Diablo

factions sought some way to turn the tides of the war to their favor. With theascension of Man and his mortal realm, the Great Conflict ground to amysterious halt. Both armies paused in a breathless stalemate, waiting to see towhose side Man would eventually turn.Mortals had the unique ability to choose between Darkness and Light,and it was held that this would be the deciding factor in the outcome of theGreat Conflict. Thus, the agents of the nether-realms descended to the mortalrealm to vie for the favor of Man…THE SIN WARThe coming of the Great Conflict to the mortal realm is known as the SinWar. Angels and Demons, disguising themselves while traveling amongst men,attempted to secretly lure mortals to their respective causes. Over time, theforces of Darkness discovered that mortals responded much more to bruteforce than to subtle coercion, and so began to terrorize Man into submission.The Angels fought to defend humanity against this demonic oppression, but alltoo often their austere methods and severe punishments succeeded only inalienating those whom they sought to protect.The violent battles of the Sin War occurred often, but they were seldomwitnessed by the prying eyes of Man. Only a few “enlightened” souls were awareof the supernatural beings that walked amongst the huddled masses of humanity.Powerful mortals arose and accepted the challenge of the Sin War, allyingthemselves with both sides in the Great Conflict. The legendary deeds of thesegreat mortal warriors served to earn both the respect and hatred of the netherworlds.Although lesser demons kneeled before those possessing power andstrength, they also cursed the very existence of mortal man. Many of thesefiends believed that the deadlock brought about by the emergence of Man wasa perverse offense to their “higher” role in the great scheme of things.This jealousy of Man led to harsh, atrocious acts of violence by the demonsagainst the mortal realm. Some men learned of this deep hatred and used itagainst the denizens of the Underworld. One such mortal, Horazon theSummoner, delighted in summoning demons and then breaking them to hiswill. Horazon, along with his brother Bartuc ,were members of the Eastern mageclanknown as the Vizjerei. This mystic clan studied the ways of demons andhad catalogued their lore for generations. Empowered by this knowledge,Horazon was able to take the work of the Vizjerei and pervert it for his dementedpurposes. The denizens of Hell sought revenge against this bold mortal, butHorazon managed to keep himself well protected within his arcane sanctuary.62