Blizzard reveals new Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred story details—it's more than just disgusting body horror

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A new video fills in the gap between the original campaign and the upcoming expansion.

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Everyone remembers wincing at the trailer for Diablo 4's first expansion Vessel of Hatred. In it, we saw a young girl hallucinate being crucified in hell in excruciating detail. It was a very hard watch that didn't actually say much about what the expansion will have to offer.

Diablo 4's campaign was fairly succinct, all things considered. We teamed up with Ralph Ineson's gravelly-voiced Lorath Nahr and Neyrelle to track down Lilith and stop her from becoming more powerful by eating her dad Mephisto, one of the Diablo series' big bads. The story ends with our character, mysteriously tainted by Lilith's blood, preparing to chase after Neyrelle and the shard she has Mephisto trapped in.

In the new video, we learn that the religious order seen throughout Diablo 4, The Cathedral of Light, has fallen apart in the interim. A new faction of people who survived a trip to hell, called the Burnt Knights, are hunting Lorath and Neyrelle for inadvertently causing the death of their favorite angel Inarius. Once again, we'll have a whole order of people who haven't caught on that neither the demons nor the angels are good in Diablo.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

Neyrelle's horrifying hallucination in the trailer is what happens when you keep a prime evil like Mephisto in your pocket for too long. Vessel of Hatred will be a race to get to her before Mephisto talks her into letting him back out. The chase will all take place on the southern end of the continent, in the jungle region of Nahantu, which is also the home of the new Spiritborn class.

It's nice to finally have some real story teasers to chew on before Vessel of Hatred launches on October 8. I'm not sure how much to read into the fact that Blizzard isn't pushing Mephisto as the villain as much as it did with Lilith, and it's notable that one of the newest items in the game gives you increased damage to demons and angels. That's a big deal because there are currently zero angel enemies in the game. I'm starting to think Mephisto, despite being a classic Diablo villain, may be a red herring for someone much worse.

Tyler Colp

Tyler has covered videogames and PC hardware for 15 years. He regularly spends time playing and reporting on games like Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Overwatch 2, and Final Fantasy 14. While his specialty is in action RPGs and MMOs, he's driven to cover all sorts of games whether they're broken, beautiful, or bizarre.