Diablo (3.5e Sourcebook)/The Act
Story
"Seven is the number of powers of Hell, and Seven is the number of the Great Evils"
Duriel, the Lord of Pain Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish Belial, the Lord of Lies Azmodan, the Lord of Sin
Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred Baal, the Lord of Destruction Diablo, the Lord of Terror
Since the Beginning, an eternal war has been engaged between the forces of Heaven and Hell: The Great Conflict, which yet remains unsolved. For centuries, the battles raged from the High Heavens to the arcane Hellforge, yet neither side could gain domination over the other for long. Both factions sought some way to turn the tides of the war to their favor, until the ascension of Man and his mortal realm happened. At that point, the Great Conflict ground to a mysterious halt and the battle once fierce in the divine world, descended down to the mortal realm of Man. The Sin War had began.
Both Angels and Demons anxiously tried to get into the favor of Man, yet the battle remained unsolved. Many powerful mortals were driven into the ensuing battles and become true legends of all times, for both the sides of good and evil.
During the Sin War, a great revolution began in Hell, as the Lesser Four, frustrated by the unsolved Great Conflict, tried to overthrow the Prime Evils and take control of Hell for themselves. Hell raged as the Great Evils battled against each other, but eventually the Lesser Evils reclaimed victory. Mephisto, Baal and Diablo, weakened and bodiless, were banished to the mortal realm where the Lesser Evils hoped that they would remain trapped forever. Under the new order, the hordes of Hell ran into a great civil war as the Lesser Evils forgot their pact against the Great Evils and argued which of them held the highest authority and these battles have lasted to this day.
On the mortal realm, the banished Prime Evils wandered through the waking world and ravaged the lands of the Far East with terror and chaos for centuries. Eventually, a secret order of mortal magi, Order Horadrim, was gathered by the Arch-Angel Tyrael. These sorcerers from numerous mage-clans of the East, were to hunt the Three Evils and put an end to their vicious rampage. They were victorious and managed to trap two of the Three Evils within magical artifacts called Soulstones, but the Horadrim were unable to locate the last of the Three, Diablo.
Decades after, they managed to capture the Lord of Terror as well, and the Soulstone was buried deep down in catacombs of a great Monastery which the Horadrim constructed after the victory. Ages passed, the Sin War was forgotten, and slowly the numbers of the Horadrim dwindled. Eventually, the great Monastery fell to ruins as well, and the secret of the Soulstone was forgotten.
Years after the last of the Horadrim had died and a small city of Tristram had grown up near the once great Monastery, a great northern lord Leoric came unto the lands of Khanduras and declared himself King. With his trusted advisor, Arch Bishop Lazarus, Leoric made his way to the city of Tristram and appropriated the ancient Monastery for his seat of power. Years passed and the people of Khanduras grew to respect the kind Leoric, but a power long asleep awakened within the dark recesses beneath the Monastery. Diablo, still captured in the Soulstone, sensed that his freedom was within his grasp and entered the nightmares of Arch Bishop Lazarus and lured him to the subterranean labyrinth. Lazarus shattered the Soulstone and Diablo once again dwelled in the world of Man. Weakened by the long sleep, the Lord of Terror required an anchor to the world - a body of a powerful mortal was needed, so that Diablo could begin to reclaim his vastly depleted power. Diablo choose to take the strongest of them - that of the righteous King Leoric.
Years passed and Leoric fought against the evil presence that twisted his thoughts and emotions. Although driven to the madness, Leoric was able to resist the evil presence of Diablo and thus the Lord of Terror was unable to reclaim Leoric's body as his own. Leaving Leoric as a corrupted and twisted shadow of his former self, Diablo choose an another victim, Leoric's only son Albrecht. The weak mind of the young boy was easily possessed by Diablo, and the Lord of Terror altered Albrecht's body to match that of his demonic body.
After noticing that his beloved son had disappeared, Leoric lost his sanity and was slain by his own priests and guards, lead by Lachdanan, Captain of the Knights of The Order of Light, as the terrified men realized that Leoric was beyond salvation.
As the king was dead, the young Albrecht still missing and the proud defenders of Khanduras were no more, the people of Tristram were dismayed. They soon realized that their troubles had merely begun as strange and eerie lights appeared in the darkened windows of the Monastery and misshapen creatures were seen venturing forth from the shadows of the church. Horrible cries infested the wind and obviously something quite unnatural had infested the once holy monument.
Deep beneath the foundations of the ruined Monastery, a ancient evil had began to harness his depleted power. The Lord of Terror, Diablo, welcomed the shadows and smiled to himself in the sheltering darkness as he dreamed of his final victory that was fast approaching.
Until, one day, a lonely traveler arrived to the town of Tristram...
