A series of concept artwork bearing the heading “EverQuest X” has been posted by the artist Farzad on ArtStation.

Farzad Varahramyan was tasked in 2018 to reimagine the world of EverQuest. Working with Holly Longdale and others within Daybreak Games, the goal was to take EverQuest to the next iteration of the franchise.

Giving the characters and races a Marvel-like appearance and feel.

Several races were reimagined, including dwarves, kerrans, Elddar (elves), ogres and Tier’Dal.

The full interview with Farzad appears in Episode 19 of The EverQuest Show.

You can visit Farzad’s ArtStation page to view the full suite of EverQuest X images.

The Interview with Farzad – Transcript

Forget EverQuest Next. THIS is the world of EverQuest X.

Or so it says on these drawings by this artist. But who is he?

My name is Farzad. I’m a art director, creative visual director, principal concept artist. I was brought into the project to kind of reimagine EverQuest.

They were calling it EQ:D . EverQuest Dungeons.

The way it was told to me was, we want to reboot it, to reimagine it. Let’s try out some new stuff.

Ok, so EverQuest Dungeons. But it’s going to take an impressive resume to redesign the world of EverQuest.

As the core, I’m a visual designer that works with creative people. I will sit down with them to help them visualize the entire world. All the way from the environments, to the characters and the props they have, the chairs they sit on.

I worked on the Oddworld Games. Darkwatch games. Probably the most recent thing that came out was the latest installment on the Predator series, which was Prey on Hulu.

I think it was my fourth Predator movie. That was a lot of fun to watch with my family and say Oh there’s the shield I helped design.

Farzad has done some amazing work, and he’s got a very unique art style. But what did he think of the world of EverQuest?

I’ve never played EverQuest and I haven’t since. But it looked very dated.

I don’t discount the real and true passion people have for the thing that they love.

But one of the things that I thought I could bring to the table was an objective point of view. Which was, I’ve never played the game, clearly I’m not in love with the property. Therefore I felt I can look at it more objectively and offer objective feedback. Professionally, without hurting anybody’s feelings and say “That just doesn’t look good.”

“There’s room for improvement here. I was thinking this. Is it right or wrong. Does it fit with the IP, the universe. With what the fans will accept even though it might surprise them. Would it delight them. And not make them go That’s just completely wrong.”

I want the EverQuest characters to feel like they’re heroes. To the degree that they would fit into a Marvel universe.

Being a superfan I was excited and a little bit intrigued about what I was seeing in these drawings.

But I wanted to the into the process of how you reimagine the characters of EverQuest.

They wanted every race to be just gorgeous. Something you’d see in the Marvel universe, and aesthetically beautifully.

They also wanted them slightly stylized and not as realistic in human proportions. And facial features.

Those sketches that you’ve seen are explorations. Pushing stylization. How much do we want to pull and stretch the human figure? How beautiful do you want them?

One of the very first things we designed was the Elddar, the elf race.

So for the Elddar, inititally we tried different proprotions. Facial features. And then with the outfitting, we wanted to see if we could create a woodsy, foresty natural hero suits. What if their armor was like vines that grew around them? And grew around them perfectly. To form the different armors that they need. Or if the leaves and the trunk they could literally grow on them.

They wanted the Elddar to be a little more elongated, smaller waste for the males and females. I tried everything.

There were warriors, shaman, archers. I explored all of that.

One of the descriptions that was given to me about the dwarves was that they were living clay.

What does that mean? Living Clay? Living sculptures. We would talk about it. If they were going into battle they could literally grab rocks and put them on. Like warriors of ancient times, they would have dwarf war dressers that are layering on clay and sculpting an edge.

That’s different. From that you can get a lot of really neat stuff.

Over the course of the process of conversations it gets refined. I think by midpoint, they were like Maybe it’s too much. Maybe the fans would not like the idea that they are too much like living clay.

The fans are important. But I also don’t mind surprising the fans. Even if it means they get a little angry with what they see. because I can tell you this. I don’t think they’d be happy if they see the same thign over and over.

I’d rather challenge the fans. I’d rather let them do a little bit of the work up here. Take them on the journey.

But in that case I really loved the living clay idea. And I felt if this game was ever made, I’d hope they’d go back to original concept. Because I think it stands out.

This was a wonderful project. It was about 4 and a half months where I can get into the headspace.

Response from Daybreak Games

Daybreak Games Company has released this statement regarding the artwork.

“These were from a previous iteration of a potential new EverQuest game. However, that specific concept of the game is no longer the direction we’re moving towards. The concepts provided by Farzad may or may not be utilized in future EverQuest games.”

Daybreak Games Company

The project ended in 2018.