The Prime Evils
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Prime Evils is the designation given to the three lead villains of the PC game, Diablo II. Hellspawned demonic brothers, the three originally ruled Hell jointly as a triumvirate, until the Lesser Evils conspired against them and overthrew them onto the mortal plane.
In the original Diablo, the Prime Evil Diablo was captured by the Horadrim and imprisoned inside a soulstone. Diablo was then buried deep beneath caverns under the town of Tristram. The story line of Diablo begins after this.
After his defeat, Diablo appeared banished, but his presence was eventually made manifest inside the mind of the hero who defeated him. Slowly, the hero who slew Diablo was corrupted and driven by Diablo to seek his brothers: Mephisto and Baal. The game Diablo II continues the story of the first game, with the player cast as a pursuing adventurer, trying to prevent Diablo from reuniting with his brothers. In the course of Diablo II Mephisto is defeated and his soulstone is destroyed. Eventually, Diablo himself is defeated and his soulstone is destroyed as well. However, the story-line omits the fate of Baal, the third brother. The story of Diablo II is completed in the expansion pack, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, which explains the whereabouts of Baal.
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction's story-line introduces a new mythical object into the Diablo Universe, the Worldstone, which is an ancient crystal that prevents the Heavens and the Hells from completely enveloping the mortal realm. Baal is seeking it inside Mount Arreat. However, true to the games preceding it, Baal is defeated. The Worldstone is destroyed by the archangel Tyrael due to Baal's corruption of it.
Contents |
[edit] Diablo
Diablo is the Lord of Terror, responsible for the seeding of humanity with violent images of bloodlust and terror, his primary weapon being the victim's fear. Diablo's appearance is that of a massive, red-skinned humanoid with sharp fangs and claws and curving horns, as well as long, bony blades sticking out of him (some have suggested that he is similar to a carnivorous dinosaur). In Diablo II, he additionally has a lizard-like tail and uses all four limbs to run, though not to walk.
He was the last of the three brothers to be captured into the soulstone by the Horadrim. Several tomes that may be found beneath the cathedral of Tristram speak of Diablo being the leader and the strongest of "The Three", though he is the youngest of the three brothers.
Initially trapped in his soulstone, he managed to corrupt Archbishop Lazarus, compelling him to shatter the soulstone and free him. Diablo then drove King Leoric mad, though he was unable to completely corrupt him. Still disembodied, he corrupted and took over the mind and body of Prince Albrecht in order to manifest himself in the physical world.
He was originally defeated under the labyrinths beneath Tristram. However, the hero then pressed the soulstone into his forehead, attempting to contain the Lord of Terror's essence. It was there that Diablo corrupted the hero and took over his body, being known from that point on as the Dark Wanderer.
He then successfully freed Baal, despite the intervention of Archangel Tyrael. Diablo, Baal, and Mephisto reunited in Kurast, using their combined powers to open the portal to Hell and Diablo shed the body of the Dark Wanderer to reveal his true self before he entered the gateway.
In Hell, Diablo is found in the Chaos Sanctuary, and will only come forth after the seals of the sanctuary have been broken. There, he was defeated by the pursuing adventurer and his soulstone was destroyed.
Diablo is no doubt the most difficult enemy in both Diablo and Diablo II, particularly due to his Apocalypse and Red Lightning Hose spells, respectively.
[edit] Mephisto
Mephisto is the Lord of Hatred who is described as the eldest of the three brothers.
Mephisto was originally captured by the Horadrim in the deserts near the city of Lut Gholein, the same place where Baal was captured. He was imprisoned inside a soulstone, moved to Kurast and was kept locked inside the Guardian Tower beneath the city of Travincal. His corruption of the regional priesthood led to his release. He was eventually defeated by the pursuing adventurer and his soulstone was subsequently destroyed. He is the most intensely evil brother, whose greatest weapon is his victim's irrational hatred. Among his underlings, the undead compose the vast majority.
[edit] History
Within the game's story, the originators of a religion known as Zakarum locked Mephisto in a tower deep within the holy city of Kurast. Over the years, Mephisto slowly extended his influence over every priest in the council save for Khalim, the Que-Hegan (head of the council). Khalim stood against the Lord of Hatred, but the council members, under Mephisto's command, literally tore him to shreds and scattered his remains throughout the jungle. Mephisto had the council members work spells to shatter the soulstone into seven pieces, and he pressed a shard into each member. The new head of the council, Sankekur, received the largest shard and eventually became the embodiment of Mephisto.
Eventually, the council members themselves became Mephisto's most trusted and most powerful lieutenants, and the humans of Kurast either fell to his dark influence or fled to the last bastion of light in the jungles, the Kurast Docks.
With Khalim gone, Mephisto and the high council members managed to extend their influence past the capital of Travincal, into the three levels of Kurast, Lower, the Bazaar, and Upper Kurast. Council members Geleb Flamefinger, Toorc Icefist and Ismail Vilehand stayed near the entrance to Mephisto's Durance near the compelling orb in Travincal, while members Bremm Sparkfist, Wyand Voidfinger and Maffer Dragonhand stayed on the third level near Mephisto and the portal to hell. A seventh Council Member, Bartuc the Bloody, accompanied Baal to Mount Arreat where he protected the Throne of Destruction; it is unclear whether this is the same character as the Warlord of Blood found below Tristram (originally, the character was titled Bartuc, The Warlord of Blood). Note: In the first Diablo Novel, Bartuc, "The Warlord of Blood" is said to be the brother of Horazon.
[edit] Game context
Mephisto is the boss of Act III. Most of the act consists of finding Khalim's scattered relics; his Heart, his Brain, his Eye, and his Flail. All four items are then transmuted with the Horadric Cube to create Khalim's Will, which is used to destroy the Compelling Orb. Doing so will break Mephisto's control on the Zakarum Priests and open the way to his sanctuary.
After finding the Durance of Hate on level three, players are forced to fight at least two of the remaining high council before fighting Mephisto himself. Killing the three outer councilmen, Geleb, Toorc, and Ismail, is required to gain entrance to the first level of the Durance.
In all difficulty levels, Mephisto's attacks carry large elemental damage. His melee produces a poison-like cloud that lingers for a while, while his other spells (charged bolt, lightning, frost nova and ice orb) deal massive elemental damage.
[edit] Offspring
In the new Diablo novel, The Sin War, it is revealed that Mephisto had two children: a son, Lucion, and a daughter, Lilith.
[edit] Baal
Baal is the final brother to appear in the Diablo gamestitle character and final boss of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Baal is said to strive for destruction and disorder and is often associated with animals, particularly those bred as soldiers or serving some purpose on the battlefield. By the time he launched his assault on Mount Arreat, his army is an amalgamation of not only beasts, but also the undead and demons.
Though he was the second brother to be captured, he proved to be the most difficult because his soulstone had been shattered, making the shards incapable of containing him for long. Then the great Horadric mage Tal Rasha stepped forward, believing that his will was strong enough to contain Baal's spirit. The mage was bound to a pillar in one of seven ancient tombs in the desert, and the shard of the soulstone was jammed into his breast, releasing the Lord of Destruction's spirit into his body. The tomb was then sealed.
Baal was freed when Marius removed the soulstone from Tal Rasha's body. This came moments after Diablo (in the Dark Wanderer's guise) had found the tomb and had nearly reached Tal Rasha when he was interrupted by the Archangel Tyrael. Knowing that he was now faced with the combined might of Diablo and Baal, Tyrael ordered Marius to have Baal's soulstone destroyed in the Hellforge. Diablo and Baal easily overcame Tyrael and imprisoned him in the tomb, until the adventurer discovered the Archangel.
Diablo and Baal reunited with their older brother Mephisto at Kurast, and their combined powers opened up a portal to Hell. Marius had also followed them there in his mission to destroy Baal's soulstone, though he only saw Tal Rasha (whose body Baal had taken over) and the Dark Wanderer. Marius was too cowardly to step through the portal after seeing the Dark Wanderer shed his body to reveal Diablo.
Mephisto and Diablo were defeated by the adventurer and their soulstones were destroyed, preventing their return. Baal, the only brother to initially escape the pursuing adventurer, came to the asylum where Marius was held and took the guise of Tyrael. Once Marius surrendered the soulstone, Baal rewarded him with death.
Baal raised an army of demons and minions and attacked the barbarian homelands of the north, assaulting the capital city, Sescheron, and finally besieging the last city, Harrogath.
His objective in the Lord of Destruction plot is to reach the Worldstone Chamber at the summit of Mount Arreat. Baal easily gains entrance to the Worldstone Keep thanks to the Relic of the Ancients, which means that he and his forces do not have to battle the three Ancient Barbarian guardians that defend the entrance to the fortress. Baal had earlier made a deal with Harrogath elder and necromancer Nihlathak to acquire the relic, in return for letting the city survive. Once inside the keep, Baal's power is able to block Tyrael from intervention.
The adventurer confronts Baal at the "Throne of Destruction" at the end of Act V and follows him into the Worldstone Chamber to ultimately defeat him. However, after Baal's defeat, it is discovered that his corruption has already tainted the Worldstone and the only option is for the archangel Tyrael to destroy the Worldstone to prevent the forces of hell flooding the mortal realm. The other consequences of destroying the Worldstone are, as of yet, unknown.
[edit] The Lesser Evils
According to the manual for Diablo, there were seven Great Evils - the three Prime Evils (Mephisto, Diablo and Baal) and the four Lesser Evils. While the Prime Evils controlled Hell as a sovereign triumvirate, the Lesser Evils were powerful in their own right.
- Azmodan, Lord of Sin, and Belial, Lord of Lies: Azmodan joined with his brother Belial during the Sin War to overthrow the Prime Evils, who they believed were unwilling to continue the war with Heaven. Rallying Hell's legions behind them, Azmodan and Belial overthrew Diablo, Mephisto and Baal and banished them to the mortal realm, believing that if the angels were focused on battling the Prime Evils in the mortal realm, the Gates of Heaven would be wide open. Once the Prime Evils were gone, Azmodan and Belial argued over who had the greater authority, and thus their alliance fragmented and a civil war broke out in Hell. Azmodan's and Belial's fates are unknown.
- Andariel, Maiden of Anguish: Once allied with Azmodan and Belial when they overthrew the Prime Evils, Andariel allied herself with Diablo upon his resurrection in the mortal realm. Upon entering the world of Sanctuary, Andariel took over the Monastery of the Sightless Eye, the stronghold of the Rogues, and forced High Priestess Akara and her surviving warriors to flee to a ramshackle camp. Andariel's motives were clear when the Dark Wanderer (Diablo) was discovered - Andariel was attempting to block the pass into Aranoch in order to prevent adventurers from stopping the Wanderer/Diablo from reaching the Tomb of Tal Rasha. At the behest of the Sisterhood, an adventurer battled through demons and undead into the Monastery, and defeated Andariel - thus opening the pass to the desert port of Lut Gholein.
- Duriel, Prince of Pain: Once allied with Azmodan and Belial when they overthrew the Prime Evils, Duriel aided Diablo in finding the Tomb of Tal Rasha in the deserts of Aranoch, where Baal was imprisoned. Once Diablo freed Tal Rasha/Baal, Duriel remained in the tomb to confront the adventurer searching for it. Duriel was defeated by the adventurer.
Both Andariel (the first final boss) and Duriel (the second final boss) were defeated by the main character at the end of Act 1 and 2, respectively. There is a possibility those two lesser Evils joined the Three and followed them to the mortal realm (at least Andariel's corruption of the Sisters' monastery could imply that).
Since the release of the 1.11 patch, only Azmodan and Belial have yet to appear in-game.
[edit] Lilith
Lilith is introduced in the 1.11 patch. She is believed to be Queen of the Succubi, mother of Andariel, and matriarch of demons. She appears in a quest called the Pandemonium event requiring the hero to collect three keys and transmuting them in the Horadric Cube to form a portal to her realm. After her legions of Succubi and Andariel were killed by mortals who successfully defended the Worldstone, Lilith swore to personally intervene.
She masterminded the revival of Diablo by manifesting herself in the mortal realm and performing a ritual of Dark Summoning. This ritual, long thought to be impossible by the most powerful mortal wizards, allowed Lilith to link with Diablo across realms, strengthening him until he was finally able to reincarnate in the mortal plane.
Rage and a deep yearning for revenge boiled within the eyes of the Lord of Terror, and together he and Lilith resurrected the two remaining Prime Evils as well as Duriel and Izual, two of their strongest agents. Diablo announced his grand plan - the Three were finally strong enough to spread Pandemonium throughout Sanctuary.
Lilith could have conducted an assault on her own, but because she had been left severely weakened by the Dark Summoning ritual, she agreed to aid the Prime Evils and command some of their remaining forces.
The addition of Lilith has caused some controversy, as she was never mentioned in previous texts (which had only seven Great Evils and named all of them). Many players do not consider her canon. The novel, Birthright, first part of the new Sin War trilogy, mentioned Lilith as the daughter of Mephisto and sister of Lucion.
[edit] External links
- Diablo II item drops - Info on Diablo, Baal and Mephisto item drops
