BlizzCon 2019 - Diablo IV World and Lore Panel Recap
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- The Process
- The team has looked at a lot of pop culture references such as comic books, tv shows, and look at these through a lens of Diablo. They like to add gross things based on this method.
- Role-playing games are a huge inspiration for developing gross things through their "Diablo lens."
- Tone of Sanctuary
- They want to bring back the unique vibe that previous Diablo games had.
- They want to make a much more grounded story than Diablo III.
- They want you to be able to discover the story of much more simple folk.
- There are over 100 villages with common folk to explore and help.
- Wandering and thinking about what awaits in the darkness is an important mood to create.
- They are trying to give a sense of claustrophobia.
- There is a Blood Bishop boss in one of the dungeons.
- There will be religious and agnostic themes along with inspirations of what people in the middle ages imagined hell to be like.
- The basic concept is discovering the problems of every day folks, exploring, and eventually finding something evil waiting at the end.
- Lore
- When the black soul stone was shattered by Maltheal, the essences rocketed out into reality. This is important for Diablo IV.
- Lilith is the daughter of Mephisto, the lord of hatred. She and Inarius created Sanctuary.
- Maltheal's genocidal campaigned wrecked the world and created many power vaccuums that different groups are trying to fill.
- World Building
- If you read the Diablo 1 manual, you find out a lot about the world that wasn't in game. This was the starting point for everything done since.
- Diablo II gave a map of the world and allowed the team to develop the world more because of it.
- With Diablo IV, they are building one large continuous and connected space and so porting around isn't needed.
- Locations are actually in specific places on the new map and not added wherever they fit like in previous games.
- World
- For the first time, Sanctuary itself gets to be a character.
- You can walk all of Sanctuary as one cohesive world.
- For the first time, you get to see all the space between locations that was separated by loading screens.
- Scosglen
- Ancestral home of the druids
- Constant fog and rain
- Drowned and Goatman causing havoc outside the towns
- Dry Steppes
- Incredibly difficult place to live
- Geysers of boiling water
- Violent wars between groups of people
- Fractured Peaks
- Snowy mountainous region
- Victorian Gothic themes
- Ancient old cathedrals and ruins
- The towns bar the doors when the sun goes down
- Group of religious zealots make their home here
- Hawezar
- Poisonous swamp lands
- Black magic and fever dreams
- Those who come here come to be lost or forgotten
- Full of thieves and outlaws
- Swamp witches that worship massive snakes
- Kehjistan
- Desert area from Diablo III
- Ancient cult ruins
- Tribune that resurrected Lilith is here
- Monsters
- Drowned
- Monsters of legend in Sanctuary that haven't been seen in ages. Most believe they don't exist.
- They appear on moonless nights from the sea and infect the shores like a disease.
- Bells toll when they are near.
- Wretch, Sea Witch Dungeon Boss, and Drowned Juggernaut are some Drowned enemies.
- Drowned Juggernaut used mast of a ship as weapon.
- Drowned bring the sea to you with their attacks.
- Drowned
- Bosses
- Ashava
- Ever present threat in Sanctuary and can pop up anywhere.
- She is a monument to what Diablo IV is as a game. A massive monster that takes people working together to take down.
- Duriel, the Lord of Pain
- Returning from Diablo II
- They are paying tribute to his fight in Diablo II while also developing him further.
- Also the Lord of Maggots
- Ashava
- Q and A
- The Father of the Nephilim (Inarius) is still being tortured by Mephisto and it would be a spoiler to say if he makes an appearance in Diablo IV.
- Sanctuary is a fixed world and will not be randomly generated, but the dungeons will be.
- The souls in the Black Soul Stone are all out there and will come back.
- We might see the other Lords of Hell
- There is a lot of possibility to where Tyreal might be now.
- There's a lot of characters that are fan favorites that they are talking about bringing back. Maybe the Butcher?
- The team wants to honor the legacy of Diablo II and hopes the monster line up will delight you.
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