Tyrael

Tyrael is an angel who chose mortality. He was formerly the Archangel of Justice, a member of the Angiris Council, the five-member ruling council of Heaven, and commander of the Heavenly Host. Later he became the Aspect of Wisdom. He is the founder and leader of the Horadrim, an order of mortal mages, and his sword is El'druin. The Sahptev faith calls him the God of Justice. He is regarded as Inarius's brother in the angelic sense. The Angiris Council views him as a renegade, while the people of Sanctuary know him as a defender of their world. Tyrael's importance rests on one early choice: when the Council debated destroying Sanctuary, he chose to spare humanity. That early choice still defines his reputation among angels and mortals.

In the Eternal Conflict, the long war between Heaven and Hell, Tyrael's battlefield exploits became legend. No angel was fiercer in the fight against Hell, and demons feared him. During the Sin War, Heaven discovered Sanctuary, a world created by rogue angels and demons led by Lilith and Inarius. Its humans were descended from the nephalem, the children of angels and demons. The Angiris Council debated whether to destroy that world. Tyrael's decision to spare humanity became the subject of many later tales. Depictions of him appeared in human cultures during the Age of Magic.

In the year 302, Tyrael was present in Entsteig disguised as a golden-haired man. On the Night of Souls he met the warrior Siggard and advised him. He also visited Sanctuary at other times and championed human causes. During the Dark Exile, the three Prime Evils, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal, were banished into Sanctuary by the Lesser Evils. Tyrael brought mortal mages together as the Horadrim, and they hunted the Prime Evils and bound them in soulstones, crystals that imprison a demon's essence.

The Return of Evil began in 1263 with Diablo II. Diablo escaped by corrupting Aidan, who became the Dark Wanderer, and went east to free his brothers. Baal was bound in the body of the mage Tal Rasha. Tyrael appeared to prevent Baal's release but was captured, and Baal tricked Marius into pulling the soulstone free. The heroes later freed Tyrael, and he guided them against Diablo. In Lord of Destruction, Tyrael sent them to Mount Arreat. After Baal's death, Tyrael destroyed the Worldstone. Baal's corruption had made the stone a threat to Sanctuary, and it could not be cleansed.

Within the shattered remains of the Worldstone, Tyrael was trapped with Baal's spirit and fought him in a broken realm that mirrored the stone's state. Years later, in Diablo Immortal, a hero called the Shard-seeker entered one such shard. Tyrael was able to advise the Shard-seeker, appearing as an ember of light and guiding them against the Bride of Hell and the Cult of Terror. The Worldstone's explosion had scattered Tyrael's light, and he spent twenty years in Pandemonium restoring his form. He then returned to Heaven and summoned El'druin, an act without precedent, since angels are normally replaced through the Crystal Arch rather than reborn.

When the Lesser Evils Belial and Azmodan threatened Sanctuary, Tyrael promised that humanity would not face the darkness alone. The Angiris Council put him on trial for endangering creation through the destruction of the Worldstone, and Imperius opposed him. Tyrael tore off his wings, renounced his angelic nature, and fell to Sanctuary as a mortal. He landed near New Tristram as the Fallen Star. With Leah and the Nephalem hero, he pursued Belial in Caldeum and Azmodan at Bastion's Keep. Lighting the signal fires at Bastion's Keep reminded him of his old deeds. When Diablo, reborn as a single Prime Evil, stormed the High Heavens, Tyrael despaired. Imperius blamed him and the hero.

After Diablo's defeat, Tyrael struggled with mortal needs, such as food and sleep in Heaven's constant light, and he suffered nightmares from Diablo's corruption. He took the Aspect of Wisdom on the Council. Imperius and Auriel deadlocked over the Black Soulstone, the stone holding all the Great Evils. Consulting Chalad'ar, the Chalice of Wisdom, Tyrael saw that the stone would doom both Heaven and Sanctuary if the angels kept it, but every use of the chalice drained him. He recruited new Horadrim, including Jacob of Staalbreak, Shanar, Cullen, Zayl, Thomas, and Borad Nahr. They entered Westmarch and found the hidden nephalem city Corvus. Because the city's defenses misled Tyrael, who was not human, Cullen took the lead. They infiltrated Heaven through the Pools of Wisdom and stole the Black Soulstone. Imperius demanded a trial, but Auriel and Itherael vouched for Tyrael as the Aspect of Wisdom and ambassador to the mortal realm. In Reaper of Souls, the stone could not be destroyed, so it was hidden in catacombs beneath Westmarch. Malthael, the former Archangel of Wisdom who had become the Aspect of Death, seized it. Tyrael told the Nephalem that to defeat Malthael they had to become one with death. After Malthael fell, Tyrael saw the hero as a power that had surpassed Heaven and Hell and sent them on bounties across Sanctuary.

Years later, Tyrael still led the Horadrim and lived in the Horadric Vault with Lorath Nahr, Donan, and Elias. As he grew used to mortality, he began to forget being an angel. He left for the Western Continent to help people there. When Neyrelle wrote that Mephisto was in Skovos and that the Wanderer and Lorath were pursuing him, Tyrael set out. He remained in Temis for a time, and later, hearing of a death cult spreading a gospel of despair from Hawezar, he wrote to the Wanderer to investigate in Zarbinzet. In Diablo IV, Tyrael appears as a carving, while Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred includes the later events. His role in the saga spans Diablo II, Lord of Destruction, Diablo Immortal, Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, and the novels The Sin War, Demonsbane, Storm of Light, and Book of Tyrael. Tyrael's original choice to spare humanity, made long before his own fall, remains the defining act of his life. Tyrael began as an angel of justice and remains a guardian who chose his own way.