Diablo Chronicles Episode 1: The Darkness Anu Cast Out from Himself

This is a fan narrative rewritten based on the events of the original work. The characters' emotions, dialogue, and scene atmospheres have been reconstructed, and it contains major spoilers.

Anu of the Beginning and the Conflicting Possibilities Within

In the midst of a vast, boundless abyss where nothing existed, only a single, perfectly shining, colossal pearl floated in silence. In that primordial, empty space where even time did not flow, the pearl pulsed faintly on its own, harboring all the possibilities of the universe within itself. It was Anu, the origin of all things and the sole absolute being.

Anu's inner self, contrary to its outward appearance, was by no means peaceful. Within it, dazzling light and deep darkness, joy and sorrow, the yearning for creation and the instinct for destruction, were tangled together, swirling fiercely. In that primordial chaos, where even the concepts of good and evil were ambiguous, Anu had to endure the constant, raging torrents of conflicting emotions with his entire being.

Anu's will, yearning for absolute perfection, grew clearer as time passed. He could no longer tolerate the discord raging within himself, and desperately desired to reach a state of pure, flawless, absolute light. This was the beginning of a painful self-reflection that would carve away at his own being, and the harbinger of a terrible decision that would change the universe forever.

Looking into the deepest recesses of his own soul, Anu began to weed out, one by one, all the negative energies that muddied his pure light. Dark emotions such as hatred, fear, destruction, and despair were forcibly gathered into one place by his powerful will. Within the pearl, two massive vortexes were preparing to separate, fiercely repelling each other.

The only standard dividing good and evil was Anu's absolute desire. He relentlessly pushed all impurities that contradicted his vision of perfection to the fringes of his soul. In the process, fine cracks appeared on the smooth surface of the pearl, and the primordial silence was filled with a bone-shattering vibration. Anu's painful groans echoed through the stillness of the abyss.

The suppressed darkness writhed, resisting fiercely to escape Anu's control. It was not mere dross, but Anu's other half, another fundamental force of the universe. As the darkness coalesced, a bizarre and powerful ego began to form within it, and Anu, feeling its ominous vibrations throughout his entire body, pushed it outward even harder.

Finally, a massive rupture exceeding the critical point erupted from within Anu. His obsessive fixation on perfection resulted in ruthlessly tearing his own soul in two. A dazzling pillar of light and a pitch-black storm of darkness broke through the pearl's hard shell, pouring violently into the primordial, empty abyss and shaking the universe.

Anu had finally become the crystal of pure light he had so desperately desired, but the price was devastating. The darkness he had forcibly cast out did not perish; instead, it coiled in a corner of the abyss and began to take on a new shape. That massive mass, a conglomeration of all the malice and hatred Anu had discarded, was now baring its hungry fangs toward him.

The Birth and Confrontation of Seven-Headed Tathamet

The mass of darkness, violently flung into the abyss, began to fashion its own flesh while uttering a terrible shriek. Amidst flashes of blood-red lightning, the mass gradually transformed into a hideous form with massive scales and sharp spines. It was Tathamet, the sum of all negative emotions discarded by Anu and the ultimate incarnation of evil.

Upon Tathamet's colossal body, seven terrible heads rose one after another, completing its bizarre form. Each head symbolized Anu's darkest facets, including hatred, fear, and destruction, and bellowed ferocious cries. The venom and flames spewing from the seven mouths instantly filled the primordial, empty space with a pungent stench.

Anu, remaining as pure light, silently watched the process of his other half transforming into a terrible monster. Though no fear or sorrow remained within him, a heavy sense of responsibility for this catastrophic creation he had brought about rippled outward in waves of light. The two absolute beings stared at each other, sensing their inescapable destiny.

Tathamet's seven pairs of eyes burned with fierce hatred and murderous intent directed solely at Anu. Vengeance against Anu, who had treated it as an impurity, ruthlessly torn it away, and discarded it, was Tathamet's sole reason for being. The seven heads roared in unison, completely shattering the silence of the abyss, and the sound echoed to the very ends of the universe.

Anu also responded resolutely, explosively releasing dazzling light energy toward Tathamet. To Anu, who pursued perfection, Tathamet was a blemish on the universe that had to be destroyed, a fatal threat. The primordial space was now taut with suffocating tension on the eve of an all-out clash between the two absolute beings.

Tathamet was the first to charge, flapping its massive wings and rushing fiercely toward Anu. The pitch-black flames spewed simultaneously from its seven mouths swept over, threatening to swallow Anu's light in an instant. Unshaken, Anu unfolded a massive shield of light to deflect the flames, then forged a sharp spear of light and hurled it like lightning toward Tathamet's heart.

The moment pure light and absolute darkness collided head-on, the entire abyss convulsed and let out a bone-shattering shriek. The clash of the two beings was not a mere fight, but a colossal explosion of contradiction where the fundamental laws of the universe collided. As Anu's light scorched Tathamet's scales, Tathamet's venom corroded Anu's light, locked in a tense struggle.

The two separated halves poured out all their power without reservation to completely destroy each other. Their fierce battle continued endlessly for eons in the abyss, where even the concept of time did not exist. Anu and Tathamet never ceased their attacks on one another, and the fragments of light and darkness flowing from their wounds began to scatter across space in a chaotic tapestry.

The Clash and Mutual Destruction of the Two Absolute Be Beings

The struggle to the death between Anu and Tathamet, which lasted for eons, created a vortex of destruction that threatened to tear the entire abyss to shreds. Every time a spear of light pierced a shroud of darkness, or black claws clawed through pure white energy, unimaginable shockwaves rippled through the cosmos. The power of the two absolute beings did not diminish in the slightest, maintaining a ruinous balance.

Tathamet's seven heads cunningly targeted Anu's openings from different directions, unleashing a relentless onslaught that left no room to breathe. Venomous fangs of hatred clouded Anu's light, and flames of destruction ruthlessly melted his defensive barriers. Even amidst the constantly pouring storm of malice, Anu calmly emitted waves of light, striking down Tathamet's heads one by one.

As the death match dragged on, the colossal bodies of both beings became horribly battered. Anu's once-perfect form of light was shattered and deeply cracked in places, while Tathamet's massive scales were ruthlessly torn away, with pitch-black blood spurting like fountains. Yet, forgetting even pain, they remained fanatically obsessed with the sole purpose of obliterating the other.

The empty space of the abyss was filled to the brim with the remnants of the colossal energy they unleashed. A boiling sea of chaos, where light and darkness were bizarrely entangled, served as their terrible battlefield. Anu gathered all his remaining strength from the very bottom of his soul, preparing a final, most dazzling and destructive blow. Tathamet likewise condensed all the malice of its seven heads into a single point.

Finally, both beings simultaneously delivered a fatal blow, staking the fate of the universe on each other's hearts. Anu's colossal beam of pure white light and Tathamet's sphere of pitch-black darkness collided head-on, unavoidably, at the exact center of the abyss. At that moment, a bizarre silence, as if all sounds in the universe had vanished at once, completely dominated the space for a fleeting instant.

Then, a colossal explosion beyond imagination swallowed the abyss. The energy released as extreme light and darkness fused into one instantly shattered the physical forms of Anu and Tathamet. Without even being able to utter a death rattle, the two absolute beings were completely oxidized without a trace within the fierce light of destruction they had created, scattering as cosmic dust.

The terrible aftermath of the explosion swept violently from one end of the abyss to the other, randomly sowing the seeds of a new universe in the empty space. Although the two great egos, Anu and Tathamet, were eternally extinguished, the essences of light and darkness that composed them became countless fragments and scattered in all directions. It was the end of all things, and at the same time, the true beginning of all creation.

The fierce storm of energy gradually subsided, and the massive remnants of light and darkness floated in space, slowly beginning to settle. These colossal traces left by the clash of absolute good and absolute evil would soon prepare to conceive new forms of worlds and life. The primordial pearl was broken, but the curtain of the vast universe had finally risen.

The Origins of Heaven and Hell

Anu's spine, which shone brightest at the center of the explosion, rose to the highest point of the universe and solidified into a massive structure of light. Emitting a transparent and brilliant glow, that structure became the endlessly extending, sacred 'Crystal Arch.' The Crystal Arch was the heart that constantly radiated Anu's pure will and waves of harmony throughout the cosmos.

With the Crystal Arch at its center, the remaining fragments of Anu's light swirled and gathered, beginning to fashion a radiant and beautiful world. A place where silver clouds formed seas and dazzling spires soared, this was none other than the 'High Heavens.' The High Heavens was the ultimate crystal of perfect and pure order that Anu had so desperately yearned for, a sanctuary of light.

Conversely, Tathamet's rotting, colossal corpse plummeted endlessly to the deepest, darkest bottom of the universe. His hideous remains, seething with black blood and foul venom, emitted a terrible heat and solidified into a bizarre land. Tathamet's torn flesh and broken bones became the firm foundation of a dreadful world swirling with burning sulfur and lava: the 'Burning Hells.'

The Burning Hells, in stark contrast to the Heavens, was packed to the brim with endless chaos, suffering, and destructive energy. Pungent volcanic ash drifted over rivers of Tathamet's rotting blood, and his torn organs transformed into hideous caverns where terrible monsters nested. Hell was a dreadful furnace where the hatred and malice left behind by Tathamet burned eternally.

Situated at the opposite poles of the universe, Heaven and Hell clearly perceived each other's existence from the moment of their birth, establishing a sharp confrontation. The light of harmony emanating from the Crystal Colonnade sought to suppress and purify the darkness of Hell, while the flames of chaos surging from Hell burned fiercely to swallow the order of Heaven. The two worlds were destined from birth never to coexist.

The silver spires of Heaven vibrated faintly in tune with the sacred resonance of the Crystal Arch, amplifying light energy into the cosmos. That light sought to push back the darkness of the universe and endlessly expand the domain of order. Every structure in Heaven, preserving intact Anu's yearning for perfection, boasted a wondrous beauty without a single flaw.

In the deep abysses of Hell, Tathamet's terrible resentment constantly churned, fashioning new nightmares. Within boiling pits of lava, bizarre forms of demonic energy coalesced and writhed hideously. Every environment in Hell, as if designed solely to maximize destruction and suffering, expanded while spewing suffocating heat and a foul stench.

Though the bodies of Anu and Tathamet had become massive worlds, their fundamental wills were not yet fully asleep. The light of Heaven and the darkness of Hell slowly expanded their influence toward the center of the universe, beginning to strangle each other. It was the prelude to an unfinished war left behind by the creators, and the stage of a harsh destiny that new creations would have to bear.

The Birth of Angels and Demons

Within the dazzling light of the Crystal Arch, faint vibrations coalesced and began to take on sacred forms. Spiritual energies extending from the heart of light were born as beings in perfect harmony with glowing, tendril-like wings—the angels. They held Anu's pure virtues and a powerful will to defend the order of the universe as their absolute nature.

Among them, the beings born with the most powerful and pure light were the Archangels who formed the Angiris Council. Inheriting Anu's most noble attributes—Justice, Hope, Wisdom, Fate, and Valor—they became the absolute leaders who maintained and guided the order of Heaven. The light emanating from the Archangels' wings bathed the entirety of Heaven in holiness.

At the same time, in the deepest abysses of the Burning Hells, terrible creatures were being conceived from Tathamet's severed seven heads. Amidst rotting flesh and boiling venom, the seven Great Evils, who inherited Tathamet's purest malice, broke through the fierce flames of Hell with ear-splitting shrieks, revealing their hideous forms.

From Tathamet's three dominant heads, three terrible Prime Evils symbolizing Hatred, Terror, and Destruction were born. As the most powerful rulers of Hell, with every breath they took, they severely polluted the surrounding space with energies of despair and death. The red eyes of the Prime Evils flashed with endless hostility and cruel hunger toward Heaven.

From the remaining four heads, four Lesser Evils symbolizing Anguish, Lies, Sin, and Corruption were born in turn. Possessing cunning and cruelty no less than that of the Prime Evils, they established their own domains within the chaos of Hell and began to raise countless demonic legions. The seven demon lords were the apostles of destruction who would carry out Tathamet's vengeance.

From the moment of their birth, the angels moved in perfect order with a unified will, in harmony with the melodious chords of the Crystal Arch. Prioritizing the order and greater cause of all Heaven over individual desires, they formed a flawless army of light. The angels' shining armor and spears gleamed coldly with a resolute determination to judge evil.

Conversely, the demons were creatures of chaos who, by nature, hated and constantly suspected one another. The seven demon lords engaged in cruel, backstabbing power struggles at every opportunity to seize supremacy over Hell. Yet, in the face of their common enemy, Heaven, their destructive instincts were ready to unite, unleashing a terrible synergy beyond imagination.

The angels, who inherited Anu's noble virtues, and the demons, who inherited Tathamet's pure malice. From the moment they sensed each other's presence in cosmic space, both races felt a fierce hostility engraved deep within their bones. It was not merely a struggle for survival, but an inescapable pull of destiny where the fundamental cosmic attributes of light and darkness collided head-on.

Pandemonium and the Prelude to the Eternal Conflict

At the center of the universe, where the energies of Heaven and Hell collided head-on, there lay a place like a colossal scar in a boiling realm of chaos. That was 'Pandemonium,' a bizarre space where everything constantly twisted and changed. And at its center, the 'Worldstone'—the eye of Anu and the heart of the universe—floated in the void, emitting a radiant yet ominous light.

Sensing the unimaginably powerful energy of the Worldstone, angels and demons alike flocked to Pandemonium like swarms of clouds. The angelic hosts descending with fluttering wings of light and the demonic legions surging up while spewing the fires of Hell clashed for the first time around the Worldstone. This was the terrible beginning of the 'Eternal Conflict,' which would stain the history of the universe with endless blood.

The desolate plains of Pandemonium rang as if being torn to shreds by the roaring clash of the angels' shining spears and the demons' black claws. When the holy fire unleashed by the Archangels instantly reduced hordes of demons to ash, the terrible magic of the Prime Evils broke the angels' wings and hideously corrupted them. The battlefield was stained with countless deaths and destruction in the blink of an eye.

The tide of war was agonizingly balanced. When the angels seized the Worldstone and erected a massive fortress of light around it, the demons would tear down the fortress with endless numbers and cunning traps, transforming it into a stronghold of Hell. That stronghold, known as the 'Pandemonium Fortress,' constantly and bizarrely morphed into shapes of light and darkness whenever its master changed.

The angels loathed the chaos of the demons, seeking to completely purge them from the universe, while the demons mocked the order of the angels, driven mad with the desire to swallow everything in the fires of Hell. In their fierce struggle, not a single shred of compromise or mercy existed. They firmly believed that only the complete destruction of the other was the sole way to end this terrible conflict.

In the ashen void of Pandemonium, the torn, glowing wing feathers of angels and the rotting black blood of demons poured down like a dreadful rain. The energy of fallen angels returned to the Crystal Arch to be conceived as new angels, while the essence of slain demons fell into the abyss of Hell to be resurrected once more as hideous monsters. Even death could not bring an end to this dreadful war.

Over thousands and tens of thousands of years, the Pandemonium Fortress welcomed and brutally lost countless masters. The sight of walls of light crumbling and blood-stained spikes rising became a commonplace scene in Pandemonium. The front lines constantly pushed back and forth, but neither side could achieve a decisive victory to fully control the Worldstone, falling into a stalemate.

Though the brave charges of the Archangels and the cunning schemes of the Prime Evils crossed paths countless times on the battlefield, the scales of the Eternal Conflict always fluctuated in a cruel balance. This meaningless and horrific slaughter taking place at the center of the universe was slowly tightening its noose around both races, like a terrible yoke in which the primordial struggle of Anu and Tathamet was eternally repeated.

The Endless Struggle for the Worldstone

There was only one reason why angels and demons shed blood so fiercely: the unimaginable power of creation possessed by the Worldstone. The Worldstone, which had been the eye of Anu, was not merely a colossal gem emitting energy, but the ultimate tool of the universe, capable of manipulating the laws of reality at will and fashioning entirely new dimensions.

The Archangels sought to fully control the power of the Worldstone to turn the entire universe into a second Heaven, filled with perfect order and light. They dreamed of perfectly synchronizing the vibrations of the Worldstone with the Crystal Arch to perform an ultimate purification ritual that would eternally seal the chaos of Hell and obliterate all demonic entities. They firmly believed that this alone was true peace.

Conversely, the Prime Evils plotted to corrupt the Worldstone, transforming the universe into a colossal Hell seething with endless suffering and destruction. They planned to twist the creative power of the Worldstone to fashion unimaginable worlds of terrible nightmares, and from there, pour out infinite demonic legions to ruthlessly trample all the silver spires of Heaven.

The one who perfectly controlled the Worldstone would essentially become an absolute god deciding the fate of the universe. Therefore, neither side could ever abandon the Worldstone, and even if they could not claim it themselves, they had to risk their lives to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy. The Worldstone was, in itself, the most terrible curse that made the Eternal Conflict unstoppable.

In front of the Worldstone enshrined at the center of the Pandemonium Fortress, the most desperate and brutal battles raged incessantly every single day. The smooth surface of the Worldstone flickered with a bizarre light, stained by the holy magic of the angels and the cursed blood of the demons. Sometimes waves of light, and sometimes shrouds of darkness enveloped the Worldstone, but no victory was ever permanent.

The Worldstone silently watched all those terrible atrocities. Although the will of Anu resided within it, the Worldstone itself was a colossal crystal of neutral power that did not distinguish between good and evil on its own. It pulsed at the heart of Pandemonium, harboring infinite possibilities to become either a tool of light or a weapon of darkness depending on its master's will.

The Archangels and Prime Evils constantly researched and attempted to imbue powerful magic to fully draw out the power of the Worldstone. However, in the chaos of war, the time they could fully focus on the Worldstone was always severely lacking. Before any magical ritual could be completed, enemy ambushes would strike, and the area around the Worldstone would once again turn into a scene of bloody slaughter.

The radiant light of the Worldstone was an absolute hope of salvation and a terrible dread of destruction to both angels and demons. In the eyes of both factions gazing upon it, a mad obsession and a deep fear were intricately intertwined. Their arrogance in trying to monopolize the fundamental power of the universe ultimately turned Pandemonium into a swamp of blood that would never dry.

Repeated Fatigue and the Seeds of Rebellion

Millions of years, or perhaps an eternity close to eons, passed dreadfully. Countless angels lost their wings and fell miserably, and inestimable numbers of demons were torn to shreds in the flames. Yet, the tide of war did not advance even a single step. Only a wheel of slaughter with no victory and no end in sight turned ruthlessly.

The despairing reality, where even death brought no rest, inflicted a terrible, bone-deep fatigue upon both races. The light of the angels reborn from the Crystal Arch was no longer as dazzling as before, and the roars of the demons resurrected in Hell were laced with a dull exhaustion instead of their past fierce rage. The Eternal Conflict was slowly wearing down even their immortal souls.

On the walls of the Pandemonium Fortress, individuals who stared blankly at the light of the Worldstone began to quietly emerge in both camps. Looking down at the terrible corpses of enemies who, until moments ago, had held blades to their throats, they harbored deep questions about what would truly remain at the end of this meaningless hatred. Neither order nor chaos, nor any grand cause, could justify this endless suffering any longer.

Fine cracks, previously hidden by blind obedience and destructive instincts, quietly spread within both factions. Some angels felt disillusioned by the endless violence perpetrated in the name of perfect order, while some demons shuddered at the eternal emptiness brought by blind destruction. For the first time, they began to question the yoke of destiny placed upon them by their creators, Anu and Tathamet.

There were times when the gazes of an angel and a demon, clashing weapons and panting heavily in the midst of the battlefield, crossed for a fleeting instant. In that brief look, as much as there was mutual loathing, there was a desperate yearning to escape this dreadful hellscape forever. Despite being adversaries, they dimly realized that they were both crushed under the weight of the same suffering.

Even the grand cosmic destiny of the confrontation between light and darkness gradually lost its luster in the face of eternally repeating, meaningless death. Although the Archangels and Prime Evils still cried out for victory and pushed their armies into the jaws of death, the footsteps of the soldiers obeying their commands were heavy as lead. The turbid air of Pandemonium was thick with deep futility and suppressed despair.

Some began to secretly dream of completely escaping this bloody battlefield to find a place where they could enjoy complete rest, belonging to neither light nor darkness. A forbidden imagination cautiously reared its head among the weary souls: that with the infinite creative power of the Worldstone, they might be able to fashion a new refuge of their own, hidden from the eyes of Heaven and Hell.

The colossal gears of the Eternal Conflict still turned with a terrible, grinding noise, but within them, a tiny yet irreversible seed of rebellion was quietly sprouting. The souls weary of the endless war were now standing on the threshold of a dangerous choice, rejecting the legacy of hatred left by Anu and Tathamet to forge a new destiny of their own.

Sources Consulted

Official Blizzard Video: Book of Lorath — Creation

Official Blizzard Chronicle: Sanctuary and the Sin War

Official Diablo I Manual: History of the Horadrim and Sanctuary

Official Blizzard Lore: Origins of Sanctuary and the Spirit Realm