Diablo IV Story Explained: From Lilith's Return to Mephisto's Banishment
The base campaign, Vessel of Hatred and Lord of Hatred in order: what Lilith and Mephisto each do, and where the story lands.
In one line: Lilith wanted humanity strong enough to fight Hell on its own, and the Wanderer killed her. Neyrelle sealed the stronger Mephisto into the Soulstone instead, which gave him room to work. In Skovos, the Wanderer ends it by driving Lilith’s bone blade through his heart and banishing him into the Void.
The base game: Lilith returns
The story starts roughly 50 years after Reaper of Souls.
Sanctuary is the world Lilith and the angel Inarius created thousands of years earlier as a refuge from the eternal war between Heaven and Hell. Their descendants are the Nephalem, and the player character is one.
Fearing that the Nephalem would draw attention, Sanctuary’s residents wanted them destroyed. Lilith killed the ones who opposed her, so Inarius banished her into the Void.
The campaign starts when corrupted villagers feed the Wanderer petals of Lilith’s blood, creating a link between them. Escaping, the Wanderer meets Lorath Nahr, one of the last Horadrim, and learns of the prophecy of Lilith’s return.
Several threads then run together:
- Inarius believes that killing Lilith himself will let him return to Heaven.
- Rathma, the first Nephalem and founder of the Necromancers, refuses to hand over the key to Hell and is killed by Inarius. Lilith ends up with the key.
- Elias, who summoned Lilith, keeps finding ways to stay alive, until the Wanderer ends it.
- Neyrelle travels with the Wanderer and makes her own choice in Mephisto’s Cathedral of Hatred.
The ending: Inarius goes into Hell to confront Lilith and is killed by her. Donan is mortally wounded and Lorath stays behind, leaving the Wanderer and Neyrelle to reach the Cathedral of Hatred.
Mephisto appears throughout as a bloodied wolf, urging them to focus on Lilith. Neyrelle judges him the greater threat and seals Mephisto into the Soulstone instead. The Wanderer then defeats Lilith, who warns as she dies that without her, humanity cannot beat the Prime Evils.
Vessel of Hatred: the chase into Nahantu
The Soulstone drives the first expansion.
The Wanderer follows Neyrelle into the jungles of Nahantu to end Mephisto’s corruption before it spreads. The official page puts it plainly: “Your survival, and the fate of Neyrelle’s soul, hang in the balance.”
The new region of Nahantu and the Spiritborn class both come out of that thread.
Lord of Hatred: Skovos and the banishment
Lord of Hatred closes the thread.
- The Wanderer and Lorath find Neyrelle dead at the Yshari Sanctum with the library burned. Her notes show Mephisto, wearing the guise of a reborn Akarat, is heading for the Skovos Isles.
- Mephisto manipulates Lorath into nearly killing Amazon Queen Adreona, then heals her in public as “Akarat” and wins the crowd.
- Using the Sightless Eye, the Wanderer communes with Lilith, still bound inside their soul. She reveals that the “spear of Light” of Rathma’s prophecy is a dagger made from her own bone, and that it can banish Mephisto into the Void instead of letting him be reborn in Hell.
- Lorath is killed by the corrupted Adreona, and his head is claimed by the Tree of Whispers. Adreona then falls to the Wanderer.
- Finally the Wanderer drives Lilith’s blade through Mephisto’s heart and banishes him into the Void, after which Tyrael and the Wanderer burn the Tree of Whispers and release the spirits bound to it.
That closes the setup from the base game. Season 15 is the 30th anniversary season, and its theme is exactly a return to the memories of the earlier Prime Evils.
The order to play in
- Base campaign (included with the game)
- Vessel of Hatred campaign (first expansion)
- Lord of Hatred campaign (second expansion)
Season 15’s storyline sits on top of all three, so finishing the campaigns first makes more sense. The season structure is on the season 15 page.
Anything Blizzard has not announced, including Diablo V’s plot, is outside this page.
Sources
Related pages
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