Diablo 3 website analysis: writings of Abd Al-Hazir

[mouseman]

There are several writings in the world section of the official Diablo 3 website. There are some clues hidden in the text and to the fact that all of the writings come from the same fictional author and the author apparently dies in the end.

Who is Abd Al-Hazir?

Abd al-Hazir is a renowned gentleman, historian, and scholar. He has recently taken up the unprecedented task of investigating, researching, and compiling information about the unique locales and denizens of our world.

So he is a fictional character used by Blizzard to give us information about the game. This means it isn't likely that there's going to be contradictions with his writings and the game world.

What does he write about?

Everything. Monsters, towns, locations and character classes so far. At the moment there are 9 visible entries. The interesting this is that they are all given an entry number. The complete list follows:

Caldeum // Entry no. 002
Undead // Entry no. 008
Khazra // Entry no. 009
Witch Doctor // Entry no. 0013
New Tristram // Entry no. 0016
Tristram Cathedral // Entry no. 0017
Gnarled Walkers // Entry no. 0020
Barbarian // Entry no. 0025
Dark Cultists // Entry no. 0042

Why is this important?

One remark caught my attention. After the dark cultist entry it reads:

This is the last known writing of Abd al-Hazir. Known for his compilation of weird and wonderful facts about our unique world, he has unfortunately been missing since late last year.

If we assume there will be entries added (or reserved) to every character class, town and monster type, this will effectively cap the limit to 42. With 5 character class and at least (?) 5 towns, that leaves us with 32 monster types, which I guess is okay since there are a lot diversity inside each of the base monster class (like with goatmen/khazra).

Or then they just want to showcase certain elements of the game and the exact number of entries isn't important at all. It would be impractical for Blizzard to tie the development if they don't already know exactly what's going to be in the game and what's not. That's unlikely, because certain elements and especially monsters are being scratched even in the late part of the development, or at least that was the case with Diablo 2.

Are there other minor points of interest?

Well yes there are. Aside from the mighty interesting lore, there are some hints of how the actual game will play out.

The writings' entry numbers form a chronological journey of Abd Al-Hazir. Based on the entry number of the towns we can assume what kind of monsters are found on every town/act. Couple of examples:

1. New Tristram (no. 0016) is followed by Tristram Cathedral (no. 0017). Tristram Cathedral will be a playable dungeon yet again.

2. Between Caldeum (no. 002) and New Tristram (no. 0016) are two monster types (undead (no. 008) and khazra (goatmen) (no. 009)) so we can assume these monster types will be found on the Caldeum areas. Of course, they are pretty common monster types, so they won't be tied to just these particular areas.

3. Gnarled Walkers are somewhat tied to Tristram, lore-wise in the text, and close appearance (no. 0016 and no. 0020). Or perhaps to Wortham (see 5.)?

Other points of interest include:

4. Butcher is mentioned in Tristram Cathedral entry. Could he be returning?

5. A mini-town, fishing village of Wortham, is mentioned. Could this indicate a smaller NPC-areas in the game? I wouldn't bet on it, but a character from the cinematics, a young girl named Leah, seems to live in this village, so I don't think it's trivial information.

I likewise found it odd that there seemed to be only elderly people in the village, with the exception of one beautiful young woman whose father was quite insistent I keep my distance from her.

In addition, Leah's father, DeSoto, is found on the concept art, so this could indicate his appearance in the game and thus make the town of Wortham an act town, or a mini-town.

6. Blizzard knows how to laugh at themselves. I quote the Undead entry:

I am at a loss to explain the average skeleton's somewhat ludicrous mental predisposition, however. Perhaps the implausibility of its own existence makes the skeleton think it hilarious to hide in a barrel, cackling intermittently for some three hundred years until a victim happens by?

And yes, this could indicate that there will be skeleton's coming out of barrels in Diablo 3, also

There is a lot of stuff there open to speculation but I posted some of the most obvious here. I don't know if these hold any water or should be posted on D3 wiki - you decide.

Let the speculation begin - or continue.

[Deuterium]

You are not aware that 42 is the final entry or that they are being revealed in any sort of chronological order. That could be the highest entry found/revealed thus far. It could go up to 122. It could be entirely irrelevant due to the numbers being arbitrary. Sorry but I think you're reading far too much into it.

The skelly thing was pretty funny.

[mouseman]

Originally Posted by Deuterium

You are not aware that 42 is the final entry or that they are being revealed in any sort of chronological order. That could be the highest entry found/revealed thus far. It could go up to 122. It could be entirely irrelevant due to the numbers being arbitrary. Sorry but I think you're reading far too much into it.

They are entries in a book - thus entry number tells us when it what written and what was written before or after a certain entry.

The last entry, no. 0042, is about cultists, tells that the author is being chased by these cultists and that they have located him. At the end of the page the author is mentioned to be missing since the last entry. So either we found him in the game or he is dead - anyway, it's safe to assume there's not going to be any entries after no. 0042.

And I know I could be reading too much into it - I said it myself in the original post. I'm more pressed about the whole Wortham/Leah/DeSato find.

[Sein Schatten]

I doubt Blizzard will reveal all monsters, cities etc. pre-release. But, I think, D2C has only like 30 different monster classes...

[Apocalypse]

i would assume that this guy never would have ventured all the way into the depths on hell so i dont see how he could report on all monsters

[mouseman]

Even if we can't predict the total number of monster classes from it, we can assume the minimum monster classes - there are at least ~30 monster classes, unless more of the entries are reserved for location describing. Anyway, there seems to be a lot content - even for a nobleman historian to stumble upon.

Oh, and necromancers have made it to the lore - in the Gnarled Walkers section. It was even hinted that their part in the previous games were bigger. Come to think of it, Blizzard has never announced that there won't be necromancers, people have just assumed that there won't because of Witch Doctors. But many classes had summons in D2, as well as curse-like spells (frightening totems etc) so even if it's feeble, there are a chance for necromancer.

Is it been confirmed elsewhere that DeSato is indeed Leah's father and that they live in Wortham? It just seems to me that more clues to the last character seen in the main cinematic would be exciting, but no one has really noticed number 5. on my list, as of yet.

And maybe a moderator would be so nice and replace "analyze" with "analysis" on the thread topic?

[Sein Schatten]

As I said D2C had around 30 different types of monsters. And the variety was about right. You were constantly fighting a new monster type(not reskinned ) during the game.

Necros are not in the game. At least not in the way we played them in D2. Having 2 classes who play identical, or nearly identical, is a wrong decision. We will see them as enemies. I think there is a picture of a WD engaging a necro and his skeletts. Maybe the necro will not become a minion type class?

[Gamekk]

NICE. Thanks someone finally analyze these writings, and thanks for putting all the info there! I wanted to do it myself but I'm somehow too busy and lazy for the moment.

I feel that Abd Al-Hazir is like the new narrator, taking the place of Marius. However, I really don't think he's dead. The entry 42 says he is missing, but I think there are really big chances to see him back in the game or cinematics or in the plot somehow.

But I had no idea about Leah and DeSoto, where did you get clues that he might be his father, did you see that in another topic? picture?
EDIT : Lol nvm, found proof of the diablo3 site

Though he was rude on this point, I found him to be a rather sociable sort once convinced I was not interested in his daughter. He introduced himself as Pablo DeSoto

And thanks again for gathering all of this info.

[Putz]

Originally Posted by mouseman

5. A mini-town, fishing village of Wortham, is mentioned. Could this indicate a smaller NPC-areas in the game? I wouldn't bet on it, but a character from the cinematics, a young girl named Leah, seems to live in this village, so I don't think it's trivial information.


In addition, Leah's father, DeSoto, is found on the concept art, so this could indicate his appearance in the game and thus make the town of Wortham an act town, or a mini-town.

Where's the proof she is from this village?

[PlasmaTorture]

Originally Posted by Sein Schatten

We will see them as enemies.

I strongly doubt it. Necros are staunch supporters of keeping the balance in Sanctuary between Order and Chaos. Basically, they are as much advocates for Sanctuary as Tyrael is for Heaven and Diablo is for Hell. They could even be considered the most "good" of all classes in Diablo 2: they're uncorruptable, and they seek only for Sanctuary to live in natural order. The only other one that comes remotely close is Druids, but even they are more focused on "protect Mt. Arreat" than "protect Sanctuary".

Unless they have the plot involve you actively trying to destroy Sanctuary (which they won't, since you can play as the Barbarian), there is no reason for you to fight Necromancers.

I strongly suggest you read this official history of the Necromancer, since it sounds like you haven't.