View Full Version : Zakarumite
Plain and simple this one will be there.
"They sent disciples throughout Kehjistan to spread the word. Popular religious leaders soon sprung up, endorsed by the new church, and within half a century Zakarum was the dominant order of faith and binding political force in the East."
- Arreat SUmmit
Zakarum priests or Zakarumites have a number of logical reasons speaking for them.
They are not gender bound (like desert warriors).
They are not ridiculous (like bards).
They are gory (sacrifice and ****).
They represent a major important religious group.
They do serve the light.
They are kind of paladins but unique enough lore wise.
They will be there mark my words. :)
Nice. So they're a kind of Priests...
Technomancer
02-07-2009, 11:23
Disregarding the bard statement ;), you are absolutely right! One of the next 2 IS going to be a Zakarum Priest. I'm sure of it too. I'm actually brainstorming about one, but I haven't written anything down about it yet. A lot of people dismiss something like this as a flaky healer support class, but I say nay. Nay! A good possibility is that they'll call them Inquisitors, since they have a lore history already and they are the ones that go and spread their faith by force. The key word there is FORCE. This character could be quite offensive! All we saw from Pallys were auras and a couple powerful spells like BH and FoH. Imagine what a full-blown priest could bring down upon the darkness! I think they would also have decent combat skills, though not on par with the Paladin's, but would have much more powerful magics to augment their skills.
People: dismiss this class at your peril! :D
So this will be the Sword and Shield Holy char?
Plain and simple this one will be there.
"They sent disciples throughout Kehjistan to spread the word. Popular religious leaders soon sprung up, endorsed by the new church, and within half a century Zakarum was the dominant order of faith and binding political force in the East."
- Arreat SUmmit
Zakarum priests or Zakarumites have a number of logical reasons speaking for them.
They are not gender bound (like desert warriors).
They are not ridiculous (like bards).
They are gory (sacrifice and ****).
They represent a major important religious group.
They do serve the light.
They are kind of paladins but unique enough lore wise.
They will be there mark my words. :)
why should they be gory? there is no evidence of sacrifices or other gory rituals in the zakarum religion anywhere in the diablo lore^^
and i think they are lore wise waaaaay to close to the paladin from d2...
why should they be gory? there is no evidence of sacrifices or other gory rituals in the zakarum religion anywhere in the diablo lore^^
Wel you are right I mistook the corrupted Priests of Zakarum which we saw in act3 for the real ones.
Actually Zakarum isnt gory at all. Its a pure religion and paladins really are nothing else than Zakarumites...
"The Knights of Westmarch who felled the armies of mighty Leoric are pure at heart and closely follow the teachings of Zakarum"
Darn I wish they made this sacrificing, cursing zealot kind of character...
I think sacrificing is the WD's job..
commonhumans
02-07-2009, 20:54
What makes a Desert Warrior any more gender bound than a Barbarian and what makes a Bard ridiculous?
What makes a Desert Warrior any more gender bound than a Barbarian and what makes a Bard ridiculous?
Common Desert Warriors are guys. They are like taliban of d2! Did you see the women in lut golein? They dont go to war!
And bards are super ghey! They are musicians! What healthy man can call them seriously fighters for justice?
Its like making a class of say salesmen ... or the much feared painter!
commonhumans
02-07-2009, 21:21
You make an awful lot of assumptions. But they are you opinions and i will respect that :) And i the end none of us know what will really be coming out, only time will tell. So pull for the home team.
I have another class i am currently workin on that i didnt write about in my speculation post. I hope everyone likes it.
Common Desert Warriors are guys. They are like taliban of d2! Did you see the women in lut golein? They dont go to war!
Women in Lut Gholein ARE not exactly the fighters type, but I never imagined a Female Barb of especially Witch Doctor. I wouldn't be suprised if women COULDN'T become Witch Doctors actually.
And bards are super ghey! They are musicians! What healthy man can call them seriously fighters for justice?
Its like making a class of say salesmen ... or the much feared painter!
LOL. Have you read the Silmarillion? Or at least Elves in some LotR movies? Songs are powerful weapons and can done very well. This of some kind of Sonic Attack, or Sleep Lullaby, Heoric Anthem etc etc. Not to mention he'd probably be hybrid(ed) with some kind of Close Melee skills.
Technomancer
03-07-2009, 07:50
Let's not turn this into another bard argument, there's 29 of them already!!
Back on topic, the Zakarum Priest doesn't have to be gory and evilish to be cool. I'm thinking more of a caster class than a Pally, and on a mission to set right the wrongs their corrupted leaders perpetrated. The lore difference is that Paladins left for the West because they didn't agree with the church's harsh conversion tactics. This is why I think this class would take the form of an Inquisitor. They are here with the fires of Light to burn clean the stains of evil from Sanctuary!!
BTW, I'm a musician AND a singer, so I must be uberghey!! :D
Back on topic, the Zakarum Priest doesn't have to be gory and evilish to be cool. I'm thinking more of a caster class than a Pally, and on a mission to set right the wrongs their corrupted leaders perpetrated. The lore difference is that Paladins left for the West because they didn't agree with the church's harsh conversion tactics. This is why I think this class would take the form of an Inquisitor. They are here with the fires of Light to burn clean the stains of evil from Sanctuary!!
BTW, I'm a musician AND a singer, so I must be uberghey!! :D
Yea that kind of Zakarum Priests would be cool too. It does make sense.
They could use mostly faith based spells like FoH and Blessed hammer but also many more which were too complex for rather battle oriented paladins to understand.
Musicians arnet ghey but playing as one in a hack a slash game totally is. Imho.
Technomancer
04-07-2009, 10:17
Yea that kind of Zakarum Priests would be cool too. It does make sense.
They could use mostly faith based spells like FoH and Blessed hammer but also many more which were too complex for rather battle oriented paladins to understand.
That's kinda what I assumed you were talking about originally, that's why I didn't pick up on the sacrifice and gory stuff being out of place.
lunarleif
07-07-2009, 07:44
Two (*2) problems: One the Zakarum were corrupted..
Two: You killed a whole bunch of them because of Mephisto
Three: Mephisto corrupted all of them.
Four: Inquisition, people might find offense in that and the inquisition, wasn't that evil in of itself?
Technomancer
07-07-2009, 10:43
Yeah, they were corrupted, but not all of them, only the ones around the temple in Kurast.
And yeah, Inquisition is evil as crap and is offensive, but that's just a name the lore mentions, so folks (like me) use it. That approach is why the Paladins broke off from the main Zakarum church and went west. I think in the end, a better, new name would be used, one that was adopted after the events of D2. So it's either Inquisitor, Cleric, Priest, or invent new lore. Probably #4.
GuardianHadriel
07-07-2009, 15:43
A Zakarum priest would be cool but i prefer a strong melee fighter that can wield some divine powers and have the heavens by his side...A Paladin, obviously he´s what most people want from a Holy Char but maybe without all those auras. Heavy shiny/gothic armor carrying knight with a sword or both a sword/mace and a shield.:thumbsup:
BTW, I'm a musician AND a singer, so I must be uberghey!! :D
Well, that at least explains your desire to see a Bard class. Talk about an author avatar. :crazyeyes:
Yeah, they were corrupted, but not all of them, only the ones around the temple in Kurast.
And yeah, Inquisition is evil as crap and is offensive, but that's just a name the lore mentions, so folks (like me) use it. That approach is why the Paladins broke off from the main Zakarum church and went west. I think in the end, a better, new name would be used, one that was adopted after the events of D2. So it's either Inquisitor, Cleric, Priest, or invent new lore. Probably #4.
Didn't Mephisto corrupt the entirety of the Zakarum when he possessed the Que-Hagan (the highest divine authority of the Zakarum)? That would be akin to the Pope being possessed by the Devil. Following such an event, I think it's quite plausible that the Zakarum would have lost most of its credibility.
Hence, I think it would be fairly interesting if the Inquisitor was to be someone who's lost his faith in his religion and is out to purge those who have been corrupted.
A Zakarum priest would be cool but i prefer a strong melee fighter that can wield some divine powers and have the heavens by his side...A Paladin, obviously he´s what most people want from a Holy Char but maybe without all those auras. Heavy shiny/gothic armor carrying knight with a sword or both a sword/mace and a shield.:thumbsup:
What about a bow instead? We're due a ranged weapon fighter anyway.
lunarleif
07-07-2009, 16:59
Wow Technomancer, you be uber ****? My opinion of you :nono:
So it would be Zakurum priest who turned aside, but took Mephisto's power anyway and is now free since Mephisto probably killed? Or he's fighting to end evil and save his own skin?
Technomancer
08-07-2009, 02:39
Wow Technomancer, you be uber ****? My opinion of you :nono:
Uh, like, whatevar!
Why does Meph have to have corrupted EVERY SINGLE believer in Zakarum that wasn't a Pally? I don't understand the logic. I don't think it should be someone who's lost their faith in the Light, just the opposite!! He/she should be one of the FEW who didn't! The corrupted ones lost faith.
Going along with your guys' logic though, it could be someone who WAS corrupted, but didn't get slaughtered by the D2 heroes. Then, after the Primes were defeated, he came back to his senses, and seeing what had happened, devoted his life to trying to undo the damage done. He has faith in the Light and has spent the last 20 years trying to atone for his weakness. He regained the Light somewhere along the way and uses it's powers to scour the lands of evil.
It would make a better story if he had been corrupted, but I just don't see why it HAS to be that way.
Too, it could just be someone who wasn't even around back then, but a newer follower of the Light in a new, restored church. Afterall, Zakarum was the most dominant religion in Sanctuary, someone's gonna try to rebuild it.
It's not so much that every believer was physically corrupted by Mephisto but rather many of those who weren't corrupted would have lost faith in their faith. Let's say you're a soldier fighting in the War on Terror. Then one day, you discover that not only is the President Osama bin Laden, the entire cabinet is composed of terrorists and everything that the War has accomplished played according to Osama's plans. Certainly, you'd lose confidence in the meaning of the war, etc.
Taken into the context of Diablo, the corruption of the Zakarum's leaders prove that they are not impervious to evil and seduction; that whoever replaces them are likewise, the same. They would also start to question what if there was a God and if there was, what kind of God would sit idly by and allow such a thing to happen. Moreover, Mephisto would have likely twisted the meaning of the religion and so its followers wouldn't even know which are true and which were falsehoods spread by him.
Technomancer
08-07-2009, 11:40
Hmm, to me, the corruption would solidify faith around the idea that Zakarum's leaders were weak and that's why things transpired the way they did, so therefore, a new wave of uberfaith(!) would be in order. Que-Hagan wasn't corrupted until shortly before the events of D1/D2, cause in the D2 lore, he wrote a letter to Lazarus asking him to explain the strange behavior of himself and the other Arch Bishops assigned to watch over Meph's Soulstone. Actually, I'm trying to look it up and I can't find any information as to what actually happened to Que-Hagan! Was he even corrupted? Was he killed? Did he survive the whole ordeal?
Aside from you discussion on the effects of corruption-
What will this char be about?
Becuase we have a very strong melee, wild card, magic missile and hopefully a physical chars.
How can he be designed so he doesn't overlap with existing chars?
Hmm, to me, the corruption would solidify faith around the idea that Zakarum's leaders were weak and that's why things transpired the way they did, so therefore, a new wave of uberfaith(!) would be in order. Que-Hagan wasn't corrupted until shortly before the events of D1/D2, cause in the D2 lore, he wrote a letter to Lazarus asking him to explain the strange behavior of himself and the other Arch Bishops assigned to watch over Meph's Soulstone. Actually, I'm trying to look it up and I can't find any information as to what actually happened to Que-Hagan! Was he even corrupted? Was he killed? Did he survive the whole ordeal?
That's the point. See, if was an insidious, gradual corruption over time. So, it isn't clear when Mephisto's influence started taking over. Had they been corrupted overnight and thus have a clear line between the old Zakarum and the Mephisto-era Zakarum, it would perhaps be a different matter.
Nonetheless, it should be reminded that the Zakarum are led by divine authorities. The fact that they could be corrupted, and en masse at that, is a great big dent in the religion's credibility. As for what happened, if I'm not mistaken, the entire priesthood was corrupted by Mephisto who turned on and killed Khalim, the then Que-Hegan who was the only one uncorrupted. He was succeeded by Sankekur who was corrupted. Also, whether knowingly or not, Lazarus was sent to Tristram to release Diablo.
Technomancer
09-07-2009, 10:41
Ok, I found some info on the D2 wiki page for Cain (http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Cain). He explained a lot in the 'Khalim's Will' quest, I just haven't bothered listening to it in ages. I didn't realize Que-Hegan is actually a title, not a person. Khalim was the Que-Hegan that couldn't be corrupted, so he was killed and Sankekur took his place and became Meph. It's still interesting though cause in the D2 manual, the letter concerned about Lazarus's behavior was written by Sankekur as the Que-Hegan, not Khalim. Either things were really twisted or that's a mess-up in the lore. Anyways...
You guys are right. I think the carryover of Zakarum is the wrong way to go. They were corrupted for the very reasons that the Paladins broke away from them. The Paladins weren't corrupted though, even standing next to the Compelling Orb which brainwashed the Zakarum. So, let's say the Paladins have taken over the religion and reformed it to their more noble and tolerant ideals. It's probably not even called Zakarum anymore. The Priest character would hail from the Paladin camp, but be somewhere in between a Pally and a true caster. There would be many different positions within the religion, not just all Paladins.
Hehe, as a fun side point, at the bottom of Cain's page in the Act 5 gossip, third entry from the bottom about Anya, he says:
Ah, Anya. Such a fine example of feminine strength. She reminds me of the Zakarum priestesses I knew in my youth. They don’t take vows of chastity, you know.
...I don't know whether mmm or eww... :D
Galabab, sorry I kinda hijacked your thread... ;)
Hehe, no technomancer, im happy the thread lives on although i dont have the time to respond properly at the moment.
I alsow was thinkjng about some other religion emerging and their priest being the new class?
Zakarumites huh. Well, I killed all the corrupted ones in Diablo 2 along with Meph and the rest of his followers. Kurast is a good place now. I destroyed all the evil in Diablo 2. Plus, it's been 20 years since then; I suppose good people have moved in during this time since all the evil is gone. A good Zakarumite can work.
Hehe, no technomancer, im happy the thread lives on although i dont have the time to respond properly at the moment.
I alsow was thinkjng about some other religion emerging and their priest being the new class?
Hmm, I can see that; kind of like the Diablo version of Protestants (heck, let's call them Objectionists for the fun of it :thumbup:). Possibly, with the D2 Paladin. Would be an interesting way of telling what happened to him without having to give him a name (just a title; e.g. 'The Enlightened One', etc).
Technomancer
10-07-2009, 10:50
That would be a good story point, the Pally from D2 is actually the leader of, starter of, or inspiration behind the new faith. Yeah, it'd need a new name and he'd need a new title besides Que-Hegan. Maybe the class character could be an apostle of his or something. Hmm, that might not make a bad name.
Id be cool if the old paladin was corrupted in the end and now is a minor boss like the countess!
And when you fight him, he teles around and spams high damage hammers!
Technomancer
11-07-2009, 10:16
Ha! The guy doing that 20 years ago was already corrupt!! :D
I was thinking a good name for the 'Zakarumite who lost faith' ideas would be Apostate. It basically describes the idea perfectly.
Technomancer
01-08-2009, 10:00
Well, I created a Cleric class (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=734660) that I think fits this discussion pretty well, I thought I'd link to it here. Hope you like it!
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