Spider Kingdom fan expansion concept

[babo7000]

Not a fan of Nerubian lore (no idea why), but the effort you have put and continue to put into this is amazing. More thought out than Cata which is saying something, considering an entire company made that vs 1 person.

Bravo!

[Golden Yak]

Beasties!

Cold Ones

The reptilian beings known as the Cold Ones are a primordial race that arose before the Titans came to bring order to Azeroth, one of the few intelligent living species to evolve without nurturing from the ancient Makers. Arising under the baleful gaze of the Old Gods, the Cold Ones developed into a hateful and malicious race, their reptilian brains absent of conscience or empathy. The pact that they have made with the Old Gods predates the arrival of the Titans, and the Cold Ones serve the will of their dark masters in unknowable ways, carving out altars and monuments to them in the darkness of Azeroth's underworld.

Their hulking bodies are heavily muscled and armored in scales as tough as any forged armor. They fight with raking talons and powerful jaws, and they carry weapons made of carved rock and bone. Their spell-casters are wiry, whip-strong creatures who wield elemental magicks, and the elemental beings they command have been twisted into unrecognizable horrors after eons of enslavement in the darkness. Their eyes are a frightening red, and they glare at their foes with an intellect as old as the stars and as cold as the darkness between them.

Tarrask

The towering Tarrask is a frightful creature apparently related to the evil Cold Ones. Whether they are a natural offshoot of the ancient race or some twisted creation of the Old Gods in unknown, but only a handful of these monstrosities exist, ceaselessly traveling across the sunken Black Sands of Zhun, deep in Azeroth's underworld. Heeding some eldritch call only they can hear, the Tarrasks never stop, never sleep or eat, never rest, but merely walk their endless path, taking years to complete a circuit of the desert and then beginning again.

Appearing as a massive reptilian humanoid, they are covered in thick scales that can deflect a ballista bolt, and their massive talons can cleave through armor, flesh, and bone with a single swipe. Tarrask tend to ignore everything unless something crosses their path or they are attacked directly - anything that seeks to bar their path is met with their titanic fury, and they have decimated entire legions in their rampages, before returning once more to their endless march.

Endless One

Arbiters of C'Thun's will, the Endless Ones have been called from their extra-dimensional exile by the prayers of the Cold Ones. They bring them with arcane and eldritch technology unlike anything Azeroth, and perhaps the universe beyond, has ever known.

***********

You can still add the Mantid part into the story. They already warn the player that once their master (Y'Shaarj) return, they are willing to betray the Horde and the Alliance.

I really can't. I already worked out the story and there isn't any room to bring them in and do them any justice without a major overhaul, which I really don't want to do. Like I said, I might do a short write-up about things I'd have done differently, like including the mantid and having the Newbreed be hybrids of all the bug races from the get-go. The Newbreed still have a critical enough role to play as it is.

That journal entry was amazing... and while I know its been said a hundred times, Blizzard should seriously hire you. You've practically given them all the concept work for a new expansion!

If/when they add more Azjol-Nerub content, I'd be interested to see if I've managed to anticipate any of the elements they'd explore. I think I've managed to tune my thinking to at least some of Blizzard's wavelengths - you'd be amazed how much stuff I was planning to do that they beat me to the punch with in Mists of Pandaria (flesh-shaping magic, lizardmen, an Old God who dies and unleashes a dire curse and whose name starts Y' - swear to god, not making that up).

Usually, I think fan expansion ideas are hokey. But this actually looks pretty cool. I think it's because the underground aspect reminds me a lot of Salvatore's Dark Elves.

Thanks. It's funny, I put in the arach'layn last minute as a brief nod to those very same dark elves, and they wound up becoming possibly the most important faction in the game. Just something about spider elves...

It's a really cool concept. You should flesh it out with a wider variety of mobs though, three or four new races ain't gonna cut it, since it'd turn pretty linear very fast.

There's plenty more beasties to be seen in the Bestiary proper. And more on the way!

The one thing you should consider the most, though, is that cave-zones easily turn extremely boring. I know you've made maps showing them, and they look cool, but if you ever make concept art of the different zones, make sure to make them really different from each other.

That's the idea. They'll be as distinct as surface zones in places like Northrend. I looked at the previous expansion zones as following distinct 'themes'. Outland = alien landscapes, Northrend = northern environments, Cata = the four elements, etc.

The theme for zones in the Spider Kingdom is twofold = 'underground', and 'ancient cities'. Every zone contains ancient ruins of lost and buried civilizations, from nerubians and... other races. There's also a diverse number of underground environments - glacial caves, magma caverns, fungal forests, 'hollow earth'-type jungles with magical suns, and some really weird stuff later on.

Something I'd like to see, that I hoped we'd get with zul'drak in wotlk, was an entire city-zone. One of the zones you made (can't remember which) should simply be an entire ancient nerubian city. Imagine it, narrow streets and roads, pressed between ginormous nerubian spires and ziggurats. towers hanging down from the ceiling (smaller versions of the tower of Naz'Zuraq you came up with), and bridges made of webs stretching between the highest towers, making the city three-dimensional.

You are describing Ahn'Saron, the Inner Kingdom .

The first zone, Upper Kingdom, is very similar in appearance to the dungeons in Northrend.
Shadow Web Forest is a vast underground fungal swamp, similar to Zangarmarsh.

Both regions are full of nerubian ruins, but Shadow Web Forest is a bit more wild and untamed.

Ahn'Saron is, as you described - a zone-sized city. It's sub-zone, the Fire Sea, would resemble Molten Core crossed with Storm Peaks - magma flows and Titan cities.

EDIT: I read up on some of the discussion going on in the forum, and the origins of the newbreed seems to be thought about alot. Perhaps the old gods are reforming the new nerubians in their own image? The old nerubian kingdoms had completely forsaken their old masters, so a faction of nerubians dedicated to fighting the old gods return would be pretty neat. They'd be to the old gods what the ebon blade was to the lich king, in a sense.

The nerubians turned away from the Old Gods in the past (who weren't happy about it - the Wound of the World is the form their displeasure took). The newest nerubian queen Nezar'Kali sought to return her people to the faith of the Old Gods, as a means to restore them to glory again. To this end, she opened the Tomb of the Everliving and freed the last known living aqir in Azeroth, Valthraxx the Everliving. Their children are the Newbreed - nerubian/aqir hybrids, hence their differences from modern 'pure' nerubians.

To address this comment directly - "Perhaps the old gods are reforming the new nerubians in their own image?"

They're reforming them in someone's image, certainly.

i can't believe i hadn't seen this before. this is some awesome work Yak!

it certainly puts my expansion ideas, writing and imagery to shame. makes me want to rework my stuff

Do it! Then post a thread about it! Moar expanison ideas!



Thanks to everyone for the comments.

[Deleted]

My god. That Endless one really exceeded my imaginations. Is that an eye at the bottom of its head?

[bohapjut]

cold one looks nice, do you draw/color it all yourself?

[rcshaggy]

The cold ones kinda remind me of Saurok from the Mists of Pandaria =, and I love how on you did the style to it as well.

[Golden Yak]

My god. That Endless one really exceeded my imaginations. Is that an eye at the bottom of its head?

Yep. The original design was more human-like face with an eye where the mouth would be and two mouths where the eyes would be. But mouths for eyes were a little too Yogg-Saron, while mouth-head is more C'Thun-ish. I liked the eye where it was though, so I kept it.

cold one looks nice, do you draw/color it all yourself?

Yep.

The cold ones kinda remind me of Saurok from the Mists of Pandaria =, and I love how on you did the style to it as well.

Thanks! Yeah, I've been wanting a lizardman race in WoW since Burning Crusade. The saurok are cool, but I wanted the Cold Ones to be more diverse. The Xillard (the one that's colored) and Tarrask are two types, and I've got designs for a couple more.
******
Moar Beasties

Dactyl

Flight-capable Cold Ones with webbed wings. Though sleeker and less bulky than their ground-dwelling kin, their ability to attack from above with lightning speed makes them deadly foes.

Formyr

Giant mutated Cold Ones that somewhat resemble naga, with serpentine lower bodies and humanoid upper torsos. Their single eye can hypnotize.

Sluagh

Toad-like Cold Ones, slow and bloated, but capable of exceptional magical feats. They are the priests of the Cold Ones.

[Baneador]

I love your work GoldenYak, its a amazing expansion. In wotlk i thought that we could go to Azjol Nerub, but no, that was very very sad . Blizzard must take your idea and make it real

[ro9ue]

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(╯°□°)╯ ┻┻

That right there was fucking hilarious.

This is amazing Golden. I'm at work atm and was just able to skim through this thread but I'm going to thoroughly check it out when I get home. Your concept work is incredible too, I especially like the cold ones and the Tarrask.

I think the whole concept of having an expansion underground is in of itself such a clever idea and even though I hate spiders I think this would be a great 'dark' expansion concept.

This makes me want to do a WoW project like this as well!

[TheAmazingFeedz]

Looking very nice! The onky problem I have is that there is hardly any mention of the Scourge or what has happened to it.

Also, does the Burning Legion have any role in this? Are they present?

Again, one other problem I face is that there are too many mentions of the Twilight Hammer. And Icecrown Glacier I believe is almost impossible to destroy, so how can it of collapsed so easily?

---------- Post added 2013-05-26 at 07:35 PM ----------

A cool ending of the expansion would be the rise of the Lich King. Because the Knight's of the Ebon Blade are under constant assault from the Twilight's Hammer trying to protect Icecrown, they slowly lose their numbers as even though the Knight's are highly experienced, they cannot match the force of the few minions of the Old Gods and the sheer numbers of the cult. With the Knight's being busy, the Lich King has fully corrupted Bolvar just like he did to Arthas, thus transforming him into the evil and very dangerous being that the Lich King used to be. With this, the Lich King then allies with the Knight's, killing off as many offenders as possible until he finally re-resurrects Sindragosa and his fallen Death Knight champions. The mindless Scourge have now again become allied and followers of the Lich King, where the cult of the Damn now turn on the Twilight's Hammer and it becomes a full on war between the Scourge and Twilight's Hammer. The Nerubians are now divided. Some choose to join the Lich King whereas some choose to join the Cult, and another portion chose to become neutral, thus possibly creating potential for a new race or a new reputation faction.

[Golden Yak]

I think the whole concept of having an expansion underground is in of itself such a clever idea and even though I hate spiders I think this would be a great 'dark' expansion concept.

This makes me want to do a WoW project like this as well!

Doo iiit. I love reading them.

Looking very nice! The onky problem I have is that there is hardly any mention of the Scourge or what has happened to it.

Not so! There are frequent mentions of the Scourge remnants that exist in the aftermath of the Lich King's demise. Many of them are destroyed during the redone Northrend zone storylines, and the survivors join the Twilight Cult. The one that still endures is Angerboda's Scourge, who are still at large.

http://www.wowpedia.org/User:GoldenY...ourge_Remnants

Also, does the Burning Legion have any role in this? Are they present?

Not so much, no. They might show up in a small role in the future, but they have no part in the main story.

Again, one other problem I face is that there are too many mentions of the Twilight Hammer.

Can't be helped! This is mainly an Old God related expansion, and where there are Old Gods, you'll get the Twilight Cult. They evolve a bit over the course of the story though, having absorbed some of the Scourge into their ranks.

And Icecrown Glacier I believe is almost impossible to destroy, so how can it of collapsed so easily?

Wasn't easy at all - it took the Cataclysm to crack apart the roof of the world. Also, notice that it was the lowest parts of the glacier - they were closest to the tunnels and chasms of the underground, so it was the most fragile part of the glacier that collapsed to form a canyon.

cool ending of the expansion would be the rise of the Lich King.

Bolvar will be doing a bit of rising, though the ending I have will be quite different. Bolvar has a role similar to the Burning Legion I mentioned above - a small role, and not really part of the main story.

[TheAmazingFeedz]

Doo iiit. I love reading them.



Not so! There are frequent mentions of the Scourge remnants that exist in the aftermath of the Lich King's demise. Many of them are destroyed during the redone Northrend zone storylines, and the survivors join the Twilight Cult. The one that still endures is Angerboda's Scourge, who are still at large.

http://www.wowpedia.org/User:GoldenY...ourge_Remnants



Not so much, no. They might show up in a small role in the future, but they have no part in the main story.



Can't be helped! This is mainly an Old God related expansion, and where there are Old Gods, you'll get the Twilight Cult. They evolve a bit over the course of the story though, having absorbed some of the Scourge into their ranks.



Wasn't easy at all - it took the Cataclysm to crack apart the roof of the world. Also, notice that it was the lowest parts of the glacier - they were closest to the tunnels and chasms of the underground, so it was the most fragile part of the glacier that collapsed to form a canyon.



Bolvar will be doing a bit of rising, though the ending I have will be quite different. Bolvar has a role similar to the Burning Legion I mentioned above - a small role, and not really part of the main story.

Read through the Scourge remnants, really good stuff! Is The Lich King going to have revenge upon San'Layn? If so it can it can lead into a really awesome story involving a civil war within the Scourge itself.

[RicardoZ]

What a brilliant idea. Hopefully some people at Blizzard will see it and mull it over, I'd much rather have an expansion that goes back to Northrend instead of some more Burning Legion lore like most people think is coming after Mists.

I just can't say enough how insanely cool this looks and what a great job you've done covering all the bases and thinking it through.

[Boricha]

Probably the most effort I've seen someone put into a next expansion idea, it looks really cool but I just don't think anything could trump my desire for another Burning Legion expansion.

[Kuntantee]

Impressive work.

[Kayb]

yep. must revive and start workin on my own two expansion ideas again. Yak you are a true inspiration

[ro9ue]

Probably the most effort I've seen someone put into a next expansion idea, it looks really cool but I just don't think anything could trump my desire for another Burning Legion expansion.

Same, I'm dying for the legion.

Still though the underground Nerubian kingdom is such a badass idea I hope Blizzard explores this idea in at least a raid patch.

[Deleted]

I have never liked the ''spider''concept in this game but i have to say, this idea is really cool. I really hope we will see something like this in the future, all thou i really hope that the new expansion will include something big with Burning Legion.

[DoktahDoktah]

Generally I hate it when people want to add content. Simply because they dont go into enough detail.
That being aid I really enjoyed reading your topic. Especially the Wiki articles and the detailed maps. Looking forward to patch x.2

[Leviatharan]

On the one-hand, I think it looks awesome- especially the new races (although King Croojer looks rather cartoonish). The idea of leveling with the patch is... unique and possibly worth experimenting on, and I'd love to see some of the old content get a facelift with the times.

On the other hand...
- The only raids you've left from Wrath are the Sanctums (while you didn't say anything about the Eye of Eternity or Ulduar, I doubt even they survived this far given their end bosses). While I know that the raids themselves have an outdated plot, even Cataclysm didn't actively remove any dungeons or raids from the old world- occasionally updated them, shortened them, or merged them, but always kept them. The devs have already stated they're okay with the concept of heading to Outland/Quel'danas and Northrend being a time travel-style occurrence compared to Cataclysm and beyond.
- ... Northrend didn't really need the revamp as much as the old world did. I mean, you can fly in there already. BC rather needs it more, but with only two more expansions until level 100/Titan and so many known zones- the Emerald Dream, Nazjatar, even Argus and Xoroth- left unentered with their own open-ended plots, I doubt they'll have time to go back and touch up on Outland or Northrend.
- A lot of the complaints about Mists of Pandaria were that they made an expansion based on a one-off joke, only entrenched in the lore by Chen Stormstout- but even then the Pandaren lore was expanded on in additional materials like the RPG books. The biggest complaints are about how little of it is steeped in the classic lore though, which is the same issue here (a Spider Queen?)- and the expansion you've written is all about side-characters within the original Northrend story, whose storylines were otherwise rather cleanly finished off (... namely with their deaths, unless we're expected to always see villains come back).

[Golden Yak]

Read through the Scourge remnants, really good stuff! Is The Lich King going to have revenge upon San'Layn? If so it can it can lead into a really awesome story involving a civil war within the Scourge itself.

At the present, the San'layn have been largely eradicated. What was left of their Scourge forces have been absorbed into the Twilight Cult. There might be a few rogue San'layn hiding in Northrend (or beyond) but as an organized faction they are extinct. The Lich King's major rival now is Angerboda - she has eyes on his crown.

Generally I hate it when people want to add content. Simply because they dont go into enough detail.
That being aid I really enjoyed reading your topic. Especially the Wiki articles and the detailed maps. Looking forward to patch x.2

Thanky yew. I hope to be able to draw up the Patch Logo and finish the pages for X.2 very soon.

On the one-hand, I think it looks awesome- especially the new races (although King Croojer looks rather cartoonish).

Oh, he is.

On the other hand...
- The only raids you've left from Wrath are the Sanctums (while you didn't say anything about the Eye of Eternity or Ulduar, I doubt even they survived this far given their end bosses). While I know that the raids themselves have an outdated plot, even Cataclysm didn't actively remove any dungeons or raids from the old world- occasionally updated them, shortened them, or merged them, but always kept them. The devs have already stated they're okay with the concept of heading to Outland/Quel'danas and Northrend being a time travel-style occurrence compared to Cataclysm and beyond.

Oh, Ulduar's gone too. Pretty sure I said that somewhere on the Storm peaks page.

I'll admit though that early on I cut them almost entirely to generate controversy and get people to respond ("How dare you cut argiblargle!"). At this point though, yeah, there's really no reason to remove old Northrend raids. And I probably won't go back and add them, but Scenarios would easily take care of the updated questlines that serve to move the revamped story forwards.

- ... Northrend didn't really need the revamp as much as the old world did. I mean, you can fly in there already. BC rather needs it more, but with only two more expansions until level 100/Titan and so many known zones- the Emerald Dream, Nazjatar, even Argus and Xoroth- left unentered with their own open-ended plots, I doubt they'll have time to go back and touch up on Outland or Northrend.

I could've left it all untouched without really affecting the main story yeah, but at the time Cataclysm was freshly released and all the other old zones were doing the whole revamping thing and the Northrend zones just wanted to be popular.

Part of the reason I went for a Spider Kingdom expansion was precisely because there were so many other options that people were already talking about. No one was giving much thought to poor old Azjol-Nerub and its potential. Now with MoP finishing up before long, maybe people will be giving some thought to other unassuming corners of Azeroth for potential expansions. I was turning minor lore obscurities into full-blown expansions before it was cool, guys!

- A lot of the complaints about Mists of Pandaria were that they made an expansion based on a one-off joke, only entrenched in the lore by Chen Stormstout- but even then the Pandaren lore was expanded on in additional materials like the RPG books. The biggest complaints are about how little of it is steeped in the classic lore though, which is the same issue here (a Spider Queen?)- and the expansion you've written is all about side-characters within the original Northrend story, whose storylines were otherwise rather cleanly finished off (... namely with their deaths, unless we're expected to always see villains come back).

Nerubians have had way more coverage in warcraft RTS games and RPGs than pandaren ever did - they had a huge section to themselves in the RPG books and several missions in the games that revealed some of their society. The Spider Queen is canon - Nezar'Azret, the previous queen, was killed in WC3. And in Cataclysm, Blizz added some quests to the nerubian dungeons that reveal how surviving nerubians are preparing to hatch a new generation, complete with a giant egg containing a new nerubian matriarch. They added those quests just as I was starting to seriously flesh out my storyline, it fit perfectly with what I was doing - it's like they read my mind!

As for re-using a lot of existing characters - yeah, there was a certain amount of that. The Northrend revamp is very much my take on 'what happened post-Wrath', so I included what a bunch of existing characters were up to, cuz I liked a lot of them and wanted them to be a part of what I was writing. The Northrend Revamp though is really just a minor prelude to the Spider Kingdom content proper, and while I've brought a few existing characters back for that (Brann Bronzebeard, Baelgun Flamebeard, Mimiron, etc.), I've made tons of original ones, both heroic and villainous. Some characters come back just because they're important to the world - Bolvar Fordragon, for example. I resurrected Angerboda because I thought there was a plausible reason for bringing her back and I really thought she had a lot of potential to be a major villain - and she is (and will be). And there's another few guys I'm bringing back, but again it'll be because I think there's a plausible reason to see them again, not simply because I'm trying to make a rehashed Wrath 2.0.


Anyway, thanks everyone for the replies. Updates soon.