D&D: Warduke Unveiled With A Gritty New look – Beyond The Witchlight Spoilers
Warduke, the villain from the 1980s D&D cartoon/colorful, mostly nude action figure is back–this time in Wild Beyond the Witchlight with a gritty new look.
You can tell that the 90s are back in style in a big way right now because everyone is wearing block color clothes, unironically watching Friends and referencing Seinfeld, wearing Reptar shirts non-stop, and giving gritty reboots to four-color characters. The latter is why we’re here today, as the Dungeons & Dragons team at WotC has unveiled a grey new look for the villainous Warduke.
Warduke, seen here wearing a suit of “half-chain” though by our math it’s more like 1/4, maaaybe 2/5 chain at best, is known for being mostly naked, wearing tight-fitting leather straps, and having an intense relationship that started off as a beautiful friendship somehow turned into bitter enemies with a paladin named Strongheart, with an amazing mustache, tight blue short shorts, and a breastplate featuring prominent nipples.
These former just good strong friends with no subtext at all why do you ask turned bitter enemies are entering the newest D&D canon in the upcoming Wild Beyond the Witchlight book, where Warduke is featured wearing a gritty 90s-style update of his iconic outfit, as the D&D team revealed on Twitter:
Seriously, if he got any spikier you would assume he was working for Chaos – and he does have the skull of a Demonlord engraved on his head, so who knows. He also has a visible male-presenting nipple, so it’s safe to view this picture on tumblr or at work.
Warduke will be joined by a crew of classic D&D villains who make an appearance in the Feywild adventure. He will be a part of a “League of Malevolence” in the adventure and will be joined by fellow action figures Kelek, Skylla, Zargash, and Zarak:
And opposing them will be a group known as Valor’s Call which include Strongheart’s very good friend just a friend though Strongheart, as well as Elkhorn, Ringlerun, Molliver, and Mercion.
And we have an idea of what their look will be like too, thanks to a set of minis up from WizKids which reveals the new art designs. Here’s the League of Malevolence:
And Valor’s Call, redesigning most of the personality away from Strongheart, whose new outfit was clearly designed by a coward afraid of tight-fitting armored shorts:
As you can see though, the design of most of these evokes the earlier cartoon. There’s a lot about this adventure that feels like it draws from the nostalgia that gamers might be feeling while exploring bold new whimsical territory for D&D. We’ll all get to see for ourselves soon enough!
In the meantime, happy adventuring!
