Lilith

Lilith is a demon, the daughter of Mephisto, and the creator of Sanctuary. Known as the Queen of the Succubi and by titles such as Daughter of Hatred, Mother of Sanctuary, The First Mother, and The Blessed Mother, she is the central antagonist of Diablo IV. Her return to Sanctuary sets the events of that game in motion, and her history reaches back to the earliest days of the hidden world she helped create.

Her origin lay in the Burning Hells. Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred and one of the Prime Evils, made her for a purpose. He crafted her as a weapon, and the material he used was his own malice and cunning. After a very long gestation she was born, and he regarded her as almost his equal. They vied with one another in contests that the rest of Hell found frightening. Over time, however, Lilith came to see that her father treated everything he had made, including her, as a setting for his cruelty. She wanted to grow beyond the purpose she had been made for, and she grew tired of the Eternal Conflict, the endless war between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, and of the leadership on both sides.

With the archangel Inarius, her partner, she gathered angels and demons who shared their wish to escape the war. From the Pandemonium Fortress they took the Worldstone, and with it they shaped a hidden world, Sanctuary, as a refuge from the Eternal Conflict. Lilith and Inarius ruled Sanctuary with a council of angels and demons. At the Altar of Rites, Lilith and Inarius had a son, Linarian, later called Rathma. The angels and demons who had followed them also had children. These offspring, the nephalem, were stronger than either kind of parent and owed no natural allegiance to Heaven or Hell.

The renegades who had created Sanctuary soon feared what they had made. The nephalem were too powerful, and their existence might draw the attention of Heaven and Hell to the hidden world. Some argued for destroying the nephalem. Lilith refused to allow her children to be killed, and her response was to slaughter the renegades who threatened them. Inarius banished her for that slaughter. He then used the Worldstone to weaken each following generation of nephalem, and over time the descendants of the nephalem became ordinary humans. Among the early nephalem, Lilith was mostly despised, and in some circles her name was taboo. In the city of Edario, however, she was worshipped; a priest named Hurit preached that she would return when needed most to lead the nephalem in a final battle against Heaven and Hell.

About three thousand years before the Darkening of Tristram, Lilith returned to Sanctuary in secret. This was the period later called the Sin War, the hidden struggle for humanity between the Cathedral of Light, led by Inarius, and the Temple of the Triune, run by the Prime Evils. In the village of Seram, Lilith appeared as a noblewoman called Lylia. She chose a farmer named Uldyssian ul-Diomed, awakening the latent nephalem power in him. She meant to make him a willing weapon rather than a puppet, and she urged him to rally the common folk against both churches. Uldyssian eventually saw her true demonic form and rejected her. She later impersonated her brother Lucion, the Triune's leader, the Primus, and possessed Uldyssian's companion Serenthia. Her plans failed. Inarius ultimately cast her into the Void, where she stayed for more than three thousand years while cults continued to worship her and prophesied her return.

Before the events of Diablo IV, Lilith had one appearance in Diablo II, but it was limited to the Pandemonium Event, a Battle.net-only event not treated as official lore. She was also mentioned in Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, and Diablo Immortal. In Diablo IV, her return was preceded by a resurgence of her worship called the Lilin. She was summoned back to Sanctuary by a ritual in an underground chamber. The ritual was carried out by a former Horadrim named Elias, who used unwitting adventurers. Her presence awakened old hatreds in people. Agents spread paranoia in Kehjistan, and some people began to worship her as a goddess. In 1336, she appeared in the church of Nevesk during a Cathedral of Light sermon. She told the congregation that the lords of Hell were coming and that salvation lay in themselves, urged them to "break their chains," and the congregation killed the priest.

Lilith's goal in Diablo IV was to face her father before his return and take power in Hell herself. She sought a key to Hell and needed Astaroth, Mephisto's lieutenant, to cross the hellfire barrier around the Cathedral of Hatred. When Inarius led a mortal army into Hell, Lilith led the demons against them. Inarius attacked her directly, and she killed him. The Wanderer, the player's hero, eventually defeated Lilith. The Wanderer had been made to consume petals of her blood, and so a fragment of her essence endured, dormant in the Wanderer's blood. Some people sensed something "off" about the Wanderer. Her warning about what was coming proved true, as Mephisto's influence rose soon after. In the later story told in Vessel of Hatred ('To Walk With Two Shadows' / 'Sins and Secrets'), the Oracle Queen Cyra confirmed that Lilith's essence remained dormant in the Wanderer's blood. The connection also let Mephisto's influence reach the Wanderer; Lilith held it back, but she could not defeat her father's growing power.

Lilith remains a more complicated figure than the Prime Evils. She had been created to be a weapon, but she tried to escape that purpose. She helped create a world meant to be free of the Eternal Conflict, and she defended her children when the renegades wanted to destroy them. She also manipulated Uldyssian, killed Inarius, and sought power in Hell for herself. Her death did not end her influence; her essence sleeps in the blood of the Wanderer, and the danger she warned about has already begun to arrive. That mixture of creation, protection, cruelty, and ambition is why she is remembered not only as a demon but as the Mother of Sanctuary.