Diablo

of men, leaving chaos and attrition in their wake. The Evils turned fatheragainst son and prompted many great nations into brutal and petty wars.Their Exile from Hell left them with an insatiable hunger to bring suffering andpain to all who would not kneel before them, and so the Three Brothers ravagedthe lands of the Far East for countless centuries.Eventually, a secretive order of mortal magi was gathered together by theenigmatic Arch-Angel Tyrael. These sorcerers were to hunt the Three Evils andput an end to their vicious rampage. The order, known as the Horadrim, consistedof wizards from the diverse and numerous mage-clans of the East. Employingdisparate magical practices and disciplines, this unlikely Brotherhood succeededin capturing two of the Brothers within powerful artifacts called Soulstones.Mephisto and Baal, trapped within the swirling, spiritual constraints of theSoulstones, were then buried beneath the dunes of the desolate Eastern Sands.The powers of Hatred and wanton Destruction seemed to diminish in theEast as a nervous peace began to settle over the land. Yet, for many decades theHoradrim continued their grim search for the third Brother, Diablo. They knewthat if the Lord of Terror was left untamed there could never be any lastingpeace within the realm of humanity.The Horadrim followed in the wake of terror and anarchy that spreadthroughout the Western lands. After a great battle which claimed the lives ofmany brave souls, the Lord of Terror was captured and imprisoned within thelast of the Soulstones by a group of Horadrim monks led by the Initiate JeredCain. These monks carried the cursed stone to the land of Khanduras and buriedit within a secluded cave near the river Talsande. Above this cave the Horadrimconstructed a great Monastery from which they could continue to safeguard theSoulstone. As ages passed, the Horadrim constructed a network of catacombsbeneath the Monastery to house the earthly remains of the martyrs of their Order.Generations passed in Khanduras, and the numbers of the Horadrim slowlydwindled. With no quests left to undertake, and too few sons to sustain theirguardianship, the once powerful Order faded into obscurity. Eventually, the greatMonastery that they had built fell to ruins as well. Although villages grew andthrived around the shell of the old Monastery, no one knew of the dark, secretpassageways that stretched into the cold earth beneath it. None could havedreamed of the burning red gem that pulsed within the labyrinth’s heart…66