User:GoldenYak/Spider Kingdom Revision

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Related to Spider Kingdom Expansion Concept.

Spider Kingdom Revision

The Spider Kingdom concept spun out of a desire for an Azjol-Nerub zone/raid, which was hinted at early on in Wrath's development but ultimately cut by Blizzard due to time constraints. I wound up writing down some idle thoughts about what such a raid would entail, and the Spider Kingdom Expansion Concept grew out of it.

Ultimately, there's way more content in the concept than could ever realistically be implemented in an actual expansion - I really just piled on idea after idea after idea. This revision is me taking a look at everything, and cutting it down to make it fit more of a realistic expansion model.

Content Release Model

Patch X.0 - The Spider Kingdom

  • Initial release content would be largely the same. Some dungeons would be made into scenarios, with some different dungeons created, shooting for about 6-8 new instances. Same number of raids. Level 95 cap right off the bat.

Patch X.1 - Twilight of Dalaran

  • This patch becomes mostly a quest storyline involving the Twilight Cult's assault on Dalaran. Subplot involving nerubians contacting the refugees of Ahn'Qiraj and the mantid kingdoms in Pandaria.

Patch X.2 - Shattered Empire

  • The zone of Azj'Aqir unlocked. The storyline involves nerubian Newbreed forces re-uniting with qiraji refugees and mantid agents. The Newbreed would be absorbing mantid and qiraji to evolve further, truly becoming aqir reborn. The Nameless Citadel dungeons would focuses on the Infinite Dragonflight plot to use the machinery within, raid focuses on Newbreed evolution.

Patch X.3 - Malevolence Rising

  • Major quest storylines would have been used to tie up Angerboda and the Malevolence. The dungeons/raids of this patch would be made into scenarios. I might cut Angerboda altogether, but I really liked the idea of her coming back to life.

Patch X.4 - King of Darkness

  • Would've been largely the same. Final major storylines tied up in the Undying God and March of the Titans raid.


Storyline Revision Notes

If I had to go back and do it all again, it'd be broadly similar, but I'd have included the mantid and the qiraji in a grander role.

The Newbreed were always meant to act as vessels for the aqir spirits trapped in the Deep Void, so it would make sense that they would try and become as aqir-ish as they could - therefore, they'd have sought out and consumed qiraji and mantid to evolve themselves (or perhaps DE-evolve) to be closer in form to the original aqir. This sort've smacks of the Hybrid of Starcraft and the zerg's quest for 'essence' in the Starcraft expansion, but oh well - still would've gone for it.

I still would've had Yogg-Saron be the king of darkness and act as champion of the Old Gods, and still would've had the final battle take place in the Undying God raid - just would've had more mantid and qiraji enemies stomping around. Kind've like how the Zandalari had all the other troll tribes as lackeys.


Development Notes

The Spider Kingdom's content and storyline started around Icecrown Citadel's release and had been largely worked out around the time the Firelands raid in Cata was announced. Mists of Pandaria beat me to the punch in a lot of ways -

  • I'd wanted to introduce a lizardman race, the Cold Ones, as a pre-Titan and even pre-Old God race, who might even have been the mortal race that first summoned the Old Gods to Azeroth in the first place. The Cold Ones were very tribal and primitive, and wound up being very much like the saurok.
  • Flesh-shaping magic was going to be a major feature of the Cold Ones, with them having used it to create the trolls and goblins. Later on I decided that it would be the Endless Ones, a race that serves C'Thun, use the flesh-shaping magic to create a lot of servitor races, but eventually discarded flesh-shaping altogether to have the Endless Ones use time-based magic and Old God machinery instead. Ironically, the mogu would use flesh-shaping magic to create the lizard-like saurok.
  • The aqir would communicate through crystals using sonic waves - similar to the mantid and their amber.
  • N'Zoth had just been named at the time and I decided that I wanted to finish out the pantheon of 5 Old Gods, so I developed two more - Zorm-Nergal and Y'Uurd. Zorm-Nergal was a female Old God who governed 'silence', while Y'Uurd was also known as He Who Shapes, and was responsible for the creation of the Curse of Flesh. Y'Uurd was also to have been the Old God slain by the Titans, whose death would have released the Curse of Flesh upon the world.

The revelation of Y'Shaarj and his role in MoP threw a major wrench into those ideas - now Blizzard had beaten me to the punch with an Old God whose name starts with Y', and whose death unleashed major badness upon Azeroth. Yeesh! I figured Blizzard was somehow stealing my thoughts for a while there! Though I like to think that really it's great minds thinking alike.

At any rate, I had to re-jigger the ranks of the Old Gods around a bit to include Y'Shaarj. I wanted to carry out my Spider Kingdom concept with changing as little as possible. So Y'Uurd became one of the survivors who was sealed away (and is still the one responsible for the Curse of Flesh). Zorm-Nergal meanwhile became the Unspoken, an Old God who was banished from the ranks even before the Titans arrived. She wound up becoming the hidden primary antagonist of the concept, even overshadowing Yogg-Saron, who was always meant to be the ultimate baddy pulling a lot of the strings to bring about his resurrection.

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