"I cast off these petty illusions. Behold the true vision of the Lord of Hell!"
Belial to his foes.^[1]

Belial
Title	Lord of Lies
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Burning Hells
Relatives
Status	Deceased
Appearances	Diablo III The Order Book of Cain The Art of Diablo III

Belial, Lord of Lies, was one of the Lesser Evils of the Burning Hells.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 The Dark Exile 1.2 The Order 1.3 Liar's End 2 In-game 2.1 Phase 1 2.2 Phase 2 2.3 Phase 3 2.3.1 Phase 3 Stats 3 Personality and Traits 4 Quotes 5 References 6 Media

BiographyEdit

As with all of the Great Evils, Belial was spawned from one of the seven heads of Tathamet. He lorded over the Realm of Lies in Hell.^[2]

The Dark ExileEdit

The Lesser Evils came to be discontent with the Prime Evils' focus on humanity after the events of the Sin War, furious that the Great Conflict had been apparently abandoned.^[2] In the midst of this period, Belial and Azmodan saw a chance to overthrow the Prime Evils and take control of Hell for themselves. They made pacts with their fellow breatheren, assuring them that humanity would not stand in their way in the course of the Great Conflict. The civil war that followed was bloody, but it concluded with the Prime Evils being banished to the mortal realm.^[3]

One account^[2] states that as the fires of battle died down, Belial and Azmodan began to argue over which of them held higher authority. The pact they had made dissolved and the two took up arms against each other, polarazing the factions of Hell along with them.^[3] Others say however, that there was no falling out, and that the two began conspiring to subjugate all life to their will.^[2]

The OrderEdit

Shortly after the Dark Exile, Belial would eventually turn his own sights to Sanctuary. As the Prime Evils wreaked havoc across Sanctuary, Belial observed the intervention of Tyrael with great interest. Witnessing the formation of the Horadrim, Belial would slowly conduct his own machinations to corrupt humanity. Belial debased many humans, but vested time and effort into one Garreth Rau. An orphan with a spark of nephalem legacy in his blood, Rau was twisted by the Lord of Lies, becoming a powerful dark mage in servitude to Hell. Garreth Rau's personality and memories were overwritten with the persona of the Dark One, an insidious and jealous mage. The Dark One founded a second order of Horadrim, though twisted by Belial's deceit.

Several years following the destruction of the Worldstone, Belial's agent came into conflict with Deckard Cain. Despite possessing overwhelming power, the Dark One succumbed to Cain's resourcefulness. The persona of the original Garreth Rau briefly resurfaced, and drove himself to suicide.

Belial was enraged at his loss, but he recieved pleasing news, that of the imminant birth of the boy emperor of Caldeum. Reasoning that a better approach to achieve his ends would be through cunning and deceit rather than brute force, Belial planned to possess the child, using him as a vassal to take over Kehjistan.^[4]

Liar's EndEdit

Belial came to Sanctuary and infiltrated the court of Emperor Hakan I of Caldeum. When Hakan I died of illness his son and heir was crowned Emperor Hakan II of Kehjistan. The younger Hakan was much easier to manipulate and Belial held him essentially hostage and eventually possessed him. With control of the emperor he used his new power to cripple and weaken the nation, using the Coven, the remnants of the Triune, to enforce his will and extend his influence. They managed to reach as far as Westmarch.

Here the Coven would come into conflict with the nephalem heroes in a hunt for the shards of the Sword of Justice. During the course of these events their leader, Maghda, killed Deckard Cain and almost killed Tyrael before he was restored by reclaiming his sword.^[5]

Following this Tyrael would lead Leah and the nephalem heroes to Caldeum where they sought to end the Coven and Belial. Here the heroes would avenge Cain's death by killing Magdha and then would resurrect Zoltun Kulle so he could lead them to, and finish, the Black Soulstone (upon which Kulle promptly betrayed the heroes and was killed once again).

After this Belial became desparate, raining meteors down upon Caldeum and forcing an evacuation of the city. When the assault ended the nephalem confronted Emperor Hakan II where they revealed they knew he was Belial. The demon lord commended them for their cleverness and proceeded with a threefold attack, first with his minions, than personally fighting and finally transforming into a giant, monstrous version of himself. Despite his vicious attack he was slain and imprisoned within the Black Soulstone, ending his reign of tyranny over Kehjistan.^[1]

In-gameEdit

Belial appears in Diablo III during the final quest on the 2nd Act. It is divided into three phases.

Phase 1Edit

Belial does not take part in phase 1, opting instead to call in the troops. He'll summon a large amount of Veiled Sentinels and Velied Evokers to challenge the player. The sentinels just have a melee attack, the evokers have the magus ability to wiggle around a lot and summon a ring of electricity that damages anything inside of it. They both retain the snakeman ability to vanish and then re-appear.

Phase 2Edit

After the snakemen prove to be fairly ineffectual, Belial himself drops down into the throne room to battle the player. Snakemen are still spawned during this phase, and drop a good amount of health globes. Belial himself has a few abilities in phase 2:

• Fireball - Belial launches three fast-moving fireballs along the ground at medium range.
• Melee Attack - He has a basic melee attack in this phase that hits for low damage.
• Reinforcements - Belial will call in more snakemen to challenge the hero. They drop health globes.

Phase 3Edit

When Belial is at half health, the final phase begins. He also gains new abilities here:

• Ground Pound - A ring of green appears on the ground where Belial is about to strike. He'll strike three times, with the last being him pounding the ground with both arms.
• Lightning Strike - Belial will put his claws into the ground of the throne room, and green rings will show up all over the arena. After a few seconds, the rings explode for lightning damage.
• Lightning Breath - Belial will breathe lightning from one end of the arena to the other.

On Inferno Difficulty, Belial has an enrage timer where, after three minutes, the green pools he summons will cover the entire platform.

Phase 3 StatsEdit

Belial's Stats Per Difficulty (Phase 3)

Difficulty	Max. Health	Min. Damage	Damage Delta	Run Speed	Level
Normal	6,427	117	117	0.305	22
Nightmare	76,839	1,198	1,198	0.322	42
Hell	410,971	6,149	6,149	0.339	56
Inferno	2,104,526	52,807	52,807	0.356	62

Personality and TraitsEdit

Belial advocated the notion that perception is reality, and it was his sole purpose to dominate reality. He did not lie simply for the sake of lying, but rather to decieve with the intent of controlling others' perception of what is real. He relished the moment his victim realized they'd been decieved, that moment of nakedness and betrayal. If Belial had a weakness however, it was that he was often trapped within the intricate webs of his own machinations.^[2]

QuotesEdit

• "My exemplary servants, Keep the witch alive till she talks. Pain will loose her tongue, but only to a point. Remember what happened to the vizier's assistant? It was a pleasureable time, I admit, but the man had only incoherent babble and bloody strands of pus spilling from his lips by the end."
• "Overwhelm the enemy and sieze his/her companions. There's a witch among and.. another - a girl. Bring them to me along with the Black Soulstone. They'll be searching for the head of Zulton Kulle. Scour the oasis for it. Some old scorcery lingers on the skull, and it must be mine!"
• "Miserable wretches, I have no time for your excuses. Caldeum is on the brink of rebellion, and the enemy is closing in on the archives of Zulton Kulle. Slaughter him/her and bring me the mad wizards head AND the Black Soulstone, or I'll inflict INCOMPREHNSIBLE AGONY UPON THE LOT OF YOU!"
• "Maghda, This "hero" means to attack you in Alcarnus. If I were you, I'd set a trap at the Khasim Outpost... but I'm not you. For all I know, you wish to fail me again and force me to kill you. That would greive me, but somehow.. I think I could manage it."
• "Maghda, Such sad, sad tales have reached me of your truly abysmal failure at the Khasim Outpost.. but at least the enemy's spy has been found. Once we eliminate her and her allies, this obnoxious little world will fall to me and... perhaps you - IF you survive."
• "Clever. But know this, nephalem: Azmodan knows of the stone and the power it contains. Even if you defeat me, he will exterminate you and every last one of your misbegotten kind."

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Diablo III, Act II
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Book of Cain
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Diablo Manual
4. ↑ The Order
5. ↑ Diablo III, Act I

MediaEdit

Great Evils
Prime Evil — Tathamet Prime Evils — Diablo • Mephisto • Baal Lesser Evils — Duriel • Andariel • Azmodan • Belial Other Evils — Lilith • Lucion • Kabraxis • Xazax • Astrogha • Assur • Gulag • Zagraal • Cydaea • Ghom • Izual • Rakanoth • Iskatu