A Dribble of Ink

So, last night, like millions of other cool, socially well-adjusted people nerds, I went out and eagerly purchased Diablo III. And then, like millions of other nerds cool, socially well-adjusted people, I also ran into immense frustration when my single-player experience was halted (in fact, never begun) because of various server issues. That’s a topic for another day, but I did run across a pretty cool bit of trivia while waiting for Diablo III to install. While the installation process was happening, eager gamers can read a short illustrated primer that details about the stories in Diablo and Diablo II. You remember this guy?

Of course you do. His name? Aidan. Yep, that’s right. The Warrior from Diablo, that game that stole hours-upon-hours-upon-hours of my teenage life, had the same name as me. Little did I know that when I created a new character a gave him my name, that I was only following the true canon of the series.

My hidden and tragic past, from the Diablo Wiki:

Aidan lived with his father as he grew up. The earliest information we have about him is that he served in his father’s army and was under the command of Lachdanan when he led the assault against Westmarch prior to the events of Diablo I. Upon returning to Tristram and seeing his father raised from the dead, his younger brother missing and Lazarus gone, he journeyed into the depths of the labyrinth under the Cathedral.

As he journeyed deeper and deeper into it he not only found and killed his own father as the Skeleton King, he also killed Lazarus and his own brother who was at the time possessed by Diablo.

The further down he’d gotten however, the larger Diablo’s influence over him had grown. The Lord of Terror recognized what a fine host Aidan would make, and so slowly crept into his mind. Once Diablo was slain, Aidan had become convinced that in order to contain Diablo he had to shove the soulstone into himself, and so Aidan became the Dark Wanderer.

Don’t I sound like a badass? Yep, that’s me. Badass supreme, a warrior with royal past and a tortured soul. Admit it, you spent hours-upon-hours playing as me in your youth, plundering the endless floors of the dungeon that stretched down from Tristram to Hell.

As reference, here’s a recent portrait of me, sketched by a friend:

Pretty close, huh?

Actually, I was a dedicated Rogue fanatic, so, ironically, I spent little time playing as my namesake, though my 13-year-old mind would have been blown if I’d learned at that time that the Warrior (the canonical hero of the game, as shown in Diablo II) shared my name. Just a cool little tidbit that made me smile last night and brought on a nice wave of nostalgia for me, so I thought I’d share.