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.

OUGALOP, kuo-toa cave cricket catcher extraordinaire.

YUK YUK and SPIDERBAIT, goblin adrenaline junkies.

THE SOCIETY OF BRILLIANCE, the Mensa of the Underdark.

GLABBAGOOL, awakened gelatinous cube.

RUMPADUMP and STOOL, myconid followers.

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

TOPSY and TURVY, svirfneblin wererat siblings.

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

D&D's "Legion of Doom." What a wonderful bunch of malcontents.
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[The Hitcher]

Agreed... If evil incarnate is more evil than Hitler (Godwin!), and the media generally doesn't "humanize" Hitler, I wouldn't play a serious game of D&D that humanizes fiends.

Ultimate evil is such a tedious concept to me. I don't think it fits in a serious narrative. Characters who do stuff for the sake of being evil are cartoons. It's characters I can relate to doing evil things for human reasons that are really scary.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Ultimate evil is such a tedious concept to me. I don't think it fits in a serious narrative. Characters who do stuff for the sake of being evil are cartoons. It's characters I can relate to doing evil things for human reasons that are really scary.

One problem with the whole "ultimate evil" thing is that you can't plausibly give them followers, because human nature is such that followers need to see themselves as the "real" good guys. Nationalism, revanchism, bigotry, and entitlement all make better "villain" motivations than "evulz for the lulz." If you have a big bad evil demon, it works better if he tells his followers that the throne of God is his by right and it was stolen by undeserving cretins out of jealousy, and that they will be righteously rewarded when he reclaims it. That's still pretty cheesy of course, and an even better villain is someone like Szeth son-son-Vallano from the Stormlight Archives who actually has sympathetic motives, but either one is still better (IMO) than "we worship Orcus because we're evil." Gotta have a little bit of self-righteousness to make the villain truly hateful...

 

[Mouseferatu]

Ultimate evil is such a tedious concept to me. I don't think it fits in a serious narrative. Characters who do stuff for the sake of being evil are cartoons. It's characters I can relate to doing evil things for human reasons that are really scary.

When it comes to humans (or other mortal creatures), I agree. But we're talking about demons and devils here. We're talking about creatures that, by their very nature, are evil-for-evil's-sake. That's what makes them demons.

 

[I'm A Banana]

One problem with the whole "ultimate evil" thing is that you can't plausibly give them followers, because human nature is such that followers need to see themselves as the "real" good guys. Nationalism, revanchism, bigotry, and entitlement all make better "villain" motivations than "evulz for the lulz." If you have a big bad evil demon, it works better if he tells his followers that the throne of God is his by right and it was stolen by undeserving cretins out of jealousy, and that they will be righteously rewarded when he reclaims it. That's still pretty cheesy of course, and an even better villain is someone like Szeth son-son-Vallano from the Stormlight Archives who actually has sympathetic motives, but either one is still better (IMO) than "we worship Orcus because we're evil." Gotta have a little bit of self-righteousness to make the villain truly hateful...

...and thus you have why PS was pretty OK with dark whimsy for the demons and devils.

I don't think it's a better-worse choice, I just think it's a choice that kind of defines your villains. PS wanted moral ambiguity in a world of heavens and hells and alignments, and the art style is part of how that was communicated. That's not something you want from your demons all the time, so it's fine to have the red lazers vs. blue lazers, too. It's just one of the ways in which PS isn't just D&D On The Planes, but its own distinct setting.

Here, the dark whimsy seems more interested in communicating the "insanity" theme, which is cool, too. Dark whimsy is cool. More things should be darkly whimsical in life.

But it does convey that those two goblins, for instance, probably aren't just for mugging in some tunnel (even if they may ALSO be for that).

 

[Von Ether]

One problem with the whole "ultimate evil" thing is that you can't plausibly give them followers, because human nature is such that followers need to see themselves as the "real" good guys. Nationalism, revanchism, bigotry, and entitlement all make better "villain" motivations than "evulz for the lulz." If you have a big bad evil demon, it works better if he tells his followers that the throne of God is his by right and it was stolen by undeserving cretins out of jealousy, and that they will be righteously rewarded when he reclaims it. That's still pretty cheesy of course, and an even better villain is someone like Szeth son-son-Vallano from the Stormlight Archives who actually has sympathetic motives, but either one is still better (IMO) than "we worship Orcus because we're evil." Gotta have a little bit of self-righteousness to make the villain truly hateful...

I get that, but I've been playing serious/realistic villains for so long, that it's actually a break from the same old, same old to have a cackling lich (how do you cackle without vocal cords?) with orcs on the payroll.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff69/4uk4ata/poster53205764.jpg

 

[Mouseferatu]

Note, too, that there's a huge difference between "cultist of demon" and "demon" when we're talking motivation. I agree, the humans need to have some motivation to worship Demogorgon, even if it's purely selfish or sadistic. But Demogorgon himself needs nothing more than "Because I'm evil," because that's literally what defines his very existence.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Demogorgon is not even popular for worship by humanoids. He mainly worshiped by giant manta ray creatures. Orcus is most poplular as he has the entire undead them going and lots of guys see becoming sentient undead as a reward because they will become immortal. Along with this many undead worship him.

Anyway it's unlikely that Demon Cults are involved in the Adventure. It sounds like Gromph made a mistake with some magic and opened up a bunch of Abyssal portals that the Demon Princes and Lords decided to come through.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Heh. I was using Demogorgon as an example, since I happen to be a fan. But yeah, feel free to replace him with Orcus, Graz'zt, Malcanthet, Dagon, or whoever else in the example.

(That said, and slightly off-topic, he does have some substantial humanoid worshipers in my campaign, since I've sort of tweaked Demogorgon to be one of the primary faces--perhaps the primary face--of Nyarlathotep*. He represents the savage wild, yes, but also the crumbling of civilization through inner corruption and destructive prosperity. I sometimes forget that that's my own twist and not part of most people's canon. )

*Not necessarily under that name, for all practical purposes. I haven't decided if the name "Nyarlathotep" exists in this setting. But Randal Flagg or the central figure in Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" would be avatars/incarnations of Demogorgon in this setting.

 

[Zarithar]

I absolutely love this.

 

[Irennan]

Ultimate evil is such a tedious concept to me. I don't think it fits in a serious narrative. Characters who do stuff for the sake of being evil are cartoons. It's characters I can relate to doing evil things for human reasons that are really scary.

Totally agreed. And yes, while I agree with the people here saying that demons don't need motivations to be evil, that doesn't really make them narratively interesting. They are fascinating in the same sense the whole outer planes/creatures are: being embodied concepts. However, as main villains, they don't really bring more than ''muahaha I'm evil/I'll conquer the world/I'll destroy everything/I'll make people suffer, because evil!!1!''.