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View Full Version : Afternoon Tea with the Angiris Council...



SoulSpectrum
11-12-2008, 20:41
After recent Diablo 3 updates and many posts about theories on what the lore of next upcoming Diablo game, I'd decided to post up some information for those who are interested.

This a working process and will be updated. If anything's wrong let me know please, Thank you >.<

To start, let's talk about the angels. The angels are the opposing force of The Burning Hells. They are the High Heavens' inhabitants and rulers. Just like describing hot you need to understand what cold, visa versa. Their whole existence (that has been given so far, which COULD change in the future) is to oppose and stop the Burning Hell's mission to rule all. But in doing so, their plan is to rule all in order... Thus the "Great Conflict"

Much like how the Burning Hells have their rulers and leaders (the Primes and Lesser Evils), the High Heavens have theirs. They are the Angiris Council, which consist of 6 head archangels (a higher of angels, no particular order):
Tyrael- Archangel of Justice
Imperius- possible Archangel of War
Itherael- Possible angel of Balance
Malthael- Archangel of Death
Auriel- Archangel of Love or Compassion
Inarius- Archangel
These are the leaders of the force of High Heavens where many of the decisions are taken into thought and action.

After countless time of battling over domination of all, the Archangel Inarius decides to question his existence and reasons with others in a similar matter (both angel and demon alike). They sought out a place away from the Great Conflict, somewhere they can call their own. Eventually the created Sanctuary, the plane and world of the Diablo games. Along with the creation of Sanctuary came The World Stone, the Nephalem, and Trag'Oul. The World Stone's purpose is to hide this newly found Sanctuary from the Great Conflict's attendants. The Nephalem where the children of these rogue angels and demons, which became the inhabitants of Sanctuary....

Inarius had a lover named Lilith (daughter of Mephisto, The Prime of Hatred) who sought to create the Nephalem as an army because of their mixed blood of angel and demons. Inarius opposed this and altered the World Stone to have a diminishing power upon his children. By doing so, Lilith was angered and killed many, if not all, of the fellow rogue Angels and Demons, which lead to her banishment into the Abyss by Inarius....

Many years have passed and Inarius hid himself as the Prophet of the Cathedral of Light. The Nephalem grew weaker and weaker over time, which is what Inarius planned. Soon Lilith returned in the disguise as a human to try to over throw Inarius's rule. The world of Sanctuary was changed forever.

After the fall of Inarius and Lilith (by the Nephalem) the world of Sanctuary became known to the High Heavens. This brought a new weapon into the play of The Great Conflict. Sanctuary would off throw the balance of the Burning Hells and the High Heavens. Angrius Council came to Sanctuary with an intent of a final battle against the Hells. After all was paused and put back into order by a powerful Nephalem Uldyssian, a choice had to be made. Should Sanctuary left be in hope and understanding of it bringing an end to this eternal war, or destroyed in thought of it siding with the opposing force. The choice was made in a vote by the Angrius Council. Imperius and Maelthal voted for its destruction while Tyrael and Auriel voted for its well being. The vote came to a draw. It was decided that Sanctuary would be left untouched by the angels and demons. As the demons agreed, they decided to claim a prize (Inarius) for the Burning Hells and leave a mark on Sanctuary.

Here's a nifty quote from the Diablo 1 manual about the imprisonment of Inarius:
"He bound Inarius with tremendous chains and slowly tore the wings from the back of the angel. Great barbed hooks were then used to stretch out the once glowing skin and his features were distorted by vile powers. Many of the followers of Inarius were given as gifts to Baal and Diablo, but the rest were molded to match the bloated image of the now crippled angel. To this day, Inarius is said to be trapped in Hell within a chamber of mirrors, his eyelids torn from his face as he is forced to gaze upon his misshapen form for all eternity. His misguided followers now serve as Hell's taskmaster taking the anguish of their lost glory out upon the bodies of others."

Neither side held it's promise after time. The Burning Hells, with it's own conflicts, executed the Dark Exile where the Prime Three were banished to Sanctuary and Tyrael retaliated by aiding Sanctuary and creating the Horadrim.

The original Diablo told the story of a hero and his/her triumph over the fall of Tristram. That came with a price, to bear the Lord of Terror inside of himself.

After our hero became the traveling Wanderer, he slowly begain to change into the Lord of Terror himself. Diablo's searched for his brothers to be unleashed from their prisons created by the Horadrim and Tyrael. Now the hero of the second Diablo game arises to vanquish the evils once again with the aid of Tyrael. Under the archangel's guidance, the Primes were defeated with their soulstones being destroyed (Baal's is unaccounted for) and destroyed the infected World Stone.

This is just a quick type up of some of the Angels in the Diablo series to give some back up to many of the different theories (of which I'll try to relate below).
Who are they?
Imperius, Tyrael, Inarius.
These are the three that I can draw to an idea of what we'll see in Diablo 3, given the following artwork.
http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/data/500/medium/Diablo_3_Tyrael_Title.jpg
http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/data/565/medium/ss35-hires.jpg
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/artwork/ss55.jpg
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/artwork/ss48.jpg

Imperius, the Cleanser of Sanctuary
Imperius hates anything and everything that has any connection with the Burning Hells or demons. His description is a fierce red angel with an upturned sword crest on his chest. I believe that perfectly matches some of those images up above and it would explain many of the Tyrael being thrusted to Sanctuary. By banishing Tyrael, the pact/vote is broken and rules in the favor of Sanctuary's destruction. Then again there's nothing officially stated about him being in the game... And also we don't know what's been happening in Heaven and Hell sense the Dark Exile, so anything's possible! Heaven could of fallen, Hell could of fallen due to lack of the Primes' Powers... nothing official is said... yet! I have a feeling this will change very soon.

Tyrael is Evil

So, it's been stated that Tyrael is evil and has been working with the Primes sense the start. This would make some sense by filling up many of these plot holes. After all, we've followed his guidance through out the games and he is the master planner behind the Horadrim. Why would help Sanctuary anyways if it wasn't for personal gain?
I personally don't see this happening. I understand the threads and numerous post about it, but it would make much more sense for Imperius (and also make a much better story, IMO). I believe it's more likely that Imperius punishes Tyrael and marks him as a traitor to the High Heavens where we'll start our game.

Inarius
This one's just a giggle of an idea and is plausible. Much like the quick quote up there form the Diablo 1 manual, It would be awesome to see him in the new game! Imagine him with that description... and also his hatred and anguish over that long of time has to build up to something. If anything, he'd be a great side boss or end game character. Who knows? Maybe Blizzard will give us some great end game quests. Jay Wilson said that this is game is going to tie up a triliogy, so why not have some great end game quest like WoW with characters we've only heard about but have never been able to see.

Belial, Lord of Lies
I almost forgot this one! Belial is the Lord of Lies and master of illusion presumable. Maybe he can mask himself as an arch/angel to misguide either the Archangels, Demons, or player. Again, anything is possible.

I'm hoping that we can get some sticky guides like the other forums have, It'd be great if we can all tie some knots together and come up with some fact guides and then follow up with some theories because everyone has some and all are plausible (well not all, but most are because nothing's been proven yet)! We need an administrator to keep this forum in order. That'd be great! BLah this is getting too long, but any comments would be appreciated. Positive or negative let's debate!
PS This will be edited alot later on.

ZSiegfried
12-12-2008, 15:13
Hello there! :thumbup:

As usual I love talking lore with you. Unfortunately I am not at home since I am on holiday and can't really back up all my arguments and will do so as soon as I get home where all my notes are at but here is what I think:

Inarius is maybe the Archangel of Creation, I know this seems a little boring, very unimaginative and there is no real indication that that is the case but his wings are described as being rainbow coloured... Mmmmm... Ok, this is just an opinion.

Trag'Oul did not come with Sanctuary; he has existed from the beginning of all creation but in another form. I wrote an article about that and will post it in due time.

Even though I started the thread about Tyrael being evil I really don't think that is the case. Justice cannot be evil, its perspective might change as facts come to light but EVIL? Not a chance. Just read Sin War again and you will see that Tyrael is not the cuddle bear we make him out to be but neither is he evil. Time will tell...

I don't think Tyrael broke the pact. The pact was broken with the Dark Exile. So I can't see how they can punish him for that. He did act without consulting the Council and that didn't really promote confidence in the workplace. Again, time...

Oh and one major thing that I don't agree but need to check up on when I get home is that the vote was not drawn. The votes totaled 1 vs 3 and were as follows:

Inarius - Not allowed to vote for obvious reasons.
Imperius - Very much for the destruction of Sanctuary.
Auriel - Very much against the destruction of Sanctuary.
Malthael - Does not care either way, since death will come eventually, abstained.
Itherael - Imperius initially thought he voted for the destruction but in the end he was for the preservation thereof.
Tyrael - Mendeln was happy after Itherael's vote since he thought that whatever Tyrael's vote the worst case would be a draw. But Rathma said something about a draw not being good enough (will fill the gap later). Since Mendeln's feelings toward Tyrael wasn't all that possitive he was pretty certain that the vote was going to be against Santuary he felt that all was lost. But Tyrael threw a curve ball. Tyrael voted for the continuation of Sanctuary.

Like I said, I am not home and don't have the Sin War books with me. So I might be wrong but will double check soonish.

Thanks for the awesome post and I am looking forward to your reply...

Lynchgrinch
15-12-2008, 21:34
from all the buzz around this lore forum and in particular the threads on the subject of the Angiris council, i feel ashamed i havent read the books (yet, i will hopefully get them for christmas). some of these angels are realy starting to seem likely to make an apearance. it also sounds to me that people don't know an awefull lot about these arch angels, appart from bits and bobs about inarius, imperius and tyrael.what about auriel, malthael and itherael does anyone know a bit more about them. all the discussion has been about these 3 (inarius, imperius and tyrael)plus a fair bit about this lilith character, and some but not an awefull lot on belial and azmo. whats the odds on us in D3 of us meeting the whole Angiris council, seems pretty slim, just my thoughts.