Making Sense of the Doom2016 Backstory

[SimKoning]

The new Doom backstory is both fun and frustrating. It’s fun because it’s clearly a work of deliberately vague writing meant to get fans excited as they guess what’s really going on. It’s frustrating, because no single “theory” I’ve seen so far (I've searched) seems to resolve the paradoxical details. However, I suspect - I hope - I have it figured out for the most part. If the following is what Id intended, I have to say I’m impressed by the cleverness of it all.

The most problematic elements first:

The Doom Marine Himself

The Doom Marine is implied to be part of some ancient, otherworldly order, but his suit is clearly covered in Roman numeral serial numbers, English corporate logos (e.g. IO Logisticts Manufacture 8623) on more than one location, and various other markings and English writing that are baffling if his suit is of entirely alien origin. One could argue that these were added by the UAC, but they are not UAC logos, and several of the markings are partially worn away, not newly added. When he activates his helmet, it reads “Boot Sequence” in English, and then translates alien text into English rather than the other way around. And, of course, he understands English, has a suspicious familiarity with human weapons, and can easily operate modern computer systems.

His origins are described as a mystery even in the Codex, which only provide conjecture as to his true nature:

“Whether he is god, demon or human will remain undetermined until the Argent barrier protecting his body can be deactivated.”

One would think that the researchers would have noticed the corporate logos, but they don’t seem to be visible from the front, and the suit seems to have been left in the rock. Moreover, they only had “a few weeks”, to clean and test it before Hayden whisked it away.

Demons and Hell are Discussed With Surprising Familiarity

Throughout the Environment Codex entries, Demons are discussed as though they are a well-understood reality, not a secret. Employees are given warnings about accidentally being pulled into Hell, how to properly die if attacked by a Demon, told about various Demon “species” etc. Furthermore, the computer systems on the base are programmed with terms such as “Demon Invasion” and “Demonic Contamination” as if they are a well-understood, expected problem. This suggests Demonic invasions have happened before, and they are far from a mystery for humanity.

The Argent Sentinels - What are They?

It’s strongly implied in the codex that the Demons of Hell are not demons in the traditional, religious sense, more likely they are the inspiration to Demon and Netherworld mythology - they’re something more “Lovecraftian”. In the same sense, it’s implied that the Argent people are the inspiration, or analog, of Heaven, with the Wraiths being “gods” (Slayer’s Testament III) and the Night Sentinels as their angelic holy servants (later, seraphim). Rather depressingly, the “real” heaven was conquered by Hell in the Doom universe.

So what is going on here? Consider the following interpretation of events:


(Possible) Timeline

Prehistory

The First Age of Ascension - A human or humanoid precursor civilization colonizes Argent D’Nur and encounters the Wraiths.

(This is confusing, because both the Demons and Argent people use “ages”. It’s not clear if the First Age of Ascension is the same as the first of the four demon ages, the latter of which seems to be based on Demon leadership and invasions. Possible Demon ages: First age under the Icon of Sin [perhaps also known as the Great Serpent], and two subsequent ages, and finally the fourth age under the Aranea Imperatrix.)

Hell attempts to conquer Agent D’Nur, but is repelled

A member of the Night Sentinels is tricked by a hell priest, Deag Grav, into betraying the Wraiths in hopes of resurrecting his son who fell in battle fighting the Demon hoard. The Wraiths are cursed and used to form The Well. The Sentinel’s son is transformed into the Icon of Sin. (This makes the Icon of Sin a fallen “angel” of sorts, thus making him a loose analog of Satan). Argent D’Nur is assimilated into Hell.


Early 21st Century, Sol System

The UAC established research, mining, and waste disposal outposts on Mars, Phobos, and Deimos. A Marine is transferred to duty at a waste disposal site on Mars following his violent assault of a commanding officer. The UAC begins teleportation experiments that lead to the mysterious deaths of employees. The Martian facilities receives a distress call from Phobos and Deimos seems to simply vanish from the sky. Marines are dispatched in response - all die except one.

The surviving marine fights through the Phobos station, is transported to Deimos, part of which appears to have been assimilated into Hell, before finally fighting his way to the surface of hell where he slays the original Spider Mastermind.

He then makes his way to Earth, where he finds a massive invasion in progress. Earth forces try to evacuate survivors only to stopped by a “forcefield” of fire. He fights his way back into Hell and defeats the Icon of Sin (which after goes into a dormant state). The invasion is largely stopped, with the exception of a pocket remnant led by a Cyberdemon (No Rest for the Living), which he later defeats as well.

(This may be the battle of the first age referred to in the Hell Knight codex entry and the Slayer's Testament I. This would mean the Icon of Sin is also known as the Great Serpent - basically Satan - and the Doom Slayer is also referred to as the Guardian.)

The UAC is reformed under new leadership and conducts the Plutonia Experiments on Earth.

Following the failure of the Plutonia experiment, the UAC attempts further portal research on Jupiter’s Moon Io. The Io base is assaulted by a living Demon warship of unknown origin.

(It's worth noting the corporate tag on the Doom Marine's armor says "IO Logistics Manufacture.)

The UAC abandons its teleporter research and classifies the Doom episodes. Its former demon infested bases are sealed and sterilized with radiation. Unbeknownst to them, a “Mother Demon” survives, and begins resurrecting demons, mutating them into more powerful forms in the process. The Doom Marine, plagued by nightmares and the effects of repeatedly traveling to Hell, is recommissioned one last time. He defeats the Mother Demon and decides to remain in Hell forever, where he torments and destroys Demons endlessly.

(I know many of you think the Doom 64 connection is a stretch but please consider how the Codex describes the “rise” of the Doom Slayer: "In the first age, in the first battle, when the shadows first lengthened, one stood [possible reference to Doom I]. Burned by the embers of Armageddon [possible reference to Doom II], his soul blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension, he chose the path of perpetual torment [Exactly what happened at the end of Doom 64]. In his ravenous hatred he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the Umbral Plains seeking vengeance against the dark lords who had wronged him. He wore the crown of the Night Sentinels [the symbol of the Night Sentinels resembles a stylized Marine anchor - see notes later in the the timeline below], and those that tasted the bite of his sword named him... the Doom Slayer.")

The Doom Marine encounters the “seraphim”, the angelic spirits of the Night Sentinels, now trapped in Hell along with Argent D’Nur and is granted supernatural abilities.

(Seraphim is plural, seraph is singular. The seraphim could be another term for the Night Sentinels and a nod to their “angelic” nature. Slayer’s Testament IV says “The age of his reckoning was uncounted. The scribes carved his name deep in the tablets of Hell across eons, and each battle etched terror in the hearts of the demons.” The terms “uncounted” and “across eons” suggests “practically forever”. This isn’t really a problem, however, because the story is dealing with interdimensional portals, which opens up possibilities such as 100 years passing on Earth while thousands of years pass in hell, hence the “four ages”.)

The Demons, now facing an eternity with an unstoppable foe, send a Baalgar Demon (a Titan) to face him. The Doom Marine defeats the beast and routes the Demon forces.

The heretic, the Night Sentinel who was betrayed by Deag Grav, upgrades the Doom Marine’s armor to be like those of the Argent warriors, a form of power armor capable of absorbing and harnessing Argent energy.
(This is implied by the use of “wretch” and “heresy”. The Codex Entry about Argent D’Nur refers to the Sentinels as “wretches” and “heathens”. More specifically, in Wraiths III refers to the Sentinel who turned against his order as the "Wretched Betrayer".)

The Demon Priest stage an ambush and trapped the Doom Slayer in the Blood Keep, trapping him inside a supernaturally sealed sarcophagus.

Late 21st Century to Mid 22nd Century, Mars (Timeline Source: Doom Wiki)

(While the codex says there wasn’t much motivation to colonize Mars beyond exploration, it never explicitly says it lacked outposts or any human presence. What’s clear is that Mars became an important industrial center following the discovery of the Argent fracture and only then was it terraformed.)

2095 - The Argent Fracture is discovered. Argent plasma was discovered in a trench on Mars by an expedition from the SS Amundsen.

2096 - The discovery of the Argent Fracture shifts Mars from being mainly a location for research outposts to a major industrial center. Extensive terraforming efforts begin.

2127 - The Argent Tower is completed . 6 Months Later - Samuel Hayden transfers his mind over to a cyborg to continue his existence, after his body breaks down due to Stage 4 Cancer.

2136 - The Advanced Research Complex is completed.

2143 - The Corrax tablets are retrieved from Hell in a UAC Automated Survey.

2145 - The first Project Lazarus Manned Expedition is sent to Hell. The expedition ends with complete loss of human life, but achieved its mission. The sarcophagus of the Doom Marine is recovered from Kadingir Sanctum.

2146 - Industrial accident related deaths in the Foundry dropped significantly thanks to new UAC safety protocols where employees exposed to dangerous materials are sent to the Lazarus Labs.

2147 - The second Project Lazarus Tethering Operation is conducted. The expedition ends in a confrontation with the Hell Guard.

2148 - The second Project Lazarus Manned Expedition is sent to the Great Steppe. The expedition ends with similar losses. The petrified remains of a Baalgar demon is recovered.

2149 - February - The Argent Facility - UAC base had its last accident.
October - Doom 2016 Begins.

(Regarding Doom 3: That timeline appears to be very much mutually exclusive. Mars is not terraformed in Doom 3, and Demons are portrayed as a completely unexpected discovery and a mystery, whereas as in Doom 2016, they’re almost treated well-understood feature of the Martian environment. The monsters are also quite different, with the Demons of Doom 2016 essentially being the same as those of the original series. Compare the pinky demons and Imps for example.)

[Koko Ricky]

I found Doom '16's story so convoluted yet somehow vague that I just stopped caring early on. I don't get why they didn't just rework the original story. The UAC is a Weyland-style global conglomerate that also has military contracts, and uses offworld facilities to conduct various experiments outside of the jurisdiction of Earth. That alone is worthy of a lengthy backstory, and the idea that DoomGuy is an aggressive but well intended marine makes for a likable character. By trying to create an elaborate backstory for the baddies, and by ensuring the anonymity of the player by making them some sort of ancient, nameless demon slayer, id has effectively killed any interest I might have had in the plot.

[Touchdown]

DOOM4 story is an afterthought written by people that laughed at it during the process, coming up with whatever ridiculous things they could think of as long as they sounded 'metal'. As a result it's a mess of super vague bits of info that makes no sense. It's clear that they've deliberately opened a lot of doors and did not go through any of them just to make sure they can do whatever they want in the sequel. I'm pretty sure they'll go with the "all DOOM games are connected" thingy just because that's what fans apparently like to think.

The information available is so scattered and so vague that much like GoatLord I have lost interest in trying to make sense of it.

But you can't leave out DOOM3. There's a Soul Cube in Lazarus Labs and the Hellknight looks a lot like the one in D3. The Soul Cube is probably the strongest link to other games too, so you can't just ignore it. ;)

[RightField]

I thought this was a rather good summary. Nice job on piecing it together.

[SimKoning]

@Goatlord: From a basic story writing standpoint I agree with you. That's pretty much what Doom3 did, but it looks like they wanted to take a different approach this time around. I think you're also touching on why fans, including myself, are receptive to the idea of him being the same character from the original Doom series - he is more relatable that way. This also gives him an arch of sorts.

@Touchdown: That much is obvious just from reading it; it's so over the top and sometimes funny. It's hard to keep a straight face while reading the original manual stories as well. I think they were obviously playing with the idea of him being the original Doomguy, but didn't want to commit to that just yet. This is evident with the codex entry that basically admits "We don't know if he's a god, demon, or human... we'll figure it out, later... maybe."

I lined the Doom3 timeline up with Doom 2016, and there are just too many massive contradictions. For example, Mars is terraformed in Doom 2016 while it's not in Doom 3 despite both taking place in the 2140's. The tone of the two continuities is very different as well, with Doom 2016 being closer to the original series. While the monster designs are similar in some cases, they're very different in others.


@RightField: Thanks, it was a lot of fun to figure out.

----------------------

BTW - I forgot an important detail: Wraiths III refers to the Sentinel who betrayed his order as the "wretched Betrayer". The being who gave the Doom Slayer his armor is referred to as a heretic and a wretch. This, combined with the Argent D'Nur Codex entry referring to the Sentinels as "wretches and heathens" strongly implies that his armor came from a Night Sentinel, not a demon, likely the "Wretched Betrayer" who was trapped in Hell at the time. This certainly makes sense given the Night Sentinels are shown in magical power armor.
The OP was edited to include this info

[Koko Ricky]

I don't think Doom 3 and Doom '16 are supposed to be part of the same universe. Each Doom game appears to be more-or-less self contained. Even Doom 2 has some pretty obvious contradictions that make it unclear if you're even playing the same character from the first game. I guess Final Doom and Doom 64 were intended to be set after the events of Doom 2, but it really comes down to the core gameplay, so you can play them without knowing an iota of information about the previous games.

The similarity of the hell knights in Doom '16 to Doom 3 is probably due to the fact that they're a terrific design and they just decided to update it. Easter eggs like the soul cube are just that; easter eggs. I mean, there's a secret area in hell that contains Commander Keen's helmet; are we to believe that universe is somehow related, too?

I think this sort of thing is akin to movie directors who like to loosely connect their universes together. James Cameron's "Aliens," for instance, mentions Hyperdyne Systems, which of course is very similar in spelling to Cyberdyne Systems, and one of the weapons the marines use is a phase plasma pulse rifle, which Arnold asks for in the gun shop in the first Terminator movie. It doesn't mean the movies are in the same universe, it's just Cameron winking and nodding at fans who know his work.

Still, I'm not huge into Doom '16's story. It was only when I watched the upbeat, casual interviews with Hugo Martin that I put it together how over-the-top the intent was. I didn't realize this while playing, because it felt like it took itself a little too seriously. Now it's a bit more clear that there's a camp element. Part of me would rather see a more serious take on the story, but that's what Doom 3 did and it didn't really work; it ended up being unintentionally funny.

It might be that Doom just doesn't work when you try to expand on its plot. Between the original games, the embarrassingly juvenile novels, Doom 3, Doom '16 and that schlock-fest of a movie, the only story I really got into was the original. It was a paragraph long and told me everything I needed to know. But in the modern age you need cutscenes, and as short as Doom '16 tried to keep them, they still had to tell a story. A bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

[SimKoning]

@Goatlord: I agree regarding Doom3. Doom II is definitely a direct continuation of the original however, with "Thy Flesh Consumed" bridging the gap between the two. For example, the first map of Thy Flesh Consumed shows Demons teleporting en masse to Earth along with you (making the first map insanely difficult). "Inferno" also ends describing the invasion of Earth. "No Rest for the Living" is more of a side story directly following the events of Doom II. The Final Doom episodes are ambiguous as to who the protagonist is. Doom64 is a direct sequel to Doom II:

"Your fatigue was enormous, the price for encountering pure evil. Hell was a place no mortal was meant to experience. Stupid military doctors: their tests and treatments, were of little help. In the end, what did it matter - it was all classified and sealed. The nightmares continued. Demons, so many Demons; relentless, pouring through.

Far Away...

The planetary policy was clear. An absolute quarantine was guaranteed by apocalyptic levels of radiation. The empty dark corridors stand motionless, abandoned. The installations sealed.

The Present...

A long forgotten relay satellite barely executing, decayed by years of bombarding neutrons, activates and sends its final message to Earth. The satellites message was horrific, from the planetary void there came energy signatures unlike anything sampled before.

The classified archives are opened. The military episodes code named "DOOM" were not actually completed. A single entity with vast rejuvenation powers, masked by the extreme radiation levels, escaped detection. In its crippled state, it systematically altered decaying dead carnage back into corrupted living tissue.

The mutations are devastating. The Demons have returned even stronger and more vicious than before. As the only experienced survivor of the DOOM episode, your commission is re-activated. Your assignment is clear: MERCILESS EXTERMINATION."

And this was the ending:

To be clear, I recognize that this is all fun schlock. Part of the reason this was so fun for me was because I usually read and write hard science fiction, and this is a fun break from that. I'm also having fun re-reading all of the old Doom manuals and playing through the old games (with the Brutal and music mods). I was only able to rent them as a teenager, and I missed out on Doom64 and Final Doom.

[Janus3003]

I've never been convinced that Doom 2016 is a direct sequel to the previous games, and honestly been surprised at how many people have claimed it is. It always struck me as a brand new storyline that uses elements from the previous games, plus Easter eggs as was mentioned earlier.

Also, wasn't there something that called the First Age ruler of Hell "the Great Serpent?" Sounds like Satan to me.

EDIT
As far as liking the Doomguy, I wound up liking the Doomslayer just based on his actions in the game, such as fist bumping his doll and backing up VEGA.

[SimKoning]

I missed that detail in the Codex entry! It's from the one about the Hell Knights. It also mentions the "Guardian", which I assume was a Sentinel. The Great Serpent is obviously a reference to Satan. Looks like I'll need to make another revision.

*Edit* I guess it doesn't change much except I got the ages wrong. If it's to be consistent with what I wrote, the first age would be the original events, with the Great Serpent being another name for the Icon of Sin and the Guardian being the Doom Marine.

[Touchdown]

GoatLord said:

The similarity of the hell knights in Doom '16 to Doom 3 is probably due to the fact that they're a terrific design and they just decided to update it. Easter eggs like the soul cube are just that; easter eggs. I mean, there's a secret area in hell that contains Commander Keen's helmet; are we to believe that universe is somehow related, too?

Yeah, I was just running with the general logic, that these are all 'clues'. For instance, if the fact that the Doom Slayer stayed in Hell is supposed to imply a connection with DOOM64, we might as well say that the Soul Cube implies a connection with DOOM3. We need to have a clear definition of what we 'accept' as a reasonable proof and what is just an easter egg. So far people are kind of ignoring stuff that doesn't fit and interpret everything in a way that makes the theory seem legit.

Personally I'm more on the side that all of those 'hints' are at best nods to the previous entries in the franchise.

Either way, actually the theories that all franchises from a single creator are in the same universe are pretty popular. That all Pixar movies are in the same universe or even that Diablo, WarCraft and StarCraft are in the same universe.

Janus3003 said:

backing up VEGA.

I actually love that, that's one of the moments where being vague is intriguing rather than cryptic for the sake of being cryptic.

[Sig]

Backing up Vega on a Praetor chip is the big moment in which people should understand not to take it all so seriously.

[Chezza]

Based on this thread's information and discussion - I'm starting to believe the possibility that the Doom story uses ye old multiverse plot-line. From my understanding Hell is a dimension in itself and in all Doom games, Humanity tends to open a gateway to it. If this is the case, I'm more inclined to believe all the Doom universe revolve around the same Hell.

Rationale:
- Codex entries vaguely suggest the Doom marine has already dealt with similar situations long ago, this can lazily connect all the other Dooms to one universe
- The Armour definitely looks man made by familiar companies but within a different time-line (different universe / dimension)
- This justifies why the UAC found the Soul Cube from Doom 3 and the Doom Marine saw the remains of the icon of sin

[SimKoning]

Believe it or not, this is not me taking this stuff all seriously. If I were, I would be discussing things like the feasibility of terraforming Mars, wormhole travel and parallel universes etc.. This is me trying to make sense out of what was actually an incomplete writing job due to deadlines and a realization that plot is a secondary concern. That being said, they hired a Codex writer for reason. They know fans want *something*.

Regarding the Soul Cube, it should probably be viewed as an Easter egg. The Icon of Sin however is mentioned in the Codex more than once, so it's part of the backstory.

BTW, I went back and added the details that Janus3003 noticed I missed.

[Gerardo194]

@SimKoning, I like your theory about Doom 2016, it really make a good sense how the backstory could be like. I also agree your point about the Plutonia events taking place after Doom 2/NRFTL, because it clearly mentions the Hell's invasion of Earth and the remnants of demons were killed by ‘mopping-up’ squads, TNT takes place after that to me as well. This is a good explanation I wanted to see!
As well as, I am not taking this theory and any other seriouly, because nothing of this has been confirmed. An Idea based off of people were saying that this New Doom was a Doom 64 sequel I had thought this was possibly Argent D'Nur was another dimension where the Doom marine discovered after the events of Doom 64 or Argent D'Nur was a ancient civilization from Mars where our new hero was coming from, but I don't mind it so much. This is just a new story to me.

Also your theory is fun and interesting because it seems the Slayer's testaments are talking about us, talking about things we had done before as the protagonist of Doom.

[SimKoning]

Doom Slayer is NOT Original Doom Marine (I was wrong)

I was having a discussion with EarthrealmsChampion on Reddit under my last post about the logos and serial numbers found on the Praetor suit. Many fans, including myself, were thrown off by the fact that he is covered in English text, Arabic numerals, and what looked like a non-UAC logo. Why would an alien suit be covered in such things? EarthrealmsChampion argued that they were added after his suit was excavated. I didn’t think this made any sense because why would they label his suit with the logo of another company and serial numbers on top of it?
Well, I realized there was a simple way to test this: I started a new game and checked every object in the opening area, where he first comes out of the sarcophagus. And… it IS a UAC logo. Apparently, the UAC’s full name is “Union Aerospace Logistics Manufacture”, or alternately UAC or simply I/O Logistics Manufacture - they’re alternate names for the same company. So they must have been added after the fact, not before excavation. Thus there is no strong connection between this game and the original series, but… there is a very loose (no, they’re not in the same universe) connection to Doom3’s backstory that might hint at who the people of Argent D’Nur really are, and show that this is something Id has been considering for a while, not something they made up at the last minute.
The short version: The Doom Slayer is probably an ancient Martian warrior.
Spoilers obviously for people who have yet to go back and play Doom3
This is a Martian tablet from Doom3:That’s the great “Martian Hero” the one who saved the Martian people from eradication by using the Soul Cube.
This is a parchment with a very similar image of the Doom Slayer in virtually the same armor:
Of course, they are both based on the original Doom game cover art, but the point is that it’s showing the same basic concept for the character. Also note that the warrior in the background on the right has a visored helmet, not a medieval style helmet.

Again, this does not mean that Doom3 and and Doom’16 share the same continuity, just that they share a character. In Doom3 the Doom Marine was just a backstory element, whereas in the second reboot, he is the protagonist. With that in mind, let’s see if it makes more sense of the new game. The following is another possible timeline, but with the references to the original games stripped out and information from the conceptually related Doom3 backstory used to fill some gaps.
Prehistory

In the first Age of Ascension: An advanced civilization of both human and alien origin (see notes below) is established on Mars tens of thousands, or perhaps over one hundred thousand years ago. They begin experimenting with higher dimensional travel, creating portals, or wormhole-like gateways to allow for instant travel between worlds. They unwittingly open a gateway to a netherworld, Hell, and their civilization is destroyed by Demonic forces. The Martian aliens sacrifice themselves to create the Soul Cube.

The Guardian, perhaps an uplifted human, who will later become known as the Doom Slayer, uses the Soul Cube to defeat the Great Serpent (Satan), but his soul or body is trapped in Hell in a path of “perpetual torment” in the process. The remnants of the Martian civilization "ascend" to other worlds, one of them being Earth, where they inspired legends of gods and angels, and the other being Argent D’Nur, another, more distant planet and home of the Wraiths.

(This is based on the conceptual background going back to Doom3 and the Doom’16 codex entries. Slayer’s Testament I mentions the first age, and a first battle, and that the Doom Slayer was burned by the “embers of Armageddon” and “tainted beyond ascension”. Wraiths I refers to the First Age of Ascension as being when Argent D’Nur was colonized. The Codex entry on the Hell Knights says they flanked the “Great Serpent” in the “First Age” before he was overthrown by the “Guardian”. The Soul Cube, while technically an Easter egg, can be found in Doom’16, and may be the weapon the Doom Slayer used to defeat the Great Serpent and the forces of Hell.

The "Seraphim" may refer to the original/native Martian race, as their face on the Soul Cube shows they are not human [they have four eyes]. Slayer's Testament III says the Seraphim "bestowed upon him terrible power and speed", so he may be an uplifted human of sorts.)

The Second Age: The Martians colonize Argent D’Nur and Earth. On Argent, they encounter the Wraiths. The deify them and draw power from them, allowing them to stop Hell’s attempts at invasion once again. In Hell, the Doom Slayer goes on a genocidal campaign against the demons. He destroys the Baalgar demon, the Titan, on the Great Steppe and routes their forces.

(The colonization of Earth, which is touched on in Doom3, explains the similarity to Earth culture, language, and armor. The Doom’16 Codex also touches on the similarity of Argent architecture to that of some Earth cultures. While the Doom Slayer is not a normal human, he is clearly human, perhaps a member of a race of superhumans originally uplifted by the Martians. The remnants of their civilization colonized another world, Argent, and some returned to Earth.)

The Third Age: Demon priest Deag Grav deceives a Night Sentinel grieving over the loss of his son. The “heathen” sentinel allows Deag to overthrow the Wraiths, turning them into The Well. In repayment for his treachery, the night sentinel’s son is turned into the Icon of Sin and is used as a weapon against the Sentinels. Argent D’Nur is eventually conquered and assimilated into Hell.

In an act of vengeance, the Betrayer, known by the demons as a heretical wretch, forges new armor for the Doom Slayer, rendering him even more powerful than before. Fearing he would remain unstoppable, the Demon Priests laid a trap for the Doom Slayer, bringing the Blood Keep down onto him, removing his armor, and sealing him inside a stone sarcophagus.

(The Demons refer to the Sentinels as “wretches” and “heathens/heretics” in two different entries, so it makes sense that the “wretch” that forged his armor would be a fallen Sentinel)

The Fourth Age: Humanity opens up a new portal to Mars, ushering in a new era for the forces of Hell and their new leader, the Aranea Imperatrix.