Originally posted by EEX_ca_aok
Diablo's soulstone was smashed in the act4 ending cinematic.
Quite true, I stand corrected. Hadn't watched the cinematics since the first time I played through the game. Had forgotten.
Izual taught the Prime Evils how to corrupt the soulstones, turing them into methods of focusing their power, and binding them indefinately to the mortal plane.
True, this may have made them more powerful, but they were already in the mortal plane
before the soulstones were around (having been kicked out of Hell by Azmodan and Belial) so it's plain that they don't
need the stones to remain in the physical world.
The soulstones were pieces of the worldstone crafted by Tyreal to trap the prime evils. In effect, they worked as a spiritual "vaccum", which drew the prime evils into the stones when they came within close proximity of them. Diablo was trapped and the stone was hidden in the catacombs under the D1 city (was it Tristram?). The king's priest/advisor was drawn by diablo's will and released him.
From, "The Binding of the Three"
"These monks carried the cursed stone to the land of Khanduras and buried it within a secluded cave near the river Talsande. Above this cave the Horadrim constructed a great Monastery from which they could continue to safeguard the Soulstone. As ages passed, the Horadrim constructed a network of catacombs beneath the Monastery to house the earthly remains of the martyrs of their Order."
"Generations passed in Khanduras, and the numbers of the Horadrim slowly dwindled. With no quests left to undertake, and too few sons to sustain their guardianship, the once powerful Order faded into obscurity. Eventually, the great Monastery that they had built fell to ruins as well. Although villages grew and thrived around the shell of the old Monastery, no one knew of the dark, secret passageways that stretched into the cold earth beneath it. None could have dreamed of the burning red gem that pulsed within the labyrinth's heart..."
The closest village to the Monastery was Tristram.
and
"Not long after Leoric took possession of Khanduras, a power long asleep awakened within the dark recesses beneath the Monastery. Sensing that freedom was within his grasp, Diablo entered the nightmares of the Arch-Bishop and lured him into the dark, subterranean labyrinth. In his terror, Lazarus raced throughout the abandoned hallways until he at last came to the chamber of the burning Soulstone. No longer in command of his body or spirit, he raised the stone above his head and uttered words long forgotten in the realm of mortals. His will destroyed, Lazarus shattered the Soulstone upon the ground. Diablo once again came into the world of Man. Although he was released from his imprisonment within the Soulstone, the Lord of Terror was still greatly weakened from his long sleep and required an anchor to the world. Once he had found a mortal form to wear, he could begin to reclaim his vastly depleted power. The great demon weighed the souls residing in the town above, and chose to take the strongest of them - that of King Leoric."
So as we see here, smashing the soulstone didn't destroy or banish Diablo, it set him free. This stuff is straight from the Diablo I story folks...
Presumably, the other shards of Baal's stone were taken and hidden away. Maybe Tyreal could've taken one, and the final act could take place in heaven
Could be... or they may have been too small of fragments to be useful.
Destroying a soulstone containing a prime evil prevents their release from the stone, trapping them there for eternity, not able to be freed. But since large pieces of Baal's stone still exist, they bind his spirt to the world until all are found and shattered.
I'm not sure where you get that idea from...
Andariel and Duriel were exiled from hell because the spirit of the Prime Evils took over once again. note that you find Diablo in HELL. So yes, they can go back to hell. Obviously, Baal was somewhere in hell as well, as it is implied that he also went through the gate.
I'm not sure of your source on Andariel and Duriel. I always assumed that they were tossed from Hell during the original struggle between the three prime evils and the four lesser evils. The Diablo I story only mentions Azmodan and Belial bickering over the spoils of Hell.
The cinematics show the three brothers, gathered together at the hellgate, able to force open the portal so they may attempt to once again take over Hell (with the help and power augmentation of the soulstones). Diablo goes through, Mephisto stays behind to guard the gate (where the player encounters him) and who knows where baal goes. Maybe he goes with Diablo for a time, to help a bro out, or maybe he heads straight to Harrogath and the Arreat summit.
I am assuming that the Hell we saw in Act IV was only the first few planes or realms of Hell. Afterall, it's neighbor to the Pandemonium fortress, which is the midpoint between Heaven and Hell. If that's all there is to Hell, then Hell is a pretty small, not-too-dangerous place. I would surmise that the temple you find Diablo in is just the place where he is creating a base of operations in Hell to launch their invasion of the deeper planes.
So no, except for baal, the prime evils wont be coming back anytime soon. I'm implying that when he retrieves the pieces of his stone, he could use the power to reconstruct the other stones, and then free them.
If they are destroyed, then they are destroyed. But then again, as we already saw from the Diablo I story, smashing the soulstone didn't banish or destroy Diablo, it just set his spirit free, from where he attempted to possess first King Leoric, then later Leoric's son. (Read the rest of the D I story for details)
A mortal doesnt need to free them from the stone, anyone can. Its just that mortals are easily corrupted, and it seems that the prime evils can draw them towards the stones, against their will, even when they are imprisoned.
Well, Baal used magic and illusion to draw the human to him when he was imprisoned. He was only able to do that once the human was inside the same room.
Anyways, there is an obvious discrepancy between what happens when you smash a soulstone from DI to DII. And if smashing a soulstone
does banish a prime evil from the mortal plane forever, why didn't they just smash Diablo and Mephisto's soulstones at the time of capture? Why build monasterys over them and stuff?
The only reason I can think of is maybe it has to be done at the Hellforge in Hell to work. Not very logical though. Smash their soulstone in Hell (where they are from) to banish them from the mortal plane (where they are not).
Regardless, Baal was not somewhere in hell when you kill him, he was in the Worldstone Chamber - the heart of the Worldstone. And the graphic of his spirit escaping was pretty obvious.
