However, what I wanted to revisit is something even older – the post titled “the soul in search of answers”, from the ancient times of July, 2008 (yeah, that’s 3.5 years ago), where I sat down and tried to plot out various ideas and stuff coming in Diablo III. The reason for that, is that I spent the start of this year blazing through the “Book of Cain”, which fleshes out a ton of lore to prepare for the release of Diablo III.

So, what new revelations did we learn? At least a very interesting point regarding Leah, which was – while being nothing more than a very good guess at the time – now solid and canon lore. Let me quote what I wrote back then:

Adria the Witch:
Shortly put, she was a mysterious witch, that appeared in the first Diablo game. She was somehow a riddle to most of the townsfolk, as she seemingly first settled down when the troubles of the Cathedral started. Her fate is unknown, but believed by many to be dead, as most of the townsfolk of Tristram were.

This is going to be a bit different from the other entries, as she doesn’t really connect with the other points I’m going to be making. However, I instantly came to think of her when watching the released cinematic. The reason is the young girl, but naturally it can’t be her, mainly because of her age. Adria, if still alive, should be atleast 40 years old. She does, however, seem to know about the art of a witch. Could this young girl perhaps be the daughter of Adria? If Adria had given birth not long after the events of Diablo I, then her age matches pretty well. Someone named Leah is also mentioned in the gameplay trailer, when Cain is leaving by Town Portal. Curious, if you ask me.

Now, just to clear out the few obvious things first. The cinematic I mentioned is naturally the teaser cinematic (link). We know for certain now, that this is the girl Leah that Cain later mentions in the gameplay teaser (link). As far as I remember, the connection was not officially confirmed at this point. Not even that the girl was Leah.

Time passed, theories arose. A lot more time passed, and more details about her identity was revealed – she referred to Cain as uncle. This is best experienced in the Intro Cinematic (link) revealed during last years BlizzCon. Now, we all thought that this was who she was – Cain’s niece. But, it did seem that something was amiss.

Book of Cain confirms that something was amiss. Cain is not her uncle – she was adopted by him. However, it also mentions that Cain knew her actual identity – and both her parents. Her mother was/is (as it is not completely certain what her current state is) Adria. That explains the similarity between the two women, and confirms that my (and possibly many others’) guess was correct.

But, what of her father? Who was he? The Dark Wanderer – the warrior who officially was the hero who defeated Diablo in the first game, and continued to turn into him in Diablo II – had gotten an official identity. King Leoric seemingly had two sons. Prince Albrecht, who was the child kidnapped by Arch-Bishop Lazarus, and later possessed by Diablo, who we already know about – and Aidan, the warrior. Except fleshing out the lore, and marking this warrior as a more detailed character in the lore, another very important detail was added. Before leaving Tristram, he had spent time with Adria… who ended up being pregnant. It’s best explained in the short addendum-script on page 112, as a footnote to when Aidan leaves Tristram. Remember that the whole book is written as being Cain writing to Leah.

Shortly after Aidan’s departure, Adria set out as well. I am, of course, aware of many things now that I did not know then: that Adria took Gillian the barmaid with her to Caldeum; that when Adria left, she was pregnant with you, dear Leah; and that she gave birth to you in Caldeum and left you there in Gillian’s care.

As always, no post without a few predictions and guesses. And, I’ll even make it short: Leah will eventually be Diablo in Diablo III.

But, how? With the focus of Leah’s father being revealed, some of Diablo’s essence could’ve been transfered to Adria’s womb, and lying dormant in Leah all these years, being the reason she has weird nightmares, visions and dreams. So, with calling that, I’ll leave that as the blunt statement it is: Leah will be Diablo. Besides, even if Diablo was completely and utterly annihilated during the end of Diablo II, he still shows up in the trailers, so he’s there somehow – and in a brand new form. The game is a Diablo-game, and it would simply be wrong without having any Diablo at all. I could probably make a few more sweeping guesstimates, but seeing as this has been the focus of this post, I feel that’s better off for a later point. Perhaps looking into Azmodan and Belial would be a good target of some pondering.

Need I say that I’m very excited for Diablo III? Good, because I am. Very much so.

I wonder how that works though. My best theory is that the subconsciousness builds up energy (I was close to writing “regenerating mana”, but that would be a tad to geeky – right?), and when an idea suddenly pops up, the brain goes all haywire and spends the stockpiled energy on making the ideas good, and tossing out more.

However – it’s just an idea.

The concept of timeless events came upon me, which made a slight change in all of it. In the end, it happening before isn’t wrong, it’s just not the whole truth. To clarify, allow me first to explain what I mean by a timeless event. Basically, it’s a live retroactive continuity (mostly known as a retcon); a change in the lore as we know it, but with the player taking part of the action, and witnessing the event first-handed. Players of all levels can participate, and as such it doesn’t make sense speaking of when, as all players are essentially at different points in the time-line.

The harsh way to look at it, isn’t to say that your characters past is wiped completely – it’s modified. Your actions naturally affected the world around you, just in another way than when you experienced it. This is basically what everyone seem to have a problem with getting: time is not linear in an MMO, and it will be changed.

As an example of the linear time, try to imagine that your character goes to a lower level area, where you meet a NPC that speaks of death and destruction, and narrowly escapes his death. However, you remember that you already killed the same NPC, while wondering why you were actually sent to kill him, rewarding you with a small bag of gold, and a big amount of questions.

What can we derive from the above, then? Firstly, that the time-flow follow the level-path. As such, whatever happens at level 75 is based on what content from level 1 to 74 said that happened. Secondly, that since nothing obviously can happen at the same time, these time-less events, in which players of all levels can take place, must have happened at level 1, or prior to it.

The answer to the question “What happens when such a timeless-event has passed in-game?”, leads me to the concluding point: It must have actually happened before the game’s on-going story-line. It doesn’t matter what you did before you participated in the event, as the players individual time-line means, I’m sorry to say it, nothing.

When did the Cataclysm happen?
The common misunderstanding is that new content is always happening after previous content. While this is indeed true for highlevel content, it’s certainly not true for all of it. We can use a good example from each of the existing expansions to support the claims I’m going to be doing.

Burning Crusade: Races was added, taking lore with them to explain how they joined their respective factions before or during the starting areas. As the levels progress, Emissaries are often spotted throughout the capitals, to represent that they had indeed “just” joined, and was seeking to aid their factions, in what way they can.

Wrath of the Lich King: Death Knights, the new class, was added – champions dying at the plaguelands, meant to be raised as The Lich King’s new order of Death Knights – and joins the respective factions at the time when the Dark Portal opens, and steps into Outlands. As the Draenei and Blood Elves were part of the factions, they could naturally die at that point in the timeline alongside the other races, and be raised. They could not be fallen of the Third War (Warcraft III), as Draenei wasn’t in Azeroth at that point, and Blood Elves weren’t aligned with the Horde yet.

Now, as said, the main point is to figure out when the actual Cataclysm takes place. Since it affects the world that the first part of the content happens, people will experience it already at level 1 (the two new races even seem to have a small time of their quests before, prior to “normal” WoW timeline). They can choose to be Death Knights as well, which meant some of them died and was raised before Arthas was defeated in Icecrown, and since they had already waded through the cataclysmed world, it must’ve happened before the whole of WoW’s storyline.

To back it up, the first few sentences of the Cataclysm Trailer, is as follows:

As the terrible war against the Lich King continues, the proud defenders of Azeroth fight to secure a lasting peace. But there can be no peace, when the world itself is devoured by rage.

First of all, the war against the Lich King has lasted pretty much since Warcraft III. Second of all, it’s not stated if the cataclysmic event actually happens at the time where we – the heroes – fight the Lich King. He’s merely the biggest immediate threat after the Legion had been pushed back in Outlands, and removed from there.

With the time aspect covered, the obvious question pops up fast: “But what about Deathwing?”. You see, Deathwing is smart. He didn’t strike at once, as he would otherwise had to deal with the Legion and the Lich King – so he plots his plans, while we do the dirty work. On the way, we have however already crushed some of his plans: The Twilight Dragonflight (a subject I’ve discussed not one or two, but three times), seen over 3 notable places. First, there’s the Netherwing-area of Shadowmoon Valley. Next, the events of Night of the Dragon. Third, the death of Sartharion in the Obsidian Sanctum. With these events spanning over the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, while Deathwing was “hiding” below Grim Batol… further supporting that the Cataclysm must’ve happened before the final parts of the battle against the Lich King.

While all of the above is pure speculation, I’m wondering how it could be any other way, and still be presented in a believable matter. I’m surely looking forward to every small tidbit of information about it all at least.

It boils down to two things. First there’s Deathwing’s connection to Queen Azshara… Now, it’s obvious that they both share a connection to the Old Gods. But they havn’t really had anything to do with each other – or have they? The closest to a meeting we know of, was during the War of the Ancients, but that was hardly a “friendly” situation at all, as Deathwing was on a mission to reclaim his precious stolen Demon Soul. After that, we don’t know of anything else between the two. The events that followed that, led to the transformation of Queen Azshara and her Highborne to the vile Naga.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. As I wrote in my second post:

…And then ofcourse there was the incident where Korialstrasz was ambushed by the Naga on his way to Grim Batol. Naga who very seemingly had attempted to halt his progress. The cryptic part arises by the words being uttered by the Naga: “The deed is done, we will be spared…”. Spared by who? In the end, I’m sure Deathwind would intend to erase all life on Azeroth, no matter if they both “serve” the Old Gods, however weakly. The fact that a pact was made however, gives a hint of non-hostile communications of sorts atleast having passed.

What if Queen Azshara, with her change to the Naga, under the influence of the Old Gods, actually had arranged this, so that the Naga would be spared for Deathwings upcoming plan of utter decimation of all other living beings, except his own. He would rule above the ground, she would rule the depths. It could also “just” have been a pact made with Sintharia, who were the visible threat – not even she knew that Deathwing were the one pulling the strings. Never the less, a certain connection is indeeed there. And Deathwing certainly has something up his sleeve, now that his Twilight Dragonflight has been perfected. The Obsidian Sanctum might just have been a trial of things to come…

From all that, I’m pretty certain that we’ll actually get to see, or at least somehow experience, a lot more of Queen Azshara and Deathwing soon. The storylines have been set in motion.

Now, the second thing is the mysterious globe (texture link) first seen in the Halls of Lightning instance, obviously replicating Azeroth as we know it. But, look closely. Obviously, something is really wrong with Kalimdor, as it’s pretty much torn appart. The Eastern Kingdoms doesn’t seem to have taken much damage, but something has indeed happened – a thing that, in a storyline aspect, already have happened when the instance is entered. So far, the best example of map comparing I’ve found is a series of pictures from “The NEW Face of Azeroth“.

Oh, and it does seem rather convenient that the maps of Azeroth… are not available on the official website, but instead says this:

We currently do not have a map for this at this time. Our old one was really outdated so we removed it.

Outdated? Please. What has changed since the original release? The re-introduction of Quel’Thalas, Azure- and Bloodmyst Isle… and yeah, nothing else really. It seems strange that there havn’t been time to fix that, even though there’s maps of both Northrend and Outland available. Would make sense to redo it completely, if such big changes are being made to the landscape.

Going back to the globe, it fits in really well with the whole Cataclysm idea of a magically based supreme attack against Kalimdor. And who better to do such thing than the Naga? A plan that had been in the works for ages, but only now showing the consequences of it, when the Burning Legion was vanquished (or, at least, set severely back), Malygos decimated, Ysera and Nozdormu occupied elsewhere, Yogg-Saron being killed off (though, he was most likely the Old God that deeply corrupted Deathwing in the first place), and – last but certainly not the least – the demise of the Lich King. Deathwings return should be easy, as he really doesn’t have any real competition in his domination of Azeroth. Seeing as he was the Earth Warder, he could indeed have had a plan, that would result in further destruction. The assault on Kalimdor was merely the starter…

A last matter to take into consideration, is that C’thun was seemingly resurrected into the form of Cho’gall, starting another branch of threats from the Old Gods. The big question is though: Is Deathwing still under their sway, or is he thinking by himself, now that Yogg-Saron is indeed defeated?

In the ind, and as a “tldr”, I really expect Deathwing and Queen Azshara to show themselves, in some way. A big role in the story should be a given. We already know that he has a voice, which was revealed in the vision-part of the fight against Yogg-Saron.

I’m certainly looking forward to seeing them and the lore galore behind it (see, I couldn’t even stick to the two things I wanted to be the focus points). Let us hope that BlizzCon will reveal this to be the truth.