The identity of the free pet that Worldwide Invitational Paris attendees received with a code in their goodie bag has been a closely guarded secret, with the identity not known even at the WWI itself. Yesterday, Bornakk broke the silence on the pet and announced that after patch 2.4.3 goes live, WWI attendees will be able to turn in their pet codes for their own miniature version of Diablo's Archangel Tyrael!

Tyrael, as you may remember, is an angel that assists the Horadrim -- and later the heroes of Diablo 2 -- in fighting back the Prime Evils as they attempt to assault and take over the world of Sanctuary. He is one of the few angels who will directly assist humanity in fighting Hell, even when he is specifically forbidden from interfering by Heaven itself. He eventually destroys the Worldstone after Baal corrupts it at the end of the Lord of Destruction expansion.

So far, his fate after that has not been told, although it seems practically a given that he will appear in Diablo 3 in some capacity, as the official Diablo 3 site features his visage prominently.

It's a bit easier to understand why the identity of the pet was kept so secret now. After all, a Tyrael pet would almost certainly betray the whole Diablo 3 thing prematurely. There's not even any pictures of the pet to be found yet, although Bornakk promises that there will be some posted on the official site soon.

Still, the wait for something this big was probably worth it, and hopefully we'll have more pet details for you in the coming days. Of course, Alex asks the most pertinent question: Will it fight with the Diablo pet? Seriously, it should. It'd be like the Clockwork Rocket Bots, except about a thousand times cooler.

Speaking of the coolest pet ever, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to check Ebay -- and stare at the ever skyrocketing prices for the Tyrael pet with a single tear running down my cheek. Oh well, they did give the Europeans servers a free Murloc pet that one time. That totally means that they should make a free Tyrael pet for the American servers, just to even things out. Come on, Blizzard, work with me on this!

[Via MMO-Champion]

Edit: Commenter darkra sent along this picture of the pet, which apparently showed up in the 2.4.3 files after today's PTR Maintenance. He actually looks sort of cute!