Today, Jacob serves in the new Horadrim that Tyrael founded, but between TyraelвЂ™s destruction and reformation the sword was in a humanвЂ™s hand. Jacob Staalek, alongside the Wizard Shanar, carried ElвЂ™druin for years until the reformation of Tyrael would cost him the sword and his role as Avatar. We also know that the Archangel TyraelвЂ™s destruction of the Worldstone left Sanctuary without one of its greatest (and, in the eyes of the High Heavens, most frequently interfering) guardians, but the sword ElвЂ™druin chose a wielder who served as the Avatar of Justice during this time period. We know that the other Evils were hardly quiet during this period, for example - we know that Deckard Cain and his ward Leah - the daughter of Aidan (in his Dark Wanderer period) and the witch Adria - dealt with a plan by Belial to establish a kingdom on Sanctuary in Caldeum around the year 1272, when Leah was eight years old. ItвЂ™s unlikely that New Tristram was the only such place established during the period in which the Triune Greater Evils of Diablo, Mephisto and Baal were no longer active. When this process started is as yet unclear but it was in swing for long enough for a town to be constructed entirely on the back of the trade, and it was profitable long enough for the town to still be in existence in 1285, some twenty-one years after old Tristram itself fell into horror and ruin. The town was established entirely to profit from the flood of treasure-seekers and adventurers who descended as far into the old ruins of Tristram and the Cathedral as they could, stripping them bare of any loot they could find. One reason we know this is the very existence of New Tristram. We know that there were still monsters and demons to fight, as well as treasures to be looted from ancient and more recent sites. So what has been established for the years before Diablo 3? What kind of world was Sanctuary in that period?

Jacob and Shanar, who appear in Sword of Justice and Storm of Light, are both active adventurers during this time period - Jacob was even mentioned during the Diablo Immortal reveal at BlizzCon. For example, Mishka who is the center of the short story Unyielding was born in 1275 AK, ten years before Diablo 3 and thus at the exact center of the time period covered by Immortal. While we donвЂ™t know a lot from that period, there has been some tie-in media that has dealt with that time period before now. ThatвЂ™s a twenty year gap, and itвЂ™s in that gap that Diablo Immortal will be set, starting some five years after the destruction of the Worldstone. But what you didnвЂ™t see was the aftermath, because Lord of Destruction ends in 1265 AK (Ano Kehjistani, named for the founding of Kehjistan) and Diablo 3 starts in 1285 AK. If you played Diablo 2 and its expansion, Lord of Destruction, then you saw the end of the established world order with the destruction of the Worldstone.

Wave of destruction d3