“Worlds Beyond Number” concluded their first major campaign. Brennan Lee Mulligan crafted and brought the world of Umora to life alongside Lou Wilson, Erika Ishii, and Aabria Iyengar. The trio plays the titular characters of “The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One” as Suvi (Iyengar), Ame (Ishii), and Eursulon (Wilson).

This coming of age story follows the three childhood friends when they reconnect due to unforeseen tragedy and danger. As they learn deeper and darker truths about Umora they also discover their roles are larger than they ever could have anticipated. Suvi, Ame, and Eursulon are at the heart of a conflict long in the making that will likely decide the fate of Uomra.

While this discovery came as a surprise to the characters, and potentially the players alongside the audience it was no accident. In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek Mulligan explained why a story focused on a trio is unique. He also extrapolated on how and why Umora and its fate hangs on them.

Brennan Lee Mulligan:

“A three-person party is a different type of fiction. The best art is when you respond to the parameters that exist materially with the literal matter you’re working with. The type of stories that have three main characters are different types of stories. It is how many great adventures are like the trio. You can think about the trio, and by the way, that’s what Umora was always about. The campaign is not called Umora Tales. It’s called The Wizard, the Witch and the Wild One because I think it got to be the setting that was the most about not only the party, but this three-person party.”

Worlds Beyond Number Cast Talk Recording The Solo Adventures

“The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One” not only follows these three characters it also hinges on their dynamic. However, in the fourth chapter they split up for a time. This mean that each character has their own individual adventure outside of their party. This experience is not only unique in the story it also allowed for another step in each of their growth. Iyengar, Ishii, and Wilson discussed recording one on one with Mulligan. They explained not only how it felt as players, but also what it meant for their characters.

Aabria Iyengar:

“I think there’s a mental isolation, especially going into the back half of arc four. That Suvi was already existing in, so it felt right to fully silo her off, to let her move through that last little bit of what she needed to break through in order to finish breaking faith with the Citadel and the Empire and rejoin her friends. I loved it because there were so many things that Suvi couldn’t be saved from that she had to deal with it herself.

But Aabria as a nosy human was constantly stymied by watching people come out of the studio when recording was happening and would carry an energy and I’m like, I don’t know what any of that is, and I don’t like not knowing a thing. So I do remember pestering you two a lot about what happened during your sessions in a way that I think was neither professional nor being a very good friend. I was just in everyone’s business trying to figure out what had happened.”

Lou Wilson:

“There’s something to, I’m playing next to I think maybe two of the most emotive players in the game today, and so when Lucent was happening and Aabria was entering, discovering the true secrets of the Citadel. I’m just sitting on the couch on my phone, doom scrolling and there’s just screaming coming from the room. There’s just a lot of screaming. And then you come in and like Aabria saying there’s this kind of torch passing where then you go in to do your stuff and you’re like, are we going to scream that much? What’s happening in these sessions that is creating these reactions?

But I think as a performer, I do think it was interesting, to Aabria’s other point of, we see these characters a lot as a group and I think their group dynamics are very specific and we’re very familiar with those. And so I think there is something kind of fun to separating them out and thus as we kind of get ready to end this chapter, having a moment with each of them where we get to really invest in and explore their truths separate from their friends.”

Erika Ishii:

“It’s very interesting Aabria talking about not being professional. I was very professional listening to my friends in that I was capturing content the entire time. So there is video footage of Brendan and Aabria coming up being like, oh my God, oh my God! And then it pans over and Lou is on the couch, like eye mask on trying to nap. It’s so good. But yeah, it was really fun. I really had no idea what was going on and we sometimes give each other little hints or sort of update each other so that when we got back together, we wouldn’t have to do the whole, we explain everything that the audience just heard.

It’s an interesting exercise in what remains diegetic because the characters need to update each other and there are certain parallels that are fun to have in terms of pacing because in a normal show that’s being written and everybody knows everything you can write in themes, intertwining and character choice parallels, and that happened anyway somehow even with us not understanding what was going on between each other’s storylines.

We talked about the narrative alleyoop that we did with each other where Aabria, where Suvi got the books to the ink demons and says, I don’t know, do what you want with them. And then Ame gives Pomeroy’s true name and says, I don’t know. What you do next is up to you. It’s so great because a lot of these threads that I think normally would need to be planned out together, were just sort of all of us, were doing the dance, doing the same dance, but in separate rooms.”

Living In The World Of Umora For Years

In the final confrontation between Suvi, Ame, Eursulon, and Steel the young heroes were outmatched. Each had been wronged by the powerful warrior mage, but none more than Suvi who learned that the woman who raised her killed her parents. However, even in the face of impossible odds they had some truly astounding one-liners against Steel. Given the improvisational nature of this narrative style it is even more impressive. Ishii and Wilson shared why they so easily live in these characters.

Erika Ishii:

“There is something about this improvised storytelling in the moment. I think these people are the best and fastest to ever do it. Truly. I have not seen this kind of improvised collaborative storytelling like this. Saying stuff and being in this character and living in this world, you just have to be more truthful about it.”

Lou Wilson:

“Yeah, I mean I think to that point, as someone who’s worked in writer’s rooms, it’s like your standard writer’s room is 13 weeks. We’ve lived in this world for four years. It’s crazy, but it’s like that to the strength of this form. We have been living and breathing this world. Brennan has been this world for four years. I think that it is this emotional climax for Suvi, this incredible reveal that Brennan’s been sitting on for years. This moment we’ve been dreaming and thinking about for as long as we’ve been playing this game. So, we came correct as we must.”

Brennan Lee Mulligan Shares His Approach To The Battle Of Twelve Brooks

Mulligan brought the world of Umora to life in countless amazing ways. One of the stand outs was how he showed war. First as a more conceptual aspect of life that had an impact on how Suvi was raised at the Citadel. Trained to use her magic as a warrior from an extremely young age.

Mulligan also showed the impact on an individual town. The “Twelve Brooks” one-shot portrayed the small town as a happy calm place to live. Later in “Worlds Beyond Number” the devastation is felt even deeper when it is shown that the serenity of this small town has been wiped off the map.

Embroiled in active conflict the battle in many ways felt like the opening scene of “Saving Private Ryan.” In response to this praise Mulligan happily replied, “I’ve done my job.” Mulligan then explained his approach to crafting the battle with the characters objective in mind.

Brennan Lee Mulligan:

“It was a situation where the players and the player characters had been so clear about what their objective was. You have to go save these kids. That was the mission the entire time. The Battle of Twelve Brooks breaks out in and around that mission. But I think, to me, there’s a very strong difference in my head between we’ve come here to do something and the battle being overwhelming or next to impossible, versus we are here to do something that is still possible while hell is raging all around us. I think that for our purposes, putting that battle around them, the idea was still for lack of a better word to create the feeling of how terrifying the world is.

Yes, you are moments away from being wiped out, but you’re not here to stop this. Your objective is different. You have a different objective in this moment. So it was very much like, in other words, don’t get thrown off track either by the enormity of the terror in this moment and don’t get thrown off track by feeling like, oh, we’ve got this. Let’s defeat this battle in front of us. It’s a distraction in either direction between what the mission that the players have set for themselves was. That was the idea anyway.”

Aabria Iyengar:

“Actually, I had a very good time getting distracted by the horror of the scenario. I enjoyed that.”

Lou Wilson:

“A lot of our distraction from the horror is edited out by our wonderful producer and composer, Taylor Moore. He saves all of you the trouble of listening to us scream ‘no’ and gasp over and over again.”

Erika Ishii:

“Or even worse, make little jokes constantly because clearly we were just so nervous and appalled that we were like ‘hahahaha’. I’m diffusing the situation with humor. It’s interesting too because it has to strike that balance of feeling grounded and realistic and reflecting how horrifying war is, but then also making the audience and us feel some sense of agency. We have overwhelming soul crushing horror at home. We want to feel like heroes and how do you feel like heroes and feel like you have agency in this chaos and death. It was a really perfect balance.”

Grandma Wren Was Wrong

Many of the NPCs created by Mulligan were built around the player characters. Sometimes this meant mirroring the characters. With many of the parental figures they were built to explain the motivation, intentions, or characteristics of the player characters. Mulligan also went out of his way to go against many of the standard tropes.

This is clear with Grandma Wren the former Witch of the World’s Heart who raised Ame. She also cared for Suvi and Eursulon for one summer. Grandma Wren was wise, kind, and funny. She was an important connective tissue between the trio of heroes. However, she wasn’t all knowing. Wren released Suvi into Steel’s care as a child. She later told Ame that she was somewhat trustworthy.

However, both of these decisions were proven to be major miscalculations. Mulligan broke down what it meant to have Wren make these decisions and why he wanted to buck the expectations of the wise mentor in fantasy.

Brennan Lee Mulligan:

“Wren was wrong. And I think that that’s important. I think it’s one of those things that to the degree that this is less so a coming of age story as people mean them by going from being a child to being of the legal age of being an adult and more about the thing that actually happens in your, hopefully that happens to you if you’re lucky in your early twenties.

Which is beginning to realize that you’re already on the treadmill of life and the reason you’re falling down is you haven’t started running yet and it’s like, oh, oh, here’s the world. It’s happening. It’s already happening. And there’s something very funny in the archetype that Grandmother Wren is. I tried to dodge two different archetypes at the same time. The first was that the type where-“

Erika Ishii:

“All would be revealed in due time.”

Brennan Lee Mulligan:

“All revealed in due time where Grandma Wren’s like, I’m revealing it all right now, right? It’s here’s what you got to, here’s the Man in Black. He tried to stab me. Here’s this other sh-t. It was bad. Here’s what I’m up to. Here’s the names of your secret friends at the Citadel. Here’s a true name of a bad spider. But the other thing is in a lot of stories that have the wise old mentor, the wise old mentor says, all will be revealed in time and then is also never wrong. And that’s crazy to look back at, even looking back at your, I don’t know, forebears or other things like that.

It’s this weird feeling that I think mirrors a feeling of the floor dropping out from underneath people where they’re like, what do you mean the person I admire most made a mistake in judgment? That’s literally impossible. It can’t happen. It cannot happen. I mean it was important for Wren to be wrong so that we get Ame cackling over the burning carnicery. There has to be a reason. I also think what’s very important too, is we’ve never gotten into, much like the wizard Sly, we don’t get into all the apocalypses that Grandma Wren successfully averted.

We don’t have time to count all the times that she saved the world. But it is just that whatever her viewpoint was, it was one that because of long years of working with Steel. We don’t really get into all the years of the academy. Where Steel and Stone and Soft, were all side by side by side doing dangerous world saving sh-t together. Grandma Wren in a lot of contexts, we talk about these heroic mentor figures and we go like they see the best in people and that’s meant as a positive. You have to take the good with the bad. Sometimes seeing the best in people leaves huge, wide open holes in your judgment.”

Worlds Beyond Number Six Post Credit Scenes

“The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One” had a truly epic conclusion to its first book. But Mulligan instantly followed it up with six epilogues. Each of the post credit scenes sets up exciting possibilities for the future. The Man In Black’s army is forming, the witches are plotting, Will Gallows is in play, the Man In Black protected Ame’s cottage in Toma, and Indri is peeved.

Mulligan revealed why he wanted to touch on each of these characters. He also shared his feelings on how the world has expanded and evolved around the trio. Mulligan also explained why some of these moments are so terrifying especially for what they could mean for the future of “The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One.”

Brennan Lee Mulligan:

“It was so f-cking exciting and all the ways in which the characters have changed the world fundamentally. That’s the thrilling part. The world building done diegetically by the actions of the players and even one step further, the actions of the player characters. Our ink demons, I made them to be three little colors a familiar spell for Suvi. Now there goes the Kasov collection and the collaboration between Ame and Suvi and gearing up for the ink demons to do that. Eursulon talking to the Great Bear. All of these things down the line again and again and again. It’s just so fun to expand this world out and set up for book two. I’m so glad.

The things I’m so excited for. You’ll notice because we ended the main narrative in the Citadel we didn’t get any epilogue with any of our Citadel NPCs. We had just spent so much time in the Citadel. But you have to imagine, I leave it up to the audience to imagine what’s going on in the Citadel after the Kasov collection situation resolves. But the Great Bear coming on board, which is so funny. I just needed the Great Bear to establish that Eursulon was invited back home.

In other words, I wasn’t setting up Eursulon to pop off with this speech. I was like, I felt that Lou pulled a fast one on me. I was like, here’s the resolution of the door of Ivy. And Eursulon was like, how about this? Good job opening the door now step through it. We got sh-t going on on this side of the fence, which absolutely alters all of my plans for book two and the Antivalist.

Even the Man in Black, a quick choice Ame makes in episode one to be like come back in a year. And that’s keeping the cottage safe from everybody is just literally a, you’ve got too many enemies and they don’t want to let each other f-ck with you. They all are calling dibs and Black is like, you don’t understand. I got to show up there in now nine months, so you’re all dead now. How about that?”

Temple of Geek: Indri being mad about Ame not having the gift made me laugh so hard. She goes, she forgot. I’m like, girl, I forgot. There’s stuff going on.

Erika Ishii:

“I think we did not forget, but I love the idea of Indri just being so peeved. She’s like, I hate her. It really was giving the flames, flames against the face.”

Brennan Lee Mulligan:

“Flames on the side of my face. We also see, I’m glad that people, because I admit it is a funny beat for Indri who doesn’t get a lot of funny beats. It is a funny beat for her to be like, I f-cking hate her. I don’t think I’m getting a gift at all. I like that people saw, with a lot of other bad guys running around, they saw how freaky it is for your familiar to be scared of you. Kosta is a polar bear and that is supposed to be a haunting visual that Kosta is frightened.”

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