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DFans: How much of the lore was expanded just for the Book of Cain or was it all originally present in the development of Diablo III?
Micky: There was a decent amount of lore that was created for the book. One good example was the mage clan wars. We went through and filled out that section because there wasn't a lot of existing material. With the Sin War for instance, there was a lot of existing material in the Richard Knack book in the trilogy he did for the Sin Wars. But for the mage clan wars, there was nothing like that. There was a few scattered mentions here and there of the mage clan wars but there wasn't a wealth information and so we came up with a lot of that.
We also came up with a lot of the specific powers for the Angiris Council members. That was something that had not been fleshed out. A lot of the origin of the universe, the mythology of the creation of the universe had not been fleshed out. Throughout the process, we identified a lot of different areas where maybe there was only a little bit of information or even conflicting information and so we had an opportunity to really dig into that.
DFans: Did any of that lore from the book then end up in the game?
Micky: It certainly informed the game and continues to do so. We found that the creation of this book and the process of developing the book certainly was valuable to the development team for them to flesh out the history and the lore of the game. Even if its not readily apparent in the game, there are certain things that we figured out in the creation of the book that influenced decisions that were made in the game that may not be obvious to the player.
DFans: Going off of that, what was your favorite part of the lore that you and your team got to expand upon?
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Micky: I have a lot of favorite parts. For me, probably the mage clan wars was really fun. Just because there was not a lot of information there and it was really fertile ground for us to brainstorm and come up with really cool ideas of how that played out. That was probably my personal favorite.
As far as existing lore, I really dig the hunt for the three. There was already a lot of information there but that's another where we did expand, we added detail and we did a lot of clarification and that was a lot of fun.
DFans: With the origin/creation myth with Anu and Tathamet, where did the inspiration for that come from?
Micky: That came from Chris [Metzen]. As for where he got the inspiration, that would be a question for him. I know we talked about different ideas about what the creation myth would be and that was the one we settled on. The more we talked about it, we had brainstorming sessions. Early on, Chris had the seed of the idea of Anu being the one and splitting off and everything else. The Tathamet idea and the heads of the dragon becoming the evils evolved as we continued having those brainstorming sessions.
DFans: Can you expand on any of the other ideas you had for the creation?
Micky: I'm trying to think of anything specific. It has been awhile since we had any of those meetings. I'll keep thinking about and if I remember we will get back to it at the end.
DFans: On that same idea, working as a creative team, I am sure there are tons of ideas bouncing around. Are there any times when you guys have conflicts on where you want to take things creatively or do you guys work well together towards one conscious flow?
Micky: For the most part it was smooth. I mean, people are always going to have different ideas and everyone working on it is passionate about what they are doing. We always hammer it out, we figure it out. We sit down and hash out what is going to be best for the IP. Other things we have to take into account throughout the process is information that has already been made public and are we contradicting that. That is something we are always thinking about.
For the most part though, it was a long process. There was a lot to figure out. Certainly, a lot of hours spent and getting to the point where everyone is tired and a long time staring at the page and writing and revising and going through all of that. Just like any creative process. But it was absolutely worth it and a lot of fun, looking back.
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DFans: What would you say was the biggest obstacle in writing this book?
Micky: The sheer amount of information. What I mean by that is not only organizing everything so that it makes sense and if you look back before this book, at Diablo's history, there was a lot of information, there was information that at times was contradictory, there was a lot of information that was potentially confusing. Not only condensing that into 148 pages but making sure that it did make sense in clearing up any contradictions that may have existed.
DFans: Speaking of condensing, was there anything else that you had originally expanded or added that did not make it into the final version?
Micky: There were a couple of things. There was a timeline that we are still working on. We wanted to include the timeline in the book. We did not have time to add that in there, we are still working on the timeline. That will be made available sometime in the future.
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