Blizzard may have accidentally revealed that Rathma is in the Diablo 4 cinematic

The internet is full of theories about the identity of the pale man who summoned Lilith in the Diablo 4 BlizzCon trailer. The intial reaction pointed to Inarius and Lilith’s firstborn: Rathma (born Linarian). Still, there are plenty of reasons why he wouldn’t want his mother brought back into the world of Sanctuary. But thanks to Overwatch YouTuber TeKo, we may have an answer as to who the trailer’s mystery character is.

TeKo uncovered editor tags embedded in the cinematic after importing the cinematic — which was taken from the official Diablo 4 press kit — into Adobe After Effects. These tags seem to identify changes made while the cinematic was being edited, and two of them specifically refer to Rathma:

• added FA 6045 for reflection of cleric in rathma’s eyes (FA_6040; FA_6045)
• Added 6055 for reflection of rathma in clerics eyes (FA_6040; FA_6045; FA_6050; FA_6055)
• end of reflections (FA_6050; FA_6055; FA_6060)

The markers are placed on a scene that starts at 6:20 in the trailer, where we see close-ups of each character’s eyes, where you see a reflection of the other. FA_60xx number refers to markers placed at specific time stamps throughout the cinematic, and the markers referenced here are placed from the first shot of the mystery figure’s eyes to the moment the cleric’s eyes close. Referring to the figure as Rathma in these notes is a pretty big hint as to his identity.

But it’s important to note that the tags start with FA_1001 — and outside of the above comments, the other tags have no actual content. The comments could mean that these were the only changes performed in After Effects, but they’re definitely an oddity. Do they really mean the Rathma speculation is legit?

We did confirm the find by loading the video into After Effects ourselves: these tags do exist in the cinematic currently available on Blizzard’s press site.

But editing tags in a cinematic aren’t necessarily canon. Until Blizzard states to the masses that this is Rathma, it’s not fixed in stone — which means Blizzard could change their mind about how this character fits into the story. After all, it’s not very tinfoil-hat to point to the Lord of Envy (Vidian), who can change from his demonic shape and inhabits the Temple of the Firstborn with the Blood Cult. Perhaps he or his later followers are responsible for the summoning — blood ritual, blood cult, the temple where Lilith and Inarius enter Sanctuary. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, which could mean we’re just seeing a Rathma lookalike.

Regardless, it’s a pretty funny situation. All the smoke and mirrors around the summoner, only to have his identity revealed by an editing artifact? That’d be a heck of a whoops.

What do you think? Is this Rathma, in all his bone-white, telekinetic glory? Is Blizzard trying to throw us off the trail? Or will it end up being someone else entirely, someone new?