this is the story, as i remember it. ive slept since then, so im sure some of the details are wrong, but this is the gist of it:
rwiedeman (2008-06-30 15:01:22):yeah, theres a ton of backstory for the game... but a lot of the problem is, you came into it in the middle... and the other problem being, the story is told in pieces from all the npcs as you go, so if you dont stop and read/listen to them, you miss it.
What was the big deal about Diablo II? Maybe I didn't play it long enough to get there... but I remember this beautiful, dramatic intro, then the game was just a bunch of running around at birds-eye view and collecting treasure. Was there some story that came later in the game, and if so, how long into it? I remember how much you loved it, so there had to be more to it... you were the first person I'd met who had taken vacation days to play a video game. ;) (Later, I took one for Halo 2.)
and when you consider that youre looking at at least 30 hours to run through the game as a first-time player, thats a long damn time to spread the story out... so i can see that it would seem pretty thin, especially if you didnt have the first part of the story to begin with...
an extremely condensed nutshell version:
there are three realms: heaven, hell, and sanctuary. sanctuary is the mortal realm, and the buffer between heaven and hell. for centuries the armies of heaven and hell warred across the mortal realm. the problem being, that even though they could be killed when they were in sanctuary, every time any of the bad guys or good guys were killed, their souls just went back to heaven or hell and they started all over again. this was very bad for us mortals in sanctuary, as you can imagine.
the only thing that kept the war from utterly eradicating sanctuary is the fact that its really hard for everyone to cross over and incarnate in the mortal realm, thanks to the worldstone. the worldstone is like a physical condensate of the energy that created the universe or some shit, and it basically acts like an anchor, keeping the realms apart. or something like that.
anyway, there was a powerful group of mortal mages called the horadrim that decided they had had enough of this shit. with the aid of several angels from heaven, they cornered the three prime evils (diablo, bael, and mephisto) and bound their souls into shards from the worldstone, making them unable to return to hell and subsequently come back to sanctuary and start the whole fucking thing all over again.
the problem is, the soul stones alone werent enough to hold the prime evils, and given time they would eventually escape. so, the three most powerful of the horadrim sacrificed themselves, driving the soul stones into their foreheads so that they might struggle with the prime evils for all eternity, keeping them bound to the mortal realm, and leaving hell leaderless.
these horadrim were magically bound in shrines of great power, and there they remained for... i dunno, a long fucking time, until it was all just legends and shit to the mortals.
everything was fine and dandy for this indeterminately long fucking time, until the strongest of the prime evils, diablo, began to win the spiritual battle with his horadrim host. the horadrim, as uber-powerful mages, were damn near immortal... but as is usually the case, that "damn near" part is the kicker. they were finally weakening, dying, and it gave the prime evils a foothold. diablo regained some small influence over the mortal realm as he began to overcome his host.
as it turns out, in the intervening long fucking time, the town of tristram had been built over the shrine where diablo was bound. he started to influence and corrupt the people there, and eventually everything went to shit. thats when you, the intrepid hero, come on to the scene.
(here begins the first diablo game)
as heroes often do, you stupidly go "hey, lets go kick the shit out of all this evil up in this bitch"... by this point, the big D has overtaken his host entirely, and incarnated in the mortal realm again. with the help of deckard cain, the last surviving horadrim (now old and fading), you trudge to the bottom of the requisite evil dungeon and open a can of whoopass on diablo.
problem is, after you kill his ass, his body disentigrates and the soul stone is left, with diablo's soul stuck inside. without a host, it wont take long at all for him to escape and return to hell. so, being the valiant hero destined for tragedy, you jam the soul stone into your head in hopes of containing him long enough to find someone who can bind him more permanently.
(here begins the second diablo game)
unfortunately, that doesnt work out so well for our intrepid hero. surprise!
diablo corrupts him entirely in fairly short order and takes the hero over. he is now in search of his brothers, the other two big bad evils, so he can whip the armies of hell back into shape and march on an unsuspecting heaven.
this is bad.
this is also where our NEW hero comes in. and of course, you decide to kick the shit out of all the evil up in this bitch. again.
oh yeah, and before i forget, an unfortunate side effect of the prime evils being contained in the bodies of the three most powerful mages to ever live is... well, now theyve corrupted and controlled the bodies of the three most powerful freaking mages that ever lived! so now theyre like... powerful x 2. whoops, too bad nobody thought about that when they hatched their crazy plan... or DID they?? (evil foreshadowing music)
you proceed to rampage across sanctuary trying to catch up to diablo before he can free his brothers... and of course, youre always just a tiiiiny bit too slow. so you juuuust miss bael, then run into mephisto, kick his ass and collect his soul stone, then actually go to hell to whoop diablo before he can start his war. along the way, you also smash mephisto's soul stone on some kind of like, anvil of god or some shit in hell, killing his ass permanently.
after kicking diablos ass AGAIN, you count the evils on your fingers... one... two... oh shit, i totally forgot about evil number 3!
bael has been a busy little bee. he is seeking out the world stone, so he can destroy it and remove the barrier between heaven and hell. that barrier being our world. this is bad for all the squishies who happen to live in our world.
when you catch up to bael, youre just barely too late. again. story of a heroes life i guess. bael has already corrupted the worldstone. you kick his ass anyway, just for good measure. then tyrial, an archangel, pops his head in and says "oh shit, this is bad. we have to destroy the worldstone now, before its corruption spreads and turns all of sancuary into a suburb of hell!"
this smells slightly fishy to you, knowing what you do about the worldstone, but being worn out from kicking all that ass, you say "wtf ever" and let him get on with it.
(so ends diablo 2)
-- now some important shit about tyriel. tyriel is an important character in the story, but i didnt mention him because up until now he didnt actually DO much. heres the deal: tyriel was the head general of heaven's armies. he was the one who hatched the plan to trap the prime evils in the soul stones, and he was the one that helped out the horadrim so they could pull it off. all of which unfortunately led to 1) heaven getting lazy and shit, thinking they had won; 2) the loss of the three most powerful mortal mages that ever lived, damn near celestial beings in their own right; 3) the corruption of said mages, making the prime evils even MORE prime and evil; 4) the asskicking and death of the three prime evils, leaving hell in disarray; and 5) the corruption and ultimate destruction of the worldstone, leaving sanctuary wide open to the forces of hell... AND heaven.
but... tyriel is an angel so... its all good.
right?
(now i eagerly await diablo 3 so i can kick his fallen ass!)