Diablo's victory will not stay off-screen

Diablo V opens after Sanctuary has fallen, which raised the obvious question: does the game skip the part where Diablo wins? Joe Shely told TechRadar it does not, entirely:

In the opening of the game, you know you're on the run. Westmarch has burned. Diablo is sitting on the throne, and then as you travel through the world, you're going to get to learn more in the game about how these events took place, and it's not going to take place entirely off-screen.

Jennifer Hepler added that there will be "dramatization of how exactly Diablo came to power", and that finding out is a big part of the narrative.

Where the story starts

Hepler also gave the first concrete detail about the Heir to Westmarch: the story begins when the Heir finds they can enter Diablo's Terror Realm and come out alive, "which nobody else can do". Why, what other powers come with it, and how the bond with Diablo "affected his ability to come in and have this victory" is something she says unfolds over the story.

That fits the one structural fact Blizzard has published about Diablo in this game: he is present from the moment it begins, not waiting at the end. What the bond actually is remains unexplained, and we are not going to guess at it here.

How it is filed

Named developers, on the record, not in a Blizzard post: developer statements, each one listed with its source in Everything we know.