Dungeons & Dragons Hints at Dark Fate for Beloved Cartoon Character
Fans are wondering what happened to Uni in the 2024 Core Rulebooks.
Uni the Unicorn might have suffered a terrible fate within Dungeons & Dragons canon. Today, Game Informer revealed a ton of new artwork that will appear in the new Core Rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons coming out later this year. One of the new pieces of artwork featured characters from the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, now all grown up. While Wizards of the Coast previously revealed that the cartoon characters would appear in the Core Rulebooks and would be aged up in the books, a small detail in the artwork seems to suggest that something may have befallen one member of the adventuring party.
The artwork, by Dmitry Burmak, shows Hank, Diana, Presto, and Bobby standing outside of some kind of dungeon or tomb. All four characters are clearly older, especially Bobby, who is now the tallest member of the party. Bobby is also sporting a tattoo of a unicorn – a clear reference to his old companion Uni, who was his former pet in the original series. Of course, the major question is what happened to Uni that would cause Bobby to get a tattoo of him on his arm. Given how sought after unicorn horns are, could Uni have suffered a terrible fate between the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and the current day in D&D canon?
Speaking of missing members, the artwork also appears to be missing two other characters from the D&D cartoon – Sheila the Thief and Eric the Cavalier. It's certainly possible that Sheila is actually present in the artwork, as she has a cape of invisibility, but Eric's absence is particularly notable given that Cavalier isn't a class within 5th Edition.
Given that the 2024 Core Rulebooks are filled with brand new artwork, it's likely that we'll see more of the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon characters within the book. But until Uni is shown frolicking with an adult Bobby, fans will have to wonder whether the beloved unicorn was turned into spell components by Venger, eaten by Tiamat, or is simply hanging off-screen with Dungeon Master. In our eyes, Eric is definitely dead or evil until explicitly shown otherwise.
The 2024 Player's Handbook will be released on September 17, 2024.