What is your desired aesthetic for the DSD?

[Zola.6197]

The information/lore we know doesn’t hint at much beyond a sort of lovecraftian horror vibe.

Would you prefer a more traditional looking sea dragon, or something more akin to Cthulhu or an Eldritch Horror?

I love the idea of an alien, incomprehensible form. Even the idea that we as the player never truly see the DSD dragon interests me - the image is too horrible for us to understand. Or all we manage to see of it before it is defeated are its many glowing eyes and the silhouette of its body moving through the deep.

That sense of mystery would retain a lot of the DSD’s ominous vibe up till now, but it’s also fun to see the full picture. I’m torn!

Anyway, I’m mostly bored and interested to hear thoughts, theories, hopes. Daydreaming too much about gw2 at work lol.

[Bast.7253]

I’d like to see a slender saltsprey dragon with 8 heads like a hydra. But there was another thread here with some really cool concept art.

[Zola.6197]

@"cptaylor.2670" said:I’d like to see a slender saltsprey dragon with 8 heads like a hydra. But there was another thread here with some really cool concept art.

I think that’d be cool too and fitting to existing dragon lore. Plus it would definitely connect to the Scylla vibe they’re rumored to be going for.

[Randulf.7614]

Dragon shaped, tentacles and bio-luminescent

[Oglaf.1074]

Something resembling/inspired by those gnarly/scary deep-sea fishes that lurk out there.

[Weindrasi.3805]

I want the lovecraftian horror design. H.P. Lovecraft and his monsters are my favorites in the horror genre.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

I want something super sweet and cuddly. Something you just want to hug.

Until you realize that behind that cuddly exterior hides the true psychological horror only the sickest minds can even dream off.

[lakdav.3694]

I would like a single glowing pod in the endless darkness, a gigantic core of magic that lures us further into the depths. It must be its weakness right, we don't know anything else... we follow the light, until we feel the drift of the currents and hear the snap of gargantuan teeth snapping shut above.

[Batel.9206]

It's the deep sea dragon. There is, frankly, very little that could possibly make it more terrifying to me. (I have an intense fear of deep, dark water; unless Bubbles turns out to be a quaggan-sized, completely harmless puffball of cuteness, there's little that could make the deep sea dragon less terrifying to me, either. XD)

But hey, it's an Elder Dragon, and we've already got horrifying monstrosities like Zhaitan - so I say, bring on the tentacled, bio-luminescent, Lovecraftian horrors!

[Oglaf.1074]

@Batel.9206 said:It's the deep sea dragon. There is, frankly, very little that could possibly make it more terrifying to me. (I have an intense fear of deep, dark water; unless Bubbles turns out to be a quaggan-sized, completely harmless puffball of cuteness, there's little that could make the deep sea dragon less terrifying to me, either. XD)

But hey, it's an Elder Dragon, and we've already got horrifying monstrosities like Zhaitan - so I say, bring on the tentacled, bio-luminescent, Lovecraftian horrors!

You’re wise to fear the depths of the seas. We actually know way, waaaay more about outer space than we do about what truly lurks down there (turns out it is far easier to point a telescope and peer out into the clear vastness of space than see down through the murky darkness of the oceans).

To me, that’s what makes Cthulhu (and other ocean-bound Lovecraftian ghoulies) so fascinating.

[Edelweiss.4261]

I'd kind of like an oceanic wyrm(not wurm). Like a giant sea serpent that is camouflaged by the waves. I imagine Faren doing a dive off his ship(because of course he has one) only to be surprised that the ocean he was diving into was actually a gigantic elder dragon.

I still need my Lovecraft, though. Preferably, take ques from Innsmouth. I want to visit a town that smells of fish and half-human, half-dagon monstrosities. Make it so Anet. Also, if you can bury us in an underground crypt for an episode of the living story, I will love you so much.

[Fenom.9457]

I’m torn because honestly there could be several sea EDs that are entirely distinct (except there aren’t more as we know). It would be awesome to see something that’d a cross between eldrtitch monster and classic sea serpent, and make the whole story and design as scary as possible

[Musaroxy.2874]

I'd love to see it be terrifyingly huge, I want it to be something we can't even tangibly comprehend the entirety of.At the very least, I want that old piece of concept art of the sea serpent with octopus legs as it's head(?), that comes up when you google the Deep Sea Dragon. That one always looked awesome.

[Oglaf.1074]

@Musaroxy.2874 said:I'd love to see it be terrifyingly huge, I want it to be something we can't even tangibly comprehend the entirety of.

Maybe something like Midgårdsormen of Norse mythology where the dragon’s body is big enough to encircle most of the planet.

Like the majority of it’s bulk could be buried deep within the sea floor across all of Tyria in a dormant state.

[dusanyu.4057]

Eldritch horror that reduces all who view it to gibbering madness. Prehaps on land in the area a nod to Innsmouth.

[Mahou.3924]

http://clipartmag.com/loch-ness-monster-clipart#loch-ness-monster-clipart-2.jpg

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

I love how ANet kept the deep-sea dragon a mystery up to now. We don't know what it looks like, we don't know what its minions look like, we don't even know its name. We always get some hints like inquest notes or the letter s, but its always vague. I really hope ANet manages to capture this theme of "too far to pin down, yet too close to ignore" in the deep sea dragon's expansion. An eye glinting at us, a scale glistering in the dark, in my opinion the dsd should be present in one form or another in every story chapter of that expansion. Always too far to make out a general shape, yet too close to feel comfortable. The thought that somewhere in the darkness something huge and terrifying could be lurking is what makes deep waters so scary to many people. The dsd should be the embodyment of this fear of the unknown.

[Zola.6197]

@BunjiKugashira.9754 that’s exactly what I’m thinking too! Gimme that anxiety and tension. Ow O

[AgentMoore.9453]

Turns out, it's just a school of coordinated piranhas curled around a mass of elder dragon magic. It would explain why no one's been able to describe its shape.

[Ardid.7203]

@AgentMoore.9453 said:Turns out, it's just a school of coordinated piranhas curled around a mass of elder dragon magic. It would explain why no one's been able to describe its shape.Make those piranhas Mantis Shrimps instead, and I'll pay for it.

[Manimarco Devil.1790]

There was a really neat loading screen? a while back when LA got remade. I thought it hinted the DSD but perhaps it was just nice art.

http://i.imgur.com/3tAr7wl.jpg

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

Not a loading screen. If memory serves, it was one of the background images on the Heart of Thorns preview site.

Was, and is, apparently.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

And said background image was made by Daniel Dociu (and given the date, would have been one of his last works for Anet given his departure in early 2017) and is titled "Tsunami". It was recently found hidden in the depths of ArtStation, offering us a much brighter and larger version, and curiously coupled with other Elder Dragon and dragon statue concept art pieces.

[Dante.1763]

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:And said background image was made by Daniel Dociu (and given the date, would have been one of his last works for Anet given his departure in early 2017) and is titled "Tsunami". It was recently found hidden in the depths of ArtStation, offering us a much brighter and larger version, and curiously coupled with other Elder Dragon and dragon statue concept art pieces.

Isnt that Zhaitain then? cause when he awoke he created a tsunami, and the multiple heads remind me more of Zhaitan than anything else, i know its a bit late for Zhaitan art but still.

[derd.6413]

@"Manimarco Devil.1790" said:There was a really neat loading screen? a while back when LA got remade. I thought it hinted the DSD but perhaps it was just nice art.

http://i.imgur.com/3tAr7wl.jpg

looks more like some aquatic hydra subspecies then an ED tbh