History Characters / DiabloBurningHells

* TheCorrupter: While her mere presence in Sanctuary draws lesser demons into the world, Lilith's greatest ability is to bring out the worst in humans. Often preying on a character's flaws and turning them into a literal monster. [[spoiler:She inflames Vhenard's curiosity for the arcane till the woman is murdering priests to learn more from Lilith, and is willing to kill her own daughter for trying to keep her from doing more. She inflames Nathain's rage till it becomes a literal monster and Nathain tells her Asteroth's location. Albridah has her desire to protect her people so twisted she becomes TheSocialDarwinist]].

* MotherOfAThousandYoung: She is the literal and metaphorical mother of humanity. Now that she's back, she hopes to teach her innumerable children regain the power of their linage so she can use them to conquer all of creation.

* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:As part of her final words to the Wanderer, she claims that "[they] chose tyranny when offered freedom" in opposing and killing her. This is coming from someone who has been working towards the ultimate destruction of humanity for their weakness compared to their Nephalem ancestors, and with the goal of replacing them with something even stronger than the Nephalem under ''her'' rule. She's also inflicted death (or [[FateWorseThanDeath far worse]]) upon anyone who refused to follow her or chose to oppose her. In other words, Lilith offered the "freedom" of being wiped out, tortured, or forced to serve under her. On top of that, [[MoralMyopia for all of Lilith's claims about being the better alternative to the Prime Evils, her plans seemed to resemble the Prime Evils' goals pretty closely.]]]]

* MinorMajorCharacter: Her sole reason for appearing in ''Diablo IV'' is to show that the Prime and Lesser Evils are now back to being individual beings, and are in the process of returning to power, after the Black Soulstone's destruction in ''Reaper Of Souls''.

* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:As part of her final words to the Wanderer, she claims that "[they] chose tyranny when offered freedom" in opposing and killing her. This is coming from someone who has been working towards the ultimate destruction of humanity for their weakness compared to their Nephalem ancestors, and with the goal of replacing them with something even stronger than the Nephalem under ''her'' rule. She's also inflicted death (or [[FateWorseThanDeath far worse]]) upon anyone who refused to follow her or chose to oppose her. In other words, Lilith offered the "freedom" of being wiped out, tortured, or forced to serve under her. For all of Lilith's claims about being the better alternative to the Prime Evils, her plans seemed to resemble the Prime Evils' goals pretty closely.]]

* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: It's implied that as long as evil still exists in the cosmos, the Prime Evils will always return in some way. If someone manages to kill them, they will exist as disembodied spirts until they can either slowly regenerate in Hell or possess another mortal. In any case, it seems they can't destroyed permanently, only contained.
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: When the demons rebelled against them, the Prime Evils killed about a third of them before being driven out.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: They're constantly jockeying for power between themselves. They once invaded Heaven and nearly succeeded before their coalition collapsed into infighting because the three couldn't stop bickering among themselves over who gets what upon victory.

* LeakingCanOfEvil: Each has previously been sealed within a Soulstone. Unfortunately for the mortals of Sanctuary, a rogue angel told them how to subvert Soulstones from within, making them far from effective containers. Even when sealed, the Prime Evils influence and corrupt the world around them, beckoning all but the strongest willed mortals to free them. If the Soulstone is damaged, then their power will leak exponentially faster; unless the surviving shards are placed in another powerful container, it's only a matter of time before they break free on their own.
* LoopholeAbuse: They agreed to a non-aggression pact with the forces of Heaven to never invade Sanctuary. To get around this, the three manipulated the four Lesser Evils to "depose" and "exile" them to from the Burning Hells to Sanctuary in spirit form. Since this "Dark Exile" didn't technically violate the terms of the pact, [[ObstructiveCodeOfConduct Heaven refused to intervene]], and left Sanctuary to its fate. Had it not been for Tyrael [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight ignoring the pact to personally aid the mortals]] the Prime Evils would have been free to claim the Worldstone with no resistance.

* NearVillainVictory: Every time their main plans have been stopped has required great sacrifice and only happened when they were on the cusp of victory. Each of their thwarted schemes inflicted so much damage on Sanctuary that the plane and its people that would never fully recover.

* TransformationOfThePossessed: Every time they have been seen in-game has been while possessing a human host. In each case, the host's body is heavily deformed and mutated into an approximation of the demon's "natural" body unrecognizable to that of the body's original owner.

* PaperThinDisguise: It's almost insulting how obvious it is that the creepy little ruler is Belial in ''Diablo III''. The heroes only play along because they know Belial will unleash untold destruction on Caldeum when he realizes his deceptions have failed.

* MotherOfAThousandYoung: She is the literal and metaphorical mother of humanity and hopes to use her children to conquer all of creation.

* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler:She intends to absorb Mephisto's essence before he can fully reform, to usurp his place and use his powers to foster her cause.]]

* ToughLove: Lilith loves her children but feels they cannot survive the coming war with the Burning Hells. To prepare them, she enacts countless tragedies to cull the weak and harden the survivors.

'''Character Classes''' | [[Characters/DiabloHighHeavens The High Heavens]] | [[Characters/DiabloBurningHells The Burning Hells]] | [[Characters/DiabloHumans Humans]] | [[Characters/DiabloEldritch Eldritch]]]]]]-]

[[Characters/DiabloCharacterClasses Character Classes]] | [[Characters/DiabloHighHeavens The High Heavens]] | '''The Burning Hells''' | [[Characters/DiabloHumans Humans]]]]]]-]

* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: It's implied that as long as evil still exists in the cosmos, the Prime Evils will always return in some way (even if they are killed, they seem to still exist as some kind of disembodied spirts until they can possess another mortal, and can't be destroyed permanently, only contained.)

* LeakingCanOfEvil: Each has previously been sealed within a Soulstone. Unfortunately for the mortals of Sanctuary, a rogue angel told them how to subvert the Soulstonesfrom within, making them far from effective containers. Even when sealed, the Prime Evils influence and corrupt the world around them, beckoning all but the strongest willed mortals to free them. If the Soulstone is at all damaged, then their power will leak exponentially faster as they free themselves.
* LoopholeAbuse: They agreed to a non-aggression pact with the forces of Heaven to never invade Sanctuary. To get around this, the three manipulated the four Lesser Evils to "depose" and "exile" them to from the Burning Hells to Sanctuary in spirit form. Since this "Dark Exile" didn't technically violate the terms of the pact, [[ObstructiveCodeOfConduct Heaven refused to intervene]], and left Sanctuary to its fate. Had it not been for Tyrael [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight ignoring the pact to personally aid the mortals]] they would have claimed the Worldstone with no resistance.

* NearVillainVictory: Every time their main plans have been stopped has required great sacrifice and only happened when they were on the cusp of victory.

* WalkingWasteland: Wherever the Primes go, the landscape becomes gradually corrupts and minor demons spawn in numbers.

* HiddenDepths: A lot of people make disparaging remarks about Baal's intelligence, and he's seen as a rather dim monster who smashes first and asks questions later. The audience, however, sees a rather different side of the Lord Of Destruction; whether he picked it up as a result of his imprisonment by Tal'Rasha or always had it all along, Baal demonstrates a wickedly intelligent and manipulative side throughout ''Diablo II'', one that allows him to cunningly think up schemes and string people along- much like his brother Mephisto- and carry out his plans effectively enough for him to nearly succeed in dooming Sanctuary all (well, ''mostly'') by himself.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: In ''II'' and ''III'', he was originally the FinalBoss until expansions demoted him to this. He still is the final boss if you don't have the expansion of the game you're playing, though.

* NonElemental: While all of the other Demon Lords have a good arsenal of ranged attacks, Duriel only uses melee attacks. Not that he needs much else to kick your ass, though...

* {{Catchphrase}}: ''Ah! Fresh meat.''

* DropTheHammer: A preview image shows her wielding a massive war mace in her boss battle.

* CharacterDevelopment / HiddenDepths: A lot of people make disparaging remarks about Baal's intelligence, and he's seen as a rather dim monster who smashes first and asks questions later. The audience, however, sees a rather different side of the Lord Of Destruction; whether he picked it up as a result of his imprisonment by Tal'Rasha or always had it all along, Baal demonstrates a wickedly intelligent and manipulative side throughout ''Diablo II'', one that allows him to cunningly think up schemes and string people along- much like his brother Mephisto- and carry out his plans effectively enough for him to nearly succeed in dooming Sanctuary all (well, ''mostly'') by himself.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler: When Inarius finally confronts Lilith in Hell, she bluntly tells him that, despite everything he has done to redeem himself in the eyes of the High Heavens, they remain silent because he can never be forgiven. If his actions during the Sin War are anything to go by, she's right. For his sins, the Angiris Council had given Inarius to Mephisto; if they didn't want him back then, they certainly don't want him back now. The realization causes Inarius to have a VillainousBreakdown, allowing Lilith to literally backstab him.]]* SealedEvilInACan: She spent several thousand years trapped in the void between worlds. Twice.

* SealedEvilInACan: She spent several thousand years trapped in the void between worlds. Twice.

* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler:When Inarius finally confronts Lilith in Hell, she bluntly tells him that, despite everything he has done to redeem himself in the eyes of the High Heavens, they remain silent because he can never be forgiven. If his actions during the Sin War are anything to go by, she's right. For his sins, the Angiris Council had given Inarius to Mephisto; if they didn't want him back then, they certainly don't want him back now. The realization causes Inarius to have a VillainousBreakdown, allowing Lilith to literally backstab him.]]
** [[spoiler:While her plans would destroy Sanctuary and twist humanity into a far darker species, she was correct that as things stand, what's left of humanity is far too weak to hope to survive the return of the Prime Evils on its own. For as horrible as a world run by her may be, it would be infinitely preferable to the horrors that her father and uncles plan on unleashing when they inevitably restore themselves.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: ''Diablo I's'' manual, to be precise. His origin and the fact he is a Demon Lord are only mentioned in the manual of ''Diablo I'', Cain's Journal in ''Diablo III'', and official sites. No mention of him is made in ''Diablo II'' where he is '''a boss'''.

->Voiced by: Creator/MiltonJames (English)[[note]]'''Other Languages''':Alexander Noskov (Russian)[[/note]]

* CharacterDevelopment / HiddenDepths: A lot of people make disparaging remarks about Baal's intelligence, and he's seen as a rather dim monster who smashes first and asks questions later. The audience, however, sees a rather different side of the Lord Of Destruction; whether he picked it up as a result of his imprisonment by Tal'Rasha or always had it all along, Baal demonstrates a wickedly intelligent and manipulative side throughout ''Diablo II'', one that allows him to cunningly think up schemes and string people along- much like his brother Mephisto- and carry them out effectively enough for him to nearly succeed in dooming Sanctuary all (well, ''mostly'') by himself.

* CharacterDevelopment / HiddenDepths: A lot of people make disparaging remarks about Baal's intelligence, and he's seen as a rather dim monster who smashes first and asks questions later. The audience, however, sees a rather different side of the Lord Of Destruction; whether he picked it up as a result of his imprisonment by Tal'Rasha or always had it all along, Baal demonstrates a wickedly intelligent and manipulative side throughout ''Diablo II'', one that allows him to cunningly think up schemes and string people along, much like his brother Mephisto, and carry them out effectively enough for him to nearly succeed in dooming Sanctuary all (well, ''mostly'') by himself.

* CharacterDevelopment / HiddenDepths: A lot of people make disparaging remarks about Baal's intelligence, and he's seen as a rather dim monster who smashes first and asks questions later. The audience, however, sees a rather different side of the Lord Of Destruction; whether he picked it up as a result of his imprisonment by Tal'Rasha or always had it all along, Baal in ''Diablo II'' shows a wickedly intelligent and manipulative side, one that allows him to cunningly think up schemes and string people along, much like his brother Mephisto, and carry them out effectively enough for him to nearly succeed in dooming Sanctuary all (well, ''mostly'') by himself.

* CharacterDevelopment / HiddenDepths: A lot of people make disparaging remarks about Baal's intelligence, and he's seen as a rather dim monster who smashes first and asks questions later. The audience, however, sees a rather different side of the Lord Of Destruction; presumably as a result of his imprisonment by Tal'Rasha, Baal seems to have picked up a wickedly intelligent and manipulative side, one that allows him to cunningly think up schemes and string people along, much like his brother Mephisto, and carry them out effectively enough for him to nearly succeed in dooming Sanctuary all (well, ''mostly'') by himself.

* CharacterDevelopment: A lot of people make disparaging remarks about Baal's intelligence, and he's seen as a rather dim monster who smashes first and asks questions later. The audience, however, sees a rather different side of the Lord Of Destruction; presumably as a result of his imprisonment by Tal'Rasha, Baal seems to have picked up a wickedly intelligent and manipulative side, one that allows him to cunningly think up schemes and string people along, much like his brother Mephisto, and carry them out effectively enough for him to nearly succeed in dooming Sanctuary all (well, ''mostly'') by himself.

* TheCorrupter: While her mere presence in Sanctuary draws lesser demons into the world, Lilith's greatest ability is to bring out the worst in humans. Often preying on a character flaws and turning the person into a literal monster. [[spoiler:She inflames Vhenard's curiosity for the arcane till the woman is murdering priests to learn more from Lilith, and is willing to kill her own daughter for trying to keep her from doing more. She inflames Nathain's rage till it becomes a literal monster and Nathain tells her Asteroth's location. Albridah has her desire to protect her people so twisted she becomes TheSocialDarwinist]].

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: They have almost invaded heaven before but did not succeed because they bicker among themselves over who gets what upon victory.

* LeakingCanOfEvil: Unfortunately for the mortals of Sanctuary, the Soulstones were far from perfect containers. Even when sealed, the Prime Evils influence and corrupt the world around them from within the stones. If the Soulstone is at all damaged, then their power will leak exponentially faster as they free themselves.
* LoopholeAbuse: They agreed to a non-aggression pact with the forces of Heaven to never invade Sanctuary. To get around this, the three manipulated the four Lesser Evils to "depose" and "exile" them to from the Burning Hells to Sanctuary in spirit form. Since this "Dark Exile" didn't technically violate the terms of the pact, [[ObstructiveCodeOfConduct Heaven refused to intervene]], and left Sanctuary to its fate. Had it not been for Tyrael [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight ignoring the pact and aiding the mortals]] they would have claimed the Worldstone with no resistance.

* ResurrectiveImmortality: Because they are aspects of the [[BigBad ultimate Evil]], the Great Evils will always return after death. Normally, their revival so is very slow process that can leave their essence vulnerable for the many years it takes to regain their power in the Hells. However, [[DemonicPossession possessing the bodies of powerful mortals]] can greatly accelerate the process.

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