#Ranger's Apprentice x Diablo III

[flowerfletching]

Okay so I have a LOT of AUs which made it a bit difficult to decide which one to use for the assessment but I think this one will work fine. The AU I will be presenting is a Ranger's Apprentice and Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls.

I understand that there are many ways that this can work (Ex: Morgarath being a prime evil and rangers being the demonhunters that have to stop him) but here's the way I've done it:

Set in The Early Years

As it turns out, Halt was apprenticed to two people at once. One of his mentors was Pritchard and the other one was a man named Fiacre that was a demonhunter. Halt started the apprenticeships at about the same time, it was actually so close that Fiacre and Pritchard almost found him at the exact same time. And while yes it was extremely difficult to try to juggle both apprenticeships, Halt somehow found a way to manage it. Naturally, this spawned some differences from the canon universe.

An example of this is when Halt climbed the mountain to spy on Morgarath. Instead of just figuring out what was going on and leaving, he decided that he was not going to give Morgarath the chance to cause any more trouble, at least for awhile anyways. So he used what he learned from Fiacre to blow up as much as he could and then left, having to escape in the process to avoid dying himself. That one decision would take Morgarath years to recover from (15-16 of them perhaps?) since Halt had left him with almost nothing.

When Halt went to Crowley to report on it, while his friend was greatful that Morgarath wouldn't be able to cause any more damage, he also got pissed at Halt for how risky it was. As Crowley was chewing Halt out for nearly getting himself killed, Fiacre walked in. After Halt's second mentor, now only since Pritchard passed, was explained to what the situation was, he also got a bit angry at Halt for his actions. Though, he didn't talk to much about it since there was a very important reason for his visit.

Fiacre explained that he would need to go off and exterminate the evil from his realm and that the task was so dangerous that he may not even survive. Naturally, Halt didn't want to lose his only other mentor, or in his mind, his other father figure. That resulted in Halt telling Fiacre that he was coming with. Both Crowley and Fiacre both tried to tell Halt no, saying that he was needed here to help rebuild the kingdom, but Halt said that it sounded like he was needed far more in the universe that had evil running rampant that needed to be stopped. They conceeded that Halt was right and that it would make sense, that didn't mean that they were fine with it though. But then, Crowley said he'd come with.

The other two tried to tell him no but Crowley pointed out that they'd be more likely to make it back alive if there was someone else to help them. They tried bringing up that he was needed in his position but Crowley said that they could put Farrel in charge until they got back, being that he had a badly broken leg at the time. Halt continued to try and say no but Fiacre decided that Crowley could come with as well. When Halt tried again to make it so that Crowley didn't have to come with, he got told something about the fact that he just almost got himself killed so his opinion didn't count.

They left soon after that conversation, after they'd gotten more prepared and left a letter explaining where they would be for awhile, of course. They teleported to Fiacre's universe, teleporting being something that Halt and Crowley were not used to, and landed on the outskirts of Tristram. And with that, the future acts were ready to unfold.

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Because the war with Morgarath didn't happen (since Halt blew everything up lmao-) I needed to find another way to work the next generation into the story. Basically what I decided was that the main five children (Horace, Alyss, George, Jenny, and Will) were all souls that Malthael had taken too early, ones that hadn't even had a chance to experience life yet. Once he was defeated, they wanted to save those five but they didn't have anywhere that they could go. That was until they remembered that they'd had Baron Arald build a ward or orphaned children just in case the war with Morgarath, which seemed inevitable at the time, did actually come upon them. So, they decided to place them there.

The thing is that the infants already had names that they would have gotten, had they had the opportunity to live. Their names were written down on a paper that was almost bonded with their souls, though the papers got more difficult to read due to corruption which made them a bit harder to decipher on each child. Then they reached the last child, who had almost disappeared due to the intense damage done to its new soul, that had a paper that had been corrupted so badly that they couldn't even figure out the last name. That last child was Will.

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I hope that I was able to explain this AU good enough since I absolutely love it but if I didn't or if there are any questions, please let me know! Not gonna lie I also wanna turn this AU into a fanfic but we'll see if I can actually bring myself to write it TvT