Story behind every unique item

**Jürgen** · 18-09-2008, 19:54

(I have searched the forums in all conscience and did not find any topic related to this.)

While playing Diablo 2, I always wondered whats the story behind unique item A or why is it called like that. I remember Baldurs Gate 2 (excellent RPG) and its special items, where there was always a story attached to every item, and in many cases (all?), the item properties coincided with the story behind the item.

What do you guys think, would it not be great if something similar would be implemented in Diablo 3? It would make the item even more special in a different way. This being the Lore forum, I guess you guys would agree

Maybe someone active on the battle.net forum should ask Bashiok about this

**pantherus** · 19-09-2008, 04:11

I agree on this.

Do note, however, that in the case of Baldur's Gate 2, the items were not just randomly found, but rather all of them were scripted into the game - so only certain items would be able to tie into the storyline so well.

**wrugoin** · 19-09-2008, 15:10

I love this idea!

I loved that my Pally at one point was swinging the Angelic Runeblade Azurewrath, once held by the fallen angel Izual. Or thinking that my Armor was actually Duriel's Shell. Or believing that Tyrael's Might was actually his armor at one point in time. It'd be cool if they had an in-game encyclopedia... and when you find a unique, it adds an extra page to your book that you can read about it's lore.

Originally Posted by pantherus

I agree on this.

Do note, however, that in the case of Baldur's Gate 2, the items were not just randomly found, but rather all of them were scripted into the game - so only certain items would be able to tie into the storyline so well.

With this idea, not all items even need to fit into the storyline very well. Even if the the items had a backstory of characters that we never heard of, it'd still work. It'd flesh out a world outside of what we know and let the player believe there's an entire world and history out there.

**Jürgen** · 19-09-2008, 16:19

Or thinking that my Armor was actually Duriel's Shell.

Hehe, I was thinking about that same item when I first made the post

It'd be cool if they had an in-game encyclopedia... and when you find a unique, it adds an extra page to your book that you can read about it's lore.

That would be a great idea!

With this idea, not all items even need to fit into the storyline very well. Even if the the items had a backstory of characters that we never heard of, it'd still work. It'd flesh out a world outside of what we know and let the player believe there's an entire world and history out there.

Exactly.

As pantherus mentioned, in BG2, some items where scripted into the game, but there was many an item which did not fit into the current BG2 story line, but had their own story attached to them.

For instance, there was some item which you had to assemble out of three parts (or was it two? The one where the fish king had one of the parts). Each part had its own story, who took it where, who lost it to whom and so forth... when you found all the parts, and assembled them (hmm, another nice item idea for D3?), you got some mighty weapon, which by itself also had some kind of interesting story behind it. Most of the time it did not fit into the main story, but damn I was always excited when I found another nice 'unique' item because I knew there was some interesting text attached to it.

Or a (unique) ring of strength, with which warrior X fought countless battles with, and each one victorious, yet rock slides killed the warrior during a trek along a mountain ridge and the ring along with the dead warrior fell into a chasm, and was never seen again (until now, as you have just picked it up from a dead Fallen who - if you let imagination run wild a bit

- most probably found it somewhere in the chasm many years later while rummaging for something).

It think it wound round up the experience of having found a unique item if some kind of history is attached to it.

**Dimmu** · 19-09-2008, 16:59

Something to add to this, maybe if you find a unique item that fits with your class, you will at some point get one of those random quests they talked about based on the item. You find some kind of sword that (apparently) a great knight of leoric lost in a battle below tristram. Some days later, a random quest appears while you're doing...whatever that tells you the knight's spirit wants his sword back. You embark on some kind of quest to beat the **** out of the corrupt knight....gain some kind of reward and find out the backstory behind the unique item. I think just having a wall of text that tells the story behind an item will just result in people completely losing insterest soon after they start playing (or not have it to begin with for that matter). Having an active role in the item's identity would make it fun to know its identity.

**pantherus** · 21-09-2008, 23:02

Originally Posted by Jürgen

Hehe, I was thinking about that same item when I first made the post

That would be a great idea!

Exactly.

As pantherus mentioned, in BG2, some items where scripted into the game, but there was many an item which did not fit into the current BG2 story line, but had their own story attached to them.

For instance, there was some item which you had to assemble out of three parts (or was it two? The one where the fish king had one of the parts). Each part had its own story, who took it where, who lost it to whom and so forth... when you found all the parts, and assembled them (hmm, another nice item idea for D3?), you got some mighty weapon, which by itself also had some kind of interesting story behind it. Most of the time it did not fit into the main story, but damn I was always excited when I found another nice 'unique' item because I knew there was some interesting text attached to it.

Or a (unique) ring of strength, with which warrior X fought countless battles with, and each one victorious, yet rock slides killed the warrior during a trek along a mountain ridge and the ring along with the dead warrior fell into a chasm, and was never seen again (until now, as you have just picked it up from a dead Fallen who - if you let imagination run wild a bit

- most probably found it somewhere in the chasm many years later while rummaging for something).

It think it wound round up the experience of having found a unique item if some kind of history is attached to it.

I always loved when you searched a skeleton corpse, found an item and a parchment which held a backstory on it - and the item in question was mentioned in the journal (as it usually was). Just felt like you were following in someone else's footsteps. The KOTOR games did this well also.

**deadbeater** · 22-09-2008, 23:04

I belive for example, that Rixot's Keen is a remnant of a more powerful sword wielded by the Lord Paladin Rixot. He sadly broke his sword apart when he realized that he killed accidentally an old lady held hostage by an ogre.