Atanna Khan

Atanna Khan is Lord Juris Khan's daughter. A young and very beautiful woman with smooth skin like alabaster, green eyes, and cascading red hair. She is one of the main characters in the novel Diablo: The Kingdom of Shadow.

Her father had succumbed to madness and corruption when the vision of Archangel Mirakodus, who turned out to be Diablo in disguise, convinced Lord Juris Khan to cast a spell to transcend the city of Ureh to Heaven. Except the spell would instead take them to Hell.

Gregus Mazi, one of the mages and priests weaving the spellwork, noticed a rogue spell hidden in the complex ritual would take all the casters' life force, and broke away from the ritual. This destabilized the ritual and Ureh ended up in a timeless limbo between Heaven and Hell.

Archangel Mirakodus (alias Diablo) convinced Lord Juris Khan to link himself to him, and offered the life force of all the citizens of Ureh, including his daughter Atanna.

Diablo entered Atanna, and she felt the horror. Yet, she was entranced to follow her father's orders and to venerate the Archangel Mirakodus.

Atanna served as a loyal mage to her father, and helped him create the Key to Light and The Key to Shadow. The latter was placed at the bottom of a cavern beneath the palace of Ureh. The Key to Light was placed atop Mountain Nymyr. This would allow Ureh to materialize permanently in the mortal plane.

Centuries ago, Gregus Mazi returned to Ureh with the help of Captain Humbart Wessel. Gregus released Priest Tobio from his prison, and both separated to get rid of both the Key to Light and the Key to Shadow.

Lord Juris Khan killed Tobio, and cursed Gregus who became stone around a stalactite, kept alive for eternity to serve as a guardian of the Key to Shadow. Tobio managed to throw the Key to Light on the other side of the mountain Nymyr out of reach.

Thus, Lord Juris Khan awaited patiently for someone with magical prowess to come near Ureh to recover the Key to Light for him, and to help with the spell that would make Ureh return to the mortal plane.

Quov Tsin, and the mercenaries camped near Ureh. This was the opportunity Khan needed. Princess Atanna requested her father to spare Captain Kentril Dumon for herself. She wanted his company for all eternity.

Atanna manipulated Captain Kentril Dumon with her sweet and charm voice and beauty. She asked Kentril to convince Quov Tsin the vizjerei to make her father change his mind about recreating the spell that would trascend Ureh from their current timeless limbo toward Heaven.

This turned out to be a manipulation. All this time Juris Khan planned through Archangel Mirakodus (aka Diablo) to return to the physical mortal plane in order to create a permanent gateway between Hell and Sanctuary and other realms.

Sending Atanna to do this boon, Kentril would gain riches and wed Atanna. On the other hand, Kentril would have convinced Quov Tsin to sate his greed for magic knowledge. Quov Tsin would have access to the library for years to come.

Atanna loved Kentril obsessively, but in the end she betrayed her father and saved Kentril. Atanna was sent to the top of Nymyr to stop Kentril and Gorst from reaching the Key to Light. Instead of hurling lightning at Kentril, she summoned the citizens of Ureh, dry husks of bodies to climb the mountain after him.

This gave him enough time to reach the Key to Light. Kentril jumped off the top of Nymyr to sacrifice in order to make sure the Key would shatter when he fell. Lord Juris Khan prevented his fall and commanded Kentril to return the Key to Light to the top of Nymyr. Once the sunlight had touched the Key, Ureh would have returned to the mortal plane.

Instead, Kentril threw the Key and it shattered on impact against teh ground. Lord Juris Khan and all the citizens melted away, except for Atanna. She managed to slow the descent of Kentril's fall. This saved his life. Atanna stretched her hands forward from the high balcony looking down far below at Kentril.

The sunlight reached the balcony, and oddly her body did not melt like the other citizens and her father. She simply faded away.

Speculation

Atanna might have vanished with the ethereal Ureh back to the timeless limbo.

  Contrary to the above writer's opinion:

In the book, as Atanna slowed Kentril's fall to the earth, thus saving him, Kentril sees her as she "faded away" when touched by the sunlight. This is unusual because all other denizens of Ureh had been burnt away in their zombified forms (when touched by the sunlight). To me this suggests that Atanna's sins have been forgiven by the heavenly forces and instead of her soul being damned to hell or, as the previous writer of this section had suggested, she revert to being stuck in limbo again (which would have been a hellish punishment in solitude). Her good deed in not outright killing Kentril when he tried to sieze the crystal and then her saving of him by not allowing him to fall to his death caused her to deserve forgiveness. She may have gone to Heaven. It at least seems that it was anything but Hell.

References

Diablo: The Kingdom of Shadow