It seems that no one is safe from the Queen of Blades, even in real life. A mighty statue of Sarah Kerrigan, the popular nemesis from StarCraft 2, now stands outside of Blizzard's offices in Versailles, France.

While many gamers are probably busy playing Diablo 3 (read our review), those still lurking around the Koprulu Sector will know that the Blizzard-owned office in Versailles has been hard at work on StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. The expansion is set to take a closer look at the Zerg species, and appears to be centered around Sarah Kerrigan after the dramatic (and oddly tranquil) ending from Wings of Liberty.

Though Kerrigan may look more like her old self in the 2011 BlizzCon trailer, there's no doubt she has retained her mindset as the Queen of Blades -- players can expect to do some serious Terran-killing in Heart of the Swarm's campaign. While the Zerg will be receiving some new units and, of course, campaign-specific upgrades, they're not the only race with a few tricks up their sleeves -- the Terran and Protoss races are also receiving new units, indicating that combat both offline and online will have fresh elements and strategies to change the balance of gameplay.

Check out some angles of the fierce statue below.

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Blizzard has gone back to being relatively tight-lipped about the upcoming expansion pack, but Production Designer Chris Sigaty did reveal details on massive multiplayer updates designed to encourage the growth of both Battle.Net and the online eSports scene. Needless to say, Heart of the Swarm will provide a big boost to a community that has kept active since the release of StarCraft 2 in 2010.

Sarah Kerrigan has clearly come a long way in her trials throughout the series, and the new statue certainly draws attention to her final form. It should go without saying that designer Steve Wang, and everyone else involved with the project, have done excellent jobs capturing the details from the game.

We'll keep you posted as more news -- like the expected announcement of a 2013 release date for StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm -- becomes available.

What do you think about the Sarah Kerrigan statue? Does the Queen of Blades make a solid landmark?

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Source: Blizzard