Just thought I would post this here. See if anyone actually cares about Diablo storyline. See what anyone thought of my ideas. 
As most likely known by now the black soul stone is clearly seen falling from heaven with Diablo, though I swear it looks like he is smileing durring the fall. This leaves an extremely open range of possible continuations for future expansions. Along with the absence of Malthael, the continued presence of Adria, the worldstone supposedly no longer holding back human potential, Imperius possibly going nuts from not having the demons to battle, the prospect of continueing something with any of the followers stories, Shen and his issues with that one life draining jewel, some chance of a shred of Leah still existing that is in need of saveing, even the final explanation of where normal souls go upon dieing and if any circumstance could allow them to interact with the living world again which would prompt a return of Deckard Cain.
In my opinion, a series of expansions tieing all these points together into one nice awesome package is physically possible but financially and possibly logically impossible. The writeing in just about all of Diablo 3 was rather horrific, from the repeating statements of followers to the total lack of any intelligence shown by any of the demons or angels. Such as Belial 'Lord of Lies' not even being able to trick anyone for longer then two minutes, or Azmodan 'hells greatest general' outright telling the one threat against him each new step in his master plan. Clearly there are some issues in story, which I know is not the main focus of the game, but it should not be just about ignored.
Here is my proposal for a possible continuation. In hopes that somehow I could help.
1. The black soul stone shattered, crossing from the heavenly domains into Pandemonium and then back onto earth. The demon lords within are dormant, thus no longer struggleing to free themselves from the stones, but their power can be accessed by anyone simply holding a piece of the stone as each piece is damaged and leaking their profane power constantly. This would prompt some very interesting new enemies, humans or indeed perhaps even animals with the powers of a demon lord at their disposal. And gives the opportunity for a highly divergent story. Such as if someone did a speed run and was actually able to get to the stone before anything else picked it up. Or giving the player the chance to try and redeem the holder of a piece, instead of just hacking them to bits without any concern for the mortal soul. Not saying there would not be hacky-slash fun in the 'good' choice, just that it would play out noticeably different.
2. Malthael does NOT go insane. Blizzard you use this trope to often. I'm fine with Imperius going a bit battle nuts since without battle Valor cannot exist, but Wisdom should be able to pull itself out of an existential crisis like this. So you're not allowed to make Malthael leap into Hell and start giving orders. But you most certainly can make us need to fight him, if only to bring him before the Angiris Council and have them remove his wings. A week as a human should give him the opportunity to not be such an emo the moment something comes along he cannot understand. Huge concerns like that tend to diminish when you have to worry about food, water, and shelter. New outlook on things is just the sort of kick to the robe an emo angel needs.
3. Adria is actively hunting each piece of the broken black soul stone, thus allowing for the possibility either determined randomly or from the time it would take to reach each piece, for her to arrive before the player and have already killed whatever picked up the piece. You see this gives the player a real choice, rush through and grab each piece as fast as you can but risk periods in which the power of the shards corrupts your character! Get to the next piece in time to fight whatever picked it up. Or! Take your time and 'let' Adria get each piece, allowing her to absorb all their power and become an 'uber boss'. Her looks as said uber boss changeing depending on how many, and which, pieces of the stone she was able to obtain.
4. The Worldstone is not destroyed. Something that powerfull can be turned one way or another, but never totally destroyed. This could start out as a series of side quests in the first expansion finding pieces of 'another stone' that would distract from the leads for the actual black soul stone pieces. Prompting the above events to take place simply from someone wanting to be a 'completist' while also giving the player something to actually do instead of just post poneing boss battles waiting for Adria to arrive. In the second expansion it would be revealed these pieces are actually fragments of the world stone, and it is starting to heal itself! Now the player, having already dispatched Adria in the last expansion, must race to both destroy the now reunited black soul stone in Hell before the world stone recollects itself and seals Heaven and Hell from Sanctuary again! Also allowing the player to choose if the worldstone becomes tuned again either towards Heaven, Hell, or supressing both.
5. Making an Angel a major boss is inevitable I suppose, Blizzard seems to really enjoy that sort of 'fall from grace' story concept. Thus Imperius does making a glareingly obvious choice. Perhaps his intent was simply to wipe out all demons forever, or in his need to battle he attempted to pit portions of hell against one another while Heaven and Sanctuary recover. But the players actions end up sealing him inside Hell when the world stone recollects, or not depending on how one plays. Damning him and instilling in him true Wrath for humans. Currently I think he is not truly disgusted or hateing humans, he is just feeling upstaged and bothered that their presence brought a halt to his valor in battle.
6. All the follower stories could intimately play out with the above story points. Perhaps the Scoundrel's brother happens to have Duriel's shard rip through his prison. One of the Enchantresses's sisters did survive but did not awaken untill Andariel's shard awoke her. How would the Templar feel to arrive back at his order only to find it infested by Mephisto's shard? Lots of juicy opportunity here to make the world actually feel lived in, instead of just fought in.
7. Shen is one I would dearly love to continue. Especially if this jewel of Dirgest could actually be used to stifle the powers of the shards of the black soul stone you have been collecting, another side quest that could possibly lead to you looseing a shard to Adria, but giving you an extremely usefull tool in maintaining the ones you do have. Something like how Star Craft 2 did semi-divergent paths with campaign selection.
8. From what I have seen many did not like Leah, she was and indeed most of the characters were rather bland though her disbelieveing attitude was the most irksome. I for one enjoy continuation, even for less desireable characters. But only a little, for instance don't make her return into big a deal. Have some piece of her soul connected in just a single piece of the stone, but have her rebirth only made possible via another gold sink much like Whimsyshire or the like. Thus something that a completionist would do but the average player would not need to bother with and hard core players could ignore.
9. I personally loved Cain, he was always fun in Diablo 2 and I still liked him in 3. I was very sad that he ended up dieing, in a yes heroic manner but not heroic enough for all that he has done to help Sanctuary all these years! So, bringing him back as an Angel would be awesome. But there has been absolutely nothing to show that mortal souls ever end up in the heavens, shown plenty of them being dragged into hell and mutilated, not a single word of them ever going to heaven. So if making him an angel would not be possible, bringing him back as a helpfull ghost and as part of the side quest to free Leah from the stone shard I think would be the next best thing.
There you go, awesome story potential abounds. I know I am likely so far off on any of these points that it is not even funny, but heck I can dream. Hope it was at least interesting, have a good day.
As most likely known by now the black soul stone is clearly seen falling from heaven with Diablo, though I swear it looks like he is smileing durring the fall. This leaves an extremely open range of possible continuations for future expansions. Along with the absence of Malthael, the continued presence of Adria, the worldstone supposedly no longer holding back human potential, Imperius possibly going nuts from not having the demons to battle, the prospect of continueing something with any of the followers stories, Shen and his issues with that one life draining jewel, some chance of a shred of Leah still existing that is in need of saveing, even the final explanation of where normal souls go upon dieing and if any circumstance could allow them to interact with the living world again which would prompt a return of Deckard Cain.
In my opinion, a series of expansions tieing all these points together into one nice awesome package is physically possible but financially and possibly logically impossible. The writeing in just about all of Diablo 3 was rather horrific, from the repeating statements of followers to the total lack of any intelligence shown by any of the demons or angels. Such as Belial 'Lord of Lies' not even being able to trick anyone for longer then two minutes, or Azmodan 'hells greatest general' outright telling the one threat against him each new step in his master plan. Clearly there are some issues in story, which I know is not the main focus of the game, but it should not be just about ignored.
Here is my proposal for a possible continuation. In hopes that somehow I could help.
1. The black soul stone shattered, crossing from the heavenly domains into Pandemonium and then back onto earth. The demon lords within are dormant, thus no longer struggleing to free themselves from the stones, but their power can be accessed by anyone simply holding a piece of the stone as each piece is damaged and leaking their profane power constantly. This would prompt some very interesting new enemies, humans or indeed perhaps even animals with the powers of a demon lord at their disposal. And gives the opportunity for a highly divergent story. Such as if someone did a speed run and was actually able to get to the stone before anything else picked it up. Or giving the player the chance to try and redeem the holder of a piece, instead of just hacking them to bits without any concern for the mortal soul. Not saying there would not be hacky-slash fun in the 'good' choice, just that it would play out noticeably different.
2. Malthael does NOT go insane. Blizzard you use this trope to often. I'm fine with Imperius going a bit battle nuts since without battle Valor cannot exist, but Wisdom should be able to pull itself out of an existential crisis like this. So you're not allowed to make Malthael leap into Hell and start giving orders. But you most certainly can make us need to fight him, if only to bring him before the Angiris Council and have them remove his wings. A week as a human should give him the opportunity to not be such an emo the moment something comes along he cannot understand. Huge concerns like that tend to diminish when you have to worry about food, water, and shelter. New outlook on things is just the sort of kick to the robe an emo angel needs.
3. Adria is actively hunting each piece of the broken black soul stone, thus allowing for the possibility either determined randomly or from the time it would take to reach each piece, for her to arrive before the player and have already killed whatever picked up the piece. You see this gives the player a real choice, rush through and grab each piece as fast as you can but risk periods in which the power of the shards corrupts your character! Get to the next piece in time to fight whatever picked it up. Or! Take your time and 'let' Adria get each piece, allowing her to absorb all their power and become an 'uber boss'. Her looks as said uber boss changeing depending on how many, and which, pieces of the stone she was able to obtain.
4. The Worldstone is not destroyed. Something that powerfull can be turned one way or another, but never totally destroyed. This could start out as a series of side quests in the first expansion finding pieces of 'another stone' that would distract from the leads for the actual black soul stone pieces. Prompting the above events to take place simply from someone wanting to be a 'completist' while also giving the player something to actually do instead of just post poneing boss battles waiting for Adria to arrive. In the second expansion it would be revealed these pieces are actually fragments of the world stone, and it is starting to heal itself! Now the player, having already dispatched Adria in the last expansion, must race to both destroy the now reunited black soul stone in Hell before the world stone recollects itself and seals Heaven and Hell from Sanctuary again! Also allowing the player to choose if the worldstone becomes tuned again either towards Heaven, Hell, or supressing both.
5. Making an Angel a major boss is inevitable I suppose, Blizzard seems to really enjoy that sort of 'fall from grace' story concept. Thus Imperius does making a glareingly obvious choice. Perhaps his intent was simply to wipe out all demons forever, or in his need to battle he attempted to pit portions of hell against one another while Heaven and Sanctuary recover. But the players actions end up sealing him inside Hell when the world stone recollects, or not depending on how one plays. Damning him and instilling in him true Wrath for humans. Currently I think he is not truly disgusted or hateing humans, he is just feeling upstaged and bothered that their presence brought a halt to his valor in battle.
6. All the follower stories could intimately play out with the above story points. Perhaps the Scoundrel's brother happens to have Duriel's shard rip through his prison. One of the Enchantresses's sisters did survive but did not awaken untill Andariel's shard awoke her. How would the Templar feel to arrive back at his order only to find it infested by Mephisto's shard? Lots of juicy opportunity here to make the world actually feel lived in, instead of just fought in.
7. Shen is one I would dearly love to continue. Especially if this jewel of Dirgest could actually be used to stifle the powers of the shards of the black soul stone you have been collecting, another side quest that could possibly lead to you looseing a shard to Adria, but giving you an extremely usefull tool in maintaining the ones you do have. Something like how Star Craft 2 did semi-divergent paths with campaign selection.
8. From what I have seen many did not like Leah, she was and indeed most of the characters were rather bland though her disbelieveing attitude was the most irksome. I for one enjoy continuation, even for less desireable characters. But only a little, for instance don't make her return into big a deal. Have some piece of her soul connected in just a single piece of the stone, but have her rebirth only made possible via another gold sink much like Whimsyshire or the like. Thus something that a completionist would do but the average player would not need to bother with and hard core players could ignore.
9. I personally loved Cain, he was always fun in Diablo 2 and I still liked him in 3. I was very sad that he ended up dieing, in a yes heroic manner but not heroic enough for all that he has done to help Sanctuary all these years! So, bringing him back as an Angel would be awesome. But there has been absolutely nothing to show that mortal souls ever end up in the heavens, shown plenty of them being dragged into hell and mutilated, not a single word of them ever going to heaven. So if making him an angel would not be possible, bringing him back as a helpfull ghost and as part of the side quest to free Leah from the stone shard I think would be the next best thing.
There you go, awesome story potential abounds. I know I am likely so far off on any of these points that it is not even funny, but heck I can dream. Hope it was at least interesting, have a good day.
