While everyone was distracted by Diablo 4's huge loot update on the test servers over the weekend, players got a hint of the next season's theme ahead of the official announcement.

In Season 4's PTR, or "public test area" for beta testing upcoming changes, text may pop up saying that you have earned Iron Wolf's reputation while killing monsters in Helltide's open world events. Reputation does not appear anywhere in the menu, nor is it part of Diablo 4's massive loot overhaul. I remember this message popping up on the first day of PTR, but I didn't pay much attention to it.

Apparently, you can also find the mercenary Iron Wolf, who debuted in the Diablo 2 campaign, fighting in certain Hellside events. And Wowhead found a list of emblems, map icons, and items named after them in the PTR files, suggesting that they would be the stars of Season 4. The map icons even show the green leaves that Blizzard uses to indicate seasonal features in the UI.

All of the databased items resemble the rewards you get in Diablo 4's second season, which featured a reputation-like system for completing objectives throughout the open world. They have names like "Iron Wolves' Glove Case" and "Iron Wolves' Herb Supply" and seem to vary in rarity like regular loot. Several items are described as containing body parts or "rotten eggs," much like the game's boss summoning materials. Several of the items also mention Helltide and its new boss Blood Maiden.

We may be looking at hints of a season centered around Iron Wolf and the newly reworked Helltide events that appear periodically throughout the map. One player found an elixir that increases the level of Helltide enemies and the number of Aberrant Cinders that drop. If it is anything like Season 2's Blood Harvest, Helltide could be a destination for a new season.

Though perhaps unrelated, the layout of one of the strangest locations in Diablo 4 has changed a bit. A new road and an abandoned camp have appeared at the gates of The Lost City of Ureh at the bottom of the map, and despite some interesting lore in a novel published in 2002, "Ureh" has never actually existed in the Diablo game, so players have speculated about this small area since the game's launch. It was supposed to appear in Diablo 3, but was later cut.

The changes in Diablo 4's PTR do not seem to have anything to do with Iron Wolf, but the tent and torches could be placeholders for something more thematically appropriate. I am inclined to believe that this is the first teaser for what will appear in the Vessel of Hatred expansion later this year. The same leaked text dump that accurately predicted the expansion's jungle location states that raids will be added to the game, and Ureh seems to be a good fit for something like that.

Blizzard will probably reveal all when they announce the unique theme for Season 4 before the May 14 launch.