I have finally read once more my copy of Diablo: Demonsbane. Everyone that knows me, knows that I go all nerdy with lore, and compile in-game lore as well as official Blizzard novels lore. I humbly wrote down a few notes of the most relevant lore in this book written by Robert B. Marks. He is better known by many as Garwulf— of Garwulf’s Corner fame.
Diablo: Demonsbane was the first book in the Diablo series in the shape of a novella, when the era of eBooks had just taken off back in 2000. Although, it didn’t get past the hundreds of sales, due to the early phase of eBooks booming, it was a very good story based in the Diablo universe. It is not known if it is considered canon at this point. Blizzard Entertainment has been silent about Diablo lore dodging our lore inquiries and possible future Diablo novels.
If this ends up being canon, it would certainly make many fans happy if they find any piece of lore about Siggard and Sarnakyle the vizjerei in the tomes of lore (sound clips) found throughout the lands of the world of Sanctuary in the upcoming Diablo III game. The timeframe of the story might conflict in some areas of the lore and might get retconned if the story is considered canon. It happened two years after the death of Bartuc the Warlord of Blood, during the Sin War.
Strangely, Diablo: The Sin War Trilogy didn’t even mention Bartuc, nor Siggard. Only time will tell. For now, we invite you to read our summary of Diablo: Demonsbane.
If you wish to buy this story—which ranges around 75 pages—it can be found in printed media within the Diablo Archive at any online bookstore or local bookstore. It collects four of the novels based in the world of Diablo. Feel free to contribute to the diablowiki.net
To be honest, I don’t think ‘Demonsbane’ can be considered to be in the same era as Knaak’s trilogy. While Uldyssians’ exploits took place 4,000 years before the darkening of Tristiram, placing the events around 2,740 BCE (in the absence of any idea what marked Year 0 in Sanctuary’s timeline), while ‘Demonsbane’ takes place in 302 CE. Yet oddly enough it’s stated as one of the early victories of the Sin War. However, how demons were entitled to make overt actions at this point seems strange, as to my recollection, the pact between the Angiris Council and the Prime Evils forbade overt action against Man until the Prime Evils and their followers were banished into Sanctuary centuries later, making the nature of influence a moot point.
Regardless, as per Tyrael’s nature in the novel, I can’t see it as occuring before the trilogy. I generally see it as canon, but a retcon of the timeframe would be needed to make it work IMO. Still, it may happen, with Siggard getting fame. ‘Demonsbane’s counterpart E-book novels of ‘Uprising’ and ‘Of Blood and Honor’ had characters that later achieved great significance, with Fordring becoming a major character in WoW and Feld, Fole and Pasteur becoming major characters in ‘I, Mengsk.’ Maybe ‘Demonsbane’ will one day get similar treatment.