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There are several '''Diablo novels''' released, giving further depth to the Diablo universe. Up until [[WWI 2008]], these novels had no connection at all with the actual games, but Diablo III seems to be the first of the games with information from the books actually put in the game.
These novels are all considered canon, though ''Demonsbane'' and ''Legacy of Blood'' tell smaller, self-contained stories that do not have much to do with or further the larger game plot. The Sin War trilogy develops much of the world lore and backstory of the creation of Sanctuary, plus the eternal struggle between the Burning Hells and High Heavens, and is considered the lore and canon that leads directly into the plot of Diablo III, with some small retcon adjustments here and there.
==Background==
They are all official [[Blizzard Entertainment]] Novels of the Diablo universe and franchise. The first novel published was [[Diablo: Demonsbane]] as an ebook novella. Although its sales were counted merely Demonsbane did not sell well in ebook form (that was early in the hundredsdawn of that format), due to the eBook era barely starting back it was fairly widely read online, and its inclusion in 2000, from there forward, the Diablo novels boomed and became very successfulArchive has boosted awareness of the story.
::Chris Metzen worked closely with him to make sure that his vision for what the Sin War was all about was really put forward there so the history is – maybe some of the particulars might not be exactly the way they end up being presented, but as far as the overall details and the overall thrust of the story, that’s lore... our core lore, I guess. And we’re – I don’t know if we’ll refer to them specifically, but that’s definitely like background into what we’re doing if that makes any sense.
==What is Canon?==
The [[D3 TEam]] has disowned plot and world events from some of the early Diablo products, and done fairly extensive [[retcon]]ing to even the plot developments of the earlier games themselves. This was necessary since the world story, as presented in Diablo I (and to a lesser extent in Diablo II) was largely invented as the game was being made. The creators didn't give a lot of thought to the larger world fiction, carried over a lot of real world material (the heavy Christian influence on Sanctuary's art and decoration), and didn't plan out the story very far ahead.
This drove the fiction into some dead ends, which had to be expanded upon greatly in the Sin War novel trilogy, and created some issues for the further expansion of the world story and plot in Diablo III and its planned sequels and external story properties. (More Diablo novels are planned, and likely other forms of media as seen in the Starcraft and Warcraft univeses; comics, manga, trading card games, and more?)
Bashiok addressed the state of the canon in the forum post in January 2011, in which he addressed an error on the first version of the [[world map]], and their plans to address it. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablos-evolving-historical-canon/]
<blue>The Sin War trilogy was really the beginning of what is now considered canon for the lore of the series. While the previous books certainly have a lot of great stories, information, and even bits and pieces that may indeed hold true in the series as it is now, they aren’t held as canon and thus the events in them may not always hold true moving forward.</blue>
===Not Hellfire===
{{iw|Hellfire Hellfire}}, the Diablo I expansion pack produced by Sierra in conjunction with Blizzard North, is no longer considered canon. The game boss {{iw|Na-Krul Na-Krul}} was always fairly obviously tacked on, but the Monk character seemed fairly organic to the Diablo world. No longer, and as a result the Diablo III Monk is considered an original character, with no connection to the {{iw|monk Monk of Hellfire}}.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/bashiok-on-the-monk-and-cluttered-visuals/]
<blue>It's not a recognized part of the Diablo franchise, and to be honest it is so much so not recognized, that when people asked about returning classes in the Q&A's and in some of the press interviews the Hellfire expansion just wasn't in anyone's minds.<br>
Plus, it isn't the same class. We aren't taking an old class and updating it. The monk from Hellfire, and in fact the story and content of Hellfire, doesn't exist as far as game lore and story is concerned going into Diablo III.
They happen to share a name, the same as all of the other monk classes that have existed in all other RPG's since the beginning of time. It doesn't mean they're related kit/story/flavor wise.</blue>