I think we could do a decent desert but we probably wouldn’t pick that for the initial release because the world we’re create is a continuous geographic expanse and a desert would probably feel out of place until we get a larger landmass.
Matthew / Renevent - I think a wasteland / battleground set could be pretty cool and, yeah, would make sense to merge that. We could do a base wasteland set of terrain and then some more specific stuff to build out the ruins of a battlefield with trenches and lingering effects from the devastating weapons used. Chemical weapons certainly wouldn’t be out of context as, it is roughly fitting of the time period but also fits with the fiction of there being powerful alchemy.
how about the innards of a monster? Maybe the entrance of a cave is actually a mouth and you kill creatures that have also “accidentally” gotten swallowed. Fight your way through his body until you reach brain/heart where it summons apparitions of some sort and you gotta beat up the organ to a certain point, then it retreats into a shield and summons more enemies, rinse and repeat.
Lore wise that probably wouldn’t work since you could probably just port out anyway. Still it would look freaking cool. 
Another idea - something crazy like an outland of some sort, like the wizards world from d2, or the tower of judgement from TQIT. Something fantastically exaggerated and extremely surreal.
Possibly outside the scope of this title, but what I’d really love to see for an underground/mini-set is Inside the Belly of the Beast. Think Moby Dick/Jonah and The Whale but more grotesque and crawling with evil.
Heck, it doesn’t even need to be a within an actual monster, contextually speaking, it could just be caverns that have somehow taken on a living, horrific and pustulent appearance.
That’s my two cents anyway - looking forward to the final game!
Both posted at the same time - now that is scary
ABOVE GROUND
I’m liking the ideas of a battered wasteland/old warzone. To make it more appealing than just browns and grays I think that some mutated vegetation (fungus spread, stunted trees growing back, chthonic crystals merged with what little plant life there is) combined with craters filled with murky and colorful (but deadly) gases could make the environment a lot more fun to look at. Also, incorporating elevation changes, such as hills that could trigger a defense mini-event or labyrinthine trenches that house unspeakable horrors and gore, would really ratchet this environment up.
There could also be old strings of barbed wire that would not only limit movement options, but possibly damage and snare characters that get caught on them for a bit. Old gatling guns, mortar tubes or flare launchers would be fun, if the PC could find ammo for them they could be put to use against the roving bands of enemies or illuminate darkened areas of the map. Also, if there were enemies specific to this environment, such as ex-soldiers who had gone mad and now ferally hunt through the wasteland or ambush adventurers who stumble blindly through their trenches. This could be a very fun/deadly environment if done in a style beyond simple browns and grays with craters every so often.
TL;DR: warzone environment with interactive setpieces, more color via vegetation and left over toxic chemicals.
BELOW GROUND
Underground cities sound exciting, as do the Chthonic home environment. Not too picky!
yeah, I think this is why winter landscapes shouldn’t be in too, at least in the core game, so in one expansion, you could travel farther south and get into deserts, while another expansion, to the freezing north, having both in the core game would be a bit silly, and not realistic by any means
Newbie here,
In keeping with several suggested themes I would like to propose a Hillside Cave-Fort, such as the Cave City of Vardzia
This would allow for a hillside approach, followed by an extensive outside dungeon area, with small paths accented by sun-god ritual type areas. As the adventurer delves deeper, their surroundings will change from carved walls to rough, wild looking caves… and you can take imagination from there.
Just some thoughts, I like variety.
Yes, exactly, that’s the idea. As the geographical expanse of the world grows, you’ll eventually reach more exotic environments.
And even a rain forest that has plenty of secrets lurking within the confines of the jungle.
Yeah, I think we can definitely do something that is somber and harsh but also has some color and interest. The bubbling gas from toxic craters was something that jumped to mind for me as well. Some other good ideas here too - thanks!
The “belly of the beast” idea sounds cool but would be tough to pull off without more time / artists. Also, there isn’t currently any story-context for such a thing, so it is something that would require greater planning.
you know mutated vegetation isn’t a bad idea, something like War of the Worlds, musical version, (not the films) but later on, the Earth Vegetation was taken over by a Martian one, that started to spread and strange the life of the earth stuff, giving the land a redish / Martian feel to it. so in that respect, we could see alien vegetation starting to take root, maybe, we could see something like the Day of the Triffids (awesome book) while man made, if both were combined, we could see an the Earth landscape changing, taken over by the Martian stuff, this could be seen in the wastelands / batteground areas, where it would start taking root, maybe not a lot, but some strange and twisted plant life could be seen, hostile or not
Just wanted to bump this up since I added picture for the sewer theme, because this type of scenery is awesome to have in GD. 
What about the shipyard idea? Old battered galleons sitting in a harbor, infested with monsters, a building area that’s filled with nautical creatures (fishmen, nautilus’, crabs, etc), ghostly apparitions all over.
I think it would fit in rather well with the overall scheme of things.
Sweet - nice photo reference!
After seeing some of the ideas I’m thinking about an old stone/ruined castle. Not just the ruins of the royal chambers, but also the towns walls. The residents have been evacuated to make room for the army/rebels to get themselves a secure base. It is at the edge of a battlefield with some barren grounds, broken trees, wooden defensive constructions, gatling guns. And of course it could be done as a snow covered area. Makes me think of some The Witcher 2 dwarf city meets diablo3 act 3 where you need to break the catapults sort of thing.
I’d also like to see some ruined keep like Diablo 2 act 1. Where only the tower stands and you have to go deep down into perhaps the wine cellars/family mausoleum just to find a vampire queen at the bottom. Stuff like that really stayed with me over the years 
As for underground cities… For the past few months I’ve been watching a lot of “Ancient Aliens” on History channel. They speak about the theory that aliens have been visiting earth when it was just being formed. That they have been part of our development by genetically altering us in order to develop intelligence and get to where we are. Many archeological findings support this by finding underground and underwater cities so advanced with technology yet developed far before the age they should’ve been able to be build. Anyhow…during those shows they also talk about native america tribes that talk about their nature and bluffs. In there airvents can be found with a large tunnel complex that could house 300.000 people for centuries. And there is such a mountain range with tunnel complex in Turky as well. That is actually quite cool. And can easily be made to fit in Grim Dawn by switching aliens with Ctulhu like ancient beings.
Fair grounds is an awesome idea! It would probably require a lot of unique art and not be very re-useable though, since we probably would just have one fairground instead of them being sprinkled all over the world. I really like the idea though and think this is something we could add in an expansion if the game does well and we can hire more artists to spent time on more unique, one-off type stuff like this.
Thought these might give an idea of what I’m talking about.
Totally understandable, that. And I’m not too concerned, since I fully expect GD and Crate to be a wild success with many expansions (and time to get to a monster innards environment ;)) to come