Spider Kingdom fan expansion concept

[ReleaseDay]

Did OP get hired by blizzard yet?

Anyway, epic thread except for the title. Has to be changed.

[Gaidax]

It's a good effort, but I personally would not want to play this. Areas lack variety, you can't just go on and make everything the same dark spidery purply/grey darkness everywhere. It would get old really fast.

Look at WoTLK and TBC - even there you had areas like Sholazar Basin in what was envisioned as a frozen north or bright and tranquil Nagrand in what was assumed to be a shattered world.

You need variety and you need lighter themes too to let players "rest" a bit from all the darkness and tension.

[GerdaroThePandaren]

It's a good effort, but I personally would not want to play this. Areas lack variety, you can't just go on and make everything the same dark spidery purply/grey darkness everywhere. It would get old really fast.

Look at WoTLK and TBC - even there you had areas like Sholazar Basin in what was envisioned as a frozen north or bright and tranquil Nagrand in what was assumed to be a shattered world.

You need variety and you need lighter themes too to let players "rest" a bit from all the darkness and tension.

You dont think that if blizzard hired him and used his work in the game they wouldnt change things and add others, right ?

He came up with an idea, backed it up, and a whole team of professionals would made it ''playable''. got it?

[Sasha Nekosune]

I'm going to be brutally honest here... I'm having mixed feelings about this entire thing. There are parts that are cool. but... I'm iffy on the redesigning Northrend based around changes by the cataclysm and having the Zone just under it... Because what i imagine when i think of an Underground spider and insectoid themed expansion.

Is I imagine this... VAST Cave network that would connect the Nerubian Empire, The Ahn'Qiraj Empire, and possibly the Mantid. most of my inspiration came from The Wowwiki page for Y'shaarj, the Klaxxi section. where they mention their Sister Kingdoms of Ahn'Qiraj and Azjol-Nerub. And i imagined the opening of the Zone would start with a sort of... invasion pre expansion event like whats happening now. except the invasions would be at each Dig site... Large Holes in the earth...

and would feature several Old god bosses. As well as revealing what was revealed at Bael'Dun dig site. as it was mentioned by an old dwarf that they had uncovered something... something that should have stayed Burried... or that was what i heard from a Video on the unexplained things in WoW.

That is of course just my take on things. And maybe it could be a sort of Sandy yellow themed. and could be called... Return of the 3 kingdoms. or something... I will probably come up with a better name later involving the insectoid kingdoms.

[The Stormbringer]

A gentle bump... am I allowed to do that? I'm doing that. People must remember (in the mountains).

[Golden Yak]

Well, I see there's been activity since I last posted. Thanks to everyone for the comments - I'm glad my thread manages to entertain. As I said I'm nor really working on the thread any more, but I feel moved to reply to a couple specific posts:


@ AlarStormbringer - Glad you're still getting enjoyment out of it. I won't ever do a fan expansion as big as this one (I ultimately crammed in way, way more than is feasible for an actual expansion!), but if WoD is particularly inspiring, then I might do another much more condensed expansion idea - probably a basic story overview, patch summary, and a bunch of monster concept art!

Regarding Y'Uurd, you can find more tidbits about him here and here. In my story he is the Old God of Life, and is the creator of the Curse of Flesh.

http://wowpedia.org/User:GoldenYak/A..._%28Journal%29
http://wowpedia.org/User:GoldenYak/C..._of_the_Titans


@ Gaidax - The issue you raise is definitely one I've thought about. Maybe my maps don't do the best job of showing it off, but I absolutely intended for the underworld to contain more than just dark stone caves.

Shadow Web Caverns is a huge mushroom forest filled with glowing fungus and other biolumincescent plants, reminiscent of Zangarmarsh.
The Fire Sea is a giant magma cavern filled with lava flows and Titan construction. Tremendous industry and machinery - like a cross between Molten Core and Ulduar.
Azj'Aqir contains a 'Hollow Earth' type jungle teeming with life and is lit by a magical sun overhead.
And the Lunar Vale is intended to be a haunting, beautiful, alien moonscape unlike anything ever seen before.

You mentioned Northrend, whose overriding theme was of course northern landscapes, with many flavours of snow, ice, mountains, and frozen tundra. An Azeroth underworld would absolutely need to take the same route - a huge variety of underground environments beyond 'cave'.

@ Sasha - Once I came to the end of this project, I looked back and decided there are many things I would have done differently, mainly to streamline it and make it more feasible. I muse on that in this post-mortem article here:

http://wowpedia.org/User:GoldenYak/S...ngdom_Revision

As you can see, I consider doing way more with the qiraji and including the mantid (whom hadn't been introduced yet into WoW by the time my story was well underway).

The ultimate goal would be to introduce the Aqir as the major threat, the race that are to the nerubian, qiraji, and mantid as the Zandalari are to the gurubashi, amani, drakkari, and the rest of the troll tribes. I think they could make from some truly fearsome enemies.

___

Thanks again to all for posting. And thanks to Blizzard for WoD, keep the expansions coming, they're a source of great enjoyment and wonderful art.



Hey, while I'm here... which expansion do you think would people prefer to see more - Emerald Dream or Azshara/Great Seas? No reason I'm asking... >.>

[The Stormbringer]

Azshara, AZSHARA! Do Azshara!

[Animalhouse]

Incredible! Seriously, you would be a major asset to Blizzard. Very well thought out and organized.

As far as what expansion people would prefer...Azshara.

[Baneador]

Your work is amazing, i cant wait for more of Spider Kingdom or Eye of Azshara.

I demand more images of the creatures, more images for the bestiary! (maybe Slashfang, Undertroll, Dread Iron Faceless One, Mycost, Lunar Treants, Giants and Gnomes)

[Sainur]

Looks absolutely amazing, I'd rather have this though than Eye of Azshara or Emerald Dream, just my personal opinion.

So are you hired yet??

[zubaja]

http://memepics.com/wp-content/uploa...ths-thread.jpg

Infracted, removed the img coding.

[priestofsyrinx]

Really cool! You wouldn't believe the amount of people who posted the maps as "scrapped content".

[Deleted]

Well, I will not say nothing constructive, but I very very love your concept arts (I want them more, more! They are very Warcrafty but also unique), maps and expansion ideas. So great.

I'll be watching your threads with pleasure.

[Deleted]

The maps look amazing, great job on this whole project, I would love to see an underground nerub expac.

[Princess Ariiya]

o.o this looks so cool! love <3 keep it going!!

[dragonlord88]

i just work on this for the fun of it, i hop this help Golden Yak and let me know it i need to fix it. o ill sand the file PM to Golden Yak and in enjoy the work i make every one. no trolling

Before


After

[gilleigomil]

This is such an awesome idea...

[Starbrand]

the amount of image references you have is impressive. kudos and hope someone notices at Blizzard. Even if its not a complete idea, at least a few here and there.

[DarkLightDisciple]

I'm interested in the "good shadow" belief system the duggum have. I think that would make for an interesting path to explore in the futre; perhaps a reality where shadow is the good force and light is the evil one. Ours; Light(faith) and Void(chaos?): Theirs; Shadow(choice) and Blaze(order)