Since Diablo IV’s announcement trailer back in November during BlizzCon 2019, fans of the Diablo franchise have been trying to figure out who the Pale Summoner in the trailer is. Through the trailer, viewers watch as an incredibly powerful pale figure manipulates an adventuring party of three into completing the ritual to summon Lilith, Daughter of Hatred and Mother of Sanctuary, back into Sanctuary itself.
The dominant theory was that this summoner was Rathma himself, the son of Lilith and a legendary lore figure we haven’t yet seen in the Diablo franchise outside of his name. This “theory,” however, had no actual proof behind it – until now.
This is, of course, a leak and a rumor, so don’t take this as gospel. However, the evidence itself is quite convincing.
It comes courtesy of a YouTuber named TeKo that stays active on the Diablo forums, who posted that he had found proof of the Summoner’s identity. Through the video, TeKo takes us through a copy of the trailer downloaded off of Blizzard’s official website. Using a video editor, TeKo unveils the name of markers in the video itself, put there for those working on it to keep track of certain scenes and progress.
The nail in the coffin comes from these markers. In one, where the Cleric of the trailer is reflected in Rathma’s eyes, the marker reads “added FA 6045 for reflection of Cleric in Rathma’s eyes.” The scene switches and the Summoner is now reflected in the Cleric’s eyes, with the marker now reading “Added 6055 for reflection of Rathma in clerics eyes.”
That’s about as solid as evidence can get. However, it isn’t unheard of for developers working on projects to give things codenames. Rathma is a massive figure that anyone familiar with Diablo lore would know rather thoroughly. Could it be possible that the developers used this well-known name and figure as a codename to disguise the true identity of the Summoner? Perhaps they knew that there would be those that would search through every last piece of data to find a rumor, and they purposely placed this here to mislead the snoopers?
We won’t know until the release date, and that release date is very far away – unannounced, and likely to be sometime in 2021 at best. Until then, the internet will have to do what it does best and continue searching through any given data with a fine-toothed comb until we have enough evidence to confirm even the most far-fetched of conspiracy theories.
