I have been attacked by a vicious Diablo plotbun.
I don't have time to write it.
Major story spoilers from here, for those who haven't played Diablo 4's main campaign to the end yet!
So, at the end of the campaign, the Wanderer kills Lilith, after Lilith explains that she needs the Wanderer to lead humanity out of the Eternal Conflict. The Wanderer refuses her call and says they won't ever be a pawn of either Lilith or Mephisto. Which is understandable!
What the Wanderer has seen of Lilith and her methods has been nothing short of gruesome. She's made people kill each other, eat each other, caused unfathomable strife and suffering. She's killed Donan's son by making him a vessel for Astaroth, for crying out loud. They have zero reason to believe Lilith's claims about why she's doing what she's doing and that she really intends to help humanity come out on top in the Eternal Conflict.
But, here comes the first part of the plotbun: What if Lilith is entirely serious? What if she really does intend to help the world and the people she created, but because she's a demon, the suffering she causes barely registers as an inconvenience to her. And because she's a demon, the actual Daughter of literal Hatred, she also saw sacrificing Yorin as an appropriate response to Donan denying her.
What are a few dead and mutilated humans in the face of impending doom anyways? The strong will prevail, right? Might as well get back at those who inconvenienced you.
So Lilith is serious about wanting to help humanity, but she completely fails to recognize how her actions make her look. She doesn't bother explaining to a broad audience either - she found Elias, after all.
He's another problem. I don't think Lilith is completely above being influenced by the people she meets, and here's a powerful human who goes "Yes, blessed Mother, deliver us, blessed Mother, I'll help you" and then commits atrocities in her name because he thinks it's the only way. And Lilith accepts his help, because why wouldn't she? He's well connected, he can pull some strings. He brought her to Sanctuary, he knows Donan as a fellow Horadrim and can point her towards Astaroth, who will grant her access to Mephisto's realm in exchange for freedom.
Her being the Daughter of Hatred means her presence alone already makes people go insane and become violent.
Now, here's a trope that I'm quite fond of: You can't change your lineage or what you are (as in, you can't be a rhinoceros when you're born human, TERFs fuck off), but you *can* change your actions.
This would lend itself really nicely to the idea that Lilith can't control that people are losing their marbles when she's around. She's the daughter of a Prime Evil. She can't change that. She was also *brought up* as the daughter of a Prime Evil, for millennia. She's already deviating from her dad's view on things by creating Sanctuary and seeking a way out of the Eternal Conflict, but her morals and ideas of justice are very much a product of her surroundings. Those being the burning hells. Not a place very conducive to being a caring and empathetic person.
So, plotbun step 2, where we deviate from canon: The Wanderer doesn't outright refuse her invitation, but fights to get out of the mind prison Lilith put them in. At the final fight, after Mephisto is imprisoned and Lilith is defeated - the Wanderer doesn't kill her. Instead, in her weakened state, something happens that seals off her demonic powers. I dunno what yet, maybe there would need to be some new magic mcguffin that does that - but essentially it would make her almost human. Certainly mortal. No more 9ft tall horned and winged succubus, but an unsettlingly regal looking middle-aged lady with heterochromia and a mean smirk.
Of course she'd be immediately imprisoned, people would also call for her execution, but maybe Lorath and the Wanderer get the idea that she should experience the suffering she wrought. See the horrors her disciples unleashed. You're serious about wanting to uplift us? See what kind of "uplifting" you've achieved.
Plotbun, step 3:
Neyrelle still leaves with the soul stone holding Mephisto, and that's the hook: Something goes horribly wrong, and Lilith is the only one who could fix it. That's her opportunity to show how serious she is. Without her demonic powers, and fully aware of how much everyone hates her guts.
Adventure ensues. Angst ensues. I think this would also be incredibly interesting, written from Lilith's perspective, to really show the progression from demonic wrath and petty revenge to maybe not someone super empathetic, but at least aware enough of the concept to not cause undue harm. Learning to value life because now her own isn't a given anymore.
So, yeah.
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the only thing more embarrassing than getting into diablo 4 is that now im literally dying for some lorath/elias fic and there's absolutely ZERO on ao3
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