"There are exactly 100 decatons, the lowest order of officials found in Nirvana, These creatures appear as 10-tentacled spheres on stumpy legs and are overseers of the physical welfare of the base modrons. One deeaton is assigned to each sector of Nirvana, while the remaining 36 serve with the hextons commanding the armed forces of the plane."
I did a deep dive into the inhabitants of Nirvana on my instagram when I posted the monodrone but I never shared all that on my blog.
So, these weirdos first appeared in Monster Manual II (1982) illustrated by François Marcela-Froideval and were from the realm of Nirvana (the plane of ultimate law & order later renamed Mechanus) and follow in the D&D tradition of floating heads with one eye or a bunch of eyes!
Decatons were later redesigned to have more of a steampunk/clockwork look which, I have to admit, I really hate. I prefer this odd organic form of symmetry and order; it seems more alien. They seem almost Soviet in their design and concept; they're meant to satirize an overly bureaucratic world.
While monodrones didn't show up until MMII, the realm of Nirvana was first mentioned in The Dragon Magazine (no. 8, 1977) with a chart by either Dave Sutherland or Tom Wham (it's not signed and unlike their usual stye). My research for possible influences came up short. All I could find was a reference to the novella Flatland (about the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland meant to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian culture [1884]). So, I'm forced to speculate about visual inspiration again.
I was reminded of the oddly symmetrical flora and fauna of René Laloux's animated masterpiece Fantastic Planet. Even Marcela-Froideval soft stippled style is reminiscent of those characters designs (by French artist Roland Topor). Marcela-Froideval, being a French artist, must have known of Laloux & Topor. Anyway, I love these weirdos, expect to see more down the line.
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