This thread looks a little lonely -- I think it's time I brought up some less firmly grounded ideas of mine.
[spoiler=Freedom]Given that freedom and what it means to be free are consistent themes in Telepath games, I would guess that this trend will continue in the next game, assuming the released concept art is actually from a planned videogame at all.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Religion]It's been stated that there are many issues that Craig wants to tackle with his games, so I get the distinct impression he's not going to be repeating himself -- this contradicts the notion of the powerful church proposed in the other speculation thread, but perhaps if the main focus is distinct enough from that of Servants of God, especially with this religious power not posing a theocracy so much as simply a powerful influence, I could see where this aspect of the picture interpretation could coexist with a desire to continually move into new, unexplored territories.
In Servants of God, we had only a handful of explicitly good Cultists, Qudssi and, depending on what it means to be a Cultist, former Senatrix Duvalier among them. But by and large, representatives of that organization are either morally unimpressive job-doers or straight-up evil people. If religion is a theme in this game, I predict much more ethically diverse parishioners, so to say. After all, religion doesn't make people fundamentally better or worse, and I figure that would be something worth portraying.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Social Control]Slavery and forced labor have appeared in all previous Telepath games, so this one may look at different kinds -- debt slavery, indentured servitude -- or branch out towards other kinds of social control. Poll taxes, loyalty oaths, shibboleths, poorhouses, debtor's prisons; the floor is wide open.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Setting]As for the setting and timeline of the (again, presumed) game, we know nothing. Given the sheer darkness of the images depicted, it could be an exploration of the alternate timeline in which the Shadowling Empire won its civil war, if the setting is on the same world as Cera Bella at all. There's certainly precedent in the wide world of gaming for working in a dismal timeline -- XCOM 2 takes place in a world where the original mission of defending the earth was a failure, and Dark Souls 3 takes place after the cycle of rekindling has been broken.
But something tells me that would be too much like backtracking for what seems like it'll be an ambitious and forward-reaching project.
We've seen no direct evidence of any of the old non-human races that we know and love from the previous Telepath games, but that doesn't mean anything certain; they may have gone into hiding as a result of a widespread human-supremacist belief system. But it does lend strength to the possibility that this game doesn't take place in the familiar world. To counter that, though, is the style of mask the figure in red and gold in 03 wears. Very Cera Bella. However, it could merely be very Sinister Design.[/spoiler]
And with that, I'm all out, for now. Please, don't be intimidated or anything -- feel free to post your own theories in this thread!