With the release of Diablo 4 coming ever closer, here's a look back at the story of one of the franchise's most beloved characters, Deckard Cain.
With the 2023 release of Diablo 4 inching ever closer, Blizzard has been slowly but surely revealing the contents of the upcoming addition to its beloved franchise. The gaming behemoth has confirmed that the events of Diablo 4 will continue the story of Diablo 3. While the game's main villain has also been confirmed as the Daughter of Hatred, Lilith, there has been quite a lot of information regarding the game's lore that has yet to be revealed. One such question regards the return of certain characters that have appeared throughout the series, like the ever-helpful scholar Deckard Cain.
Fans of the Diablo series know Cain as the 'Elder of Tristram,' the main hub of the first Diablo game, and he has appeared in every game since in one way or another. In the original Diablo, Cain was an NPC who stood in the middle of the village and helped heroes throughout their journey. Unfortunately, he perished at the beginning of Diablo 3, so seeing the scholarly old man in the upcoming Diablo 4 gameplay is unlikely, but it would be well worth going through his story in anticipation of its release.
Growing Up Deckard Cain
Deckard Cain is a Horadric scholar who is well-versed in the obscure lore of Sanctuary and its arcane history. He is also said to be the last of the Horadrim, an ancient brotherhood of mages and wizards formed by the archangel Tyrael to stand against the three Prime Evils – the Lord of Destruction Baal, the Lord of Hatred Mephisto, and the titular Diablo, the Lord of Terror. In 1202, Deckard was born and raised in the Sanctuary village of Tristram to a tanner father and his mother, Aderes Cain, who insisted that Deckard take after her family's legacy and take the Cain name, rather than that of his father. Growing up, he and the other children of Tristram would gather around Aderes as she told tales of the great deeds of the Horadrim, of whom she was descended from.
Growing up, Deckard was proud of his heritage as a Horadrim and would often boast about being 'the last of the Horadrim.' He dreamed of fulfilling his legacy as a Horadrim, vanquishing evil and protecting all people from Caldeum to Khanduras in the name of justice. But, when Deckard lost his father to sickness, things started to take a turn for the worst and his faith in his mother started to dwindle.
He was always the scholarly type and whenever he wasn't out playing fetch or stealing eggs, he liked to gather history books. Driven by madness, Aderes decided to burn all those books, as she feels the only 'proper reading' was the texts written by Deckard's ancestor, Jered Cain. As a result, he lost interest in his mother's stories, believing them to be nothing more than fable, especially that of the existence of angels and demons – a belief that didn't age well in Diablo. Deckard left his home, and his mother declared him 'lost.'
Cain the Scholar
In his youth, Cain lived most of his life in the pursuit of knowledge, from studying 'archaic teachings' of Kehjistan, a city returning to
Diablo 4, to that behind the Order of Zakarum. This continued to the point of near obsession, leading to tensions between him and his friends and family as he would shut them out completely in pursuit of knowledge, including his wife, Amelia and son, Jered, named after Deckard's ancestor. During his studies, he missed major moments of his son's life and he wasn't phased when Jered caught a fever that nearly took his life. Frustrated, Amelia would take Jered and leave Tristram, only for their wagon to be attacked by bandits, leading to their demise. Their deaths would haunt Deckard for the rest of his life.
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