Critical Role’s fourth campaign is a departure from what long time fans have experienced before. Set in the world of Aramán the campaign follows thirteen characters connected by one man, Thjazi Fang, following his public execution. Led by Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan the cast was split across three tables, The Soldiers Table, The Schemers Table, and The Seekers Table.
As The Seekers Table searched for answers regarding the mystery surounding Occtis Tachonis, visions involving Thaisha Lloy’s son, and the larger mystery of the powerful Sundered Houses in Dol-Makjar. This cast included Aabria Iyengar, Ashley Johnson, Alex Ward, and Matt Mercer. The Seekers Table’s arc spans seven episodes from episode 12 through 18 and will pick back up when the three tables reunite.
In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Iyengar shares insight into her character Thaisha Lloy. She reveals the real-world inspiration for Thaisha and her motivation. Iyengar also reflects on playing at a table full of GMs and collaborating with Mercer as a player.
Aabria Iyengar Reflects On Matt Mercer & Brennan Lee Mulligan As Players
Temple of Geek: You have a very, I think, unique experience in that you get to run a game for someone that hasn’t really had the experience of playing in a long time. Because Brennan’s only ever really the end. And then also, like, in the Critical Role side, you get to be at a table with [Matt] who has never gotten to play in a long-form campaign. What has it meant to you as someone that’s really good friends with these two guys, but is finally getting to have the experience of seeing them and experiencing them as players and how it’s different?
Aabria Iyengar:
It’s so fun. Because I think in, sort of, the trifecta I’ve always been the one that’s lucky enough to be like, “I’m a player more often than I’m a DM.” So I feel like I get that very balanced viewpoint. Watching the joy in Matt and Brennan’s eyes when they’re like, “Oh I’m a character for a while and get to make big character choices and big swings” feels so great. Both as a DM going like, “Yeah, Brennan, XL-ZL has a long arc in front of him. You don’t have to shrink yourself to the size of a four to ten episode run of something. You can live and breathe and let it develop at a very natural pace.
Settle down, this is gonna be a marathon, find your stride.” Not that it’s difficult for either of them to do that even a little bit. They are the best at what they do for a reason. It’s fun getting to watch them find that other gear and really settle into it. And with Matt, especially the way he’s built Julien. The adversarial nature. The closed off. I was like, “Oh, you’re making all the fun choices that you really can’t make unless you have enough time to pay it off.”
I’ve made a lot of jokes about the Suvi in me sees the Julian in you and is so excited. But you can’t play a character like Suvi or Julian, unless you have enough time to really live in strong, at times unpleasant character beats and know that, you’ll have time and space to both justify, explore and denature all the proteins of that and get down to something more meaningful. The most of a gift I can offer to Matt being at that initial Seekers table with him was go like, “You look like a man in need of someone to fight with. I’ve got you. I will be right here in order to constantly get in your sh-t a little bit.”
Because that’s the fun of this character. If everyone treats the brusk kind of edge lordy character as completely normal, then Matt hasn’t made a strong choice because everyone just goes like, “Oh, that’s Julian. And we all just kind of work around it.” But if you have someone that’s constantly you get those sparks that are dusted up when it happens, then you’re like, “Well, now we’re playing in the space.”
And you’re like, “I could do this all day.” Let’s bicker. Let’s find those little moments of connectivity and then blow them up. Let’s start off the farthest away we can from each other and reluctantly find ways to be closer. And then blow those bridges up as we go! That’s the fun of this. So, it’s just been so fun as both a player and a DM to watch these guys stretch their legs. And work different muscles than they’ve had to and gotten the chance to before. And see them and revel in that too.
Temple of Geek: You’ve had two experiences now where it was a table of DMs. You’ve had “Dimension 20: On A Bus,”
Aabria Iyengar
The world’s best dragon master!
Temple of Geek: Then you had Critical Role, Seekers Table, which was the funniest thing ever to me, because it was all DMs and also Ashley is here, who rules.
Aabria Iyengar:
Yes, amazing. Ashley, also technically a DM, but like in her self-conception from moment to moment, doesn’t live like it. Even though she is, like we had so many conversations, I was like, you’re also a DM. She’s like, yeah, but no. I’m like, well, you know what? However you choose to identify, I get it.
Aabria Iyengar Talks Playing At A Table Full Of Game Masters
Temple of Geek: People who have a Game Master brain are different than people who have a player brain. So what was the most fun aspect of being at a table with people who mostly have Game Master brains?
Aabria Iyengar:
I think there’s something really fun in watching people make specific choices to sidestep their Game Master brain. Of course, there are moments where you’re like, “Yeah Brennan, I’m picking up what you’re putting down. That seems important. Would my character interact with this NPC or with this choice or idea right now? No.” And getting to like switch off and go like, no, all I need right now is the one player brain cell. Thank you so much. Other programming, go away!
Live in the truth of this character from moment to moment and trust that if there is a big, especially because the Seekers as the sort of chasing down big questions about the world. We should be hunting down lore, but everyone was so uniquely traumatized during their arc. There were so many moments where you’re like, “I understand and I should have a bigger picture look at this for the sake of the things that are cooking right now. My character is operating with very specific blinders. My character wants to find her son.”
That is what really pushed her out the door on this. She wasn’t here for the good of the Lore Keepers notes. she’s here for something specific, and that must guide her. And having everyone kind of live and exist within that truth too is so fun. There’s something about, it feels like playing recess when you’re like playing house and you’re like, I know that I’m also a little kid and I’m a little kid looking at a little kid, but right now I’m the mom and you’re the dog. We’re inside of like these moments too.
You can hold both your Game Master brain and your player/character brain equally precious and still make really cool moves that drive the plot forward while doing the most you can to answer to the fidelity of what your character cares about moment to moment. I do think that because everyone is a player and a DM has a really good job filtering between the two. And then, Brennan built a hell of a mystery.
The fact that you have to watch all three tables to understand exactly what’s going on. If there was an episode that I missed watching as it was filming, cause we get to like watch everyone else’s little tables as they play. But you know, once again, someone who is very pregnant will have a night where I’m like, “I’m not gonna watch this one.” We’ve gotten hints that I’m like, oh, this sounds like something related to the Soldier’s Table, but I do not know what it was.
I cannot wait to get back to everyone and start to put this puzzle together. Even with the fullness of a GM brain, it’s still so carefully and specifically constructed that you’re like, “God I can’t wait to get back and talk to Tyranny! And huddle up with Murray and Azune because I know that they’ve probably been interacting with the other side of this thing. We all need to sit down and figure this out.” Having that and genuinely feeling that, neither as a Game Master or a player, but as a person experiencing a story is a really fun feeling to have.
Temple of Geek: The more I talk to, and you obviously know this because you’ve, you talk to everyone regularly, but the more I talk to y’all about your characters, the more I’m like, were any of you like, maybe a slightly happy character would work? Every single one of you is like, tragic trauma, let’s go!
Aabria Iyengar:
I think Taisha’s really happy. I think that her worry about her adult son being in a vision that appeared twice to two different people was enough for her to go like, “Ok, now I realize that my son decided to be sort of a magical firefighter or whatever and lives dangerously. And I can live with that. But once you start appearing in other people’s visions, I gotta go check on that.”
So I think she’s generally a very happy, chill character that got kind of spun up by a certain set of circumstances where she’s like, “This feels important.” And I don’t want, like, my family and our people have existed at the intersection of important actions for so long that the natural instinct there is to, like, go help, go protect, do what you can on behalf of your family. She’s not a helicopter mom.
She’s just like, “Oh, was this momentous? Well, maybe I’ll go help out, because it seems bigger than the normal scope of your job.” Yeah, knowing, even getting to the end of the Seeker’s arc and not findnig him, but knowing that he survived and is continuing out there that can be enough. As like, “Oh, great, you lived past the prophecy moment. You know what? I’ll take that. A wins a win. I’m gonna head back. Golly! Two different dreams?”
Aabria Iyengar Shares The Real Life Inspiration For Her Critical Role Character Thaisha
Temple of Geek: That’s fair. That’s like your kid’s at college across the country you got like three different phone calls. And you’re like, “We gotta check.”
Aabria Iyengar:
Yeah, exactly. I guess I’m gonna go fly over to Duke and see what’s going on. Cause my other kid’s juggling. So I think she’s good. We’ve got juggler and prophesied like man standing at the choke point against waves of undead in a long buried temple. I’m gonna catch a flight. I’m just gonna go see what’s happening over there. Like a little, you know, that feels like a normal response. You still good juggling? Tight! I’m gonna go!
Temple of Geek: You keep juggling with your dad keeping an eye on you. I’m gonna go.
Aabria Iyengar:
100%! Also, you’re both fully grown. You’re an adult juggler. I think you got this.
Temple of Geek: One of the things that stood out to me about Thaisha, it felt very much like the moms that were fighting for civil rights while also raising their kids. Was that like a part of the inspiration there?
Aabria Iyengar:
A huge one. I’ve read some really interesting books about very specifically the Black civil rights movement and the fact that so many civil rights movements and movements in general, revolution is carried on the backs of women in a way that always gets underserved and underplayed. But even from the fact that the Black Panthers couldn’t do the job they did, and their initial job was to protect students that were being discriminated against. And to provide school lunches that were being stopped and destroyed by cops in Oakland. The men carrying the guns weren’t the ones providing the actual service. It was women making the food.
Civil rights has always been one of those things where you’re like, “I understand that for the survival of my people, change must come, and I have to be willing to put everything on the line so that maybe mine is the last generation that has to fight this fight.” But it does come with the opportunity cost of, I would rather be at home enjoying my family, but the things that I do are because I love my family, and you have to be able to hold both and continue moving forward even though it comes with that loss of balance of, I don’t get to live and spend a beautiful life just circled up around and taking care of my family. But the the thing that I’m doing is in the long run what will make them safer and what will make them happier.
And maybe I can’t be there to tuck them in at night, but if they get to grow up in a world that doesn’t make me as scared for them as it was before, then it will all be worth it. I think that is such a North Star for what motivates Thaisha. And I think there’s been a lot of kind of conversation about her in the fandom being motivated by guilt. It’s not guilt. It’s out of a tremendous love of what could be in the future, not just for her family or for the orcs of Araman, but for everyone who’s living under the diaspora caused by these barodels and the deaths of the shapers.
If your choices can help ameliorate a world that is still broken from this revolution that happened seventy years ago that everything becomes safer for everyone. Your family becomes safer. Your people become safer. And people that you will never meet are safer and can live a better life because of the work that you do. How do you say no to that? And I think that’s sort of what sits at the center of Thaisha’s heart.
She would love to have, like, raised her family in peace and prosperity and all of the good things that we showed about her growing up, we got to meet her family in that one cold open. She lives a charmed and happy life. And still, the duty to a world and saying, if I can get everyone a little closer to this via my individual contribution, then it’s worth it for me to try.
The first twenty four episodes of “Critical Role” Campaign 4 are available on Twitch, YouTube, and Beacon now. New episodes are available to stream across these platform every Thursday at 7pm Pacific.
