The universe of Critical Role is vast, and with this new series comes something new: an area of the land of Exandria that has not been well explored, with its own mysteries and culture.

These locales will be more familiar to those who have seen the exploits of the Mighty Nein, the band of adventurers from Critical Role‘s second campaign. Much more dark and unforgiving, this setting brings the morally grey to the forefront, giving us a deeper glimpse into the Kryn Dynasty and all that their pursuits hold.

This story is only possible thanks to the success of the second Critical Role campaign, the cast of which is given a writing credit for creating this environment, all of whom have built an incredible world that has yet to be fully explored.

The art in this book is stellar, bringing high fantasy styling to the book, thanks to the skills of artist CoupleofKooks. Cris Peter adds in their talents with the beautiful color palette that helps bring this book to life, and Critical Role comics veteran Ariana Maher adds in the letters which, in a story like this, is crucial.

Storytelling is a wonderful thing, especially when it’s a collaborative effort, something that this book has in spades, thanks to the narrative built by the cast of the show. Being able to join together to build the backbone of this story and continue to expand upon it shows the power of not only improvised storytelling, but also of creating a lived-in world that has so much room to investigate narrative threads.

This is a strong start for this new series, and fans of the second campaign should be excited to see more from the Bright Queen.

Creative Team: Critical Role, Darcy Van Poelgeest (writers), CoupleofKooks, Cris Peter (artists), Ariana Maher (letters)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
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