Spider Kingdom fan expansion concept

[Golden Yak]

Happy new year! And what better way to celebrate a new year than with new concept art!

(Don't answer that.)

I've already shown you the new badguys Angerboda and Velius that will act as the villains for the reworked Northrend content, so I decided to balance things out with a look at some of the new heroes that'll appear throughout the changed zones.

Vidar Ymironson

Vidar Ymironson is the son of King Ymiron and Queen Angerboda, the prince of the vrykul people. He rejected his parents devotion to the Lich King and sought to free his people from the Scourge's control. Driven into hiding by the Scourge, Vidar has slowly recruited many other vrykul who share his ideals, and returned to Northrend in the wake of the Lich King's demise to lead his people into a new era.

Madra

Madragos, known as Madra when in his mortal guise, is a member of the blue dragonflight who acts as the flight's envoy to the Kirin Tor, with whom the blue dragons have allied in the wake of the Cataclysm. Relations are still strained between the Kirin Tor and the dragonflight that only a short time ago was devoted to exterminating them, but Madra is committed to the new peace between the blue dragons and the mortal races, and always strives to act in the best interests of both parties. Madra takes the form of a draenei male when interacting with members of the mortal races.

I've given them each their own wowpedia fan article, both of which will grow as the story for the reworked Northrend content unfolds. And maybe I'll even have something for them to do for the Spider Kingdom content as well...

Still working on the new Zul'Drak stuff (there's a lot). That'll be the next update.

I think the Underground Zone needs to span up into Ulduar.

Not to repeat myself, but...

Heh heh heh...
Ahahaha...
Mwahaha!

@ Sharkcrap - I can tell you've gotten into the spirit of things with that post! While there's some good ideas, I don't feel it would work as an ingame story. Bear in mind, loads of people will be making a character of the new hero class, even if it's just to try it out. Making ever single new Runemaster have a unique, solitary storyline wouldn't be very realistic - that's a lot of remote villages destroyed by bandits, and a lot of mysterious old masters hiding out in the wilderness.

A story very similar to yours that would fit better into WoW would be, say, a whole monastery of Runemasters off in some remote land is attacked by the Twilight's Hammer, or an army of nerubians, or Hakkar the Soulflayer and a bunch of trolls. Something really nasty. They're forced to retreat into the wilderness, leaving behind many of their fellow students to become slaves/sacrifices/lunch, etc. Questlines involve driving the invaders off, a final climactic fight against some terribly powerful monster, victory, and the old master decides you can no longer be apart from the world, must seek out this new evil, master dies, very sad, yadda yadda, Runemasters enter into the world at large.

Like the original Death Knight starting area, it gave you the impression that you were a bad ass amongst other bad asses, so multiple players could interact, while also building up your power and importance before finally sending you into combat against a tremendous threat. It still hits all the important emotional and story notes you've written about, while fitting so much easier into both WoW's setting and gameplay style. That's something I feel is important when you're making up entertaining fan content.

I first saw it and got my usual thought; "Something blizzard will never use, reusing northrend...eugh."

But it changed my mind kinda when I saw the work you'd put into it and the really nice photoshopped maps. While blizz wouldn't use this idea, I do think you did a really good job with the art and stuff

Glad I changed your mind. While I know Blizzard will never use fan content like this, my goal is to create something that people would feel they'd enjoy playing, something they'd be happy to see if Blizzard actually had put it out.

Awesome imagination mate. Really put a lot of work into it. Can't wait to see how it will turn out

Thanks, keep checking back for more!

[Precursor]

Im liking it much much more now and it looks like a fabulous (teehee) way to make northrend seem viable in the cataclysm story as the 1-60 is cataclysm and anything after 1-60 has to pretty much be after wotlk now to make sense.

Question- is this like a combined 70-80 then new zones comming back from cataclysm / XXX ? Or is it a revamped 70-80 zones?
Question- if it was revamp 70-80 + new high end content leveling zones for level XX, would the revamp 70-80 northrend follow the surface layer dammage then go back.


Oh one more thingy since silithus was untouched by the cataclysm would it make sense for that zone to almost be the prelude zone back to northrend ?
Eg: after the cataclysm with deathwing dead blah blah blah, the lands of silithus still echoed with horrors of the past, the old ruins seemed never touched by the cataclysm but strange apearnces have been arising. As The heros return to find the ruined city in repair, the old gods creations are rebuilding the anicent kingdom of an quiraj. As heros find out more the city wasnt being rebuilt but more blocked off from the rest of the world like a prison by its own people and silithid. The world itself rumbles in fear .....blah blah blah leads you back to northrend and AQ becomes an updated prison raid and new lore etc

[Kainan]

If they had something like this I would probably be playing the game far more but right now I'm so bored that I haven't even bothered to do heroics. The game is slowly going downwards guys like really it is.

[Golden Yak]

Question- is this like a combined 70-80 then new zones comming back from cataclysm / XXX ? Or is it a revamped 70-80 zones?
Question- if it was revamp 70-80 + new high end content leveling zones for level XX, would the revamp 70-80 northrend follow the surface layer dammage then go back.

The idea is that the reworked Northrend stuff is the new 70-80 experience, and then the Spider Kingdom's underground zones are the post-Catacylsm zone leveling/raid experience. I haven't bothered with a level cap, but it'll essentially be 85+ content.

Oh one more thingy since silithus was untouched by the cataclysm would it make sense for that zone to almost be the prelude zone back to northrend ?

I haven't given much thought to a prelude event that'll kick off the new zones. I'll try and think of something once I start finishing up the Northrend revamp. I do intend to have the qiraji show up in some fashion, but I haven't got any ideas about Silithus. The new, now empty Ahn'Qiraj zone is pretty tempting to do something with, though.

[Precursor]

Thanks for the answers Sounds awsome, now just someone to make an outland revamp, fingers crossed we dont go back for high end content but a lore and graphic / questing update + new dungeon

[Direshadow]

I would love this expansion.

It's high time that we entered the "Underdark"ish part of WoW.

[Orodoth]

I don't think I've ever been more impressed with fan-fiction in my entire life! GREAT job man!

[Knegoff]

You are really good at drawing you know! Nice job. Checking this daily for updates.

Edit: Also, you might want to fix this. I read your wowpedia article for Madra and the Quests and Storyline part is wrong. It's Vidar's information you've written there

[Golden Yak]

So it is! Thanks for catching that. The article has been changed to include proper storyline info for Madra and Coldarra:

http://www.wowpedia.org/User:GoldenYak/Madragos

[Mic_128]

Only complaint is that I find it a bit unlikely that there's 'Scourge Remnants' spreading the plague. Yeah, I guess some of the Cult of the Dammed could run off and spread the plague still, wouldn't that just give Bolvar control of the corpses?

[Deleted]

Interesting. >8< Spider priiiiide

[Vadoor]

WoW.... if only... I love this idea. I was really disappointed with the lack of attention to the spider kingdom in Wrath. From playing Warcraft 3 TFT, they made the spider kingdom seem very huge, so I was expecting something awesome with Wrath in relation to that, but it didnt happen. I would really enjoy a better look at the spider kingdom. Simply love this.

[Golden Yak]

Only complaint is that I find it a bit unlikely that there's 'Scourge Remnants' spreading the plague. Yeah, I guess some of the Cult of the Dammed could run off and spread the plague still, wouldn't that just give Bolvar control of the corpses?

Good question. Several reasons:

- The Scourge Remnants under Amal'thazad's command are spreading a new plague, crafted by Amal'thazad and imbued with his own power. Undead raised by powers outside the Scourge do not automatically fall under the Lich King's control - this can be seen with the Forsaken and the Knights of the Ebon Blade, who raise and control many lesser undead.
- Bolvar's will is focused on keeping the Scourge still under his command contained. He's not concerned with trying to gain control of more troops.
- Bolvar has a lot more to worry about besides Amal'thazad...

Bolvar is in a similar situation with the rest of the Scourge Remnants, many of whom are bolstering their forces by raising the dead. Bolvar inherited tremendous dark power when he became the Lich King, but unlike Arthas he is resisting using more than a fraction of that power, all of which is focused on containing the Scourge. He knows that drawing on too much of the power will overwhelm what's left of his humanity and make him into a monster like Arthas - something many of the Scourge Remnants would be more than happy with.

I was really disappointed with the lack of attention to the spider kingdom in Wrath. From playing Warcraft 3 TFT, they made the spider kingdom seem very huge, so I was expecting something awesome with Wrath in relation to that, but it didnt happen. I would really enjoy a better look at the spider kingdom.

Preaching to the choir. I still hold out hope for a future patch to include more of Azjol-Nerub. Glad you've enjoyed the idea so far.

[Golden Yak]

Zul'Drak has been reworked, and has a pretty darn nifty new storyline, if I do say so myself. Check out the map below and click the link for the WoWpedia article.


Zul'Drak

* Necropolis Zeramas and Necropolis Voltarus have fallen from the sky. Scourge Remnants remain holed up within.
* Blight has spread from the fallen necropoli, turning the lower tier of Zul'Drak into a swamp of plague and undeath.
* The Knights of the Ebon Blade are devoted to destroying the Scourge Remnants in the region, while the Argent Crusade wants to focus on cleansing the corruption and evacuating survivors.
* Drakuru's Blightblood trolls are running rampant, spreading carnage throughout Zul'Drak's lower levels.
* Portions of Drak'Sotra have sunk underground, and nerubians have risen up, bringing along Faceless Ones. The Argent Crusade is focused on holding back the tide.
* With many of the troll gods of Zul'Drak dead, the Drakkari are looking for something new to worship. The Twilight's Hammer have arrived to spread their dark gospel. Twilight's Hammer forces and elementals have replaced Scourge forces throughout Zul'Drak.
* Zim'Torga has been destroyed by the Drakkari and the Twilight's Hammer. The Zandalari there have been forced to retreat.
* The upper tier of Zul'Drak has been conquered by the Twilight's Hammer. Their rituals have already begun shaping elementium and twisting the region.
* The Mam'toth Crater has broken open, revealing underground tunnels infested with nerubians and encrusted with saronite deposits. A mining operation has been set up by the Twilight's Hammer, who have developed an interest in refining saronite.
* The Twilight's Hammer are corrupting the shrines of the Drakkari gods, attempting to resurrect them as twisted, evil shadows of their former selves.
* The upper temple at Gundrak has been rebuilt into a massive twilight portal, where the Drakkari and the Twilight's Hammer are attempting to summon forth a gigantic Faceless One - Zildrohar the Traveler.

Next zone: Sholazar Basin!

[Venziir]

Looks cool, the drawings are awesome... BUT I WOULD HATE GOING BACK TO NORTHREND!
AND I WOULD HATE HAVING TO KILL A BILLION NERUBIANS! Urgh >.<
Please don't show this to Blizzard QQ

[GennGreymane]

i like this sooo much

[Thrive]

The same good be argued for Blizzard "just" revisiting the old world.

They have also stated that they want to change the other continents as well soon. I love this idea and i think it would tie in extremely well with a Old God expansion.

[ketzil]

Just curious why you chose Madra to have a draenei form. Not against that idea by any stretch of the mind, just curious.

[GennGreymane]

Just curious why you chose Madra to have a draenei form. Not against that idea by any stretch of the mind, just curious.

give draenei some face time

[Deleted]

Great job, looks good.

I don't see it happening though and I actually hope we won't see Northrend for some time unless levelling an alt. I think it's time to give the Burning Legion some face time again after being buried in old god stuff for one and a half expansion, they are starting to become boring and repetitive. I would love a twist on them though, like an old god that actually has good intentions, just in it's insane old god way.

More Burning Legion themed things would also give an opportunity for added Draenei face time as an added bonus.