the Lore so they’re probably separate, and they will come back at some point.

Sean: They’re all out there.

Elizabeth: They are all out there.

Jesse: Yes. That brings me back to the first question actually which I was thinking about while we were talking that, Inarius’ jailor is one of those. So… that could create problems for Sanctuary.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Okay, cool. Next question is “No diablo game is complete without the Lords of Hell. Can we expect to see the unholy triumvirate?”

Harrison: The unholy triumvirate? That’s awesome. Rad. Yeah, just like Sean and Jesse said earlier, like that Soulstone is shattered. Those sort of essences have been scattered to the cosmic winds. You have seen Duriel. So that’s one of them, and we know from history… History has shown that when the essences are scattered, even when they’re defeated, they do find their way back. But it’s important to remember that Lilith is here, and now there’s a power vacuum. She is the ascendant power. She’s the tornado at our doorstep right now. There’s a hurricane off in the distance that we should probably be aware of, but Lilith is here, and she is in charge.

Elizabeth: Yeah, okay. Awesome. Next question is from Twitter: “Cain’s dead, will Tyrael be the narrator?” Good question. Jesse.

Jesse: That’s an interesting question because it assumes that we have a narrator in Diablo IV or what a narrator is. So, since we’ve said some time has passed since the events of Reaper of Souls, and we know that the last time we saw Tyrael he was in Heaven, and he was mortal. It’s hard to say where he is at this point without giving an exact date for the storyline, there’s a lot of possibilities for where Tyrael might be.

Previously, in Diablo games we’ve had usually a Horadric representative, and if you guys watch the gameplay trailer you see we have a character. He’s wearing a Horadric necklace. Maybe that’s somebody important. That’s someone to keep an eye on.

Harrison: And also, it’s important to mention it like– since the events of Diablo III, like Heaven closed its gates, phone’s off the hook, they’re not taking our calls. Right? Like… nope, nobody’s answering. Horadrim are incommunicado. So, we are kinda on our own. Yea. Not great.

Elizabeth: We are kinda screwed. Yea. Good stuff. Alright. Next question: “Is my homie, the Butcher, in D4?” My homie the Butcher. Interesting, that the Butcher is your homie… Jesse. I will let you take that one.

Jesse: Yea. I don’t know how the Butcher is your homie. Like don’t you remember in Diablo I, he rushes outside and beats the heck out of you. Yea, he is definitely not your homie. Unless you are on the side of evil, and then I am not your homie. Or am I? It is like a bigger question to me– like our favorites are going to come back? I think there are a lot of characters like that, that are really fun to play and are fan favorites. They would be awesome to bring back. So we are definitely talking about that, trying to figure out where it is appropriate to– The Butcher, I think would make a really fun fight in Diablo IV; so I think that would be something we would talk about a lot.

Harrison: Yea, we want to make sure that when we pick things to bring forward, that it feels organic and correct for Diablo IV. We don’t want to just pick, like: Oh that’s an easy win for us. We want it to feel like it is part of… there is a reason for it. It matters. This lore matters. The characters matter. We don’t want to just snag something, and just chuck it in because it was just like a thing that we remember from back in the day.

Jesse: When he is a giant demon that is going to beat the crap out of you with a huge thing, and– THAT’s totally appropriate for Diablo IV.

Harrison: That does hit like your Metal requirement. That’s true. So… maybe.

Candace: Remember we are trying to, under the legacy of what Diablo II was, and we are hoping that our monster line-up (without spoiling the whole thing in our first panel) will delight you and… murder you. (smiles)

Harrison: Delight and murder you…

Candace: In that order.

Elizabeth: Awesome. Well, that’s all the questions that we brought with us today. We just want to take a moment and say thank you guys, so much. It is such an honor to be up on this stage. It is so incredible to finally be able to say Diablo IV, and to bring you a little early taste of what the game is going to be like. So thank you again, so much. Thank you for being here, and have a great BlizzCon.

BLIZZCON 2019 DIABLO IV: WORLD AND LORE PANEL TRANSCRIPT
1. Intro	2. The Tone of Sanctuary	3. Lore	4. World Building
5. The World	6. Monsters	7. Q&A
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