Diablo (1997)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(video_game)
The setting of Diablo includes the mortal realm which is the world of Man as well as the High Heavens and the Burning Hells. After eons of war between angels and demons, the ascension of man prompted the three Lords of Hell (including Diablo himself) to seek victory through influence, prompting their exile into the mortal realm. There, they sowed chaos, distrust, and hatred among men until a group of magi, called the Horadrim, trapped them in enchanted crystals called "Soulstones". Diablo's soulstone was buried deep in the earth and a monastery was built over the site.
Generations passed and the purpose of the monastery was forgotten. A small town named Tristram sprang up next to the monastery's ruins. When King Leoric rebuilt the monastery as a cathedral, Diablo manipulated its archbishop, Lazarus, to destroy his soulstone prison. Diablo briefly possessed the king, sending out his knights and priests to battle against peaceful kingdoms, and then possessed the king's son, Prince Albrecht, filling the caves and catacombs beneath the cathedral with creatures formed from Albrecht's nightmares.
Tristram became a town of fear and horror, where people were abducted in the night. With no king, no law, and no army left to defend them, many villagers fled.
The game starts when the player's character arrives in Tristram. Several of the remaining townsfolk assist the player such as Deckard Cain the Elder. The labyrinth under the Cathedral descends from the dungeon/church, to the catacombs, followed by the caves, and finally Hell itself, each with a mixture of the undead, animals, and demons. King Leoric has been re-animated as the Skeleton King.
Late in the game, the hero must defeat Archbishop Lazarus, and eventually Diablo himself. At the end of the game, the hero kills Diablo's mortal form. The hero then takes the Soulstone out of Diablo's forehead after which Diablo transforms into a lifeless Prince Albrecht. The hero then drives the Soulstone into their own forehead, and they contain the essence of Diablo within themselves.
As told in the sequel Diablo II, canonically the warrior was the hero that defeated Diablo only to become possessed. The Rogue became Blood Raven while the Sorcerer became the False Summoner, both of them NPC enemies. Diablo III further retconned the story by establishing the nameless warrior as Prince Aidan, the eldest son of Leoric and older brother of Albrecht.
Diablo: Hellfire (1998)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo:_Hellfire
Hellfire's storyline occurs as an aside to the main story arc of the original game. A sorcerer, while performing a ritual, unknowingly releases the demon Na-Krul unto the town of Tristram, but before it can completely escape, the sorcerer magically seals the doors. The player is later tasked with venturing into Na-Krul's lair and vanquishing it. In order to gain access to the dungeons, the player must speak with Lester the Farmer, who is north of Tristram, near the herd of cows; however, if the player speaks to Lester before reaching a certain point of the main Diablo quest, he will be hesitant to ask them to enter the new dungeons.
The expansion pack adds several enhancements to Diablo, including two new dungeon settings (the Nest and the Crypt), additional quests to undertake, several extra game items (including oils which affect item statistics), runes that can be placed as traps, a new page of spells, new affixes for weapons and armor, new shrines, new mini-boss enemy names, a noticeable boost to Diablo's strength and power, and a number of interface improvements. The Monk was the only character class that Synergistic Software was permitted to add; the Monk class is meant to be proficient with the staff in melee combat, gains defense bonuses from lighter armor (but not heavier armor), and is more effective than other classes fighting barehanded (defying the standard RPG progression where a player character gets more powerful by picking up better equipment). There are also two hidden character classes, the axe-wielding Barbarian and the dual-wielding Bard, which can be played using a file tweak. As unfinished characters left in the game code as easter eggs, they utilize the art of the Warrior and Rogue, respectively, and have no lore.
The rest of the expansion integrates more fully into the main adventure. Objects like oils, new weapons, rings and armor, and runes drop amid other more common kinds of items, and the new spellbooks, including books for two previously existing spells that did not have books, and scrolls are found in the same kinds of places. New shrines are found where shrines would normally be found. Hellfire's dungeons are populated with new enemies that do not appear in the main Diablo quest, while the difficulty of Hellfire dungeon floors 1–8 mirror those of levels 9–16 of the main Diablo quest, requiring experienced characters to explore.
Some of the newer convenience features include the option to move more quickly around town using the "jog" toggle found in the options menu; a spell that highlights objects lying on the floor as though the cursor was placed over them; and a spell that teleports the player to the nearest staircase found on that level of the dungeon. These were approved by Blizzard North and some would be adopted for Diablo II.
Diablo II (2000)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_II
Diablo II takes place after the end of the previous game, Diablo, in the world of Sanctuary. In Diablo, an unnamed warrior defeated Diablo and attempted to contain the Lord of Terror's essence within his own body. Since then, the hero has become corrupted by the demon's spirit, causing demons to enter the world around him and wreak havoc.
A band of adventurers who pass through the Rogue Encampment hear these stories of destruction and attempt to find out the cause of the evil, starting with this corrupted "Dark Wanderer." As the story develops, the truth behind this corruption is revealed: the soulstones were originally intended to imprison the Prime Evils after they were banished to the mortal realm by the Lesser Evils. With the corruption of Diablo's soulstone, the demon is able to control the Dark Wanderer and is attempting to free his two brothers, Mephisto and Baal. Baal, united with the mage Tal-Rasha, is imprisoned in a tomb near Lut Gholein. Mephisto is imprisoned in the eastern temple city of Kurast.
As the story progresses, cut scenes show the Dark Wanderer's journey as a drifter named Marius follows him. Marius, now in an asylum, narrates the events to a hooded visitor, whom he initially believes to be the Archangel Tyrael. The player realizes that the Dark Wanderer's mission is to reunite with the other prime evils, Baal and Mephisto. The story is divided up into four acts:
Act I – The adventurers rescue Deckard Cain, who is imprisoned in Tristram, and then begin following the Dark Wanderer. The Dark Wanderer has one of the lesser evils, Andariel, corrupt the Sisters of the Sightless Eye (Rogues) and take over their Monastery. The adventurers overcome Andariel and then follow the Wanderer east.
Act II – While the adventurers search the eastern desert for Tal-Rasha's tomb, the Dark Wanderer gets there first. Marius is tricked into removing Baal's soulstone from Tal-Rasha and Tyrael charges Marius with taking the soulstone to Hell to destroy it.
Act III – The Dark Wanderer and Baal look for Mephisto in the Temple of Kurast. Still imprisoned in the dungeon below the temple, Mephisto was able to corrupt the High Council of Zakarum and take over the region. While the adventurers fight their way to the temple, Mephisto is rejoined by his brothers; the three open a portal to Hell, the Dark Wanderer sheds his human form, becomes the demon Diablo, and goes through the portal. The adventurers arrive later, defeat Mephisto, who was left guarding the entrance, and take his soulstone.
Act IV – The adventurers slay Diablo in Hell and destroy the soulstones of Mephisto and Diablo on the Hellforge, preventing their return.
In the epilogue, Marius indicates he was too weak to enter Hell, and that he fears the stone's effects on him. He gives the soulstone to his visitor. The visitor reveals himself to actually be Baal, the last surviving Prime Evil now in possession of his own soulstone. He then kills Marius and sets the asylum on fire.
The story continues with Act V, in the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction where Baal attempts to corrupt the mythical Worldstone on Mount Arreat. Upon returning to the Pandemonium Fortress after defeating Diablo, Tyrael opens a portal to send the adventurers to Arreat.
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_II:_Lord_of_Destruction
After the player successfully ventures into Hell and defeats Diablo in Act IV, upon returning to the Pandemonium Fortress they are met by the Archangel Tyrael with an urgent summon. Tyrael opens a portal to Harrogath, a stronghold on Mount Arreat in the northern Barbarian Highlands. As shown at the end of Act IV, while two of the Prime Evils of Hell, Diablo and Mephisto, have been defeated and their Soulstones destroyed at the Hellforge, their surviving brother Baal has retrieved his own Soulstone from the narrator Marius. Baal has raised an army and attacked Mount Arreat, whose Barbarian inhabitants are tasked with defending the Worldstone.
There are six quests in Act V. The player starts off at the stronghold of Harrogath. There are also ice caverns in the mountains, as well as hellish subterranean pits (reminiscent of Hell in Act IV) for extra monsters and experience. After reaching the summit of Arreat, the player gains access to the Worldstone Keep.
Many of the folk in Harrogath do not initially trust the player character (even if they are playing as the Barbarian class). The player has to slay Shenk the Overseer who is leading the assault in the Bloody Foothills in order to relieve the siege of Harrogath. The player can also rescue the captured Barbarian defenders. Completing these quests gradually helps the town inhabitants warm to the player and they will provide aid or other services.
The player soon discovers that one of Harrogath's councilors or Elders, Nihlathak, has made a deal with Baal to spare Harrogath in return for access to the Worldstone Keep. After rescuing Anya and learning of this betrayal, the player has to find and kill Nihlathak, who is sheltered between his minions in the Halls of Vaught.
Before gaining access to the Worldstone Keep, the player must defeat The Ancients, which are the three legendary Barbarians guarding the Worldstone – Talic the Defender, Madawc the Guardian and Korlic the Protector – who allow only the worthy to pass. After the player succeeds, the Ancients warn that Baal is already in the Keep and has blocked Tyrael's presence.
Finally, the player fights Baal in The Worldstone Chamber, after defeating his pack of minions at the Throne of Destruction. Tyrael appears after Baal is dead, congratulating the player and opening a portal to Destruction's End, the conclusion of the game. As the Worldstone is corrupted by Baal, Tyrael has no choice but to destroy it before its power of Hell takes root; the consequences of the Worldstone's destruction would not be fully known until twenty years later.
Diablo Immortal (2022)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_Immortal
Part of the Diablo series, Immortal takes place in the series' world of Sanctuary and is set 5 years after the events of Diablo II, but prior to Diablo III. Players begin their adventure in the town of Wortham, which is being threatened by cultists and the undead. They learn from recurring Diablo character Deckard Cain that they must locate and destroy shards of the Worldstone across the world of Sanctuary in order to prevent a world-threatening disaster, masterminded by the game's initial antagonist Skarn, the "Lord of Damnation."
This journey continues into areas including the city of Westmarch (which serves as the game's main location for trade and social activities), Ashworld Cemetery, Dark Wood, the Shassar Sea, Mount Zavain (location of the Sanctified Earth Monastery), the Frozen Tundra (populated by Barbarian tribes), and the Stormpoint prison island.
Other aspects of the game's plot focus on conflict between the "Immortals" (a group dedicated to the protection of Sanctuary) and the "Shadows" (a secret group established to test the Immortals) in what is known as the "Cycle of Strife". In the words of the game's principal designer, Scott Shicoff:
"A long time ago, there was a powerful individual called Daedessa the Builder... she wanted to protect Sanctuary from demonic invasion but she wasn't a fighter. She was, however, a master crafter, and she created a powerful artifact called the Eternal Crown. She gave it to her son Kion... and charged him with forming a group whose sole purpose would be the protection of Sanctuary from the Burning Hells. Kion took this powerful artifact and created a guardian group which he called the Immortals.
"Daedessa knew that power, especially that kind of power, can lead to complacency and corruption for even the best or most well-intentioned individuals like her son. So she gave her daughter Akeba a secret heavy burden. It would be Akeba's job to make sure that the Immortals would never falter or waver. That they were always worthy and capable of defending Sanctuary, as they were charged. So working in secret, Akeba found those brave enough to help her constantly test and challenge the Immortals. They would look for cracks and weaknesses and they would do everything they could to make sure the elite defenders of Sanctuary were always up to the task. She called this group the Shadows.
"And should the Shadows ever prove stronger and more capable, they would overthrow the current reign and take up the Eternal Crown as the new Immortals. Which, of course, they eventually did, with Akeba becoming the next Immortal. But Akeba could never get too comfortable because she knew that as she rose up, so too would new Shadows to make sure she was always worthy of her station. And thus the Cycle of Strife was born."
Diablo III (2012)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_III
The game takes place in Sanctuary, the dark fantasy world of the Diablo Series, twenty years after the events of Diablo II. Deckard Cain and his ward Leah are in Tristram Cathedral (the same cathedral that was the setting of Diablo) investigating ancient texts regarding an ominous prophecy. A mysterious star falling from the sky strikes the cathedral, creating a deep crater into which Deckard Cain disappears.
Act I
The Nephalem (the player's character) arrives in the town of New Tristram to investigate the fallen star. They accompany Leah to the cathedral in order to rescue Cain. After rescuing him, they learn that the only way to the fallen star is to defeat the Skeleton King (who was once called King Leoric). The Nephalem defeats him and finds a stranger where the fallen star landed. The stranger's only memory is of a sword that shattered into three pieces as he fell.
The Nephalem recovers two of the sword pieces. But Maghda, leader of the Dark Coven, recovers the third piece, and tries to make Cain repair the sword. Leah, however, kills the cultists with a surge of magical power, forcing Maghda to attack Cain fatally and flee with the stranger. Before dying, Cain repairs the sword and discovers it to be of angelic origin, and tasks the Nephalem with returning it to the stranger. After freeing the stranger from the Butcher in the dungeons beneath Leoric's manor and returning the sword, the stranger's memories are recovered, and it is revealed that he is the Archangel Tyrael, the Aspect of Justice. Disgusted with his fellow angels' unwillingness to protect humanity from the forces of Hell, Tyrael cast aside his divinity to become a mortal and warn Sanctuary about the arrival of the demon lords.
Act II
The Nephalem, Leah, and Tyrael travel to the city of Caldeum. The Nephalem leaves to track down Maghda. At the Khasim Outpost, demons in service to Belial, the Lord of Lies, have imprisoned and replaced the guards. When the Nephalem freed them, they reclaim the outpost and the Nephalem is given access to Alcarnus, then fights and kills Maghda. The Nephalem then returns to Caldeum to rescue Leah from Belial's forces, disguised as the guards of the young Emperor Hakan II, after which they escape into the city sewers. Leah reveals that her mother, Adria (the witch of Tristram from the original game), is still alive. The Nephalem aids Leah in rescuing Adria from her imprisonment in the sewers.
Adria reveals that the key to stopping the forces of Hell is the Black Soulstone, crafted by the renegade Horadrim Zoltan Kulle, which has the power to trap the souls of all seven of the Lords of Hell. Leah explains that Kulle was slain before he could complete the stone, and that his severed head was sealed away. Adria instructs the Nephalem to find the head. After the head is retrieved, Leah revives the ghost of Zoltun Kulle, who agrees to deliver the Black Soulstone if the Nephalem helps him restore his body. After the Nephalem finds his body, Leah brings Kulle back to life. The Nephalem is then led into the archive's inner sanctum where the Black Soulstone is located, but is forced to defeat Kulle when he tells the Nephalem to abandon his quest. Upon returning to Caldeum, the Nephalem finds the city under attack by Belial's forces. Leah and Adria fight their way to the palace with the Nephalem, revealing Belial as having taken the form of the Emperor to deceive them, and defeat him. Leah then traps Belial's soul within the Black Soulstone, freeing Caldeum, after which she has a vision of Azmodan, the Lord of Sin and now sole remaining Lord of Hell, who is invading Sanctuary from the crater of Mount Arreat (destroyed by Tyrael in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction).
Act III
The Nephalem travels to Bastion's Keep with Tyrael, their followers, Leah and Adria only to find it under attack by Azmodan's army. Tyrael instructs the Nephalem to aid the defenders. With that done, the Nephalem enters the stronghold, where Azmodan's forces have breached the lower levels, defeating the demon Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony. The Nephalem then destroys Azmodan's siege weapons before traversing the crater of Arreat, defeating Azmodan's consort Cydaea, the Maiden of Lust, before finally defeating Azmodan within the mountain's shattered core. Leah seals Azmodan's soul within the Black Soulstone. They return to Bastion's Keep, but find that Adria has betrayed them. Adria reveals she has been serving Diablo, the Lord of Terror, from the beginning. Adria uses the Black Soulstone to resurrect Diablo while forcing Leah to serve as his vessel. With all the souls of the Lords of Hell now within him, Diablo becomes the Prime Evil, and begins an assault on the High Heavens.
Act IV
The Nephalem and Tyrael arrive at the High Heavens to find that it is already under attack. Imperius, the Aspect of Valor, blames the Nephalem and Tyrael for their downfall, causing Tyrael to give in to despair. However, the Nephalem remains determined to fight. The Nephalem meets Itherael, the Aspect of Fate, who instructs the Nephalem to rescue Auriel, the Aspect of Hope. Returning hope to the forces of Heaven, the Nephalem is then instructed by Auriel to close the Hell Rifts. After this is done, the Nephalem finds Tyrael, who has overcome his despair. Together, they attempt to stop Diablo from reaching the Crystal Arch, the source of Heaven's power, but not before a brawl with Izual, Tyrael's corrupted former lieutenant (thought to have been killed in Diablo II). Diablo is eventually defeated and his physical manifestation is destroyed. The Black Soulstone is shown falling from the High Heavens, still intact. After the battle, Tyrael decides to rejoin the Angiris Council as the new Aspect of Wisdom, but remains a mortal, dedicated to building a permanent alliance between angels and humans.
The story continues in Act V, in the expansion Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (2014)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_III:_Reaper_of_Souls
After Diablo is defeated by the Nephalem (the player character), Tyrael recovers the Black Soulstone that contains the essence of all seven of the Great Evils. Knowing it is too dangerous to leave in the hands of mortals or angels, he and six Horadrim take the Black Soulstone back to Sanctuary and attempt to seal it away where it can never be found - deep in the tomb of Rakkis, the first King of Westmarch, the kingdom established to the west of Khanduras. However, the group is ambushed by Malthael, former Archangel of Wisdom and member and leader of the Angiris Council, who had disappeared after the destruction of the Worldstone after it was corrupted by Baal twenty years earlier (at the end of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction). Now calling himself the "Angel of Death", Malthael kills all but one of the Horadrim, incapacitates Tyrael in the process and steals the Black Soulstone.
Tyrael sends the surviving Horadrim, Lorath Nahr, to locate the Nephalem. Nahr encounters the Nephalem outside Westmarch City, which has been overrun by the Reapers, Malthael's army of enslaved spirits and renegade angels. With the gates blocked, the Nephalem fights through the city sewers to the Zakarum cathedral in the city center, where they encounter Tyrael. Tyrael reveals that with Diablo gone, Malthael sees humanity as a race of demons based on their descent from the original Nephalem, the offspring of angels and demons; by wiping out humanity, Malthael hopes to end the Eternal Conflict, the long war between Heaven and Hell. A sliver broke off from the Black Soulstone when Malthael took it, and Tyrael attempts to use it to discover Malthael's plans. The Reapers deploy two soul crucibles into Westmarch City to claim the souls of the dead, and the Nephalem locates and destroys them, earning the ire of Urzael, Malthael's chief lieutenant, who awaits the hero in Westmarch Heights. The Nephalem tracks Urzael down to the Tower of Korelan and defeats him in a gruesome battle.
The Nephalem learns from Myriam Jahzia, a mystic rescued during the attack against the soul crucibles, that Adria (the witch of Tristram from the original game, who is revealed to have been a servant of Diablo in Diablo III) is in Westmarch seeking to locate the Black Soulstone and resurrect her master again. Lorath decides to accompany the hero, then learns that Adria sealed the tomb's entrance with a rock slide, so he suggests unlocking the guide-stones to open the correct passageway. Travelling into the ancient ruins in the Blood Marsh outside Westmarch, the Nephalem confronts Adria, who manages to locate Malthael at the Pandemonium Fortress (last seen in Diablo II), built in the realm between Heaven and Hell to watch over the Worldstone. She then transforms into a winged demonic creature, claiming that Diablo sent her a vision of his return at the hands of the Nephalem, after which the Nephalem slays her. Upon learning of Malthael's location, Tyrael takes the Nephalem back into the High Heavens, where they find the Pandemonium Gate under attack by Malthael's Reapers. Upon defeating the attackers, they are met by Imperius, Aspect of Valor and the commander of Heaven's armies, who reluctantly admits that Malthael must be stopped and leads the Nephalem into the Realm of Pandemonium. Imperius directs the Nephalem to use an ancient battering ram to breach the fortress gates, using siege runes held by the demons trapped there.
Tyrael arrives just as the Nephalem prepares to activate the ram, revealing that he has discovered Malthael's plan; he intends to use the Black Soulstone to consume all demonic essence in Sanctuary, including that which makes up the bloodline of humanity, leading to its extinction. After breaching the gates with four hits with the battering ram, Tyrael informs the Nephalem that they must become "one with death", as Malthael is, in order to defeat him. Inside the fortress, the Nephalem encounters a figure from their past (dependent on their class) who directs them to unlock the soul prison kept in its depths. The Nephalem channels the spirits from the prison and takes on an aspect of death themselves, before moving on to defeat the guardians that bar the way to Malthael's sanctum at the heart of the fortress.
The Nephalem holds their own against Malthael for a time, until he shatters the Black Soulstone and takes the power of the Seven Evils within himself. The Nephalem ultimately triumphs, striking down Malthael and saving mankind from his attempt to exterminate it; however, Malthael's death frees the Seven Evils, shattering the Black Soulstone; fulfilling Adria's final prophecy. As Tyrael and Imperius look on after the Nephalem's victory, Tyrael sees the Nephalem in a new light: a protector of the innocent who can confront the most powerful champions of Heaven and Hell alike. Yet in the end the Nephalem still has a mortal heart that can be corrupted, and Tyrael wonders if the Nephalem will remain the savior, or become the doom of all creation.
Diablo IV (2023)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_IV
Set in the Diablo series' world of Sanctuary, Diablo IV takes place 50 years after the events of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. Cultists have summoned the main antagonist and daughter of Mephisto, Lilith (Caroline Faber). After the events of previous games, the forces of demons and angels have been depleted, allowing an opening for her to establish power in Sanctuary.
Thousands of years before the game's events, Lilith and the angel Inarius (Gabe Kunda) created the realm of Sanctuary to provide refuge for those who wished to escape the eternal conflict between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells. This demon-angel relationship led to the birth of the Nephalem, a race that the protagonist falls under; neither Angel nor Demon, but a distinct combination of both. Those in Sanctuary believed that this power would bring attention to their shelter and, as a result, the inhabitants spoke of destroying them. Lilith, not wanting her children to be killed, destroyed any that opposed her, causing Inarius to banish her to the void.
The player character, known as "the Wanderer", is drugged by villagers corrupted by Lilith and fed petals of her blood, creating a connection to her. After escaping, the Wanderer meets Lorath Nahr (Ralph Ineson), one of the last Horadrim (returning from Diablo III: Reaper of Souls) and explains the prophecy of Lilith's return. Inarius believes he alone can fulfill the prophecy by killing Lilith, which will allow him to return to Heaven. Aided by a young woman named Neyrelle (Judy Alice Lee), the Wanderer enters the sanctum of Rathma, the first Nephalem and founder of the Necromancers. Inside, Rathma's spirit (Scott Whyte) reveals he had a key to Hell. When Inarius demands the key from him, Rathma refuses, and Inarius kills him; Lilith later finds the key. The Wanderer then journeys to Scosglen to meet another Horadrim named Donan (James Goode), who had defeated a demon called Astaroth (David Lodge) with the aid of two Druids years before. Lilith corrupts the two Druids to find Astaroth's prison and frees him, in exchange for safe passage through Hell. Astaroth possesses Donan's son Yorin (Thierry Mabonga), who dies when the demon is defeated. Donan recovers the Soulstone used to trap Astaroth, and prepares to alter it in order to trap Lilith.
Rejoining Lorath in the Dry Steppes, the Wanderer pursues Lorath's former apprentice Elias (Anthony Howell), who summoned Lilith to Sanctuary. Though Elias cannot be killed, the Wanderer and Lorath retrieve an artifact called the Sightless Eye to discover Lilith's plan: To summon the Lesser Evils to empower humanity against the Prime Evils. She also intends to consume the essence of her father Mephisto (Steve Blum) while he is weak, and use his power to conquer Hell. Elias uses a witch named Taissa (Cherise Boothe) as a vessel to summon Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish, who is defeated by the Wanderer. Seeking to break Elias' immortality, the Wanderer and the Horadrim journey to the swamps of Hawezar. Elias had claimed knowledge from an enchanted "Tree of Whispers", but failed to pay the price – his own head – for that knowledge. Learning that Elias has contained his life essence in his own severed finger, the Wanderer destroys it, before finally defeating Elias; the spirits of the Tree then claim Elias' head.
From the Tree, Lorath learns of a gateway to Hell beneath the city of Caldeum, opened using Rathma's key. In Caldeum, the Wanderer defeats another reformed Lesser Evil, Duriel, the Lord of Pain. Inarius goes ahead into Hell to confront Lilith, who kills him. Donan is mortally wounded, and Lorath remains behind, leaving the Wanderer and Neyrelle to pursue Lilith to Mephisto's Cathedral of Hatred. Mephisto himself, having appeared as a bloodied wolf throughout the Wanderer's journey, urges them to focus on Lilith, but Neyrelle chooses to use the Soulstone to contain Mephisto instead, believing him to be the greater threat. The Wanderer then faces Lilith and defeats her. As she dies, Lilith warns that without her, there could be no victory over the Prime Evils.
With both creators of Sanctuary dead, the party returns home. Neyrelle ventures off on her own with the Soulstone, knowing the Prime Evils are coming, and hoping to find a way to defeat them for good.
