The cast of Critical Role has created truly beloved and deeply fleshed-out characters. They have been able to sit in these characters for years, adding new elements and revealing new pieces of their lore. This has also been achieved through novels and comics, including “Mighty Nein Origins,” “Vox Machina: Kith & Kin,” “Bells Hells: What Doesn’t Break,” and more.

However, Matt Mercer isn’t often able to bring this level of depth to his NPCs because they aren’t the stars of the show. “Critical Role: Vox Machina – Stories Untold” added a new layer to characters that thus far have not been front and center. There have been comics and a novel that achieved this as well. Sam Maggs has been at the heart of many of these stories, having penned Jester and Veth’s origins, Artagan’s story after departing from the Mighty Nein, and now showing a new side of Lady Kima.

Sam Maggs Says: “Every Day I Ask for an Essek Book”

In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Maggs revealed several characters they would like to tackle. Maggs, like many Critters, is a huge fan of Essek. The Drow Wizard was first introduced during the Mighty Nein’s adventures as a mysterious and powerful mage. However, as time went on, his humanity became more clear as he bonded with the ragtag team. Maggs is interested in not just Essek’s time with the Mighty Nein, but also his portrayal during the third Campaign.

Sam Maggs:

Every day I ask for an Essek book…I would write Essek any day of the week. I genuinely do love that gay fail wizards so much. I think Drow are really fascinating as a race in general. I just think there’s so much interesting stuff to explore there in terms of their interactions, the outside world, and the rest of Exandria. How the rest of Exandria perceives them, but also Essek’s backstory is just so rich and his relationship is so rich.

He’s so with it and competent and together in the Mighty Nein, and he sucks so bad in Bells Hells. I also love that as someone who was really with it together in my twenties, and I feel like I fell apart in a lot of ways in my thirties. I just feel like that’s so relatable. Sometimes you just get into a gay relationship, and then you don’t want to do your job anymore. Who among us hasn’t been there? And then you stop hitting all your rolls. I get it. So that’s definitely a big one.

Essek surely has an intriguing origin that led to his choices. He became an unlikely ally to the Mighty Nein after shocking subterfuge was revealed. Maggs’ desire to further explore not only Essek, but also the Drow and the Kryn Dynasty could be the start of enticing possibilities. However, this isn’t the only iconic Mighty Nein ally Maggs wants to dig deeper into.

Sam Maggs Has More Artagan Stories to Tell

Maggs explored the trickster Archfey in the aftermath of Jester’s Traveler Con. After getting into trouble with the Moonweaver, Artagan was forced to answer for his crimes in the Fey Wild. Before the comics, Artagan was a peripheral character, first with Vox Machina, then the Mighty Nein. While the comics delved further into the Archfey’s story, it took a surprising turn that Maggs hopes to explore further.

Sam Maggs:

I think that I would honestly love to write more Artagan. If you finished the Artagan graphic novel or little miniseries we did, you’ll know that it ends on quite a cliffhanger for Artie, and I would love to know what happens next for him. So being able to continue that story would be really interesting. I mean, spoiler alert, he loses all his powers. He just has to be a dude. And Artagan as just a dude. That’s great. That’s delicious content right there.

While Maggs hopes to continue Artagan’s story after his time with the Mighty Nein, there are other possibilities. Artagan often secretly traveled with Jester and the Mighty Nein as a crimson weasel. The possibility of snapshots of their adventures from his perspective could be a hilarious avenue as well. Maggs also pitched further digging into the characters established in Critical Role’s Daggerheart one shots. Maggs says, “I think that the Daggerheart Menagerie has a lot of potential for short stories. We haven’t seen a lot of them, and I think there’d be a lot of fun stuff we could do there.”

Sam Maggs Praises the Critical Role Team as Collaborators

“Critical Role” has built out a truly amazing world of characters and lore. The tapestry of storytelling spans the actual play, comics, novels, and even animated adaptations. Mercer has made it clear he wants others to add their voices. This can be seen with Aabria Iyengar and Brennan Lee Mulligan stepping in as Game Masters. It is also demonstrated on the publishing side, with new authors and artists lending their voices to iconic characters in novels and comics.

“Critical Role: Vox Machina – Stories Untold” brought in ten different authors to bring new perspectives to Mercer’s NPCs from the first campaign. Maggs has been a longtime collaborator with Critical Role. They’ve added to the lore of characters established by Laura Bailey and Sam Riegel, as well as the NPCs crafted by Mercer. Maggs has worked within a number of established IPs but has an abundance of praise for “Critical Role.”

Sam Maggs:

The Critical Role team creates really iconic characters in really fascinating worlds. So they kind of tee up partner authors to just go and explore in a way that is so unique to this IP in general. I’ve written for a lot of IPs, and there’s something so freeing and amazing about working with Critical Role because there is so much, but at the same time, there isn’t, it’s still new, it’s still fresh. The founders are still in it and very much involved…there’s so much room to explore, and they’re so enthusiastic about working with people who want to play with their toys.

I think that’s part of what makes it so fun. Working in partnership with the founders is always such a joy. They’re such great collaborators. They’re such great team members. They know what they like and they have a vision, but they’re not overly precious. They really want to bring in other voices to expand their world. And I find that so admirable.

A decade of storytelling has crafted a world of truly amazing and inspiring stories. “Critical Role: Vox Machina – Stories Untold” is a celebration of this world. Hopefully Maggs is given the opportunity to further explore characters like Artagan and Essek, as well as many others. After ten years, “Critical Role” continues to grow and thrive, with countless more tales to tell.

“Critical Role: Vox Machina – Stories Untold” is available for purchase now. “Critical Role: Tales of Exandria Volume 2–Artagan” is also available now.