The first “Worlds Beyond Number” campaign, “The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One,” recently concluded its first book. Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Erika Ishii, and Lou Wilson crafted an astounding fantasy epic. Suvi (Iyengar), a Citadel-trained wizard; Ame (Ishii), a young witch; and Eursulon (Wilson), a spirit who longs to be a knight, are childhood friends. Brought back together through great tragedy and threats, they must step up and find their place in the world of Umora.

Each of the three grew into heroes in their own right across the first book. In the final chapter they learned shocking information about not only their pasts but also the future of Umora. Suvi may have had the most traumatic journey of all, as her beliefs were put to the test.

Suvi slowly discovered the darkness and corruption of the Citadel and Empire where she grew up. While her friends had noticed it from the beginning, the wool was slowly pulled from her eyes. And with it came the shocking betrayal of Steel, the woman who raised her in the wake of her parents’ deaths. Suvi learned that Steel had lied about everything. Including her part in Suvi’s parents’ demise.

Suvi Is Entering Her Batman Era

This spurred Suvi into a new era as she stepped away from the woman and home that raised her. However, she isn’t looking to destroy the Citadel altogether. In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Iyengar discussed Suvi’s future and how she mirrors Steel. When asked about Suvi’s next steps, with a comparison to Batman being made, Iyengar explained why it is important for Suvi to want to save the Citadel.

Aabria Iyengar:

“I think that when we talk about the sort of political parallels and the things that we are sort of playing inside of and hope to carry through as people existing in interesting times, I do truly believe that revolution doesn’t come from those who have distance to the fight. So, the fact that for Suvi, she has to love the Citadel, it’s a different story if it’s just about Suvi walking away. If you just walk away, then the story’s about all of the other places that exist on the map. Maybe about the eventual encroaching of the thing that she moved away from as it touches other things.

But for Suvi, for everything that was built up and for all of the deconstruction arc to pay off, she has to care so much about what she thinks the soul and the heart of this place is. And being very frank about the level of badness and moral decay and how off-kilter it is. But you don’t make those changes if you don’t care. I am going to butcher the quote, but one of my favorite little political quotes is, “If you’re here to help me, get out of my way, but if you’re here because your liberation is bound with mine, let’s work together.” It’s that idea that you have to have skin in the game. So Suvi has to care the entire time about the ones that she hopes to save, about the ones that she couldn’t.

It’s why I love so much the way everything went down on Gavreel with Sworn. Her feeling so tethered to the struggle of both acknowledging the badness and the rot inside the Empire as manifested through the Citadel, and knowing that she has existed both as victim and perpetrator of violence and having to reckon with that means that she’s the person that will care the most and will carry the fight to its very end because there is nothing but redemption at the end of this road.

If it was easy for her to just walk away, she would just do it when the fight becomes too scary. But this is her home at the end of the day. So yeah, if you can’t ever see yourself not living in Gotham, you will become Batman in order to save it. I think that’s a very fun parallel. I do love that the end of the arc was very much her going, “I remember what Eioghorain said, becoming a monster even to those who I would hope to save.” Suvi is absolutely entering a very fun Batman era and hopes to redeem the Citadel, but first you gotta let a little light in; it’s going to be rough.”

Suvi’s crucible has been the Citadel from the moment Steel took her from Grandmother Wren’s cottage. She was trained to be a soldier with a rigidity to her understanding of magic. Every step of the way she has fought to see the good in her home. Learning that the woman who raised her killed her parents is a betrayal that runs deep. However, it doesn’t wipe away her belief in the good that was intended of wizards.

Suvi’s desire to scrape away the rot while saving the Empire and Citadel is noble. It also gives her a necessary perspective in the coming conflict. Eursulon and Ame are the bridges between humanity and the spirit world. Suvi is proof that humanity can grow and evolve to understand, empathize, and respect spirits.

Aabria Iyengar Explains Suvi’s Desire To Save Steel

Mulligan has set up countless possibilities for Book 2 of “The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One.” With six post-credit scenes and each of the titular characters in the finale. Suvi seems to be set up for a journey most radically different from the life she has known. But she isn’t leaving it behind. She not only hopes to save her home but also the woman that dealt her the worst betrayal. Iyengar shared why Suvi is so persistent in her need to try and redeem Steel.

Aabria Iyengar:

“I think it might be a bit of an oversimplification to put the major pivot point between Steel’s result and Suvi’s result on forces outside of them. I do struggle with that idea that if massive change is external to you, then you will relapse if that relationship is poisoned. It’s like the weird idea of you don’t change for a romantic partner; you change for yourself. We are not in a throuple. I don’t know what’s going to happen in book four. We’ll see. But the fact that it is so important to me to say that Suvi’s change is not contingent on her friend’s care or their ability to change her mind about something. Because that’s not a firm enough pivot on personality.

Steel is foundationally different in how she related with her little squad of Soft and Stone and Eioghorain than Suvi is with her true friends. But I do think that there’s something interesting to be said about the things that we inherit from our parents. Whether it’s philosophy or temperament. I think we can talk about Suvi being an inheritor of Steel’s philosophy and her parents’ temperament and how that foundational temperament switch allowed her to interact with the world and come to different conclusions than Steel did. But it just feels very cool that at the end of all things, Suvi and Steel still look so much alike to each other that the heartbreak is the weird gap that Suvi won’t be able to bridge.

The persuasion check that she did in the finale was never with the thought in my mind that Suvi will be able to change Steel’s mind. But it’s important to know that Suvi, for the depth and breadth of the betrayal that she is realizing and moving through, will still want to bring her mother through it with her. It feels really good. Even the ways in which Steel is an absolute monster. And let’s be so clear, I’ll defend Steel to my dying breath because she’s one of my favorite NPCs I’ve ever seen in anything ever. But she is absolutely rotten to the core.

There is something inside hoping that the people that you love, that you’ve poured into, can come through it and can become the person that you believed them to be, whether or not that was a fiction the whole time. Steel has that and is willing to obliterate Suvi’s magic and her memory in order to create it. Suvi, especially because of the things that she’s learned with and from her friends, will hope to try to guide Steel and all of the other people that she calls like family at the Citadel through that her way. Whether that’s naive or not or even possible, we will find out in the future.”

Steel, like Suvi, had two true friends she trusted. Suvi’s parents were Steel’s family, but unlike Suvi she trusted the Citadel more than them. Interestingly, when at the same crossroads, Suvi put her faith in Ame and Eursulon. Even when this put her in danger and at odds with her mentor. While that isn’t a singular choice that set her on a course different from Steel, it does show a foundational difference.

While Steel may be the master of Suvi’s greatest loss, the love they have for one another still exists. Suvi’s sparks a hope for redemption and understanding. Where Steel’s is corrupted by a need for control. Steel may have snuffed out Suvi’s parents, but not their spirit within her. Her Batman era and hope for redemption of loved ones seem like they will be key to her arc in Book 2. Fans may not know when “The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One” will return, but “Worlds Beyond Number” promises more awe-inspiring stories.

Check out “Worlds Beyond Number” anywhere podcasts are available. Join their Patreon for exclusive content, including episode talk-backs and patron-exclusive TTRPG episodes.