Book of Cain Review: Stay Awhile and Listen

We've been given the opportunity to peruse the latest offering from Blizzard and Insight Editions, the "Book of Cain". I can't help but smile as I flip through this informative and easy reading compendium of Diablo lore. It reminds me of days not so long ago, before the advent of Steam and digital downloads, when video games always came with glossy instruction manuals full of tasty art tidbits and plenty of background story for the game you were about to install. Of course, it's worth pointing out that the "Book of Cain" offers a significantly larger volume of content, 147 pages worth. They've also included a stylized map of Sanctuary in the back of the book enclosed by a sticker designed to look like a wax seal. If you're wondering exactly what sagely wisdom good ol' uncle Deckard has for you to prepare you for your own adventures in Sanctuary, read on!Our team provide professional wow gold, Power Leveling service and services for many other online games .It's not wrong to choose us to buy diablo 3 gold. we would do our best to help you enjoy your game,our company  is the professional and efficient which leading MMORPG service company. We has been engaged in online game virtual items exchange for 6 years and has gained a lot of experiences

The "Book of Cain" seems to be a bit of a collaborative effort, with text by Flint Dille, but also additional credits going to Micky Nielson, Matt Burns, and the grand-daddy of Blizzard lore himself, Chris Metzen. Of course there is a whole host of others involved, particularly when it comes to all the art work.

The approach they took with their writing was entertaining and made it easy to read what otherwise could essentially be summed up as a history book of an otherworldly place. The "Book of Cain" is written from the perspective of Deckard Cain, passing on his knowledge of all things Sanctuary to his 'dearest niece' Leah. For those who still haven't quite figured out who the heck Leah is, other than the featured young lady in those fancy Blizzard cinematics, don't worry. Deckard briefly explains it on page 112, with some chicken scratched notes in the margin. In fact, the elderly Horadric scholar has scrawled extra notes throughout his own book, both to highlight things that Leah (the reader) should pay extra attention to, and also to set straight some, shall we say, inconsistencies in previous versions of the lore.

The book can be more or less divided into three sections, though there is no table of contents per se that expressly says this. Aside from a foreword and afterword in the form of a hand written letter to Leah, I would summarize the sections as follows; Pre-Sanctuary, Ancient Sanctuary, and Modern Sanctuary.

Pre-Sanctuary: The Creation of the Universe and the Birth of the Eternal Conflict

Given that Blizzard has produced this book leading up to the release of Diablo 3, it's safe to say that they have finally decided on an 'official' creation story not only for Sanctuary - but the universe it exists in as well. In this first section we learn about Anu and the Dragon (aka Tahamet), two sides of the same coin, whose catastrophic conflict leads to the creation of the universe. Not only that, in the wake of their destruction the seven heads of the Dragon birth the seven Lords of the Burning Hells; Diablo, Baal, Mephisto (aka the Prime Evils), and the whole gang of Lesser Evils. Some of whom, such as Azmodan, will feature quite prominently in Diablo 3.

Through Anu we see the creation of the Crystal Arch, said to be his spine and the device which not only created the High Heavens but also which continues to bleed spirits of Light and Sound, known as Angels. More importantly, we see that the Eye of Anu remains, a crystal that is the very Heart of Creation, and comes to be known as the Worldstone (made infamous in Diablo 2 of course). This all leads to a never ending war fought in the Realm of Pandemonium over control of the Worldstone. This becomes known as the Eternal Conflict between Angels and Demons, light and darkness, order and chaos.

From here we are given fairly in-depth description of each of the Lords of the Burnings Hells, as well as the Realms they rule over. We are also properly introduced to the Arch Angels of the Angiris Council, the ruling body of the High Heavens. This of course includes everybody's favorite Archangel of Justice, Tyrael. We also get a brief description of some of the more interesting locations within the High Heavens, such as the Silver City, the Crystal Arch, and the Diamond Gates. It appears to me that nothing has been included in the "Book of Cain" for no reason, so I will not be at all surprised if we travel to some if not all of the places mentioned at some point in Diablo 3.

If nothing else this section certainly sheds some light on the underlying conflict of the Diablo universe and introduces us to some of the major heavy hitters. Not only that, we get to see Deckard Cain speculate as to the role they may play in the impending 'end of the world' of Sanctuary.