Oblivion Knight

Oblivion Knights (a.k.a. Undead Horrors) are undead soldiers used by the Burning Hells.

Lore
Oblivion Knights can be divided into fighters and mages:

Undead Fighters
The souls of the most corrupt, ruthless, hate-filled, and aggressive mortal warriors to die in mortal wars often come to reside in Hell. Forged in the fires of eternal punishment, some of these spirits are reborn as cruel shadows of their former glory. Clad in demon-forged armor and wielding arcane weapons of destruction, they roam the gateway to Hell in search of those who would invade their sinister domain. These warriors are famed for their ability to slice their opponents into bloody ribbons with grotesque efficiency.

Undead Mages
A full third of Oblivion Knights are mages. Like their brutish counterparts, these minions of Hell are comprised of the most mendacious and merciless Sorcerers and Necromancers slain in the Mage Clan Wars. Their thirst for power followed them to the grave and was easily manipulated by the Prime Evils when creating these dark mages. Wielding the same powers in Hell as they did in the mortal realm, they pose a fatal threat to even the most experienced adventurer.

In-game
Oblivion Knights are a group consisting of the blade-wielding Doom Knights, the versatile Abyss Knights and the spell-casting Oblivion Knights themselves.

The Oblivion Knights (as well as the Abyss Knights) can throw elemental bolts to their target and also use spells that are normally used by Necromancers like Bone Spirit, Bone Armor and Curses (Decrepify, Lower Resist, Weaken, Life Tap, Amplify Damage).

Oblivion Knights (spellcasters) are not affected by the Barbarian Taunt skill.

Oblivion Knighs (Variant) can be found in Chaos Sanctuary leading Doom Knights.

Uniques

 * Lord De Seis

Development


Since patch 1.13, Oblivion Knights in the Chaos Sanctuary can no longer cast the Iron Maiden curse.

They have the Bestow skill assigned in the files with which they would heal their Doom Knights, but unlike Greater Mummy their AI never used it in any versions. Oblivion Knights have unused color palettes in the files, one is bloody in color and the second is gray. Both Abyss and Oblivion Knight have an unused rising from the ground animation that shows them with a red aura, it's unknown if it would be summon or teleport animation.

Trivia

 * Arreat Summit lore states that Oblivion Knights were forged from the souls of those in the Sin War, while To Hell and Back uses the more general term of "mortal wars." The former claim is likely null, as post-Diablo II, the Sin War was retconned to be a distinct event rather than a continuous one, as prior lore established.


 * To Hell and Back labels Oblivion Knights as demons rather than undead.