3. Diablo V Art
Johanna Faires: And John, how did you and the team approach the art direction for this story?
John Mueller: Yeah, I think that the scene of the crucified angels in front of the burning spires of Westmarch, I think this really sets the stakes for the world. The tone, the atmosphere, we’re really doubling down on darkness and what this means for the art team as we really get to explore all of what we learned from Diablo IV and expand on it even further.
That desolation that we’re going to see in the world is really the setting for the survivors of this story. And I think that really complements what Jennifer and her team are doing.
Jennifer Brandes Hepler: Yeah, the flip side of making Sanctuary so dark, of trying to double down on this darkness of Diablo winning in this apocalyptic setting, is we still need to make Sanctuary a place that’s worth defending. We need to have it be a place that you want to save. And so we need to show you that what you did in defeating Mephisto, it worked.
There was a golden age of Sanctuary. There was a time where Sanctuary was a better place than we’ve ever seen it. And you could make it that again if you can beat the odds and defeat Diablo this time. And we want to pull back the curtain on the Eternal Conflict and show you a Sanctuary that’s caught between Diablo’s aggression and the almost equally damaging indifference of the Heavens.
And we’re going to let you make humanity a player in this. We’re going to let you find an ally among the angels and even turn the powers of Hell back against itself.
Johanna Faires: So what can you tell us about Diablo himself? What’s he like in Diablo V?
Joe Shely: Well, he’s had some great lines, like, not even death can save you from me. I was going to do the voice, but people said no.
Matt Zitterman: Got to cut you off there, Joe. No voices.
Joe Shely: They said they would cut my mic. But Diablo has a lot more to say in this game. He’s a fully developed character. In the past, he’s loomed over the story and the confrontation. But he really shapes Diablo V’s story from the beginning.
Tiffany Wat: Yeah, like Jennifer and Joe have been saying, for 30 years we’ve been trying to stop Diablo from taking over Sanctuary, but in Diablo V, that battle is finished. Diablo has won. And so for the first time, we get to explore the question of what is it like in the world of Sanctuary after he’s already taken over? And when we started exploring this character, well, we love a good, morally gray character on the Diablo team.
One that begs the question of, wait, hold on. Does this person actually have a point? Are they right? It’s always a good debate. And Blizzard has created some incredible ones — Sylvanas, Lilith, so it was natural for us to lean in that direction when we first started working on Diablo, but pretty quickly, we kept arriving at the same conclusion. Diablo is Diablo. He’s the Lord of Terror. He’s not redeemable. He’s not misunderstood. And that gave us a lot of clarity. And so the question now becomes not, is he right, but what happens now that he’s won?
And in Sanctuary, in this time in Diablo V, you aren’t exploring that through the stories of characters that you’re running into. You, as the heir of Westmarch, you’re experiencing that firsthand. And it’s really pretty terrifying.
Jennifer Brandes Hepler: Yeah, so I loved Lord of Hatred. Did anybody else here love Lord of Hatred? Did anybody here love Lord of Hatred?
(The audience cheers)
I thought the team did a fantastic job with that. And I think the thing that made it so amazing to experience was the depth of that relationship that you get to build with Lilith and with Mephisto. By that point in the story, you’re not just a wanderer anymore; you are central to the story of these eternal characters.
And so, we wanted to build that into Diablo V from the very beginning. You’re going to have a unique bond with Diablo that you find out over the course of the game why and how it came to be. And that’s what puts you in a unique position of being able to face him. You have unique insight into him. But also a unique vulnerability to what he can do to you.
And that lets you basically spend the game defining yourself in opposition to the Lord of Terror. Can you resist his influence? Can you turn his powers against him? That’s what the story and the gameplay are going to let you answer.
Johanna Faires: So, Diablo protagonists have often taken on these identities like the Nephalem or the Wanderer. And who are you exactly in Diablo 5, and how does that fit into this story?
Joe Shely: As Jennifer said, you’ll be playing the heir to Westmarch. We’re returning to the western continent and Westmarch is the center of Diablo’s invasion. The continent is essentially greater Westmarch. All of it has been overrun. It’s become an outpost of Hell. There are hardly any humans who haven’t bowed or become cultists. In fact, some powerful humans have been corrupted and raised to become dread commanders. They have the power of the Dukes of Hell.
And anyone who has resisted, gets put into a soul cage or pulled into the terror realm, Diablo’s own corner of Hell.
Jennifer Brandes Hepler: And the story really begins when you find out that you can enter the terror realm and survive. And while you’re there, you learn about a few other powers that we’re not quite ready to tell you about yet.
| BLIZZCON 2026 DIABLO V: FORGING A NEW ERA PANEL TRANSCRIPT | ||||
| 1. Intro | 2. Story | 3. Art | 4. The World | 5. Classes |
| 6. Itemization | 7. Characters | 8. Environment | ||
