Editing Diablo (section)

==Basic Backstory==
In the beginning, there was the emptiness of creation, inhabited only by Anu, the Spirit of All. In pursuit of true perfection, Anu cast out those aspects of itself that embodied concepts of evil, only for them to become incarnate on their own as a monstrous seven-headed dragon called Tathamet, the Prime Evil. The two spirits fought to the death and ripped each other apart, creating the universe. Most notably, Anu's crystal spine became the firmament around which formed the High Heavens, whilst Tathamet's festering corpse becomes the Burning Hells.

From Anu's spine, now known as the Crystal Arch, were born first five Archangels, representing the Five Virtues of Valor, Justice, Hope, Fate and Wisdom, and then legions of angels.

From Tathamet's corpse, demons arose like monstrous maggots, whilst the dragon-god's decaying heads became mighty arch-demons; the three Prime Evils (Mephisto of Hatred, Baal of Destruction, Diablo of Terror) and the four Lesser Evils (Duriel of Pain, Andariel of Anguish, Azmodan of Sin and Belial of Lies).

Naturally, [[Blood War|the two races took one look at each other and instantly wanted to eradicate each other]]. For untold eons, angels and demons butchered each other in the Eternal Conflict, until a small band of rebels and dissidents grew in the ranks of each side. Led by the angel Inarius and the she-demon Lilith, these dissidents banded together and fled the war, capturing Anu's crystallized eye - the Worldstone - and using it to forge a world in which they could hide from their fellows, a world they called Sanctuary. In time, they interbred, creating a new race of beings called the Nephalem.

Unfortunately, this peace couldn't last forever; Sanctuary was eventually discovered which just gave the angels and demons one more goddamn thing to fight over. To further complicate things it turns out the Nephalem had the potential to be even more stupid powerful than both angels and demons, which scared the shit out Inarius. Inarius and Lilith would have a falling out over what to do with the Nephalem, causing him to boot her off the fucking planet. The Burning Hells first tried to manipulate humanity onto their side, though Inarius noticed this and began to try to also manipulate them back to his side, which led to a stalemate. And then that ho Lilith came back, leading into the exact sort of debacle that generally happens when a [[bitches|bitchy]] ex-GF returns to haunt you. With all the fireworks the High Heavens now finally took notice, and it became a three-way clusterfuck called the Sin War. Through a convoluted sequence of events involving a Nephalem named Uldyssian, the Worldstone was used to bind their powers reducing them all to mere humans.

With the progenitors destroyed, the angels tried to figure out what to do with their bastard descendants.  Malthael/Wisdom chose neutrality.  Imperius/Valor voted to exterminate Humanity.  Auriel/Hope and Itherael/Fate voted to spare humanity.  With this deadlock, humanity would have been destroyed if not for the deciding vote of Tyrael, Archangel of Justice, who had been so moved by Uldyssian's sacrifice that he now believed humanity had capacity to choose good. The angels came to a truce with the demons, and the two agreed to leave Sanctuary to its own devices now that the Nephalem were powerless and had their minds erased. The angels turned back to the main front of their conflict with the demons, humanity were left to find their own way, and the demons never, ever fucking lie...

Fast forward a couple of thousand years and humanity has built up typical fantasy [[Medieval Stasis|societies]], despite frequent attempts by demons to covertly manipulate them causing the occasional war and cultural ruination. Then one day in the Burning Hells, the four Lesser Evils, who were still [[butthurt]] over the perceived loss in the Sin War and sick of playing second fiddle to the dominance of the three Prime Evils, cooked up a scheme to banish them to Sanctuary. [[Just As Planned|And it actually fucking worked]]!...[[Not as Planned|Except that this was planned by Prime Evils in the first place]]... The Prime Evils were free to actively devastate Sanctuary, unleashing unspeakable evil. The angels took notice, and since he was the one who spared humanity they made Tyrael go fucking fix this. Allied with a group of mystics and sages called the Horadrim, they tracked and defeated the Prime Evils and bound their essence into magical crystal prisons called Soulstones, each a splinter of the Worldstone itself. The three Soulstones were hidden away, buried for generations. Naturally, the Prime Evils want out... which doesn't spell anything good for Sanctuary.