I’m fairly certain we will all acknowledge the large affect Dungeons and Dragons has had on videogaming, nevertheless it retains proving itself in new and fascinating methods nicely past the apparent realm of CRPGs like Divinity and Pillars. Turns out a few of World of Warcraft’s most iconic characters discovered life in Blizzard artwork director Samwise Didier’s D&D marketing campaign.
Illidan joins your expedition to Argus in World of Warcraft patch 7.3.
“Uther [the Lightbringer] was based off a blind Paladin I created artwork for,” Didier tells Reddit, in an AMA. “In one arm he carried a ebook of Honour. In the opposite, Virtue. It was a pencil drawing I did in ’95.
Redditor StuntedSlime (we admire the area of interest Star Wars reference there) posted a link to that drawing, which was featured in a web based documentary. Turns out D&D impressed extra than simply Uther, nevertheless:
“The look of Illidan [Stormrage] was based mostly off one other character I did as nicely. The tales have been created right here by Metzen and the War III crew however the authentic artwork was from earlier than. Funny that Uther ended up not being blind and Illidan did.”
Didier ends on a tease: “There are others as well but that is for the next AMA.” Perhaps we’ll see extra, as Didier says he still plays D&D, primarily in weekend-long campaigns together with his previous highschool mates.
Another fascinating tidbit: Didier is the creator of the Pandaren (after he, as a furry however pleasant particular person, was given the nickname ‘Panda’), and now they’re evolving. Didier has written a fantasy novel, The Last Winter, by which a race referred to as the Pandyr are threatened by an alliance of frost and fireplace giants. Asked if there’s any relation between the 2, Didier explains:
“The Pandyr were created after seeing a certain Black Metal band, playing in full corpse paint, in the snow, singing about dark and black grimness. I thought they looked like Viking pandas. Thus, the Pandyr were born.”
Warcraft followers will certainly need to try the entire MMA, nevertheless it’s a enjoyable learn even in case you’re not – Didier looks as if a cool dude. Check it out here.
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