Critical Role continues to expand the world of Exandria beyond the stories told on screen. This can be seen through novels and comics that explore the origins of the main characters of Vox Machina, Mighty Nein, and Bells Hells. However, Critical Role has expanded beyond this, exploring NPCs and bringing artifacts from Exandria into our world. Liam O’Brien’s “Critical Role: Der Katzenprinz & Other Zemnian Tales” is the perfect example of this.

In “Critical Role: Der Katzenprinz & Other Zemnian Tales,” O’Brien shares three Zemnian fairytales. These fairytales not only shape the world of Exandria but also his Mighty Nein character Caleb Widowgast. “Critical Role: Der Katzenprinz & Other Zemnian Tales” allows fans to better understand the world of Exandria through understanding the lessons and stories that are pillars of this world.

In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, O’Brien shared insight into his writing process. He revealed the many inspirations and why this was the perfect project to bring Charlie “Newt” Borovsky into. O’Brien also shared other Critical Role stories he hopes to explore, including Brennan Lee Mulligan’s “EXU” trilogy, the Empire Kids, and more.

Liam O’Brien Shares Inspirations For Critical Role: Der Katzenprinz & Other Zemnian Tales

Temple of Geek: I was so impressed by how every story had that timelessness that I expect from fairytales. I feel like there has to be a very specific approach to capture that because it’s such a unique storytelling style. How did you approach making sure you had that fantastical storytelling fairytale element?

Liam O’Brien:

That’s what initially caused me to write “Der Katzenprinz.” Laura, I mean, obviously it’s a gift and a surprise for her. But I was a huge reader growing up and loved stories like Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, and I think anyone who’s followed me long enough knows that I’m in love with things like “Into the Woods.” I grew up on “The Hobbit.” I’ve read it so many times, and I just love old stories and fairytales. So, I really wanted to pay homage while entwining it into Exandria.

Temple of Geek: I think it’s so well done. Did you look at primarily Germanic fairytales as inspiration, or did you look at other mythologies as well? Because “Der Katzenprinz” sort of reminded me of “My Neighbor Totoro.”

Liam O’Brien:

Oh, that’s true. That’s true. That probably seeped in unconsciously. I think it’s probably just the summation of all the different things that I absorbed over my years growing up. I grew up watching Miyazaki too. This is not answering your question at all, but I remember one of my best friends when I was young, his dad was the cool dad and would bring me to Forbidden Comics in New York City. There’s Voltron, which was on TV. I’m talking about my first experience with anime, but none of us knew what that was when we were watching it, when we were really little.

But I remember being a slightly older kid and the cool dad bringing my friend and I to see “Nausicaa” in a movie theater before Miyazaki was as prevalent and well-known and blessed by Disney and all these—not that he needs to be blessed by Disney. But it just wasn’t as well known, and going, what is this? So, I’m a full adult nerd who has decades of nerdy things and old fiction and fairytale just baked into my noodle. I want to go to there.

“It Was Fun To Sort Of Intertwine Modern Fantasy Stories With Old Fairytale”

Temple of Geek: So, one of the cornerstones of fairytales is the art, especially when you’re reading them. Can you talk to me about collaborating with Charlie Borovsky on the art for this?

Liam O’Brien:

Charlie Borovsky, who goes by Newt, has been making fan art for years. Everyone who follows CR knows that I’m nicknamed Art Dad. I’ve seen so many different artists, and I remember—I can’t say every single one—and know their different styles. Oftentimes we’re working on a project, or we need art for a one-shot, a miniseries, a graphic novel, or something.

People in the company come to me, and we’ll often get an artist who we’ve never worked with before, even sometimes someone who’s not familiar with our stuff yet. Often we love to bring in people who have been watching and know our characters and know our world and already have a love for it. I’ve known Newt’s art for years and have always loved it. I think even before I knew that I was going to make “Der Katzenprinz,” Newt was one of the artists who I was like, man, I really want to find something to do with this person.

And then “Der Katzenprinz” was created, and then I started to understand that we were going to make it. Newt did a piece of Laudna art that’s out there on the internet somewhere, which looks like it’s out of a dark fairytale book. I saw just the one image and was like, this is the artist for the job. This is the exact aesthetic that is floating inside my head. So, I finally had the perfect project for Newt show up.

Temple of Geek: What was your favorite part of getting to write fairytales within the world of Exandria?

Liam O’Brien:

It’s fun because I’m obviously pulling from old history and old fairytales from our world, but also pulling in—that’s a hag, no question—in “Die Waldhexe.” So, it was fun to sort of intertwine modern fantasy stories with old fairytale and then with “Himmelsschloss,” I love that. Because I had sort of really iconic characters to draw inspiration from, but then also tried to make it feel timeless and familiar from fairytales that we know.

I think that there are touches and traces of “Return to Oz” in those pages, and Jack and the Beanstalk and Pied Piper. All three of them are children’s points of view. All three of them are those kids sort of waking up to the reality of the worlds they live in, which are not always pretty. I mean, sometimes they are, and “Der Katzenprinz” is an example of that.

But sometimes life is terrifying and unkind and cruel and unfair. So much happens that’s out of each of our individual control, and the world shifts and changes, and we just get pulled along through the current or wind in the sky in this specific example.

Liam O’Brien Reveals How He Hopes To Expand Critical Role’s Stories Beyond The 3 Campaigns

Temple of Geek: Is there any other kind of experimentation you guys are looking to do on the publishing side? You have things like this and “Tusk Love” that you’re taking from the world of Exandria. With “Stories Untold,” you have been able to dive into more NPCs. Is there anything you guys are looking to do more of with that sort of thing where it’s not just, this is a character’s origin story?

Liam O’Brien:

Yeah, we definitely want to expand and tell more stories, more kinds of stories, get more writers with different diverse voices, and just further bring the world of Exandria to life for Earthlings. When I grew up, I read a fantasy series that just returned and returned to the same places. We focused in on Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein, and I know we want to tell more of their stories.

But we also want to tell more of the stories of the people around them. And make our novels and fiction in the books that we create more than just about the three adventuring parties who we love. But there are many great characters that Matt imagined, and I think there’s room for many characters that haven’t been imagined at all yet. The world has taken on a life of its own.

Temple of Geek: Are you interested in maybe exploring times that haven’t been seen on screen at all?

Liam O’Brien:

Oh yeah. I would love to have fiction from the ancient past. Those stories are incredible. I would love to see them either in novel form or graphic novel form. I think our audience would probably agree with me. The three chapters that Brennan [Lee Mulligan] created with EXU are just beautiful, beautiful stories. And again, just the same way that we’ve told our core story at our table with these three campaigns and branched out to what’s around them, there’s room to do that, I think, in the past as well.

Liam O’Brien Wants To Dig Deeper Into The Empire Kid’s Adventures

Temple of Geek: Is there a particular character that, after writing this, you would like to tell their story through comics or a novel?

Liam O’Brien:

I’ve always thought you could tell more with Empire Kids because we have a whole section of time where we don’t know what they pursued or what went on. I love that. Sometimes I tell myself this is a joke, but I don’t think it is. I really would like not right now. I don’t think it’s time yet, but I would love to someday jump quite a bit forward in time and see what’s going on. I think that would be a fun thing to explore.

I think we’ve cracked such a big avenue open for the gods that I think we could spend some time with them as well. The strength of those EXU stories that Brennan led is, funnily and ironically, that those stories humanized the gods. Previously they were, except with touches from the Matron, they were more conceptual, or they were paradigms of good and cruelty.

Getting to spend time [with the gods], humans care about human stories. So, getting to spend time seeing the Primes and the Betrayers and their thoughts, their thinking, and their motivations really made them more real for us. So now that we’ve had those tastes of them, I think many are hungry for more.

“Critical Role: Der Katzenprinz & Other Zemnian Tales” is available for purchase now.