Kingdom of Shadow is the hardest of the books to place in the timeline. The best evidence I could come up with was actually from a lack of evidence.
Kingdom of Shadow is a prequel to Moon of the Spider. So we know it occurs before the Moon of the Spider but since there is no mention of the Worldstone (where as Moon of the Spider clearly talks about the Worldstone) it is assumed that this book takes place before it is destroyed. Zayl traveled from Ureh to Westmarch and would have likely had to pass through the Rogue Monastary (apparently the only path to Westmarch if traveling through the twin seas, which Zayl very likely would have). With Andariel and many other demons out and about during DII, and no mention of a hazardous journey to Westmarch, it is unlikely that he was traveling during the events of Diablo II, but was actually in Ureh at the time. Its more likely that Zayl left Ureh to travel to Westmarch after Diablo II, which means that the main events of The Kingdom of Shadow must have happened at the same time as Diablo II and the destruction of the Worldstone.
As I said, I place Ureh here because it doesn't have a quote to support itself.
Interesting theory, but it seems a little odd that the Kingdom of Shadow could have taken place during or after the events of Diablo II. This is because (spoiler) Diablo himself plays a huge role in the book, and while he was busy traveling and releasing his brothers in DII, I doubt he would have had much free time to influence the events of Kingdom of Shadow. That is, if I understand the story correctly. Big spoiler coming this time, beware!
Diablo had influenced Juris Khan long before the events of Kingdom of Shadow (long in terms of the mortal plane, not the world in which the true Ureh existed). However, as I understand the ending, Diablo himself basically POSSESED Juris Khan or at least his ethereal projection. In order to do this, Diablo must have been actively performing some spell at the time. Also, he intended to enter sanctuary via Ureh. This to me does not make sense if he was already IN sanctuary, even masquerading as the dark wanderer.
Spoiler over. Now it seems to me that if Diablo was able to influence these events, he must have been alive and unoccupied. This rules out anywhere from DI to the end of LoD (because who knows what happened when the worldstone was destroyed). This brings up another point, however. How long was Diablo trapped below Tristram before the events of DI? I never (regretfully) played DI and I am very iffy on the lore around that game. Anyway, the point remains, I doubt this took place anywhere between DI and LoD. It could, however, have happened after LoD, because (to my knowledge, I haven't yet read it) Moon of the Spider mentions the destruction of the Worldstone, but doesn't give any time frame. So it could have been years after LoD, or even the 20 years until D3. Who knows, it could be after that for all we know! Imagine visiting Ureh in D3 before Kentril Dumon and company visited it. That would certainly give me the heebie jeebies.
As to the original point of the thread, I think it is very likely we will be visitng Ureh. Those images look very alike, as does the third picture from above. Also, Ureh being on the map is a good sign. Great find MD and all!
For #2, I'm betting they got rid of most of the corpses so that the game would run smoothly at such an early stage. In other words, I would think all of the corpses in the final game will stay and not fade away, but in the video they only faded so that the engine (which I assume they haven't perfected yet) would run well during the presentation.
The reason I believe all corpses will stay there is because of the HUGE variety of things they were used for in D2, and also- I remember seeing a screenshot showing a raise skeleton skill for the witch doctor, and that whole avatar of the fallen shaman.... if he is a fallen shaman, he's going to have to raise his dead fallen somehow.
I'm assuming that's the deal with Xiansai... it'll probably play an indirect role in this game, i.e. NPC's mentioning it, maybe even classes originating there...
But did you think that explosion was large enough to destroy the foundation of the mountain, not to mention the bedrock beneath? It looks like a huge mountain (though there is no way to see the scale of the map, so I don't know). I personally don't think this was a direct result from the explosion, maybe more of an after effect, seeing as how the Worldstone was basically the foundation of all of Sanctuary... Maybe the crater is where demons from hell and angels from the high heavens come into Sanctuary...
Who knows, I'm probably just reading too much into a little detail the developers added to show the evolution of the world in the 20 years gone by.
Now, lets all take a break from all the arguing and speculate a bit about the lore. I don't know if this has been mentioned before (I didn't see it in my... brief search), but looking at the Sanctuary maps for D2 and D3 show some very interesting differences.
D2-
D2 Edited, Includes places mentioned in the Sin War Trilogy and other novels.
D3-
Mainly, two things of note I've seen. First of all, Mount Arreat has been replaced with Arreat crater. This implies the destruction of the Worldstone has done significant damage to the outlying region. You can even see that the very earth itself broke apart into 3 more pieces. Veryyy interesting.
Second, the Amazon Islands have been renamed Skovos Isles. I guess this is more of a game tidbit, but it certainly implies the Amazon won't be returning (not that many of us thought it would, seeing as how we can have male and female versions of each class).
That's basically all I noticed, besides the naming of the before unamed island of Xiansai, but there are a bunch of threads about that...
I highly doubt Blizzard will incorporate guns as a class of weapon in Diablo 3. They've said many times they want to appeal to their longtime fans, and I'm sure they realize guns would displease us.
However, I don't see a problem if they create a unique ranged weapon that's basically a gun. Something called Larzuk's _____ would fit with the OP's observation... maybe it would ignore target defense, but have an absurdly slow attack speed? I wouldn't put it past Blizzard to do something like that.
But guns as entire class of weapon? I very much doubt that.
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Interesting theory, but it seems a little odd that the Kingdom of Shadow could have taken place during or after the events of Diablo II. This is because (spoiler) Diablo himself plays a huge role in the book, and while he was busy traveling and releasing his brothers in DII, I doubt he would have had much free time to influence the events of Kingdom of Shadow. That is, if I understand the story correctly. Big spoiler coming this time, beware!
Diablo had influenced Juris Khan long before the events of Kingdom of Shadow (long in terms of the mortal plane, not the world in which the true Ureh existed). However, as I understand the ending, Diablo himself basically POSSESED Juris Khan or at least his ethereal projection. In order to do this, Diablo must have been actively performing some spell at the time. Also, he intended to enter sanctuary via Ureh. This to me does not make sense if he was already IN sanctuary, even masquerading as the dark wanderer.
Spoiler over. Now it seems to me that if Diablo was able to influence these events, he must have been alive and unoccupied. This rules out anywhere from DI to the end of LoD (because who knows what happened when the worldstone was destroyed). This brings up another point, however. How long was Diablo trapped below Tristram before the events of DI? I never (regretfully) played DI and I am very iffy on the lore around that game. Anyway, the point remains, I doubt this took place anywhere between DI and LoD. It could, however, have happened after LoD, because (to my knowledge, I haven't yet read it) Moon of the Spider mentions the destruction of the Worldstone, but doesn't give any time frame. So it could have been years after LoD, or even the 20 years until D3. Who knows, it could be after that for all we know! Imagine visiting Ureh in D3 before Kentril Dumon and company visited it. That would certainly give me the heebie jeebies.
As to the original point of the thread, I think it is very likely we will be visitng Ureh. Those images look very alike, as does the third picture from above. Also, Ureh being on the map is a good sign. Great find MD and all!
The reason I believe all corpses will stay there is because of the HUGE variety of things they were used for in D2, and also- I remember seeing a screenshot showing a raise skeleton skill for the witch doctor, and that whole avatar of the fallen shaman.... if he is a fallen shaman, he's going to have to raise his dead fallen somehow.
But did you think that explosion was large enough to destroy the foundation of the mountain, not to mention the bedrock beneath? It looks like a huge mountain (though there is no way to see the scale of the map, so I don't know). I personally don't think this was a direct result from the explosion, maybe more of an after effect, seeing as how the Worldstone was basically the foundation of all of Sanctuary... Maybe the crater is where demons from hell and angels from the high heavens come into Sanctuary...
Who knows, I'm probably just reading too much into a little detail the developers added to show the evolution of the world in the 20 years gone by.
Now, lets all take a break from all the arguing and speculate a bit about the lore. I don't know if this has been mentioned before (I didn't see it in my... brief search), but looking at the Sanctuary maps for D2 and D3 show some very interesting differences.
D2-
D2 Edited, Includes places mentioned in the Sin War Trilogy and other novels.
D3-
Mainly, two things of note I've seen. First of all, Mount Arreat has been replaced with Arreat crater. This implies the destruction of the Worldstone has done significant damage to the outlying region. You can even see that the very earth itself broke apart into 3 more pieces. Veryyy interesting.
Second, the Amazon Islands have been renamed Skovos Isles. I guess this is more of a game tidbit, but it certainly implies the Amazon won't be returning (not that many of us thought it would, seeing as how we can have male and female versions of each class).
That's basically all I noticed, besides the naming of the before unamed island of Xiansai, but there are a bunch of threads about that...
So, discuss!
However, I don't see a problem if they create a unique ranged weapon that's basically a gun. Something called Larzuk's _____ would fit with the OP's observation... maybe it would ignore target defense, but have an absurdly slow attack speed? I wouldn't put it past Blizzard to do something like that.
But guns as entire class of weapon? I very much doubt that.