🌑 DIABLO IV - SEASON OF THE FORSAKEN DEPTHS
Patch 1.5.0 – “Echoes of the Hollow King”

🎬 Cinematic Flavor Intro (Marketing Trailer Script)
“They called it a myth... A whisper beneath the tombs. But something ancient stirs below—the Hollow King returns, and with him, the forgotten layers of Sanctuary will awaken. You must descend... or the world will fall from beneath our feet.”

Season Start Date: May 10, 2025
Season Theme: Descent into madness. Discover a hidden realm beneath Sanctuary corrupted by an ancient entity lost to time: N’Zurath, the Hollow King. Only the bravest will survive The Forsaken Depths.

⚔️ NEW MECHANIC: THE FORSAKEN DEPTHS
Fissures randomly appear across Sanctuary. Entering one transports players into a procedurally generated “Depth Layer.”

Each layer features:

Modified dungeon layouts with corruption mechanics (rotating debuffs, enemy variants, light/dark zones).

An Abyss Key needed to descend to the next layer.

A Hollow Boss at layer 3, 6, and 10.

Difficulty ramps fast. Layer 10 = NM100+ level.

🧩 Depth Rewards:

Vault Crystals (currency for Mythic rerolling)

Hollow Relics

Boss Tokens (used to summon specific Hollow Bosses)

Exclusive Depth-bound cosmetics (see below)

🧠 ITEMIZATION 2.0: SMARTER, SHARPER, MEANER
🔧 Loot Streamlining
Smart Loot 2.0: Gear now favors your most-used skills + build type.

No Useless Rolls: Affixes irrelevant to your class no longer drop.

Greater Rarity Weighting: Higher rarity now = higher item power and tighter affix ranges.

🧿 NEW GEAR TIER: MYTHIC ITEMS
Drop between 925–950 Item Power

Combine one fixed Mythic power + two random affixes

Cannot be Enchanted—but can be perfected with Vault Crystals

🌌 HOLLOW RELICS – THE CHASE BEGINS
12 ultra-rare relics, one per slot (2 ring variants)

Drop Rate: ~0.3% from NM100+ Hollow Bosses

Limit: Only one can be equipped at a time

Sample Relics:

Class	Hollow Relic	Effect
Sorcerer	Crown of the Deep Well	Mana costs are halved while below 50% HP
Druid	Fang of Ralzeth	Shapeshift forms gain 15% DR and bleed enemies on crit
Rogue	Ebonsteel Veil	Enter stealth after using a Basic skill; stealth breaks on attack
Necromancer	Zarkul’s Spine	Bone Spear pierces all and refunds 10 Essence per enemy hit
Barbarian	Vortex Gauntlets	Leap pulls enemies to center and deals 50% more damage
💀 HOLLOW PANTHEON – 10 ELITE BOSSES
Unlockable by collecting Boss Tokens in Fissures.

Optional Nightmare Modifier Mode adds a second phase to each.

Drops include:

Cosmetics

Class-Specific Hollow Relics

Ancestral Glyphs (used in new Paragon expansion)

Boss Example:
“The Veil-Touched Warden”

Phase 1: Summons shadow clones.

Phase 2 (Nightmare): Clones become real enemies with full damage.

🌀 NEW ENDGAME: VAULT RUNS
Endgame roguelike dungeon runs

Players build “loadout cards” before entry (modifiers + objectives)

Vaults have:

No maps

Light source management (new mechanic)

Permadeath floors (reset Vault progress if you die here)

🏆 Rewards:

Vault Crystals (used to perfect Mythic items)

Class-specific cosmetic sets

Vault Glyphs for custom Paragon node enhancements

🧠 QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES
🟢 Loadout Save/Swap (up to 5 builds per character)

🟣 Auto-Salvage Filters (by affix, rarity, item level)

🔵 Color-Coded Loot Drops (custom filters available)

🟡 Crafting Overhaul: You can now extract affixes directly into your codex.

⚔️ PVP + LADDER UPDATES
🩸 Bloodfields Rework:
Now persistent zones with faction-based PvP

Daily kill quests + Hollow Shard currency for cosmetics

🌍 Abyss Ladder:
Seasonal leaderboard of:

Highest Depth Layer cleared

Fastest Vault Run

PvP Rating

🏅 Top 100 Players per category earn:

Exclusive mount

Depth-themed wings

Season badge + forum icon

🎁 SEASONAL JOURNEY REWARDS
Chapter	Reward
1	Depth Portal Cosmetic
3	Mythic Crafting Cache
5	Mount: “Hollow Warbeast”
7	Transmog: Hollow King’s Armor Set
8	Title: “The Abysswalker”
Would you like some art direction concepts or a visual mockup of what the UI, new armor sets, or boss might look like next? I can whip up promo images or seasonal UI concepts for flavor.