Blizzard's Diablo series has enjoyed a prominent place among fans for decades, with the release of the first game in 1997 sparking an expansive franchise that continues to this day. With the launch of Diablo 4 on the horizon, players are excited to see where the story will go next, and how (or if) the Eternal Conflict between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells will resolve. As the Diablo series progressed over the years, many of the core elements remained, even as the story and the characters shifted around them. The release of Diablo Immortal, the first mobile-focused and free-to-play MMORPG in the franchise, signaled a large departure for the series and added some interesting events to the story.
With a long-running series, it can be hard for fans to keep track of all the story elements and keep abreast of the wider narrative. This is particularly true of fantasy games, where developers are creating an entirely new universe of characters, histories, and settings that need to feel authentic and expansive, even outside the in-game timeline. The simple answer is Diablo Immortal technically takes place between the events of Diablo 2 and Diablo 3, but there's a lot packed into it.
Diablo Immortal's Story
In lots of ways, Diablo Immortal is similar to the other installments in the series. It still has the dark fantasy aesthetic, the moody atmosphere, the hordes of demonic enemies, and it takes place in the mortal realm of Sanctuary that players will be so familiar with. However, the switch up to the format – making it an MMORPG with a mobile focus – means that it places the story in a slightly unusual position. While not every player has to play every installment in a series to be a fan, franchises that have narratives that span multiple entries usually expect gamers to have some knowledge of the other titles to make the story beats make sense. With the mostly single-player setup of the mainline Diablo games, Diablo Immortal becomes even more of an anomaly and might be missed by a large swathe of franchise fans.
This has an impact on Diablo Immortal's story, as setting it between two previous entries means that players won't necessarily need to know what happens during it before they tackle Diablo 4 because most of the pertinent plot points have already been established outside of the MMORPG. If it occurred between Diablo 3 and Diablo 4, it would make it more essential for a better understanding of the ongoing narrative and could alienate some players who don't want to engage with the controversial mire of microtransactions and MMO gameplay. The game's business model came under fire, and due to the heavy use of microtransactions and other complaints, Diablo Immortal has had a pretty mixed response from the playerbase.
Where It Sits In The Wider Narrative
Controversies aside, Diablo Immortal still has its place within the wider Diablo narrative. Set after the events of the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion and before the start of Diablo 3, Diablo Immortal occurs after the battle against Baal at the Worldstone Keep. With Baal defeated, the Archangel Tyrael still had no choice but to destroy the Worldstone after it was corrupted by the nefarious Prime Evil in 1265, and the Worldstone is subsequently shattered and littered across the land. Diablo 3 takes place twenty years later in 1285, just as the effects of this monumental action are starting to be felt, but players can now see what happens to the fragments during Diablo Immortal.
Set in 1270, just five years after Tyrael made the drastic choice to destroy the tainted Worldstone, Diablo Immortal shows how the corrupted fragments still contain a dormant power and that more than a few demonic minions wouldn't mind getting their hands on them. With the Lord of Terror's Soulstone destroyed at the Hellforge, Diablo's loyal followers hope to gather the pieces of the Worldstone to once again bring him back to usher in a reign of chaos and destruction. During Diablo Immortal it is assumed that Tyrael is dead after the battle at the end of Diablo 2, and Sanctuary is once again facing a perilous fate as a battleground for the forces of good and evil.
Tasked with finding and destroying the shards of the shattered Worldstone by fan-favorite recurring NPC Deckard Cain before they can be used to bring about a cataclysmic event, players must search the land as they deal with the aftermath of Tyrael's actions. The shards of the Worldstone have also attracted other ancient evils like Skarn, the Lord of Damnation, who wishes to collect the pieces and use their power to enslave humanity. With Diablo Immortal's position as both a sequel to Diablo 2 and a prequel to Diablo 3, it occupies an interesting place on the timeline. As an MMORPG, it will likely receive continual updates and new content across multiple years, including expansions to the story, which could eventually encompass the entire time gap between Diablo 2 in 1265 and Diablo 3 in 1285.
The Saga Continues
Unlike the previous self-contained games, Diablo Immortal's story is potentially still ongoing, with Blizzard promising even bigger content updates in the future. The events of Diablo 3 and its expansions may be set, but the developer still has a fair amount of time in between entries to play with if it wants to extend Diablo Immortal's story. It could blend the two games, with events in the MMORPG running concurrently to Diablo 3's action. This could get a little convoluted, however, and might need some light retconning to make it feasible. Diablo 3 represented some major plot points for the franchise, like the Archangel Tyrael's banishment from the High Heavens, the search for the Black Soulstone, and the temporary resurrection of Diablo before he is defeated by the Nephalem.
These events have set up lots of exciting narrative possibilities for the upcoming Diablo 4, which will focus on the return of Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto and the Mother of Sanctuary. Due to the ongoing conflicts that have ravaged all the realms and depleted the forces of the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, Lilith's return to wreak havoc and seize back control could not have come at a worse time for humanity. With Sanctuary's fate once again in the hands of players, it will be intriguing to see how Diablo 4 adds to the ongoing Diablo saga.
Diablo Immortal is available on Mobile and PC.