If you haven’t already read Cynwise’s deeply splendid look at the Pandaren and the influences involved, I’d highly recommend you do so.
Stemming from that post is a link to Samwise‘s gallery which includes concept images of the Pandaren, and which upon closer inspection also gives hints –to those who may be interested– as to a couple of possible appearance options for the female of the species.
Specifically here, here and here.
I particularly like the Conan-ian appearance in the image above, possibly with a tagline of: “Don’t think of me as a clownish Po, think of me as Iorek Byrnison wearing a goddamn Batman mask.”
I’ll reaffirm: I’m intrigued by this expansion. And depending on the quality of offerings from other dev’s, it could be enough to pull me back into WoW after what will be a 3 year absence for some serene exploration among rolling hills and waterfalls.
With a panda monk. C’mon…do we really need to be grown ups all of the time?
Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo is a great source of serious anthropomorphic animal art, in a Japanese feudal setting with samurai and ninjas. One of the feudal lords is a panda, Lord Noriyuki.
@Jim: I think it’s still going to be a ‘wait and see’ for me, but I have to admit that there’s a mild element of temptation there. I don’t think it’s going to be enough, but one never can entirely tell.
@pjharvey: Oh my, yes! I think that’s the most exciting thing about the Pandaren, the huge swathes of cultural reference material that can be drawn upon, both fictional and historical.
Except, well, the obvious, such as Byrnison being a polar bear, not a panda?
It’s nigh impossible to *not* associate pandas with 1. China 2. KungFu Panda 3. stuffed animals.
Time will tell with this one, I do suppose..
Pfff, next you’ll be telling me that it isn’t a Batman mask he’s wearing.