Demonsbane

Demonsbane is an e-book and the first novel of the Diablo Series. It was written by Robert B. Marks.

It appears in print in the Diablo Archive.

Description
Siggard--the only survivor of the battle of Entsteig, unable to remember the battle's final hours--is driven to avenge those slain by the army of darkness. As he hunts the demonic army, Siggard pieces together the truth of that terrible battle...and finds his nightmare is just beginning.

Characters

 * Assur
 * Banagar
 * Camylle
 * Edgewulf
 * Hunfrith
 * Sarnakyle
 * Siggard
 * Tilgar
 * Tylwulf
 * Tyrael

Development
Demonsbane was a book published in the spirit of the "e-book revolution." However, the market for e-books was quite small at the time and despite months of advertising on battle.net, sales were in the hundreds rather than the projected thousands. It was the first of Blizzard Entertainment's tie-in novels for its major franchises.

Before being written, it was decided that Demonsbane should set the tone for the series, and help establish Sanctuary not only as a living and breathing game world, but also as a living and breathing world in literature. As such, Marks did a lot of world building using flavour quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Marks was given access to a writer's bible for the Diablo universe, the main proviso being that the story not touch on anything related to Diablo III, which was planned at the time. This resulted in an early idea for the novel being shot down, as it took place in the Northern Steppes. As such, Marks chose an area of Sanctuary that hadn't been fleshed out yet (Entsteig), and placed his characters in the area.

Elements of the novel are incongruent with later Diablo lore, such as conflating the timeframes of the Sin War and Mage Clan Wars (later established to be separated by centuries), and taking place at least centuries after them. No elements of the novel have ever been referenced in any other piece of Diablo media.