IRVINE, Calif — Legendary video game developer Blizzard Entertainment revealed the answer to a 25-year-old mystery when they announced the meaning behind the title of their iconic series, Diablo.
“Of course, everyone knows that Baal is an ancient Semitic word meaning, ‘Lord,’ and that it is used in the Bible in reference to several Canaanite deities, especially the storm god Hadad,” Blizzard explained in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter. “And it’s common knowledge that Lilith is a nod to Jewish folklore, where she was the disobedient first wife of Adam who was banished from the Garden of Eden. But what we’ve never revealed is that our titular demon’s name is actually the Spanish word for ‘devil!’ That’s right, the Lord of Terror is a metaphor for the actual devil!”
Fans of the series were caught completely off guard by the news.
“It’s absolutely insane to think that the lore is that complex,” said Sam Jennings, who said the first game he ever beat was the original Diablo. “I’m a huge fan — I’ve even read all the books — so I knew that they included a few off-hand references to Judeo-Christian mythology, but even I didn’t realize how extensive it was. You couldn’t have connected the dots until they announced it, though it’s clear as day now that we have this information.”
Kelvin Pace, a games industry analyst, said that publishers have hidden Easter eggs in titles by using obscure foreign languages for years.
“It’s not something that general audiences pick up on, but it’s amusing for the developers,” said Pace. “For example, the title ‘Viva Piñata’ refers to the fact that the collectible animal characters in the game are actually piñatas, papier-mâché models typically filled with candy. And the mid-2000s third-person shooter ‘El Matador’ translates to, ‘mediocre.’ A lot of thought goes into these titles. Blizzard went through thousands of Spanish words until they found the perfect one.”
At press time, Blizzard further revealed that the game’s skeleton enemies are actually the rotted remains of human corpses.
