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The coming of the  Great Conflict to the mortal realm is known as the Sin War.  Angels and
Demons,  disguising themselves while traveling amongst men,  attempted to secretly lure mortals to their respective causes. Over time, the forces of Darkness discovered that mortals responded much more to brute force than to subtle coercion, and so began to terrorize Man into submission
The Angels  fought to defend humanity against this demonic oppression,  but all too often their austere methods  and severe punishments succeeded only in  alienating those whom they sought to protect.
The violent battles of the Sin War occurred often,  but they were seldom witnessed  by the prying eyes of Man.  Only a few  "enlightened" souls were aware of the supernatural beings that walked  amongst  the  huddled  masses  of  humanity.  Powerful  mortals  arose and accepted the challenge  of the Sin War,  allying themselves  with  both sides  in the  Great  Conflict.  The legendary deeds  of these  great mortal warriors  served to earn both the respect and hatred of the netherworlds.  Although lesser demons  kneeled before those possessing power  and strength, they also cursed  the very existence  of mortal man.  Many  of these fiends believed  that  the deadlock brought about by the emergence of Man was a perverse offense to their "higher" role in the great scheme of things.
This jealousy of Man  led to harsh,  atrocious acts of violence  by the demons against the mortal  realm.  Some men learned of this deep hatred  and used it  against the denizens  of the
Underworld.  One  such  mortal,  Horazon  the Summoner,  delighted in summoning demons and then breaking them to his will.  Horazon, along with his brother Bartuc, were members of the Eastern mage clan known as the Vizjerei. This mystic clan studied the ways of demons and had catalogued their lore for generations.  Empowered by this knowledge,  Horazon was able to take the work of the Vizjerei  and pervert it  for his  demented purposes.  The denizens of Hell  sought revenge against this bold mortal,  but Horazon managed to keep himself well protected within his arcane sanctuary.
Bartuc,  the brother  of Horazon,  was eventually  lured to the side  of Darkness.  He was granted  exceptional  strength and longevity,  and fought alongside the legions of Hell against the cursed  Vizjerei,  and eventually  his own brother during the Sin War.  Although Bartuc was renowned  amongst the warriors  of many realms,  his dominance  in battle  came with a terrible price.  An insatiable lust  for mortal blood  pervaded his every thought and deed.  Bartuc soon became as fond of bathing in the blood of his enemies as he did of shedding it,  and in time he came to be known only as the Warlord of Blood.

THE DARK EXILE
"Seven is the number of the powers of Hell, and Seven is the number of the Great Evils."

Duriel, the Lord of Pain

Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish

Belial, the Lord of Lies

Azmodan, the Lord of Sin

These are the true names  of the lesser of the  Great Evils.  For ages uncounted each have ruled over their own domains  within the Burning Hells,  seeking  absolute dominion  over their infernal brethren.  As the Lesser Four  continuously vied  for the control of those forces that dwelled within their realms, the  Greater Three held absolute power over the whole of Hell. The
Lesser Four used dark and evil measures in their quest for power,  and herein begins the legend of the Exile.

Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred

Baal, the Lord of Destruction

Diablo, the Lord of Terror

These  are  the  Prime  Evils  of  Hell  that  wielded  their  power as a dark,  sovereign triumvirate.  The  Three  Brothers  ruled  over  the  Lesser Four by brutal force and malicious cunning.  Being the eldest and strongest of the Evils,  the Three Brothers were responsible for countless victories  against  the armies of the Light.  Although they never held sway over  the
High Heavens for long, the Three were justly feared by enemies and subjects alike.
With the ascension of  Man and the subsequent standstill of the Great Conflict,  the Three
Brothers  began to devote their energies to the perversion of mortal souls.  The Three realized that Man  was the key to victory  in the war against  Heaven,  and  thus  altered  their  rigid agendum  that they had propagated  since the Beginning.  This change  caused many of the Lesser
Evils  to question  the authority of the Three,  and so brought about  a great rift between the
Prime Evils and their servitors.
In their ignorance,  the   Lesser Evils  began to believe that  the  Three  were afraid to continue the war  with Heaven.  Frustrated by the cessation of the war,  Azmodan and Belial saw the situation  as their chance  to overthrow  the  Prime  Evils  and  take control of Hell  for themselves.  The two demon lords made a pact with their minor brethren,  assuring them that the wretched plague of humanity would not deter  the ultimate victory of the sons of Hell.  Azmodan and Belial  devised a plan to end the stalemate,  achieve victory in the Sin War and ultimately ride the bloody crest of the  Great Conflict straight into the very arms of Armageddon. Thus, a great revolution was set into motion as all of Hell went to war against the Three Brothers...
The Brothers  fought with all  of the savagery  of the Underworld,  and  to  their credit, annihilated a third of Hell's treacherous legions.  In the end, however,  they were overcome by the Horned Death led by the traitors Azmodan and Belial. The Prime Evils, weakened and bodiless were banished to the mortal realm  where Azmodan hoped that  they would remain trapped forever.
Azmodan  believed that  with the Three set loose  upon humanity,  the Angels would be forced to turn their focus upon on the mortal plane - thus leaving the  Gates  of  Heaven  abandoned  and defenseless. Those few demons who still pledged allegiance to the Three Brothers fled the wrath of Azmodan and Belial, escaping to the realm of Man to seek out their lost Masters.
As the warfires died out upon the battlefields of Hell,  Azmodan and Belial began to argue over which of them held the higher authority. The pact that they had made quickly fell to ashes as the two demon lords took up arms against each other.  The legions of Hell that remained were polarized behind either warlord,  launching themselves into a bloody civil war  that has lasted to this day...

THE BINDING OF THE THREE
In the ancient days,  before  the rise  of the  Western Empires,  the  dark  and  terrible entities known as  the Three Evils  were exiled  to the world of Man.  These  eternal  entities wandered throughout the waking world and fed upon the lusts of men, leaving chaos and attrition in their wake.  The Evils  turned father against son and prompted many great nation into brutal and petty wars.  Their Exile from Hell  left them with an insatiable hunger  to bring suffering and pain to all who would not kneel before them, and so the Three Brothers ravaged the lands of the Far East for countless centuries.
Eventually,  a secretive order of mortal magi was gathered together by the enigmatic Arch-
Angel Tyrael.  These sorcerers  were to hunt  the Three Evils  and put an end  to their vicious rampage.  The order,  known as the Horadrim, consisted of wizards from the diverse and numerous mage-clans of the East.  Employing disparate magical practices  and disciplines,  this unlikely
Brotherhood  succeeded  in capturing  two of the Brothers  within  a powerful artifacts  called
Soulstones.  Mephisto and Baal,  trapped  within the swirling,  spiritual  constraints  of  the
Soulstones, were then buried beneath the dunes of the desolate Eastern Sands.
The powers of  Hatred and wanton  Destruction  seemed to diminish in the East as a nervous peace  began to settle over the land.  Yet,  for many decades the Horadrim continued their grim search for the third Brother,  Diablo.  They knew that if  the Lord of Terror  was left untamed there could never be any lasting peace within the realm of humanity.
The Horadrim followed in the wake of terror and anarchy that spread throughout the Western lands. After a great battle which claimed the lives of many brave souls, the Lord of Terror was captured  and imprisoned  within the last of the Soulstones by a group of Horadrim monks led by the  Initiate Jered Cain.  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.
Generation 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...


BOOK II : THE RETURN OF TERROR

THE LANDS OF KHANDURAS
Years after the last of the Horadrim had died,  a great and prosperous society grew in the lands of the West.  As time wore on,  many  Eastern pilgrims  settled  in the lands surrounding
Khanduras and soon establish small,  self contained kingdoms.  A few of these kingdoms bickered with  Khanduras  over holdings of  property or routes of trade.  These squabbles  did little to upset the lasting peace of the West, and the great Northern kingdom of Westmarch proved to be a strong ally of Khanduras as the two lands steadily engaged in ventures of barter and commerce.
During this time,  a bold,  new religion  of the Light  known as Zakarum  began to  spread throughout  the kingdom of Westmarch  and into many  of its northern  principalities.  Zakarum, founded  in the Far East,  implored followers to enter  into the Light and forsake the darkness that lurked within their souls. The people of Westmarch adopted the statues of Zakarum as their sacred mission in the world.  Westmarch began to turn towards its neighbors,  expecting them to embrace this  "New Beginning"  as well.  Tensions rose  between  the kingdoms of Westmarch  and
Khanduras  as the priests  of Zakarum  began to preach  their foreign dogma  whether  they were welcomed or not.
It was then that  the great northern lord Leoric came unto the lands of Khanduras and,  in the name of Zakarum,  declared himself King,  Leoric was a deeply religious man and had brought many Knights and Priests with him that comprised his Order of the Light. Leoric and his trusted advisor,  the Arch Bishop Lazarus,  made their way to the city of Tristram. Leoric appropriated the ancient,  decrepit Monastery  on the outskirts  of the town  for  his  seat  of  power  and renovated it  to match  its time-lost glory.  Although  the free people  of Khanduras  were not pleased  with being placed  under the sudden rule  of a foreign King, Leoric  served them  with justice and might. Eventually, the people of Khanduras grew to respect the kind Leoric, sensing that he sough only to guide and protect them against the oppression of Darkness.

THE AWAKENING
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 realms  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.
For many months  King Leoric  secretly fought  the evil presence that twisted his thoughts and emotions.  Sensing that  he had been possessed  by some unknown evil.  Leoric  hid his dark secret  from his Priests,  hoping that somehow  his own devout righteousness would be enough to exorcise  that corruption growing inside him - he was sorely mistaken. Diablo stripped away the core of  Leoric's being,  burning away  all honor  and virtue  from his soul.  Lazarus too, had fallen  under the sway  of the Demon,  keeping close  to Leoric at all times. Lazarus worked to conceal  the plans  of his new Master  from the Order of Light,  hoping that  the demon's power would grow, well concealed amongst the servants of Zakarum.
The priests of Zakarum  and the citizenry of Khanduras  recognized  the disturbing  change within their liege.  His once proud  and rugged form became distorted and deformed. King Leoric became increasingly deranged and ordered immediate executions of any  who dared to question his methods  or  authority.  Leoric began  to send his Knights  to other villages  to  bully  their townspeople into submission.  The people of Khanduras  who had once grown to see great honor in their ruler began to call Leoric the Black King.
Driven  to the brink  of madness  by the Lord of Terror,  King Leoric slowly alienated his closest friends  and advisors,  Lachdanan,  Captain  of the Knight  of the Order  of Light  and honored Champion  of Zakarum,  tried to discern  the nature of his King's deteriorating spirit.
Yet  at every turn  the Arch-Bishop Lazarus  would  waylay  Lachdanan  and  admonish  him  from questioning  the actions  of the King.  As  tensions  grew  between  the two,  Lazarus  charged
Lachdanan with treason against the Kingdom.  To the Priests and Knights of Leoric's court,  the prospect of Lachdanan committing treason was ridiculous. Lachdanan's motives were honorable and just, and soon many began question the reason of their once beloved King.
Leoric's madness was growing more obvious with each passing day. Sensing that the advisors of the court  were becoming  increasingly suspicious  of  foul treachery,  Lazarus  desperately sought  to contain  the eroding situation. The Arch-Bishop masterfully convinced the delusional
Leoric  that the kingdom of Westmarch  was plotting against him,  secretly planning to dethrone him and annex Khanduras  into its own lands.  Leoric flew into a rage and summoned his advisors to his side.  Manipulated by the Arch-Bishop, the paranoid King declared a state of war between the kingdoms of Khanduras and Westmarch.
Leoric ignored  the warnings and admonishments  of his  advisors and  the  royal  army  of
Khanduras  was ordered to the North to engage in a war that they did not believe in.  Lachdanan was appointed  by Lazarus  to lead  the armies of Khanduras into Westmarch.  Although Lachdanan argued the against the necessity of the coming conflict,  he was honor-bound to uphold the will of his King.  Many of the  high-priests and officials  were forced  to travel  to the North  as emissaries  on errands  of diplomatic urgency,  as well.  The desperate  ploy  of  Lazarus  had succeeded in sending many of the King's more 'troublesome' advisors to their certain deaths...

THE DARKENING OF TRISTRAM
The absence  of prying advisors  and inquisitive Priests  left Diablo free to assume total control over  the King's battered soul.  As the Lord of Terror attempted to strengthen his hold upon the maddened King,  he found that  the lingering spirit of Leoric  fought with him  still.
Although  the control over Leoric that Diablo held  was formidable,  the Demon knew that in his weakened state he could never take complete possession of his soul  as long as a glimmer of his will remained. The demonlord sought a fresh and innocent host upon which to build his Terror.
The demon relinquished his control over Leoric, but the King's soul was left corrupted and his mind crazed.  Diablo began to search throughout Khanduras  for the perfect vessel to act as his focus, and found such a soul easily within his reach. Enjoined by his dark master,  Lazarus kidnapped  Albrecht - the only son of Leoric - and dragged  the terrified youth  down into  the blackness  of the labyrinth.  Flooding the boy's defenseless mind  with  the  essence  of  pure
Terror, Diablo easily took possession of the young Albrecht.
Pain and fire raced through the child's soul. Hideous laughter filled his head and clouded his thoughts.  Paralyzed with fear,  Albrecht felt the presence of Diablo within his mind as it seemed to push him down,  deeper and deeper into darkness and oblivion.  Diablo gazed  upon his surroundings  through the eyes of the young prince.  A lustful hunger  still tortured the demon after his frustrating bout  for control over Leoric,  but  the nightmares  of the boy  provided ample substance  to sate him.  Reaching deep  into Albrecht's subconscious,  Diablo  ripped the greatest fears of the child from their hiding places and gave them breath.
Albrecht watched, as if out of a dream,  twisted and disfigured forms  appeared all around him.  Unholy, writhing visages of terror danced about him chanting choruses of obscenities. All of the  'monsters'  that he had ever imagined or believed  that he had seen in his life  became flesh and were given life before him.  Large bodies  comprised of living rock  erupted from the walls and bowed to their dark master. The ancient,  skeletal corpses of the Horadrim arose from archaic crypts  and lumbered off  into the red washed  corridors beyond.  As the  cacophony  of madness  and  nightmares  hammered its final blow against  Albrecht's scattered  and  scrambled maniacally into the lengthening passageways of his waking Nightmare.
The ancient catacombs  of the  Horadrim  had become  a twisted labyrinth  of raw,  focused
Terror.  Empowered by Diablo's possession  of young Albrecht,  the creatures  of the  boy's own imagination  had gained  corporeal form. So strong was the terror that grew inside of Albrecht, that the borders  of the Mortal realm  began to warp and tear.  The Burning Hell  began to seep into the world of Man  and take root  within the labyrinth. Beings and occurrences displaced by time and space,  and long lost  to the history of Man  were pulled s creaming  into  the  ever- expanding domain.
The body of Albrecht,  fully possessed by Diablo,  began to distort and change.  The small boy grew and his eyes  blazed as tendril-like spines ripped  through his flesh.  Great,  arched horns erupted from Albrecht's skull  as Diablo altered the form of a child to match that of his demonic body.  Deep within the recesses of the labyrinth,  a growing power was being harnessed.
When the moment was right,  Diablo would venture once more  into the mortal world  and free his captive Brothers Mephisto and Baal.  The Prime Evils would be reunited, and together they would reclaim their rightful place in Hell.

THE FALL OF THE BLACK KING
The war against the zealous armies of Westmarch ended with a horrible slaughter.  With the army of  Khanduras  ripped to shreds  by  the  superior  numbers  and  defensive  positions  of
Westmarch,  Lachdanan  quickly  gathered  together  those  who  were not captured or killed and ordered a retreat  back to the safety of Khanduras.  They returned to find the town of Tristram