How To Find Halloween Costumes: WILL WE EVER SEE A MOVIE OF THE VIDEO GAME “DIABLO

WILL WE EVER SEE A MOVIE OF THE VIDEO GAME “DIABLO”? (by Chris Vegvary)

NOTE: This article may contain spoilers regarding the Diablo video game series. Read at your own risk. Yeah, I said it.

What is Diablo?

I asked myself the very same question recently. What is Diablo, and why should I care? As some of you may know, Diablo III was released on consoles (Xbox 360 & PS3) this September. I had no interest in purchasing this game, but for some reason, I saw a trailer for it that got me curious. I looked up some gameplay videos on the internet and suddenly I had to have it. Maybe that’s just my thing. Once I played it, I knew I had found something special, and I wanted to know more of the backstory from the previous games.

Diablo is a “hack & slash” role-playing game that seems slightly heavy on religion, but it’s not overwhelming. There’s a lot about angels and demons, Heaven and Hell, demonic possession, and so on. Not for the faint-of-heart for sure. Now that you know what it is, what’s it all about?

What’s the Story Here?

This is going to be a long one, so brace yourself. From what I’ve gathered, the story of the first Diablo game, which was released on PC in 1996, takes place in the fictional world of Sanctuary where there is a constant battle between the forces of Heaven and Hell. Diablo, one of the Lords of Hell, was trapped in a soulstone by heroic humans and buried under a monastery. After hundreds of years, a town called Tristram is built near the ruins of the monastery, and King Leoric rebuilds the ruins into a cathedral. From then on, Diablo’s influence is allowed to spread, and he possesses the king. When the king resisted, Diablo instead possessed the king’s youngest son, Albrecht, and the king went mad and was killed by his own men. Once he was dead, Diablo revived him as the Skeleton King.

When the game starts, the player is supposed to choose between one of three classes for their character: warrior, mage, or rogue. It appears that, for story purposes, all three characters actually banded together to face Diablo in the cathedral under Tristram. The rogue is called Blood Raven, the mage is called “The Sorcerer”, and the warrior, also known as “the Dark Wanderer”, is King Leoric’s eldest son, Aidan. So the three of them descend into the depths of the cathedral, which include parts of Hell, and defeat Diablo, who is put back into his soulstone. But how to contain the evil, right? Easy: Prince Aidan takes the jagged end of the soulstone and shoves it into his head, probably freaking out his companions. Once that’s finished, Aidan goes on a journey to keep the evil contained.

Aidan before fighting Diablo

Diablo II takes place two years after the first one. Our three heroes have apparently been corrupted after their battle with Diablo and must be stopped. Blood Raven has become some kind of necromancer and “The Sorcerer”, now “The Summoner”, has gone crazy and summons demons. Aidan’s possession of Diablo’s soulstone in his head is causing demons to appear, and a group of adventurers hears about it, wanting to stop it. Aidan, now almost completely under Diablo’s influence, locates his “brothers” (the other Lords of Hell), and Diablo emerges from Aidan’s body, which is completely destroyed. Diablo returns to Hell and is eventually killed there by the group of adventurers. Go team.

Diablo III takes place twenty years after the second game, and we are introduced immediately to Leah Cain, who is the adopted niece of Deckard Cain, a man who has appeared in all three Diablo games. While studying up on some prophecy in a cathedral in Old Tristram, a falling meteor or something similar strikes the building and makes a crater that goes deep into the underground, taking Deckard Cain with it. Leah survives and believes her uncle is still alive somewhere under the cathedral. The player character enters the village of New Tristram to investigate and finds that the town is being attacked by the undead, which have appeared since the “star” fell on the cathedral. You may have guessed by now that this is the same cathedral that was built on the ruins of the monastery that held Diablo’s soulstone.

After finding Deckard alive, the hero goes back to search for the source of the “star” that fell and finds what appears to be a man who has no memory, except that he had a warning of some kind. After retrieving two of the three broken pieces of the stranger’s sword, a witch named Maghda intercepts the third piece and tries to force Deckard Cain to fix the sword, but Leah releases some kind of magical energy and the witch kills Deckard and flees. The hero eventually recovers the last piece of the sword and presents the item in whole to the stranger, and he recovers his memory and reveals that he is the Archangel of Justice, Tyrael. The hero decides to pursue Maghda and avenges Deckard Cain’s murder.

Leah Cain

Leah finds out her mother, Adria, is still alive after abandoning her as a child, and Leah and the hero go looking for her. Once they find her, they learn that Adria has spent most of her life trying to trap the seven Lords of Hell in one Black Soulstone and then destroy them for good, which is why she had to leave Leah behind. So far, five of the Lords of Hell have been trapped in the Black Soulstone. After trapping another Lord of Hell, Belial, in a soulstone with her magic powers, Leah has a vision of another Lord of Hell, Azmodan, and his army coming from the crater of Mount Arreat, home of the barbarians. Once Azmodan is defeated and Leah seals him into the Black Soulstone, all seven Lords are captured, and Tyrael urges the hero to destroy it to prevent evil from returning. However…

Adria betrays the group, saying that Leah’s father, whom Leah had never known, was Prince Aidan, who was possessed by Diablo at the time of Leah’s conception. Adria allows Leah to be corrupted and possessed by Diablo, who becomes what is known as the Prime Evil, having all the power of the seven Lords of Hell contained within himself. Diablo, in Leah’s rapidly-degenerating form, attacks the High Heavens, and Leah’s body is destroyed in the process. The hero, along with Tyrael and a couple of other angels, reach the High Heavens and the hero enters the final battle with Diablo, striking him down back to Hell. Tyrael decides to stay among his angel brethren as a mortal, and the hero vows not to rest until Leah’s soul is at peace.

Tyrael

I’m aware I skipped a few minor (or slightly major) details, but it’s a long-winded enough plot description as it is, so take it.

Powerful Stuff

So here are the parts that I found would make interesting material for a movie. In the first Diablo game, you have these three heroes who go on this journey to stop the ultimate evil. They band together, have some good times, some bad times, but we go through this whole experience with them, and then in the end, our hero, the main character, sacrifices himself to contain the evil. How powerful is that? And that would just be the first movie. Think about the awesomeness of a trilogy for a moment. In the second movie, we’d pick up shortly after the first one, with our former heroes having become twisted and evil, and having to be stopped by our new protagonists. Doesn’t that sound interesting to you? And then, once they’ve dispatched the two lesser former heroes, the final one becomes Diablo himself, and we see that even though the three heroes of the first one were strong enough to face this evil, they couldn’t deal with the aftermath of what they saw in that battle. To me, that just makes good film. And then, following that, 20 years later you have Diablo re-emerging for the last time, and we’re introduced to this sweet, innocent girl who you think will be the main character, but alas…it’s not meant to be. Her mother is a treacherous witch, her father is Diablo, and not only is she possessed by Diablo and then her body destroyed, but apparently her soul is gone as well. What happened to it? No idea. That might be better explained on film than it was in the game.

But do you see what I’m saying? Does that not make for excellent drama/sci-fi/fantasy/horror? The reason most of this article is basically an explanation of the games’ plot is because I want everyone to have a better understanding of the Diablo series so they can realize that it would, in fact, make quite an interesting film trilogy, if done correctly.

Man, speaking of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and so on, you may just find yourself looking to dress up like a monster or something this Halloween. Got a costume party to go to? Well, aren’t you the popular one. My invitation must still be in the mail…but anyway, if YOU are looking for the right costume, why don’t you check out some of the links below? There’s something horrifying for everyone.