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Demonic Brethren (pack I)

"Gloria Demonia!"

Technical info:
  • Contains only in-game mesh and textures.
  • Contains additional custom animations.
  • The size of the models is optimized.
UPDATE 10.09.22: see here.
UPDATE 06.11.23: see here.

Author's notes:
  • Explore the Demon lore and creative process in this post.
  • Visit my work in progress section for more creative content.
  • Need icons? Follow this link by @Aldeya.
Feel free to use/edit the models but give credits!

Keywords:
Admiral, Acolyte, Burning, Commander, Demon, Demonic, Eredar, Fallen, General, Hell, Infernal, Legion, Medivh, Mountain, Paladin, Smith
Contents

DemonGeneral.mdx (Model)

Demonologist.mdx (Model)

DemonSmith.mdx (Model)

FallenPaladin.mdx (Model)

Possessed.mdx (Model)

Reviews
General Frank
Extremely cool model edits and very nice work on the wrapping and details. Models work in-game and perform flawlessly. Good job!
Before all I want to thank our great maestro of re-wrapping @Ujimasa Hojo for the models with integrated portraits!

This pack is dedicated to Demons and aims to disguise the new models as native, so that they can seamlessly merge with the original art style of good old Blizzard (this applies to both - appearance and animations).

This pack is supposed to help mapmakers with races and modelers who will find these models as worhty samples for re-wrapping and other modifications.




The following lore is my personal invention, which does not correspond to the original Warcraft lore and is intended to give the models more charisma and entourage, help in finding ideas for using the pack or just to entertain you and me.

LORE

"Demons" are races linked to the Great Abyss or creatures infused by fel magic. Mostly all demons are sentient, however, various animalistic creatures or constructs are also present in the ranks. Demons possess incredibly long lifespans, thus they have accumulated vast battle experience and deep knowledge of magic. Their army craves for power gained by conquering the outer worlds - the more souls tortured and sent to the Abyss, the stronger the cohorts. The path to the hell throne of the Demon Lord lies through portals that can only be opened by his highest servants. Some tremendiously poweful Demons usually never leave the Abyss in order to control the most unruly inhabitants of hell, but occasionally they are needed aboveground. How many Demons inhabit the underworld and how it is structured, no mortal can know.

Demon Smith

"
HellSmithAnvil.gif
As time passes, the abyssal powers consumes the possessed one entirely. They are now bound to smithing fel weapons."


Long ago, these skilled smiths prepared weapons to fight the forces of evil, but after the arrival of the Demon Legions, they were captured and enslaved by the Abyss.

Hell Smiths forge swords and axes, spears and halberds, armor and even chains in order to shackle the disobedient in them. Their knowledge and skills, multiplied by the ability to work tirelessly, help the infernal cohorts to effectively arm themselves for rampant campaigns aboveground.

However, these infernal smiths can not only strike the anvil: being hardened by the infernal powers, they are able to mercilessly smite enemies of the Abyss with the best weapons they have.

In-game I see these creatures as tanky heroes that can heavily bash'n'smash enemy ranks in melee combat. They should possess AoE strikes like "Thunder Claps" and maybe smithing auras that improve damage of surrounding allies.

Demon General

DemonGeneral.gif
"The General's warlike spirit leads demons into battle, sword in hand."

A Demon General is the Warrior Lord for the Demon Legions. As a high-ranking Demon, he is supposed to wear magnificent armor and carry a deadly infernal sword.

Although these Demons are good magic-wielders, in combat they most often rely on great physical strength and unsurpassed intelligence of the tactician. Some rumors say that they are converted mortals, usually Humans, who were distinguished by special deceit and mind and who committed the fall and fell under the influence of the Abyss.

Their sharp mind, cunning, cruelty, strength, and leadership make other Demons fear and respect them. With their mere presence, these commanders can inspire a chaotic swarm of felspawn into a deadly force on the battlefield.

Game-wise these warriors represent DPS heroes instead of being just melee tanks. Hard and fast, they should have AoE buffs like mass "Bloodlust" and commanding auras that increase fighting capabilities of friendly troops.

Fallen Paladin

FallenPaladin.gif
"Demons have mastered the souls of these once holy warriors, their virtuous past has long been forgotten."


Fallen Paladins are warriors and casters who once fought in the name of Light, but their will was crushed and their souls enslaved by Demons.

Abyssal Lords experience special pleasure when they corrupt souls of Paladins, once again proving that will of mortals is weak, and their craving for temptations has been great at all times.

During the converstion, the Paladin's holy powers are replaced with fel energy, which he uses to protect hell cohorts and defeat his former brothers in arms in the name of the Abyss.

My imagination tells me that these warriors should possess supportive spells like "Fel Healing" and maybe some regenerative AoE buffs like, let's say, "Blessing of Chaos" that improves armor and HP regeneration of friendly troops. I'd also give Fallen Paladins some sort of "Fel Shields" that copy effects of "Divine Shields" but last less and deal damage to surrounding foes.

Demonologist

Demonologist.gif
"Masters of infernal powers, the Demonologist channels fel energy at will."

These abyssal magicians are known as smart and ruthless hellbenders and poweful masters of fel energy. Craving for forbidden knowledge of fel magic creates a special bond between the souls of mortals and the Abyss. Corrupted by the power it offers, these once skilled magicians can no longer stray from their intended path to hell. After turning into demonic members of the Demon Legions, they are granted great knowledge of fel magic, incredibly long lifespan and a high status of a Demonologist.

Experiments in the field of forbidden magic and an insane thirst for it, sometimes leads to unexpected transformations of their mind and body. Thus, Demonologists can temporarily incarnate into other hellish lifeforms.

Ready to destroy any obstacle on the way to their goal, whether it coincides with the order of the Abyss or not, they will not miss the benefit of absorbing any magical power that their transformed body can only count on.

In terms of gameplay, I want these fel magicians to use not only devastating AoE spells along with the "Spell Slam" animation, but also some mind control and polymorph related stuff.

Possessed

Possessed.gif
"Beings that have an inborn affinity for evil; they are granted fel power to serve the Abyss."


Mere mortals and occultists not capable of great accomplishments; peasants, captured by demons or who sell their souls to the Abyss for a reward, are called Possessed.

For these poor fellows there is no way back - the only thing they can do is serve the Lords of hell. Numerous and of little use in warfare, these acolytes of hell are of little value to higher Demons. However, aboveground, they constantly erect new buildings, extract resources and perform other small assignments, masterfully helping the cohorts to gain a foothold in the lands of mortals.

Thus, if you underestimate and ignore a group of such fanatics, keep in mind that after some time, hordes of bloodthirsty hell creatures will arrive from the direction you saw them last.

These creatures are base builders and resource extractors. However, they can also use fel magic to protect newly built demonic domains. I see them as low HP but swift servants of hell which, huddled in a crowd, can seriously slow down an advance of enemy deep into their base.



Here is a detailed "the makings of" log for those who is interested in more content:

"The General's warlike spirit leads demons into battle, sword in hand."

This is a humanoid high-ranked warlord that became a powerful Demon by being infused with fel energy.

The sword. I gave the model a big two-handed sword made of Doomguard blade material with a lordly guard to make it canonic and visually expressive.
Swords.png
Swords1.png
The armor. Here I added a rich piece of cloth, thigh pads and other smaller armor pieces. I also decided to cut off one horn and tear off the cloak to highlight the militant character of the hero.
The portrait. Facial proportions is an important part of a character's charisma and thus I gave this demon Eredar spikes and jewelry, so it looks more canonic. A high forehead, bigger and deeper eyes, sharp cheekbones, chin and beard, a crooked and thin nose should resemble us the clever and cunning look of Goethe's Faust (because he's a truly classic demon and I like him).
DemonGeneralFace.gif
Faust.png

The body. Here I worked on the proportions to make the body look more athletic and dominant compared to other Paladin-like units.

Additional improvements: removed arm tremor during some sequences; legs bend more at the knees (so they don't look like straight sticks while walking); re-animated cloth and cloak; deleted useless Stand Victory animation and replaced it with a better fitting Stand Channel; added Archimonde-style Spell animation with original RGB colors and more; removed unused mesh, frames and continued some further technical optimization.

Maybe in the future I will add more special animations.
"Demons have mastered the souls of these once holy warriors, their virtuous past has long been forgotten."

This is a fallen one whose Divine energy depleted, and now there's fel energy instead.

The hammer. This is Paladins' signature weapon, so it had to be corrupted and turned into a fel weapon.
The armor. Some other Demonic creatures in Warcraft have a special fel armor texture (e.g. Fel Orcs, Fel Guards, Demonesses) that gives us a certain sense of style. So, the texture with a wide and muscular torso & arms and armored lower body allows us to underline the physical strength of the model. Less armor also means more emphasis on the face.
The portrait. Demon eyes, large black horns, along with Eredar spikes make us realize that this creature has nothing to do with Divine powers, not anymore. The proportions are also changed to make the ears and horns look like native ones.
The book. Of course, you're not a Paladin without a book. Now it's some kind of black bible book with the sign of Death. To make it more special, I decided to highlight it with fel fire during some sequences.

Additional improvements: removed arm tremor during some sequences; legs bend more at the knees; fixed a broken leg during the Attack sequences; fixed the leg jump during the Death sequence; removed unused mesh, frames and continued some further technical optimization.
PalaBrokenLeg.gif
PaladinLegs.gif
"Masters of infernal powers, the Demonologist channels fel energy at will."

There are not many vanilla models that may be used as Demon magicians, so I decided to create one, even though it wasn't meant to be a hero.

The cloak. The cloak is an integral part of this model, as it is used in most of the animations. So, we want a torn and plain one (we have enough golden patterns already) and a team-colored part of the cloak on top. Here I tried really hard to re-wrap the top to make perfect connections and lay out the patterns quite aesthetically pleasing. A nice round brooch with a black gem in front completes the picture well by utilizing empty space.
The staff. I wanted it to look pretty modest. It is quite reasonable because the model already has another signature artifact (the book), plus we risk to overload the model with details. In my opinion, the shape of an Archmage staff is very suitable here: it tells us a story that this magician was once possessed by Demonic powers, and the tip pattern also goes well with the shiny magic stone. For the shaft I also used Doomguard's blade material to keep it canonical.
The book. I replaced the dagger with a Demonic Tome, the pages of which, as you can see, are made of flesh (yikes!). Thus, we spiced up the things and added more uniqueness to the model. Lore-wise the book symbolizes newly obtain vast knowledge of fel magic. To justify the book, I also added 3 animations where I play with it.
The animations. The hero requires movements and poses flavored with pathos and canonic Chaos particles to be a part of the Legion's community. Remember that we want to dusguise our agent as a local? So here I tried to create the Archimonde's Spell Slam animation that should be well-suited for some ultimate abilities. I hope you like it.
Demonologist Spell Slam.gif
Demonologist geosets.gif

The crow. After a lot of thinking I applied and re-wrapped the Salamander texture, so now it's a Salamander Crow! Although the role of a creature hardened by the fires of hell, it plays quite worthy. In the end, I decided to leave the crow as it looks pretty neat in my opinion. Maybe one day I'll turn it into a flying burning skull or something.

Additional improvements: re-animated the cloak globally so the limbs and other armor parts are no longer visible through it; fixed hero glow; fixed teeth weird behavior; fixed the right wing; added missing dissipate sound and blood splatter; improved animations and more; removed repeated animations, frames and continued some further technical optimization.
"As time passes, the abyssal powers consumes the possessed one entirely. They are now bound to smithing fel weapons."

This model has a good role, so why not?

The weapons. Stylistically they are identical to the hero's armor, and this is the purpose. I didn't want to overload the model.
The armor. Once again I used a fitting fel Orc texture. This time I added more armor to support the character of the hero.
The portrait. Initially it had no helmet and hair, so I decided to work with Eredar forehead plates. To my mind, it turned out to be a worthy and creative solution. After this I added more juwelry and changed some facial proportions.
The animations. I decided to remove Alternate animations, added a Spell sequence and fel particles.

Additional improvements: fixed positions of weapons and their hero glow; improved proportions; removed unused mesh, frames and continued some further technical optimization.
"Beings that have an inborn affinity for evil; they are granted fel power to serve the Abyss."

I think the template of this model fits the role of a Demon worker very well.

The dress. The model has a big piece of cloth that can be perfectly covered by Eredar's cloak texture. Further I decided to decorate this long plain skirt with a Demon belt to add more aesthetics. Nude torso gives us a useful gap in armor, so the model doesn't look overloaded with golden patterns.
The cape. Here I really tried my best to make all the parts come together in one visual ensemble along with team-color. In the end, we created a wonderful silhouette with a notable top and other canonical details, we achieved the harmony, but at what cost, at what cost...

Additional improvements: fixed the face blinking issue; reworked some animations to have a fel effect; removed unused mesh, frames and continued some further technical optimization.
 
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My man just keeps posting godlike models
Really well made, exactly the types of models I love :peasant-cheers-back:
Thank you guys! ❤️
High quality as always.

Personally I feel that they make excellent half-demons rather than full fledged Demons but I can see them being used for both.
Thanks man! Hmm, however it seems that they are half-demons for real, as they turned into them with the help of fel energy. As far as I know originally demons belong to races that come from Twisted Nether 👹
 
Damn, this is going to fulfill a lot of needs. I'm looking forward to seeing if there's going to be more additions to this pack (or a second one, since this has ominously been dubbed "pack 1")
Yeah, I will post more demonic units and next time I will start with 3, I guess, and will gradually fill up till 5 units like there, so people will have an opportunity to use the models earlier 👍
Very good. The acolyte is my favorite, I love worker models. :thumbs_up:

Any chance we get other workers for other races soon? :xxd:
Thanks! I have only Dwarven worker of mine besides this one, not planning to make any new workers yet 🙂
Finally what I've been waiting for eredar! But, it would be awesome if you made this too, Eredar Brute🤩 At least Eredar needed a barbarian and strong unit.
Glad you like it! Oh, I wasn't thinking of Eredars because WC3 has already some 🤔
these are all really cool going to use some of them in my demonic legion race, odd that you kept the mountain king at the same hight
That's amazing that you find these models useful! I already have another demonic unit ready and it's based on Mountain King and called Demon Axemaster or Berserker. It is taller and bigger, almost at Paladin's height. The next pack will have it 👍
DemonAxemaster.gif
That's great!
Thanks! 🙌
PogChamp Kappa
 
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Shar Dundred

Community Moderator
Level 72
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
5,862
Thanks man! Hmm, however it seems that they are half-demons for real, as they turned into them with the help of fel energy. As far as I know originally demons belong to races that come from Twisted Nether 👹
A fair assessment. I stopped paying attention to WarCraft lore a long time ago so I tend to forget that kind of stuff.

My point was that they looked very humanesque to me - which is of course also because of the models they are based on.
By no means a negative thing of course.
 
Villagerino feels like a "sugar daddy" for the site, always spoiling us with his fantastic work
Gladly 😆 Thank you man!
Good job bro!:vw_wtf:
Is... beautiful!
Nice idea, looks good!
Thank you guys 🙏
That dwarf demon has given me a great idea :ogre_hurrhurr:
Thanks for your high opinion! What kind of idea? A custom scenario with Dwarves infused with fel energy? 😀
You're making it awful hard for me to continue hating demons, man. xD

Another absolutely amazing pack, man.
I've been waiting for your commentary! Thank you for the vibes 🙌
 

Kyrbi0

Arena Moderator
Level 44
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
9,487
I've been waiting for your commentary! Thank you for the vibes 🙌
I appreciate that (though I'm not exactly sure why...)

Having finally gone through them all, I just want to add on that I absolutely love when modelers provide even a whiff of insight into their thought processes & modeling exploits; so a post like this are simply incredible. Love it.

I haven't touched the Editor in what feels like a year, and I generally dislike Demons, but stuff like the Demon General or the cool book-stuff of the Demonologist almost make me want to make those into custom Heroes ^_^
 
Really cool models, Eredars need more love :D
Thanks a lot guys! 🙌
I appreciate that (though I'm not exactly sure why...)

Having finally gone through them all, I just want to add on that I absolutely love when modelers provide even a whiff of insight into their thought processes & modeling exploits; so a post like this are simply incredible. Love it.

I haven't touched the Editor in what feels like a year, and I generally dislike Demons, but stuff like the Demon General or the cool book-stuff of the Demonologist almost make me want to make those into custom Heroes ^_^
Because I respect archons 😄 Frankly, it happens that your profound posts about my work inspire me a lot 😌
wow, nice stuff! if you want to take the fallen paladin, cut off his horns midway, and switch his hammer arm for a shaman claw, you pretty much made hellboy...
Hmm, there's something in what you're saying 🙂 Thank you! He also reminds me of one supporting actor, but I just don't remember who...
 
Level 17
Joined
Nov 12, 2016
Messages
780
I really like this pack, just gonna ask something and also give a smoll feedback 🤏

So, what was the idea behind demonologist turning into a demon bird and umm, as for the smoll feedback, maybe reduce the fire effect on the open book that he is channeling cuz its an extremely cool detail but the fire is covering it in full almost.
 
I really like this pack, just gonna ask something and also give a smoll feedback 🤏

So, what was the idea behind demonologist turning into a demon bird and umm, as for the smoll feedback, maybe reduce the fire effect on the open book that he is channeling cuz its an extremely cool detail but the fire is covering it in full almost.
Oh, here's some info about Demonologist in this post. I also decided to leave the bird as a function that some people might want to use just in case.
I need to know if you checked the animations in-game, because the fire looks less dense there. However, I also tried to make the fire noticeable enough from above because mapmakers tend to use big camera distances.
If you need a custom version of the model for your map including these minor changes I can attach it for you, no problem 👌
 
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Level 17
Joined
Nov 12, 2016
Messages
780
Oh, here's some info about Demonologist in this post.
I read it now, ok i see where you're going with this, turning him into a burning skull sounds exceptionally cool maybe if you were to take the giant skull of guldan from his tower model and do something with it, but at the same time i am no stranger of the fact that alot of people make very creative uses out of things that are somewhat of an "odd one out" type of resource/asset. so i totally understand keeping the crow as it is. the Salamander wrap even appears to be done with quite a bit of thought into it.

If you need a custom version of the model for your map including these minor changes I can attach it for you, no problem 👌
No i wouldn't trouble you because i am in no position to require such a model as of now or for a very very long time to come, its really nice of you to make that offer though, maybe i'll remember it for later if that's ok :grin:
 
Level 3
Joined
Jan 14, 2016
Messages
63
Well.. you do something. Very fine texture and the extra animation's so cool.. great job lad, just great job. Keep it a good work! 10/5

If you create this all purple like Eredar Diabolist and green like Archimonde skin, I will blow myself. :D
 
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Well.. you do something. Very fine texture and the extra animation's so cool.. great job lad, just great job. Keep it a good work! 10/5

If you create this all purple like Eredar Diabolist and green like Archimonde skin, I will blow myself. :D
Thank you! Hmm, I think it might improve the usefulness of the pack for more people, thanks for the idea 😉
 

Deleted member 304046

D

Deleted member 304046

Very nice set of models! I can see them as being Chaos/Fel Humans. Having a Demon Acolyte is also very useful for those who would want to create a custom Demon techtree! :thumbs_up:
 
Welcome to the first update of this pack containing fixes, improvements and more!

The hours of practice spent creating models have sharpened my eye, so that I went through the old models again with some result 🧐 I also need this update before the release of the second pack in order to make them technically well comparable and worthy of each other.

Demon General:
  • Improved the "Stand Channel" sequence to ensure the fel flame emitter is bound to the sword.
  • Reduced hair clipping in all animations to an acceptable level.
  • Replaced the old "Attack Slam" sequence with a new one.
  • Removed gaps between mesh on the face and forearms.
  • Improved the "Dissipate" animation.
  • Improved wrapping on the face.
  • Changed animation rarity.
Commentary: although the hair move almost like in the standard model, I decided to fix their "falling through the cloak" behavior. The "Dissipate" animation also looks more natural and the "Attack Slam" has a better Warcraft feel now.

Fallen Paladin:
  • Added an "Attack Slam" animation.
  • Improved the "Dissipate" animation.
Commentary: all for the sake of the vanilla game spirit!

Hell Smith (now Demon Smith):
  • The "Attack Slam" now resembles the same sequences of the other models in the pack.
  • Replaced the "Portrait-3" animation with a new "Portrait Talk".
  • Improved the positioning of the weapon glow.
  • The portrait and the model got merged.
  • Improved the "Dissipate" animation.
  • Renamed.
Commentary: since I learned how to merge portraits, I reduced the file size and made it easier to wrap the model for others.

Demonologist:
  • Reduced more clipping with the cloak during several sequences.
  • Removed the "Stand Victory" sequence.
  • Improved the "Dissipate" animation.
Commentary: I considered the "Stand Victory" animation quite useless because it doesn't look satisfying and also there are many other animations, as well as custom, that can be played instead. Although the cloak glitch is considered to be something acceptable, this irritates my eye.

Demon Acolyte (now Possessed):
  • Added a "Spell" sequence.
  • Renamed.
Commentary: this wouldn't hurt the file size and can increase the usability of the model lore-wise, and I tried to make the new sequence fitting. Considering the new name, I also found it more fitting lore-wise.

General improvements:
  • All animations are sorted.
Commentary: this is not only a satisfying feature, but also to help me and other modelers track Geoset Animations and Material visibility.

Improved description:
  • Added the LORE section in the second post.
HellSmith.gif

Commentary: if you are looking for the immersion or sitting in search of ideas for the implementation of models, then this is for you! 🤓 And don't mind this image: it was made only to get your attention 🙂
 
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