Diablo IV

Video Game
STUDIOBlizzard Entertainment
RELEASED2023

Millions have been slaughtered by Heaven and Hell alike. In the power vacuum, a legendary name resurfaces - Lilith, daughter of Mephisto. A Barbarian, a Sorcerer, a Druid, a Rogue and a Necromancer dare to battle her.

Knowledge

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Where the Name Actually Comes From

Diablo's name isn't some deep lore reference, it's just geography. Creator David Brevik grew up near Mount Diablo in California, and Blizzard North's studios in Redwood City and San Mateo weren't far from it either, so the name just kind of stuck.

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A Hellraiser Cameo Hiding in Yelesna

The side quest 'Unyielding Flesh' has you helping a woman named Krystyna save her husband Feodor, who you find chained up looking a little too pleased with his situation while a mysterious woman hovers nearby. Follow her and things turn very Hellraiser very fast, right down to some of the dialogue.

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Diablo IV's Class Select Screen Is a Throwback

The campfire scene where you pick your class in Diablo IV isn't just a nice bit of atmosphere, it mirrors the layout of Diablo II's own character select screen, right down to where the Druid and Necromancer are standing around the fire.

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Lara Croft Shows Up as a Dungeon Boss

Players dug up an elite enemy inside a Diablo IV dungeon called 'Risen Tomb Raider,' a cheeky little nod to Crystal Dynamics' Rise of the Tomb Raider that's easy to miss if you're not paying attention to enemy names.

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Even World of Warcraft Has a Third Leg for Wirt

By the time World of Warcraft rolled around, Blizzard had turned the whole thing into a running gag across the company. Somewhere in Azeroth there's an item called Wirt's Third Leg, quietly keeping a decades-old Diablo joke alive in a completely different game.

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Diablo Shows Up as a Sore Loser in a Pod Race

Head to Thousand Needles in World of Warcraft and you can stumble into a Star Wars-style pod racing event in the Shimmering Flats. One of the racers is Diablo himself, and he does not look thrilled about being stuck in a go-kart instead of terrorizing Sanctuary.

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Illidan Wonders If He's Turning Into Diablo

One of Illidan's gag quotes in Warcraft III, after he takes on his demonic form, has him muttering 'Wings, horns, hooves... what am I saying, is this Diablo?' A tiny bit of self-aware humor poking fun at how demonic he'd become.

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Only One Book Series Actually Counts

Diablo has had a handful of tie-in novels over the years, but according to Blizzard, only Richard A. Knaak's Sin War trilogy is treated as fully canon to the games' story. Everything else sits in a much murkier, semi-official zone.

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The Man Who Wrote Diablo Also Wrote Half of Azeroth

Richard A. Knaak, the author behind most of the Diablo novels, has also written extensively for Warcraft and StarCraft, on top of his own long-running Dragonlance series. The guy clearly doesn't take a day off from world-building.

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The Novels Take You 3,000 Years Before Diablo

The Sin War trilogy isn't set anywhere near the events of the games. It rewinds the clock 3,000 years before the fall of Tristram and follows a farmer named Uldyssian as he gets tangled up in the ancient war between angels and demons over Sanctuary.