Any my other question...If the three were exiled for focusing on the human world instead of heaven, how did this differ than the sin war? Since the dark exile clearly happened after the sin war I am confused what they did differently during the sin war than after.
The quest for knowledge is honorable indeed, and we should all arm ourselves with it for the coming of the third game.
But one should take into consideration that a lot of what little we know to have been true yesterday might already be false today, and it will only be until tomorrow that we might sort everything out.
For the first question, I am assuming that you are referring to capturing of Baal that resulted in the shattering of his Soulstone.
It could be that the shattering of the Soulstone was an accident, but I would rather think that it was done by Baal on purpose.
When Baal finds Marius in order to retrieve his Soulstone, he tells him that he did exactly what he was meant to do, by that he might have meant that Marius did the right thing from his point of view, but it also could mean that Marius was destined for his role in the return of the Three long before he was even born.
All that Marius had done were two things, pulling the Soulstone from Tal Rasha's chest at a most critical moment and allowing for Baal's release, and not destroying Baal's Soulstone and thus allowing Baal to take control over it and use in to corrupt the Worldstone.
All of that was very dependent in the fact that Marius, for some reason, followed Diablo, still in the form of the Dark Wandered, and that Diablo for some reason, left him alive and allowed him to follow him.
In the end, Baal was able to corrupt the Worldstone with just his shard of his original Soulstone, and so it seems that if it was shattered on purpose, it did not come in contrast with his intentional use for it.
For the second question, I have posted a very long and detailed summery of the time line that was a given until a few weeks ago, and a few minutes later, Blizzard had released a new version of the time line, one you are probably aware of, probably on purpose. http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14611
For the third question, Inarius has two given background stories, not necessarily contradicting as I have suggested in the past, but most presumably are.
The old one, which ends with Inarius being deformed and imprisoned in a hall of mirrors, and the new one, given with the new Sin War trilogy which establishes the lore of the game, in which he was given to Mephisto and his fate is unknown.
As you can see, the composition of the old time line places the fall of Izual after the new story of Inarius and before the old story.
For the fourth question, in the Sin War trilogy it is revealed that when the world of Sanctuary was created buy the rouge Angels and Demons led Inarius, the Worldstone was created in order to conceal the existence of this new world from both Heaven and Hell.
At the beginning of the trilogy, the leaders of Hell is already aware of the existence of Sanctuary, and how they came to know about it is still unknowon.
As the trilogy goes on, the leaders of Heaven also discover Sanctuary, this was probably the result of releasing an amount power too big that it could not have escaped the attention of Heaven even with the function of the Worldstone to conceal it.
Thanks that definitely helped clarify some of my questions. In a follow up on the sin war question....
[2] -1755 The events of the Sin War Trilogy. – 3000 years before the darkening of Tristram. (28) (5) -480 The Sin War begins.
Those two dates confuse me. Does this mean the Sin War Trilogy is not part of the actual sin war where angels and demons vie for humans? Is the trilogy like a prequel to the actual event?
[2] -1755 The events of the Sin War Trilogy. – 3000 years before the darkening of Tristram. (28)
(5) -480 The Sin War begins.
Those two dates confuse me. Does this mean the Sin War Trilogy is not part of the actual sin war where angels and demons vie for humans? Is the trilogy like a prequel to the actual event?
1.) Why would Baal want to destroy his soul stone if the three had planned on corrupting them?
2.) Does anyone have a timeline of the Sin War? Or can really explain it to me. There are too many sources about it.
3.) Izual's descent to hell took place after Inarius was destroyed?
4.) How did heaven/hell discover Sanctuary?