Horadrim
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The Horadrim are a fictional ancient confederation of mages in the computer games Diablo and Diablo II.
During the Sin War, The Horadrim were charged with the purpose of hunting The Prime Evils – Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal – who had been exiled to the mortal realm. To this end the Archangel Tyrael provided them with Soulstones which had the power to bind the spirits of the Prime Evils and contain them.
The Horadrim were mostly successful initially. Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred was captured first and imprisoned under the care of the Zakarum Church at Kurast. Baal, the Lord of Destruction was captured near the location of Lut Gholein in the Eastern Desert under a task-force led by Tal Rasha, one of the Horadrim's leaders. Although Baal had shattered his soulstone, Tal Rasha volunteered to complete the prison and used a remaining fragment driven into his heart to contain Baal. Tal Rasha was sealed inside a tomb and cut off from the rest of the world.
Although his two elder Brothers had been captured, the Lord of Terror, Diablo still managed to elude the Horadrim. Following his trail, several Horadrim monks were eventually able to track him to the western land of Khanduras. There, mage Jered Cain and his group were able to capture and bind the last Prime Evil. Diablo's stone was buried in Khanduras and a monastery was built over it for the Horadrim to watch the stone.
Despite having succeeded in capturing all their targets, the Horadrim failed to prevent their future escape. The Order dwindled as the Evils began to break free. Being the first to be imprisoned and using knowledge gleaned from fallen angel Izual, Mephisto was able to corrupt his soulstone and eventually even the priesthood which guarded him except for Khalim, their leader. As a result, Mephisto sent one of the priests, Lazarus, who later became Leoric's Archbishop, to free Diablo, speeding the process of Diablo's liberation up. Diablo first sought to gain control over Leoric; failing in his task, and leaving King Leoric maddened, he later came back on using Lazarus to break free. Although Baal was able to escape from his prison with the help of Diablo, the spell completed by Tal Rasha seems to have prevented him from exerting the same influence when bound as his Brothers did.
Although the Order by the time of Diablo I had dwindled down to one last member, Deckard Cain (apparently a descendant of Jered Cain), they had foreseen the future rise of the Prime Evils and had thus scattered around various enchantments and artifacts such as the Horadric Staff and Horadric Cube to aid humanity in countering any future threat. Deckard Cain, the last Horadrim, eventually serves as an advisor to the heroes who defeat the Prime Evils after their release.
