Epilogue: The Book of Malthael

The following is an excerpt from the Book of Malthael, undated, but written sometime after the year 1321. It has been copied, unedited, in its original form. Although a longer text is assumed to exist, its location is currently unknown.

Deckard Cain once wrote on Wisdom. In the Book of Cain, he notes that "[in] all things there are two sides: motion and stillness, emptiness and fullness, light and dark. Alone, each side is incomplete, but together, they form the totality of existence. Only through embracing the oneness of all things can true wisdom be obtained."

Tyrael, my brother. You carried the answers to my questions with you in Cain's legacy, yet I did not seek you out. Prideful and omnipotent, I was unable to see the fault in my thinking, nor the sickness that plagued my thoughts. Your destruction of the Worldstone was a just action, designed to preserve Sanctuary and the mortal lives it contains. I blamed you for my pain, and although you and the others were also blind to my suffering, you were not the cause.

An angelic mind, no matter its maturity, cannot comprehend the depths of evil, nor the complexities of mortal nature, without corrupting. This fault is not due to the imperfections of humanity. No, that imperfection is the very thing that allow mortals to transcend their angelic and demonic legacy.

The angelic being that seeks to understand evil will see its core fracture, and its soul become undone. It becomes what it strives to overcome. It drowns in madness, because it understands nothing beyond perfection. It withers and dies, because it is only half of the totality of existence and will never be more.

I believed darkness was an evil to be excised from creation. And truly, there is suffering in the mortal realm that I would see end. Yet, darkness itself is not a symptom of ill. Mortals carry both the light and dark within their souls throughout their lives. They balance the two on a needle's point, sometimes wavering one direction or the other. It is through this capacity for mistake or greatness that they may understand the true nature of the universe, and thus transcend their angelic or demonic ancestors.

Once, I thought power should not rest in the hands of beings who are here for but a moment, who flare and die in the glory of battle or the misery of life. These beings who embrace, as Cain wrote, the oneness of all things. Who dance and sing in the rain, who watch the dust drift in sunbeams. Who love and laugh. Who mourn and weep.

These beings, who give selflessly to those they barely know. And who do so again and again, because they have seen and comprehended good and evil and have chosen the Light. These beings, who embody the immense goodness the angelic Host seeks, more completely than any angel ever could.

No immortal shall truly be wise or understand creation, for although perfect, they are also incomplete. Angels and demons alike will always be supplemented by mortals, who embrace the oneness of all things and grow strong from it. The dynamic nature of the mortal world evades immortal attempts to elucidate its future.

And we are better for it, we who fight an Eternal Conflict that is unending. Colourless. Empty. Our new future is not one of predictable sureness, but instead adaptation and change. Of our desire and choice to embrace wholeness.

Of our hope in mortality.