Blizzard (and I) perhaps you have covered having a refresher on Lilith and Inarius's history with Sanctuary.

As it is going with any long-running RPG series, Diablo is crammed filled with proper nouns—Inarius and also Horadrim and also Nephalem, and so forth. If Diablo 4 will probably be your first crack in the series (or hell, should you understandably require a refresher) Blizzard includes a new video by which its developers setup the story for you personally with a little bit of context in the series origins and also the end of Diablo 3.

For starters, Diablo 4 begins 50 years following the events of Diablo 3's Reaper of Souls DLC where half of the populace of Sanctuary (the mortal realm between your heavens and hells) was wiped out by the archangel of death, Malthael. Sanctuary's original creators, the angel Inarius and demon Lilith have both returned and, wouldn't you realize it, that isn't really likely to go well for humanity.

Blizzard's senior lore manager, narrative designer, and writers continue to explain foundational word events like Sanctuary's creation and also the origins from the Horadric Order which were meant to protect Sanctuary's external forces. But I needed more, so I went and did a little bit of Wiki diving to brush on the details—specifically the connection between Inarius and Lilith, the industry bit more complex compared to "he locked her inside a realm of darkness" broad strokes that Blizzard leaves it at within the video above.

I took Act 1 of Diablo 4's story at face value without any preparation throughout the first two beta weekends, so here are a few high points from my lore dive that I wish I'd known before:

Inarius and Lilith originally created Sanctuary together simply because they were both tired of participating in the forever war (the Great Conflict) of Heaven versus Hell.

They had kids—the unexpectedly powerful Nephalem—which they rightfully assumed neither the High Heavens nor Burning Hells would approve of. (Rathma, the very first necromancer, who you will see in Act 1, is one of them.)

Lilith's means to fix protecting their special race of offspring ended up being to kill some of her fellow deserters in the Great Conflict who'd want to expose them.

Inarius wasn't chill with this, but instead of killing his lover he locked her away (not going back in time) and took their own protective measure: magically dooming the Nephalem to decline over generations until they had become the mortals who now reside in Sanctuary.

Their tries to keep Sanctuary a secret don't last and after much more conflict Inarius gets packed into Hell for any spot of torture, a little bit of his history you'll hear is known in Diablo 4's first act.

Inarius may be the founder of the Cathedral of Light, a part of his play to obtain back into Heaven. As from the start of Diablo 4, he's returned to accept reins once more.

Lorath Nahr, who you'll meet at the start of Act 1, is really a returning character from Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls, a member from the much declined Order of Horadrim who have been once scholars and mages protecting Sanctuary in the demonic influences of Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal.

Blizzard says "The storyline between Lilith and Inarius may be the darkest we’ve ever told inside a Diablo game," and according to some bits from the first act of the storyline, I'd accept it as true. Mom and Dad have returned and they still don't agree on how to deal with the kids. Lilith can always have a soft location for humanity but, well, she's a demon. Meanwhile, Inarius appears to now resent the descendants of his children and become more worried about stepping over them on his long ago to the High Heavens. The Horadrim certainly get their work eliminated if they create a comeback.

Diablo 4 launches officially on June 6 with early access for pre-order players beginning on June 1. That's sufficient time yet to complete your own digging through Inarius and Lilith's messy history should you want more. Blizzard started a level deeper video series today too, the Book of Lorath lore readings starting with Episode 1: Creation.