The 'Wonderland'-Inspired Faces of the RAGE OF DEMONS

Take a peek at some of the art from D&D's upcoming Rage of Demons storyline. This art is by Richard Whitters, who is the art director for D&D and used to work as a concept artist for Magic: the Gathering. WotC's Chris Perkins has indicated that one of the influences on Rage of Demons was Alice in Wonderland, and I think the influence is clear when you look at the characters below.

Take a peek at some of the art from D&D's upcoming Rage of Demons storyline. This art is by Richard Whitters, who is the art director for D&D and used to work as a concept artist for Magic: the Gathering. WotC's Chris Perkins has indicated that one of the influences on Rage of Demons was Alice in Wonderland, and I think the influence is clear when you look at the characters below.



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OUGALOP, kuo-toa cave cricket catcher extraordinaire.

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YUK YUK and SPIDERBAIT, goblin adrenaline junkies.

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THE SOCIETY OF BRILLIANCE, the Mensa of the Underdark.

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GLABBAGOOL, awakened gelatinous cube.

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RUMPADUMP and STOOL, myconid followers.

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PRINCE DERENDIL, a quaggoth who thinks he's elven royalty.

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TOPSY and TURVY, svirfneblin wererat siblings.

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THE PUDDING KING, svirfneblin devotee (i.e., flunky) of Juiblex the Faceless Lord.

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D&D's "Legion of Doom." What a wonderful bunch of malcontents.
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Morrus

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What's OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.
J

jace

First Post
Just have to say that I LOVE this character art and the names. I agree with an earlier poster that said it reminded them of DiTerlizzi's work on Planescape and I think that's an excellent thing.
 

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Abraxas

Abraxas

Explorer
jace said:
I agree with an earlier poster that said it reminded them of DiTerlizzi's work on Planescape and I think that's an excellent thing.
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The art work reminding me of DiTerlizzi's work is why I don't like what we're shown here. I honestly can't think of a single illustration by him that I like - something about the tall skinny look everything has. Plus these images (except the mind flayer, myconids and gelatinous cube) don't make me think of the races they are supposed to be (the purple Kuo-Toa in particular - Slaad maybe, but Kuo-Toa?. Never would have guessed that it was a Kuo-Toa in a million years)

While I really do like the concept of a dark alice in wonderland - I don't see anything in this art that suggests it to me here - like another poster noted, this art seems reminiscent of Dark Crystal. Is there a larger version of the group demon picture somewhere? There is so little detail in the one I see here, they may as well be outlines.
 

Henry

Henry

Autoexreginated
I'm in a wait and see mindset with this adventure book. I was not impressed with PotA, and if I hadn't bought it with Christmas gift cards might have been disappointed with the purchase. The concept paragraph blows both the dragons storyline and Elemental Evil stories out of the water, but too much DiTerlizzi or Ward inspiration is going to sour me on it. I'm one of those rare fools who was totally turned off by planescape back in the 90s.
 

JeffB

JeffB

Legend
Henry said:
I'm one of those rare fools who was totally turned off by planescape back in the 90s.
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You are not alone.

But I will give it a looksie when it comes out like I did with TOD and Princes to see ff there is enough goodies to hold my interest/yoink for my game.
 

M

MonsterEnvy

Legend
Also the Demon Lords in that Picture have all been confirmed. From left to right they are

Yeenoghu, Graz'zt, Orcus, Zuggtmoy, Baphomet, Juiblex, Fraz'urb-luu, Demogorgon, Random Guy to show how big they are.

G9j0FAG.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:


Corpsetaker

Corpsetaker

First Post
Abraxas said:
The art work reminding me of DiTerlizzi's work is why I don't like what we're shown here. I honestly can't think of a single illustration by him that I like - something about the tall skinny look everything has. Plus these images (except the mind flayer, myconids and gelatinous cube) don't make me think of the races they are supposed to be (the purple Kuo-Toa in particular - Slaad maybe, but Kuo-Toa?. Never would have guessed that it was a Kuo-Toa in a million years)

While I really do like the concept of a dark alice in wonderland - I don't see anything in this art that suggests it to me here - like another poster noted, this art seems reminiscent of Dark Crystal. Is there a larger version of the group demon picture somewhere? There is so little detail in the one I see here, they may as well be outlines.
Click to expand...

This right here!

I find this quirky and silly art to be off putting. I also agree that this doesn't inspire an Alice in Wonderland theme.

If they wanted to do an "Alice in Wonderland" theme then they should have used the Feywild. They also didn't need to use the quirky art to give the impression.
 


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