Speculation about Expac 4

[Poormany.4507]

With the new hints that Expac 4 will seemingly be largely centered on demons, where do you think the storyline will go? Kanaxai is almost definitely behind the events of Gyala, but where exactly do you think the story will go past that? Maybe some kind of connection to the Deep Sea Monster? It just feels really random imo for the main plot to go in this direction unless it has some kind of purpose or connection to a larger plotline.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Poormany.4507

[Eekasqueak.7850]

Maybe some disturbance in the mists around Tyria between Kralk bulldozing through them and the gods abandoning the area creating instability. 

[mandala.8507]

1 hour ago, Poormany.4507 said:

unless it has some kind of purpose or connection to a larger plotline

There is no war in Ba Sing Se 😵

[mandala.8507]

But to be serious, the concept art teaser we got reminds me of the Shadow Behemoth art from Kekai Kotaki. It has a similarly amorphous and detached "entity of darkness" motif.

The upper left teaser creature's arm though has an almost Gorseval-esque tentacle-iness to it.

And lots of people have made the Jade construct comparison.

Anet unveiled Void in EoD and is now associating Void and some new modulating force with Oni demons and Abyssals.

It's like an amalgamation of all those things (shadow behemoth, gorseval, jade construct, and abyssals) mixed with an insectoid/arachnoid vibe somewhat reminiscent of Destroyers.

It really is quite a vague teaser, unfortunately. And since it looks like early concept art, it might not truly resemble any creature that makes it into the game for expansion 4.

[DemonCrypto.6792]

to me they look more arachnid or crustecean

I think they maybe the "things" from the deep infinite ocean.

why:

-segmented body akin to shells/Chitine
-non simetrical body (with a big claw/ pincer for some)

-lack of definitive head or at least fused to their torso (some maybe eyestocks)

 

So i think we are going back to crabs on this one

[Urud.4925]

Same, they look more bugs than demons for me as well (big and asymmetrical pincer and small head). But I don't know where they might be located, as bugs are... basically everywhere.

[maxwelgm.4315]

To people pointing out (very correctly imo) the similarity of the new concept to bugs/insects, remember the Realm of Torment is littered with ancient eldritch creatures that are just slumbering around and they are all insectoid in nature. Kralkatorrik could very well have stirred the big harvestmen there and we could be about to see the fallout of that.

[Song of Eternity.8613]

The concept looks like demons from the domain of anguish.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

We know humans are not originally from Tyria, right? 

What if these creatures come from outside Tyria as well? 

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

First thing I noticed that I see not everyone does is that these look like silhouette tests. So it shouldn't be taken that the final products will be full black. That's just how silhouette tests are done - they're just there to figure out the silhouette / shape of creatures to make them uniquely identifiable at a glance.

Once you take out "they're full black" out of the picture, there's only two common traits seen:

1. They're very generic "humanoids with floating limbs and non-joints". This is, as said, very generic. In Guild Wars alone you have: Elementals, Shiro'Ken, low-level Titans (fire and ice specifically), GW1-design Enchanted Armors, Jade Constructs, GW2-design golems, GW2-design Nightmares (Aaxtes and Shadow Behemoth specifically), Jade mechs, and the list goes on and on. This tells us... pretty much nothing.
2. They're very asymmetrical. A focus on swirliness but also one arm being larger than the other in almost every single one.

The second in particular felt VERY familiar to me. And it took me until late last night to figure out why it felt familiar. This is the main design aesthetics of the midway point between the original pig-like demonic Tennaks from Utopia, and the insectoid fire-and-stone destroyers of Eye of the North.

To quote the 2007 PCGamer magazine:

"One of the early designs for the Tannek, a demonic race of creatures in Eye of the North. They were described as being made of fire and steel with perhaps an insect undertone." - Shawn Sharp

Quote for this image

"I liked this guy. He was the brainchild of our art director, Daniel Dociu. I like the swirliness of it. The tannek eventually became the destroyers." - Doug Williams

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"We wanted these guys to be emotionless and almost alien, so we gave them no face and incandescent guts." - Matt Barrett

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In particular, the leftmost on the upper row      bears high resemblance to the Destroyer of Thoughts. Both in the floatiness, the thin limbs, and the larger left arm. Other destroyers from GW1 also held that swirl and asymmetrical-arm design, such as the Destroyer of Bones and the Destroyer of Sinew, which were lost in the GW2 iterations.

So at the risk of bringing forth copium, could these be silhouette tests for the midway point of Tanneks-to-Destroyer transition? Could these be Tanneks? Could Expansion 4 be... Chapter 4? Utopia?

Edited May 2, 2023 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[Zola.6197]

Maybe they’re just the ink blots the commander’s psychologist is going to use for their future therapy sessions. 😛

[Bobby Stein.3612]

2 hours ago, Zola.6197 said:

Maybe they’re just the ink blots the commander’s psychologist is going to use for their future therapy sessions. 😛

🤔

[Sajuuk Khar.1509]

Given that the Gyala Delves map is all about Mist Demons, and this concept art at the end of the recent blog was named "demons" according to That_Shaman, we're probably doing a Mists/Demons focused xpack next. Wouldn't be surprised if Anet brought in some of the GW1 Utopia lore/concepts also.

In terms of larger plots that are still left open in GW2 theres like

1. The Risen threat in Drowned Kaineng
2. The Deep Sea Monster
3. Lyssa
4. Mist Demons

So its not surprising we're going into Mist Demon territory. Possibly leading into a string/trilogy of these mini-xpacks about the Mists, the Gods, the Old gods, etc. With the Elder Dragons dead, the Mists are the next logical step in terms of escalation.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Sajuuk Khar.1509

[solzuul.6294]

I think the ink blots are intentionally designed to lead people into thinking about oni / jade mech hybrids. To mislead? Maybe. Love the images you have posted and can see them making the fit. 

 

 

Lots of speculation and copium regarding Gw Utopia. Since a lot of gw2 is just treading old ground from gw1, I'm cautiously optimistic that that is the direction they are going in. I spent a good amount of time going through various concept art that exists regarding creatures, humanoids, and environments for this region. 

 

The oni are coming out onto the surface, that much is confirmed. They are chasing us out of the Gyala delves. I have to imagine that it's the hybrid jade mech / oni that overpower us. But the 3 creature designs to the left in the teaser are looking especially 😍. 

 

The one with the scorpion tail and the one with the clasping insectoid head. I'm in for it, and hope those are some big baddies. 

 

EDIT: https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Utopia

I mean look at that Wizard possessor with the spikes only on one side of his body. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by solzuul.6294

[Poormany.4507]

After looking into the demon designs in GW1, this one seems very similar to the second from the left on top. Given that specific demon was found in the Realm of Torment, formerly claimed by Kormir and now reclaimed by demons, Expac 4 could be the tie-in to or the actual Gods return storyline, which would be consistent with the hints dropped in GW2 so far (Lyssa being the main one).

[Ashantara.8731]

On 5/2/2023 at 3:44 PM, Song of Eternity.8613 said:

The concept looks like demons from the domain of anguish.

Hopefully!

[Randulf.7614]

I’m guessing Cantha is done with whatever happens. The blog seemed to imply moving to new areas.

I hope I’m wrong though. Whilst EoD didn’t quite sit with me as we quickly rushed through another dragon and the void, the continent is big enough that it should be supporting a lot more maps.

[Serephen.3420]

On 5/5/2023 at 6:47 AM, solzuul.6294 said:

I think the ink blots are intentionally designed to lead people into thinking about oni / jade mech hybrids. To mislead? Maybe. Love the images you have posted and can see them making the fit. 

 

 

Lots of speculation and copium regarding Gw Utopia. Since a lot of gw2 is just treading old ground from gw1, I'm cautiously optimistic that that is the direction they are going in. I spent a good amount of time going through various concept art that exists regarding creatures, humanoids, and environments for this region. 

 

The oni are coming out onto the surface, that much is confirmed. They are chasing us out of the Gyala delves. I have to imagine that it's the hybrid jade mech / oni that overpower us. But the 3 creature designs to the left in the teaser are looking especially 😍. 

 

The one with the scorpion tail and the one with the clasping insectoid head. I'm in for it, and hope those are some big baddies. 

 

EDIT: https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Utopia

I mean look at that Wizard possessor with the spikes only on one side of his body. 

Looking at some of that art I can see how it has influenced some parts of gw2 as well. That one insectoid somewhat resembles a Chak.

 

I'm actually a bit excited while remaining cautiously optimistic about what they could do.

[Serephen.3420]

On 5/9/2023 at 6:57 AM, Randulf.7614 said:

I’m guessing Cantha is done with whatever happens. The blog seemed to imply moving to new areas.

I hope I’m wrong though. Whilst EoD didn’t quite sit with me as we quickly rushed through another dragon and the void, the continent is big enough that it should be supporting a lot more maps.

I certainly hope there will be more to come, from not just Cantha but Elona as well. While Tyria still has its share of locations to explore it already does have far more covered than the other two continents. It could also be a great way to get players who don't have those expacs a taste and interest in getting the larger older expacs as well.

[stormemperor.3745]

As long as it doesn't have anything to do with cantha, dragons, gods and teammates. I am in.

Honestly, I don't like any of the eod content. I ignored all eod maps for a year now, except arborstone weekly kitten (yeah, just 4x per week can't be bothered to farm imperial favor).

HOT content very solid and successful in terms of time spent/rewards and popularity. POF is a bit lacking in terms stable events but it makes up with legendary bounties and less annoying enemies.

lw1 totally ignored, probably worst release ever.

lw2 has some purpose but I never figured it out.

lw3 legendary, kinda annoying maps but okay not the worst at least. Everyone knows Bitterfrost, no need to say anything.

lw4 legendary and mounts, they also did a good job with Istan and DF meta. Overally successful

lw5 start was ok, also charr, I liked the mystery of Bjora Marches and overally good map design with easily reachable event albeit not quite worth the time. DWC probably the best thing ever happened in lw5, it perfectly merges wvw with pve very dynamic and fun events. We don't talk about DRMs.

 

And Gyala Delve... its like they forgot all about DWC and took a giant backwards step. Making fun of commander' s PTSD isn't really a good way to start story. 

 

I hope they end everything related to void before expac4 so we can finally move on. Bring back ascalon gw1 charr vs human smh.

[Bobby Stein.3612]

On 5/11/2023 at 3:51 PM, stormemperor.3745 said:

Making fun of commander' s PTSD isn't really a good way to start story. 

wut

[Blocki.4931]

The way that is handled is actually super reasonable. The way everybody acts around them is weird, because in real life, this stuff is very weird because not a single person around you is even able to relate whatsoever to the feeling.

[Bristingr.5034]

Demons just sounds "boring" honestly. I honestly don't remember this storyline we're in now... it just feels forgettable. Might skip the next expac if it is more of that.

[Randulf.7614]

8 minutes ago, Bristingr.5034 said:

Demons just sounds "boring" honestly. I honestly don't remember this storyline we're in now... it just feels forgettable. Might skip the next expac if it is more of that.

I'm guessing we are done with it? Seemed to be much ado about nothing in the end.

[Bristingr.5034]

5 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

I'm guessing we are done with it? Seemed to be much ado about nothing in the end.

Their "teaser" they just released suggests otherwise.