Spider Kingdom fan expansion concept

[vriska]

Very impressive! Those maps are stellar, the concepts and well over all this is a very interesting take of what could be lurking below the snow.

The idea of visiting darker places of Azeroth, especially ones brimming with the creepy crawly and ancient elritch tentacled things! As fascinated me since Arthas' stumble with an Old one..back in WC3. Now with the Mogu and Titans lore from 5.2. This perks up the concept of what secrets the Titan's have been hiding...

Plus there is no doubt a subterranean beauty to it all. Like glittering reaches of Deepholm, and the Azjol-Nerub dungeons themselves have glowing fungi and gilded architecture to silk webbing platforms in various rich colors .Such as decor like that of amberweb pass in Blood Myst...

While we did get a lot of about the Twilight's Hammer and Old God things in Cata -> Dragon Soul's it was rather let down...


at any rate I wonder if you ever considered making a mod as a proof for concept, while sadly there is no public World builder for WoW. Closet bet would be SC2's Galaxy Editor... or roll old school with WC3 mapping tool?

While custom models and actual game play stuff would be a challenge.. I could see some of your dungeon ideas being able to be created and experienced to some degree.

Last but not least, ever wonder what happened to these Woolly Scorpion mobs in WC3...the arachnathids?

[Golden Yak]

Update - the Hahn'tan




Because gargoyles had to come from somewhere.

**************

EDIT: I know I am asking too much... But could you keep the first post updated? =3

I have seem lots of cool stuff tossed randomly around the entire post and it is hard to keep track...

Not at all. You're right, it is missing easy access to a lot of the newer stuff. I've made it a little easier to navigate now. The WoWpedia interface is even easier to go through, so you should be able to find everything from there as well.

I was wondering about the Azhuul'Mehab one of the last queen of the nerubians. She is only 48 years old when she met Brann Bronzebeard.

I think it would be great to create a civil war between Nerubians and the Newbreeds. Nerubians are force due to the dark magic to find new ally with horde and the alliance.

This is exactly the case - in the Shadow Web Caverns zone you will have the chance to meet the nerubians of the Sundered Monolith and join them in their resistence against the Newbreed. Technically, Azhuul'Mehab would be something like a distant cousin of Nezar'Kali, not the sister - I don't know how the various queens of the nerubians are related to one another.

They do absolutely hate each other, though. All the nerubians of the Sundered Monolith loathe the Newbreed.

The idea was that Brann and his archeology factions would have the Sundered Monolith be their HQ, and the nerubians would be the ones to recite the lore of the underworld when you bring them lore items (like Lorewalker Cho in MoP). The way the mantid act is very much how I se these 'friendly' nerubians act - a group of bad-tempered bug people restraining themselves, just barely, from killing you.

Yeah, well, if all of your bosses have nearly 10 skills (heck, the lowest skills I counted on a boss fight were 4 on a 5 man boss) not wonder it takes so much time.

What can I say? I tank dungeons, and I am bored there.

The one problem I kind of have with this is that alot of the stuff in Nerubian Archaeology and references in older games points out they no longer worship the old ones, in fact, the very opposite, they hate them.

This is still true of nerubians who do not serve the Newbreed, like the Sundered Monolith ones. The Newbreed have embraced the Old Gods as a means to make their empire strong again. It's a recent development.

I can't get enough of the Old Gods myself, though I realize they're not everyone's cup of tea. Nevertheless they're part of the world, and I'm interested in exploring them in greater depth. Right now they're lumped into this 'generic formless evil tentacle blob' group, while I feel each Old God could work effectively as separate villains, each with distinct ways of doing things. I'll be exploring the past, present, and future schemes of C'Thun, Yogg-Saron, and some original ones I've created, like the Unspoken and He Who Shapes.

The real villains for this concept though are the aqir. They don't have a figurehead, no distinct ruler any more - they are a swarm that have been building up their might for a return to the world, and even the Old Gods are pieces in their game. Valthraxx set it in motion 16,000 years ago, and has planned things so well they'll survive even his destruction.

Very impressive! Those maps are stellar, the concepts and well over all this is a very interesting take of what could be lurking below the snow.

Thank you for the kind words!

Plus there is no doubt a subterranean beauty to it all. Like glittering reaches of Deepholm, and the Azjol-Nerub dungeons themselves have glowing fungi and gilded architecture to silk webbing platforms in various rich colors .Such as decor like that of amberweb pass in Blood Myst...

Precisely! Underground is more than just a dark cave. Fantasy and sci-fi have given us a vast array of possible ecosystems that can exist far from the surface, and an expansion featuring Azeroth's Underworld has the potential to be just as breath-taking as anything we've seen so far.

Sprawling cities carved of glowing ice, verdant alien jungles lit by magical suns, volcanic wastelands pierced with ancient lost ruins... the sky's the limit, in a manner of speaking.

at any rate I wonder if you ever considered making a mod as a proof for concept, while sadly there is no public World builder for WoW. Closet bet would be SC2's Galaxy Editor... or roll old school with WC3 mapping tool?

While custom models and actual game play stuff would be a challenge.. I could see some of your dungeon ideas being able to be created and experienced to some degree.

If something like a WoW-editor is ever released, I will find a group of dedicated WoW modders and create the hell out of this concept. I'm not too shabby when it comes to 3D modelling, if I say so myself, so I could do some of the legwork myself...

Last but not least, ever wonder what happened to these Woolly Scorpion mobs in WC3...the arachnathids?

Heh, yep, I haven't included them in any critical capacity, but they're definitely down there!

[Skytotem]

Huh, I always figured the gargoyles were a sort of titan watchdog ala the Quilen, but for the Vrykul, due to their stoneskin abilities.

Also, I'd say the Nerubians are friendlier than the mantid, or at the very least, better at hiding their enmity, judging by the quests in the current versions of the dungeon.

I think I actually ranted a long ways back WAAAAY earlier in the thread, about how they struck me as more of a Horde-only faction to balance out stone tol'vir for the Alliance or somethin' since the dwarves in WC3 with Baelgun were at odds with the live nerubians.

[vriska]

Nice, are these perchance inspired by the new 5.2 bat mount/models?
I'd post a link, but just a fresh sign up. ^.^'

Their could be a neat mechanic to some of the more light sensitive mobs. Like Atramedes the blind drake, they can't see you directly, still aggroing onto you but will toss out sonar pulses to make a direct it, once they spot you, they can launch devastating attacks. I can imagine some making use of shadowy spriest like tendril to root you out, getting worse over time so making some attack on them to lessen their damage.

Which also reminds of

Tomb of Immortal Darkness haha

If something like a WoW-editor is ever released, I will find a group of dedicated WoW modders and create the hell out of this concept. I'm not too shabby when it comes to 3D modelling, if I say so myself, so I could do some of the legwork myself...

I saw an wireframe outline of one of the dungeon layouts a few pages back, I could see making a mock trailer, like 5.2 patch preview. Doing fly-bys of maps, dungeons and Npcs.

yep I am no stranger to 3d modeling and mapping either, I can imagine the workload.

[Golden Yak]

Huh, I always figured the gargoyles were a sort of titan watchdog ala the Quilen, but for the Vrykul, due to their stoneskin abilities.

Also, I'd say the Nerubians are friendlier than the mantid, or at the very least, better at hiding their enmity, judging by the quests in the current versions of the dungeon.

I think I actually ranted a long ways back WAAAAY earlier in the thread, about how they struck me as more of a Horde-only faction to balance out stone tol'vir for the Alliance or somethin' since the dwarves in WC3 with Baelgun were at odds with the live nerubians.

Yeah, living gargoyles are probably not really intelligent creatures in lore but what the heck. I needed more races that could walk and talk but didn't want to eat you.

The nerubians have a bit more experience interacting with the surface races on friendly terms than the mantid did - Brann Bronzebeard scored some points with them using recovered nerubian artifacts. One aspect I really liked about his dealings with them was that they gave him a grace period to explore the Sundered Monolith and he was well treated while there, but it was made very clear to him that once the deadline was up, he'd better be very far away if he didn't want to end up as food.

I love that aspect - If they've granted you hospitality, they'll see that you're treated with all respect, even if you're one of the verminous surface folk. The nerubians hate you, but the only thing they hate more is bad manners. To not observe the ancient practices, to not show the proper respect in accordance with the rituals is unthinkable... doing so would be chek'az'nerub - "Not Nerubian."

Nice, are these perchance inspired by the new 5.2 bat mount/models?
I'd post a link, but just a fresh sign up. ^.^'

Nah, I've been wanting to do bat people since MoP was just previews. Like I said, I needed more friendly races. If I'd thought of them a little earlier I probably would've given them their own dungeon - would've been the perfect place for a couple of bosses with sound mechanics.

The bat mounts are pretty great, although my idea for a bat mount involved using the proto-dragon skeleton...
********
Ah made some patches too!



Spider Kingdom Patch X.1 - The Shattered Empire

*Level cap raised to 94 - the Path of War marches on...
*New high level quest-chain in Shadow Web Caverns to unlock the Azj'Aqir Worldgate that leads to a new zone: Azj'Aqir, the Shattered Empire.
*New zone unlocked - Azj'Aqir, the Shattered Empire. It is separated into three sub-regions - Plateau of Ur'Leng, Lost Realm of Azj, and Black Sands of Zhun.
*Many new level 93 and 94 quest-chains have been added. Discover the fate of Brann Bronzebeard, learn the origins of the aqir and their new plans for conquest, uncover the secret of how the Old Gods first came to Azeroth, and more.
*Three new level 94 dungeons have been found.
*Three new level 94 raids have been unlocked.

[Skytotem]

Oh wow the Shattered Kingdom looks amazing, I love the idea of the Endless Ones and the Orrey, seeing Old God tech would be fascinating, yet at the same time, such an orderly device seems odd for them to create, even if its ultimate purpose was chaos, what gave you the idea?

[Golden Yak]

Oh wow the Shattered Kingdom looks amazing, I love the idea of the Endless Ones and the Orrey, seeing Old God tech would be fascinating, yet at the same time, such an orderly device seems odd for them to create, even if its ultimate purpose was chaos, what gave you the idea?

Well, a lot of Lovecraftian fiction is big on describing the cities and palaces of the Great Old Ones as places of non-euclidean construction - areas where natural laws break down, the angles and dimensions don't conform to what physics dictate, etc. Rooms are bigger on the inside, a hallway that stretches for miles might only bring you a few feet from where you started, walking through an archway in a certain way brings you back in time, that sort of thing.

We've heard of in-game places like Ny'alotha, so the Old Gods of WoW probably have similar cities. If their architecture is that messed up, what would their technology look like? And what could it accomplish?

[Deleted]

I'm in love with this!

[bohapjut]

Bit confused- what are the Cold/Endless Ones?

[Skytotem]

Bit confused- what are the Cold/Endless Ones?

Seem like Faceless/Slime/Cyborgs to me.



Also, I think I get where you're coming from Golden, I suppose I just read through the bit about the clocktype gears too fast and that struck me as very much 'mortal' design.

[ShadowJester]

The Hahn'tan are awesome. Should be the new playable race for this. Another neutral race. This expansion is totally awesome and I would be excited as hell if blizzard ran with it

[Teriz]

This is some intensely awesome work. Well done man. If Blizzard runs out of expansion ideas, they definitely need to hit this up.

[Golden Yak]

Bit confused- what are the Cold/Endless Ones?

Two different races. The Cold Ones are a mortal reptilian race that predate the arrival of the Titans - they come in many varieties but the main ones are crocodile-like warriors, newt-like spell-casters, and dinosaur-like giants. (I've wanted to have a lizardman race in this concept even before I'd heard of the saurok, and doggoneit I shall!). They may be the reason the Old Gods are on Azeroth in the first place... as far as my storyline is concerned, anyway.

The Endless Ones are weirder. They are not native to Azeroth, and may either be an alien race that was totally subverted by the Old Gods, or a creation of them like the Faceless Ones and the Forgotten Ones. They seem to serve C'Thun exclusively, and are the builders of the machines in C'Thun's citadel. They look like scarecrowish cyclopses - a bit like these guys, I guess. They augment themselves with suits of magical/mechanical armor, and are powered by chronoplasm, the blood of C'Thun.

Also, I think I get where you're coming from Golden, I suppose I just read through the bit about the clocktype gears too fast and that struck me as very much 'mortal' design.

Right on. If I were a better environment artist I'd do some art of it - I picture it as this mechanical nightmare landscape of twisted grinding gears and so forth. There's a few good images I like:

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/...icle_image.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx...sjvo1_1280.png
http://cgc-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/d...dreamscape.jpg

I particularly like the giant bent gear on the lower-right in that last pic. It would have lots of those, I say.

I'm in love with this!

The Hahn'tan are awesome. Should be the new playable race for this. Another neutral race. This expansion is totally awesome and I would be excited as hell if blizzard ran with it

This is some intensely awesome work. Well done man. If Blizzard runs out of expansion ideas, they definitely need to hit this up.

Thanks for the kind words guys.
Teriz, I'm totally on board with 4th specs now, and I think I'd like to see that even more than a new class. I threw a bunch of ideas into this concept as opposed to designing a class from scratch.

[Skytotem]

Right on. If I were a better environment artist I'd do some art of it - I picture it as this mechanical nightmare landscape of twisted grinding gears and so forth. There's a few good images I like:

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/...icle_image.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx...sjvo1_1280.png
http://cgc-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/d...dreamscape.jpg

I particularly like the giant bent gear on the lower-right in that last pic. It would have lots of those, I say.

Looks awesome

(LOHAC!)

[ssviolett]

For 10th time I watch this thread - for 10th time I must admit - thats IMPRESSIVE.
I'm not sure all this could be real new addon, especially since we had vrykyl-spider-undead-gothic theme already in WotLK, but for sure this should be patch 3.2 (instead of crappy Coliseum - it was 3.2 or 3.3 I dont remember).
Awesome job m8, you worth dozen of Blizzard workers.

[Azerox]

Looks amazing indeed, dont think it will ever happen or something.

But still nice to see and read your ideas

[Deleted]

Just asking out of curiosity, are you planning to give N'Zoth a part to play as the story goes on?

[Sam the Wiser]

I know this would be a massive job to do alone. It would be pretty awesome to see some of this built on a private server tho. Not sure if you ever tried doing that but would be pretty cool to see.

[Deletedaccount1]

That would be a terrible idea, the player base would revolt if given an expansion based on just that.


At best this would be a patch

My thoughts exactly this is simply exploring a very small and mostly unimportant area of unelaborated lore.

[bohapjut]

Even if it won't make it into the game his commitment and ideas are quite impressive considering he cooked up all this. Knadra, the Pandaren were even smaller and less important, having only one notable character before Mists.