Question about act IV

[Gamekk]

Hi guys,

I was wondering where was actually Act IV? I always thought it was hell as in the Burning Hells but it seems like it's not the exact same thing. I was questioning myself after reading this :

Originally Posted by http: //diablowiki.net/Diablo

Diablo II
[...] He is once again followed to Hell, where the pursuing heroes unlock five seals to summon him in his Chaos Sanctuary. After defeating Diablo the heroes destroy his soulstone, banishing him from Sanctuary back to the Burning Hells.

What is said on this site's wiki is that we went to hell to banish him from the mortal realm back to the burning hells? That's confusing. I thought we left sanctuary after enterings Act III's portal to pandemonium's fortress, is this true?

I guess we were not actually in the Burning Hells, otherwise, Diablo would have just respawned beisde of us, right? OR, soulstones have a complex unveiled mechanism that no one can understand at the moment.

[ZSiegfried]

I am pretty sure that we were in the Burning Hells... Because we destroyed Mephisto's and Diablo's soulstone at the Hellforge. Which is were Izual was overwhelmed when the Angels wanted to stop Shadowfang from being forged... So we were definitely in Hell...

At this point we don't really know what happened when we destroyed the soulstones...

[Gamekk]

Originally Posted by ZSiegfried

I am pretty sure that we were in the Burning Hells... Because we destroyed Mephisto's and Diablo's soulstone at the Hellforge. Which is were Izual was overwhelmed when the Angels wanted to stop Shadowfang from being forged... So we were definitely in Hell...

At this point we don't really know what happened when we destroyed the soulstones...

Yea that's what I thought at first. But litterally the quote is "banished from the sanctuary to the burning hells", which he was already in. So we can see it as we defeated Diablo's host form, so his spirit went back to the soulstone, after the soulstone got crushed, his errant spirit went back to the burning hells but it isn't in a soulstone (which might now be innefective since the world stone in broken), or it isn't in a host. Diablo will need something like a ritual to possess a body in hell, so we could not have seen him respawn right beside of us.

That leads to another question, why did Deackhard Cain absolutely wanted to crush the soulstones? He is not banished at all from the sanctuary since he comes back. The best thing to do would've been to hide his soulstone somewhere and still try to contain him, it's still better then releasing him. Anyway, all of this makes no sense to me what ever the soulstones really are.

[Apocalypse]

if it was hell(sure it was) will this games version of hell have the same "zones", river of flame and so on?

[Generic]

I thought the soulstones were created because the prime evils cannot be destroyed?
The soulstones contain and imprison them. If you can't execute a mass murderer you give them life in prison right?

[Gamekk]

Originally Posted by Generic

I thought the soulstones were created because the prime evils cannot be destroyed?
The soulstones contain and imprison them. If you can't execute a mass murderer you give them life in prison right?

.. Yes?

But that always made little sense to me that Cain told us to smash them because of this. You know, it's like freeing the murderer and toss him on monster island (worst analogy ever).

[Zeek]

I've never seen anything official that said he was banished to hell. I think the wiki quote is an assumption/mistake. Tyrael said breaking the soul stones sent Mephisto and Diablo to the dark abyss. No idea what that is, but it may or may not be different than hell.

At the very least in D2 we kill the bodies of Mephisto, Diablo and Baal and leave them hunting for a new host. Temporary reprieve if nothing else.

[Farmrush]

I think he means that Diablo can no longer walk in the world of sanctuary.