New World Details Arena of Shah Neshen, The Devourer Elite Trial

mmorpg.com:

For a while, the New World team has been talking about the upcoming arrival of the sandwurm in Season 2, Blood of the Sands. Now, they’re giving us a preview of what to expect from the first 20-player Trial.

In the latest Forged in Aeternum episode, we get some of the lore, like how the sandwurms crossed paths with humans and even helped with the Corruption. This is explained by narrative designer James Huang. Then they disappeared. This is lore specific and will come up in the storyline of Season 2. The particular humans that the sandwurms were able to kind of ally with have disappeared, and so did the worms. Now one has awoken through some mysterious magical meddling and of course, some people decided to take advantage of this. “Now it’s kind of like a crazed beast” set in an arena to take on challengers.

Through additional attempts at this Ancient magic, they're able to lure the creature into the arena, but they can't control it. Uh oh.

This is, of course, where you (and many of your friends) come in. 

In an accompanying devblog, sound designer Kyle Bailey talks about How he and his team created sounds for the whole trial. He also describes the beginning of the Trial,  and how they wanted to keep things epic. If you want to avoid spoilers just skip over the quote.

 “We wanted to kick this fight off in epic fashion. Players strike a drum and send ripples across the arid hills of Brimstone. Something shifts beneath the sand — its rhythm striking fear into the hearts of Aeternum’s travelers. Shah Neshen circles the creaky wooden structure, bursts open the gate, and finally destroys the drum. The fight has begun.”

AI lead designer Chad Redwitz talks about how this 20-person instanced encounter is “ pushing into raiding