The world of Exandria is vast and “Critical Role” has only explored a fraction of it. “Critical Role” spans hundreds of hours throughout centuries with heroes traveling the world. However, even lands and eras that have been a part of many stories haven’t been fully dug into. “Critical Role: Vox Machina – Stories Untold” shows how the world of Exandria can be fleshed out beyond the actual play.
“Critical Role” focuses on the stories of the heroes at the table. This means that many of “Critical Role’s” NPCs may appear numerous times, but much remains unknown about them. Similarly, locations have been visited by the heroes, Vox Machina, Mighty Nein, and Bells Hells, but still remain mysterious. Aabria Iyengar had the opportunity to dig into beloved NPC Shaun Gilmore like never before with “Critical Role: Vox Machina – Stories Untold.” In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek Iyengar revealed which Exandria location she would like to see further explored.
Vasselheim – The City That Survived The Calamity In Critical Role
Aabria Iyengar:
“I’m biased. There’s something so fun about the way EXU Calamity busted open the Age of Arcanum. I’ll never be over it. I love that everything was so heightened and so big that you have this sense of thinking back to Campaigns 1 through 3 and going, this is almost a post-apocalyptic story. The world that existed before that fell from all of these different, who could say whose fault it was? There’s no way to know whose fault it was that the age ended.
Is a mystery and there’s no way to know. But having that and then being able to look and go like, oh, the way in which the world is different is like, what if you were going to post-apocalyptic story and you never really knew it until almost 10 years in when you get a look back at the way the past was? I think there would be something really, really fun in living inside of the Age of Arcanum or Vasselheim at the, I’m obsessed with Vasselheim.
I think deities are phenomenally cool and the cleric of it all, the sitting in conversation with deities that are known to exist and everything around the place that was able to survive the history of this world is fascinating to me, and I don’t think I’m the broad to write it because it would also require a thousand hours of conversation with everyone that’s done any amount of world building, but that would be my dream project.
If I could download lore directly from Matt and Dani’s brain, I think something around Vasselheim as this bastion across time, I’m obsessed with The Three-Body Problem as a series and the fact that it takes a really long scope of history across its three books. There is something fun about what if you tell the story of Vassalheim as this thing that has persisted and the ways in which it’s calcified.
The ways in which its rules and strictures and assumptions about the world feel out of step with the parties that interact with it. They’re like, why are you so weird about arcane magic? And you’re like, if you had seen everything these stones have seen, you would understand exactly why we’re like this, and it may feel weird and outdated and old fashioned to you, but we didn’t get these stones remain here because we have learned lessons that you don’t have to even think about, and I just love something about that. That would be my dream.”
Vasselheim is steadfast. It stands tall through time like no other cities in Exandria. Vasselheim survived the horrors of the Calamity. It withstood the attacks of the Chroma Conclave and Vecna. In Campaign 3 it still remains after the Gods return to Exandria leaving the city in chaos. Iyengar portrayed the powerful wizard Laerryn in “EXU: Calamity” who helped set off the Calamity.
Vasselheim has very strict rules regarding arcane because of the actions that kicked off the Calamity. This era has been a fascination for Critical Role fans especially in the wake of “EXU: Calamity,” “Downfall,” and “EXU: Divergence.” Vasselheim could be the perfect backdrop for a series of stories that show this era completely. Perhaps beginning similar to “EXU: Calamity” it could show how the city existed before the cataclysmic event followed by the horrors that wiped out most of the population of Exandria.
Critical Role’s Ring Of Brass Have More Stories To Tell
“EXU: Calamity” is built in a format similar to that of a disaster movie. The story takes place in about 24 hours from roughly dawn to sunrise. The Ring of Brass are rich characters that hold power and sway in the city. This is the city’s worst day with Laerryn and other members including Zerxus being part of the cause of the Calamity. A prequel could show who these characters were before this and how they became the tragic heroes in the end.
Laerryn is the Hierophant Abjura, Architect Arcane, a powerful mage working to make her mark on history with the Astral Leywright. The other members of the Ring of Brass hold other important positions in the city. “EXU: Calamity” shows Laerryn at her worst. In the wake of great tragedy, the loss of her dearest friend, she pushed everyone away. Focused solely on being sure Avalir makes history.
A prequel novel, novels, or graphic novels could delve further into the Ring of Brass members. It could be an opportunity to show how Laerryn became who she in in “EXU: Calamity.” It would also be the perfect way to show each of the members in a new light. This could include Zerxus with his family, how Evandrin fit into Avalir and the Ring of Brass, the love story between Quay and Laerryn, and even Cerrit’s investigative skills. The Ring of Brass have only had a moment in their story told. Both the best and worst of their choices, but still just a moment. There are so many more stories worth telling about these characters.
Aabria Iyengar:
“I’m the first one to be like, Hey, I know Laerryn seemed quite stressed when we met her. She was having a big day and having some big feelings on a big day. I promise there’s something very funny inside of the like, oh, we saw Laerryn on her worst day, and everyone thinks that’s her personality a hundred percent of the time, and you’re like, no, no. Have you ever been the day before finals, and if everyone only met you the day before your finals and went, you’re a bitch all the time. You’re like, ‘No, it’s a big day and I’m not handling it super great.’ I am messy.
But yeah, a world in which you get to see Evandrin is such a beautiful ghost that touches every part of the story who never appears, and you’re like, God, if there’s something inside of, I remember Luis [Carazo] and I having an amazing f*cking three hour coffee as we were talking about the Evandrin of it all and where our characters and where our stories would intersect, and that’s where we originally pitched the maybe Laerryn was Elias’s birth mom and part of a, Hey, you’re my friends and I have a womb that I’m not really doing anything with.
Like, yeah, go ahead, load it up. Will this affect me building my little machines? No. Great tight. I’ll be nauseous. Whatever. They have magic for that. Cool. Just doing it as a solid for a homie with whom she is deeply bonded to, but not in an inherently romantic way. Yeah, just seeing more of those dynamics, seeing Laerryn and Quay when they were happy and watching that decay arc because it’s all implied that Laerryn is who she is now because she is in the middle of a monomania because her grief made her lean more into her mind because she was ripcording out of her heart.
She’s like, that’s why I’m going to let this relationship burn. I have to rely on my mind. I have to get this done. It has to mean something. I love the fact that Laerryn a little bit had the false belief that she was inside the story so that everything had to happen for a reason, and there’s something really fun inside of her railing against that history will remember me, which is also deeply ironic. I was like, oh yeah, no, we know from the top, no one’s going to remember her. All of the technical knowledge that she had, I was like, because it doesn’t exist in the future.
We do know it has to die with her. So, from table stakes, from the way she was built, it was me and Brendan [Lee Mulligan] going, Laerryn’s not going to make it out of this, so I’m going to build her a brick shit house to be like, you have to kill her and you’re going to have to work for it. Arcane war. But God, it would be so fun to see more of that and again, if I could just clone Matt and Brennan and be like, make more story for me, your little friend. That would be the best of all possible worlds.”
Secret About The Ring Of Brass Remain A Mystery
There is a darker side to the Ring of Brass that is worth exploring as well. In the “EXU: Calamity” wrap up Lou Wilson, Marisha Ray, and Iyengar revealed that they had secret meetings about their characters. While Sam Reigel, Luis Carazo, and Travis Willingham were a part of the group the previous three had secrets even from them. Wilson, who played Nydas, Ray, who played Patia, and Iyengar’s Laerryn were power players in the political sphere of Avalir. They kept secrets in order to pull strings behind the scenes.
Aabria Iyengar:
Our little trouble troika meetings like running around this house going like, okay, but how nasty do we want to be? Embezzlement, nasty, worse. We could be worse. It’s why I love so much that there’s a moment where me and Lou [Wilson] are laughing in game in the PVP in front of the tree where he’s like, I thought I was going to be you. And I was like, yeah, trouble troika. We were like, we are going to be nasty guys that pop off and who’s going to be the one to really kick this off running? It felt like a greyhound race of like, well, all right, I’m going to go chase that rabbit.
One of us is going to do the Calamity. We’ll see who it is when we get there. Bye. And then just take off and run. So, God, yeah, those little meetings were so fun leaning into the ways in which, yeah, it was the money man. The mover and shaker in Patia is the money and money makes things happen. He’s the one that makes all of these deals work, and all of it was for Laerryn. Again, like I’ll be as, morality is useless to me right now.
I need efficacy, I need resources. I need space. I need time. I’ll give you whatever you want. Legality means nothing to me. These laws can’t stop me. I can’t read. Whatever it takes for me to finish my great work. All of it will be worth it once it’s made, but I don’t care how down the road to hell I have to walk to get it done. I know I’ll be right in the end, and it was just a very fun like, oh my God, we’re monsters.”
A prequel could humanize the Ring of Brass members through their relationships and origins. However, it could also dig deeper into the complexities of these characters and their roles. It would be an opportunity to truly get into the politics of this world and the path the Ring of Brass took. A prequel would inevitably be a tragedy that makes the end of “EXU: Calamity” even sadder. However, given the performances and the world that Brennan Lee Mulligan crafted in this Critical Role miniseries they are stories deserve to be told.
“Critical Role: Vox Machina – Stories Untold” is available for purchase now.
