Anu & the Crystal Arch
In the beginning there was only Anu — all that is good and all that is evil, entwined as one perfect being. When Anu cast out its own evil, the seven-headed dragon Tathamet arose, and the two annihilated each other. From Anu's spine grew the Crystal Arch and the High Heavens; from Tathamet's corpse spilled the Burning Hells.
Heaven Wars Hell
For uncounted aeons the legions of the High Heavens and the hordes of the Burning Hells warred across the void, and neither side could claim victory. The cosmos itself was their battlefield, and the war seemed as endless as it was futile.
Inarius & Lilith
The renegade angel Inarius and Lilith, daughter of Mephisto, gathered other deserters from both sides. With the stolen Worldstone they forged a hidden refuge beyond the reach of Heaven and Hell — Sanctuary. There, angel and demon lay together, and their children were the first Nephalem: mortals carrying the power of both.
The Sin War
In time both Heaven and Hell discovered Sanctuary, and each sought to claim humanity or wipe it from existence. The Sin War raged across the young world — and when it ended, the Worldstone was hidden away, Sanctuary was veiled from the cosmos, and the memory of the Nephalem faded into myth.
The Three Brothers
Within the Burning Hells, the four Lesser Evils rose up and overthrew their masters. The three Prime Evils — Mephisto, Lord of Hatred; Baal, Lord of Destruction; and Diablo, Lord of Terror — were cast out of Hell itself and banished into Sanctuary, to walk in secret among unsuspecting mortals.
The Lord of Terror
Beneath the quiet town of Tristram, in the depths below the cathedral, Diablo festered within his soulstone. A hero descended, struck him down, and drove the soulstone into his own brow to contain the evil — only to be consumed by it, becoming the Dark Wanderer who carried terror east across Sanctuary.
Mother of Hatred
Long after the fall of the Prime Evils, a coven spilled innocent blood to tear open the way between worlds, and Lilith — Mother of Sanctuary, daughter of Hatred — stepped back into the world she made. She came not to comfort her children, but to forge them into something strong enough to end the eternal conflict forever.
The Abyss Has No Floor
And still, beneath all of it, the fire waits. The Burning Hells are eternal, and the eternal conflict has no bottom. The Prime Evils are bound and broken and reborn, again and again. However deep you fall — there is always something further down.