Nox: Compliments the show the entire video, questioning who is crazy and psycho enough to do such things. Matt Mercer: Losing sleep every night while he goes crazy trying to read through tomes of world building lore to make sure things fit and tell a good story.
@@elbruces I didn’t say anything incorrect, Travis and Laura went and dressed as the Biarwoods for a Halloween episode way before the animated show, and the animators took the two’s cosplay and designed the Briarwoods after the two. You can see Laura’s face in Lady Brairwood
If you're serious about learning Vox Machina lore, I would HIGHLY recommend watching "Exandria Unlimited: Calamity". It's a short series (4 episodes about 4 hours each, except the last episode about 6 hours) set in the "Age of Arcanum" in the 24 hours that set in motion the war between the Gods. The lore building is fantastic, and the story is epic (like, when Amazon announced an extended agreement with Critical Role including firm rights, everyone's first instinct was 'Calamity movie! YESSS!!!' levels of epic).
Vex's death is such an emotional scene in the campaign, because the character's player, Liam O'brien, had lost his mother, and this scene was such a cathartic moment for him. I love how Matt Mercer used this to help a friend's pain of losing a loved one.
7:00 Fun fact about Scanlan, is that Sam (the person who plays Scanlan) had never played D&D before. The group started when Liam (Vax) got offered by Matt to play a birthday one-shot, and since Liam and Sam were good friends and ran a podcast together Sam got brought in. They discussed it on their podcast before the game, and Sam asked "what's the worst? Can I be the worst character?" and Liam offhandedly mentioned gnome/bard, and Sam ran with it (I think the clips from the podcast are on yt somewhere). Scanlan's name came from an auto-name generator. The entire character started as a trashy stereotype/laugh - but became so much more, as Sam actually got invested in the character and wanted to figure out why this joke of a character became the way they are, and the trauma and past that formed that person.
Great summary! Just to add to it, Scanlan´s backstory is loosely based on Eminem, Scanlan having been picked up by Dr. Drenzel (Dr. Dre) for his traveling band, who later works with Kaylie, Scanlan´s daughter.
Lord Nuxalore, you're gonna freaking LOVE this. Vox Machina is literally how my friend group be acting, we're all different archetypes, and the shits amazing.
17:07 Matthew Mercer, that episode, that day, that session of gameplay, that moment, all him. The literal tone of the campaign at that moment completely shifted.
16:49 I will never forgive the reaction of the players in that moment. From confusion to absolute horror. I'll never forgive Marisha's handwavings when Matt has described the scene, like she has been begging him to stop. Dude...
@@undeathghost5627 the statement I replied to suggests plot beats specifically of Matt's design would make it into the show. Atleast that was my interpretation of your words. Maybe you meant differently?
i love the story of the vox machina show crowdfunding. they were hoping for maybe 750,000 dollars with stretch goals up to 3 mil over 42 days on kickstarter. they got 11 million dollars in the first two days.
The original game started privately as a celebration for the birthday of Vax's player, Liam. It took years before Felicia Days from Geek & Sundry invited them to livestream the campaign, which first aired that Underdark part of the story, even if what happened with the blue dragon did come first.
OG Critter here :) They started the animated series from the 2nd arc in the actual live stream campaign since its the arc that hooked most people. It made me kinda sad that so many people will not know Clorota and his 'tin foil' hat or that Grog had a MAJOR crush on Lady Kima when they met her in the underdark!
@@lillith7257 well, no, it's gonna have "The Whispered One". Any show can have a lich in it, but mindflayers in particular would be a problem - they're too recognizable as DnD monsters, and changing them to something that isn't would just remove the impact they have. Same goes for beholders - LoVM could make a legally-distinct-totally-not-a-spectator for a monster fight in season 2, but i don't think that would work for an actual villain.
"I can't believe they gave him that sexy voice," my brother, they didn't give the character that voice, it's HIS voice, for HIS character lmao, nobody decided to give anything to anyone.
Vox Machina is campaign 1, takes place primarily in Taldorei. Campaign 2 is the Mighty Nien, (which is also getting a show!) primarily in Wildmount. Campaign 3 is Bell's Hells, which starts of in Marquet. :) all in the world of Exandria.
0:40 Don't forget Campaign 2 is also currently being animated! It releases next year if memory serves. 3:21 They only wanted 2 million. Fans said, "No, have more". 8:11 Kraghanmer was literally the first 2 or 3 broadcasted episodes. 😅 10:32 Before they were known as Vox Machina, they were named "The Shits", quite literally only changing their name once they became official in Emon. 😅 19:40 This is incorrect, the Ziggurat already existed beneath Whitestone. 39:53 A difference from the actual campaign, a god literally bitch slaps the dragon for them. 😅 48:36 Raven Queen was an Elf. 53:09 All the campaigns are connected in one timeline, yes. Currently campaign 3 takes place 30 years after campaign 1.
God I can't wait to see C2 animated. Vox Machina holds a special place in my heart cause it was the beginning of the true explosion of TTRPG's into more popular culture, but C2's characters, every single one of them, just hit *so* good.
@@Force2reckonVodscampaign 1 is great but campaign 2 is really when critical role found its true identity. c1 is more standard dnd heroes doing hero shit. but c2 felt like a group of secret agents disguised as crazy hobos accidentally / intentionally destroying a world ending threat. it's peak.
He forgot something at the end, after defeating Vecna, Arkhan played by Joe manganiello chops off his hand and grafts Vecna’s hand which is a magical item onto his arm, then plane shifts away presumably to Avernus to try and release his bound god, the 5 headed evil chromatic dragon Tiamat!
Working a desk job during COVID allowed me to listen to ALL of campaign one. It was beautifully done and I shed so many tears through it all and the ending, broke me. Also, Percy is the GOAT
you call the briarwood arc mid but the whole reason they skipped the kraghammer arc for the show was they wanted to do the most popular arc for season 1
I mean when the other arc he's seen is the chroma conclave you can't really blame him. The fall of Emon is the best depicted "dragon attack" in visual media. It makes every other attempt to have dragons "be scary" look like a fucking joke.
Dude. It’s clear they skipped the KragHammer arc to avoid having to deal with Orian and his whole “ stealing from people with good Fund me” thing that got him Booted off the show.
@@pauljinkerson6359 It's not clear to those that don't know, considering he wasn't even mentioned in this video. Also please don't try dig up information about it. The reasons for his departure are far more complicated and are thoroughly covered by other channels. It really does not need to be discussed anymore.
I have literally never clicked a nux video faster. The blue dragon was one arc that was pre-stream. They did that, skipped the "king is influenced by evil" arc and made a few small references to the kraghammer arc but then jumped straight into the Briarwood arc.
Crit role was my introduction to DnD and I will cry forever over Keyleth and ‘I have passed through fire’ but No Mercy Percy lives in my head rent free
The killing the blue lighting dragon arc happened long before the start of the stream, same as saving Uriels family from demons where Pike died and was ressurested so she now has white hair.
My understanding of the pre-show lore (at home private games, started as a birthday present for a friend) so the biggest difference is the team had been in the capital a while fairly nameless. Just doing odd jobs they found around the inns. Until one winter fest a blue lightnight dragon attacks. Events are a little different but the reveal of the dragon being a council member and the team starts working for the council stays the same Then there's some other plots until the amazon show continues For now they do some missions for the council, reveal a plot of a demon possessing the king, pike dies and her hair turns white when shes revived and then go on to kraghammer with the mindflairs
The Critical Role crew is SO WHOLESOME too. They are the best of RUclips. If you go back and watch their early stuff, its so raw filmed in their kitchen n shiz. It hasn't changed much either, except for in the production quality. Also when they crowd funded it they broke gofundme records. The fans were like "TAKE OUR MONEY!!!"
When Talison craeted Percy, he told Matt that Percy had a dream with a voice telling him to make the gun, and he purposely didn't want to know weather it was a real demon or him being crazy, leaving this choice to Matt.
Not sure if anyone mentioned, but the beauty behind nux saying it's like Shonen anime d&d, while he talks about the actors who play characters like trunks, Gara, Pain. It's literally anime disguised as high fantasy. Or better it's anime role playing high fantasy
My brother in Sarenrae, Season 1 of Vox Machina wasn't just crowdfunded, it was the biggest success story of Kickstarter at the time (2019) and remains in the top 10 most funded projects on the platform to this day. It is legitimately bonkers.
I whole hearted recommend you to watch Brennan Lee Mulligan's Calamity with the Critical Role cast... It's a standalone story and it's short enough but extremely good! Also the BTS on how he menage the playthrough was incredible, how a master craft the story and improv the beats as the players make their choices and mold the plot points themselves... Really amazing
Fun fact about the chroma conclave arc beginning. Most of the cast actually thought that the campaign was ending. They (thought they) had wrapped up most of the important arcs in the game and didn’t have anything else to do as a group. Which is when Matt dropped this insanity. If you watch anything from this, I would recommend watching these scene in the campaign. It’s incredible. Talk about “kill your darlings” for Matt. Also an amazing lore thing that they have released have both been DMed by Brennan Lee Mulligan. Each being only a few episodes long. They are INCREDIBLE pieces of art. They are called “Calamity” and “Downfall” and show both the beginning and ending of an age in Exandria. I would HUghly recommend watching these, not only for how good they are but also for how much lore they reveal in Exandrias world. Edit: also in game, Vax’s deal with The Matron of Ravens didn’t grant him super speed. Vax already had these incredible boots called “the boots of haste” that granted him super speed and extra attacks. They wrapped them into the “Deathwalker’s Ward” for the animated show.
Scanlan leaves Vox Machina... You cant describe it like that!!! You must react to The Bards Lament video of them playing!! One of the best roleplays ever in the history of D&D
They skipped the 1st arc because they thought the Briarwood arc was a better hook into the story as it was during the original campaign. I wish they would have started from pre stream content though as that would have given us the content we missed the 1st time.
@alexisbaron1594 Krieg was a very small part of pre stream content and even then they changed alot. Considering how much they've changed Tibereus could have easily been written around so I highly doubt that played a role in them skipping that arc. I know they've talked about in interviews not knowing how many seasons they'd get so getting the Briarwood arc done was important to them.
What Nux doesn't know is that The Dragon at the beginning is from the Home Game, but not in the episodes of the original Critical Role Recorded Table. He was put in as a catalyst point for the 2nd and 3rd season events of the Vox Machina story since he was the fifth dragon that was a part of the 5 Chromatic Dragons known as the Chroma Conclave, so yes even that Dragon in the beginning serves a purpose. The blue dragon is killed right after the group had reached level 7. The Underdark story that gets skipped over in Legends happens when the party is just reaching level 10. The Briarwood Arc takes place from levels 12-13, and to not spoil anything further the Vestiges/Chroma Conclave Arc takes place from levels 14-16.
This is willlddd for me. I've been watching your videos for a while, but I just started watching Vox Machina youtube videos last week because of what happened to Percy. 😭 I had to vent in some comment sections, lol. Didn't expect this, but happy I found it at the perfect time.
Exandria (the world of Critical Role) is actually its own official dnd setting and all three Campaigns take place in it (Vox Machina is 20 years before Mighty Nein (Campaign 2), and the Current Campaign Bell's Hells takes place about 10 years after that)
I was a backer! The first two episode of the show are based on events that were pre-stream, setting them up as heroes in Emon and honorary members of the Counsel of Tal'dorei. It then skips to the Briarwood Arc, starting at episode 24 of the stream. They did this to avoid issues with a former player character who was removed from the live stream for multiple reasons.
I love Scanlan such an amazing character that starts out as the stereotypical bard. But through the campaign grows so much and has such an amazing character arc. He's also the MVP of so many fights even saving what could have been a few TPKs... And that counterspell in the final fight is both amazing and heart breaking at the same time.
One of my favourite bits of knowledge on this show is how I found out Liam O’Brien is in it. A friend recommended VM to me and I could tell there was something familiar about Vax, eventually I realized he has the same voice actor as Gaara, then for a while (as a Naruto fan) I could only hear Vax as British Gaara. I also thought it was cool when I found out Matthew Mercer was in VM, hearing and recognizing voices from another series I watched and love.
You will enjoy this one. Also, when you get a chance, definitely recommend looking at Mighty Nein. Cause it’s getting its own show soon. Edit: also, first arc has very good reasons. If you wanna go find lore as to why, I’d check Let’s Talk about Tiberius. You might understand why after.
They cut the Kraghammer/Underdark arc because in the overarching story of the campaign the Kraghammer arc didn't really have major lasting effects on the plot. So it made more sense to use the blue dragon in the first 2 episodes to introduce the characters to new viewers, and then continue with the Briarwood arc because of how deeply it tied to Percy and the ripple effects of that later on.
I love that you keep talking about the "Writing" and it's all just a DND game that people played. Sure there was a lot of work to make it into a show but the story came from this set of people playing and making all these decisions and improving most of these situations. One of the better stories of the last xx years and it's a bunch of friends having fun together.
Just to clarify a bit: the campaign of Vox Machina actually started in 2013 using D&D 4E and later Pathfinder 1st Edition. They'd been playing together and did several arcs for about two years before it started airing online (which is also when it switched to 5th Edition D&D). The Blue Dragon they fought in the first two episodes of the campaign was something that happened prior to the stream. Most of the adventures before the live stream are adapted into comics called Vox Machina Origins.
Whats worse was terrington gifted everyone an amulet that would glow when someone was down, (something like that) can only imagine the emotional pain he had during the first vecna fight Being far away and seeing your amulet glow knowing your friends are probably dying
MrRhexx has some of the best long form lore videos on DnD, he has an entire trilogy summarizing the overall history of the world and each video is around an hour long.
I started to watch Vox Machina because the animation reminded me of the New Voltron and She Ra, two cartoons that i like very much. I thought : "Cool, its like a D&D cartoon or something." But i am glad that i didnt watched this one with my family like the others. Always read the synopsis and classification first kids.
The classification can be a bit misleading at times. Not in this case but, for example, SG-1 has a nudity tag on every episode because the pilot was originally on showtime where a brief nip isn't a problem.
Grog Strongjaw is essentially the love child of Kratos and Drax The Destroyer and he’s fkn awsome. Also fun fact when GoW 2018 was revealed and Kratos had a beard Travis Wilingham put out an awsome tweet congratulating Santa Monica Studios and saying Much love Kratos my brother from another mother.
One of the greatest through lines in the final battle is scandlan saving his 9th level spell in hopes to cast wish to save vax from the raven queen. It is so beautiful and I don’t know how the show will do that moment justice
For clarification. The Kickstarter was originally supposed to be the arc that later turned into the first two episodes. It was originally just gonna be a "hey, you wanna see a professionally done animated episode of something that happened in the story before we started streaming our games?" The goal was $750k. The goal was met in 45 minutes, and all the stretch goals soon after that. So they made new stretch goals, one of them being a full length series, which they hit too.
They had to skip a lot of the earlier arcs because there was another member, but the player had a lot of drama and things going on, so they decided to cut out the arcs with him in it
i used to drive for greyhound in the us, i would pop in 1 ear bud and just hit play. got through like 2-3 episodes during my 12 hr drive times. got through campaign 1 and more than halfway through campaign 2. really helped me stay awake and the story and lore of their games where great, top tier. the characters each voice actor played had so much emotion and character as well as the humor was fantastic.
I got through the first 2 campaigns, but I’ve hit a stop in the middle of the 3rd campaign. its a bit hard for me to follow, even though it is featuring some of my favorite characters from the crew. I will catch up to it again sometime. But I am LOVING the animation, it reminds me of Batman Beyond art style and those DC cartoons from 2000-2005 era
The Sun Tree moment was when everyone (including his friends) realized what Matt Mercer could be capable of if he used his powers for evil instead of good. I'd say that the main reason to watch at least a few of the live-stream episodes is to see Matt at work, and realize that even if he doesn't voice a character who's a member of VM, he's actually the most important writer and actor involved.
You should definitely check out Nightmare Time AKA Hatchetfield lore by Starkid (a good video for that is the video: An appropriately unhinged recap of the hatchetfield series by Abbie Mary). Seeing you react to the main Trilogy (The Guy Who Didn't like Musicals, Black Friday, and Nerdy Prudes Must Die) would also be interesting c: They can all be watched here on RUclips for free and Starkid doesn't strike for fair use stuff like reactions so you shouldn't be demonetised. I feel like you'd love the Lords in Black :P Edit: By the way, the Raven Queen was originally an elf of the Summer Court in the Fey Wild. Raven Queen lore is pretty interesting, do recommend.
The animation show was well-earned, it started as a kickstarter and was just going to be a few eps covering one of the group's adventure, but within the first few hours of the kickstarter they reach well beyond their initial kickstarter (started at $750k which from what i heard ended up in earning $11 million from the kickstarter) which prompted them to make a series out of it. You should look at the video of theirs The Legend of Vox Machina Kickstarter Q&A to see their reaction to the whole thing, which is funny/wholesome. The three main reasons i think the kickstarter did amazing, 1. the content was good and enjoyable and people wanted to see it animated 2. It's dnd, we dnd players have been thirsting for a series and wizards has yet to give us one (since original animation series i should add) so some of us paid for it with this series 3. People know the voice actors and are fans of theirs and wants to support them. I would not be shocked if some dnd fan was waiting for something like this and had a savings account for a moment like this
Watching the episode that introduces the chroma conclave for the first time without knowing what was coming was a WILD experience. All of a sudden a true apocalyptic threat is introduced and our main characters are absolutely powerless to stop them from destroying all of Emon. Like in the campaign as they’re trying to fight we get this exchange: “alright cool so that’s a 21 to hit.” “21 misses.”
Nux should definitely do the lore of Vecna and the Dragons. There is the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna, if you wear these parts at the same time Vecna is brought back into Mundus (the normal plane where everyone lives) you become a vessel for Vecna as the two piece use you to bring him back to life
@@adriannaranjo4397 well it is more of a free trial than a fair deal, the Eye gives you Xray and other eye magic, the hand gives you supernatural strength and adds cold energy to your spells, but using it requires you to cut off your left hand at the wrist then pressing the hand to the stump and it grafts itself to you. Same with the Eye you have to rip out one of your eyes to implant it. If either of them is removed from you, it is insta death. Of course using both at the same time will give you insane power, such as regeneration, immunity to diseases, and you can turn your enemies skeletons to jelly, but eventually you start becoming Vecna as he overtakes your body and soul being reborn
8:45 Hope he will also watch the 7 hour LotR/Silmarillion lore video "Complete History of Middle-Earth" video by "Wizards and Warriors", to get the full picture.
Scanlan beating Kamaljiori's challenge was an original of the show. In the actual-play it was an interesting puzzle where VM had to figure out what his name was by going into these elemental rifts. This is where Grog actually stabs Pike in the campaign, but it's to save himself from drifting into the air elemental plane
From someone who has been drowning themselves in D&D for 10+ years, I'll give a short rundown on the lore: There are many different creation myths, but the most populair one is where before the dimensions existed there was only the elemental/primordial chaos and the Primordials who lived in it. After a long war, the Primordial Dragon Aasterian/Io sacrificed himself to create the dimensions of the great wheel cosmology. Somewhere along the line he also created the first gods, his favorites being Tiamat, the evil queen/mother of chromatic dragons, and Bahamut, the good king/father of metallic dragons. So where each 'canon' of D&D comes in, is that outside of this cosmological system exists a dimension called the Astral Sea, where an infinite amount of systems (or settings) can be found. each guarded by their own version of Io. The main D&D canon is based on the Forgotten Realms setting, with the material plane in that setting being Toril (Baldur's Gate is a city in the Sword Coast region of Toril). Critical Role plays in the Exandria setting. Some bonus tidbits: -Vecna was an ancient king that existed in many worlds, the Forgotten realms Vecna sought immortality thru lichdom, and eventually it is said he merged with many other versions of himself to achieve divinity. -Tiamat and Bahamut were originally set up to breed the perfect dragons, but being directly opposite in every way didnt work out to the point hwere Tiamat rebelled, killed her other brother to frame Bahamut, and got banished to hell as punishment. -Speaking of, in the Great Wheel cosmology actual Hell (Baator) and Heaven (Celestia) are just 2 of the 25+ dimensions of that setting. -That Chained Oblivion thing they were on about is the D&D equivalent of Yog'sothoth. in Exandria it was sealed in the Abyss dimension, warping the dimension into an infinitely deep hole. -Gods are not like we know them in real life. like in marvel they are actual beings living out their lives somewhere in the worlds. They are immortal by all intents and purposes, but their power is directly linked to the amount of worship they recieve. A god that is forgotten will be put into stasis, and its portfolio (its divine aspect) will be given to the next candidate. -The Raven Queen was an ancient queen who was kidnapped by the former god of death, Nerull, and forced to be his consort. Eventually she tricked Nerull and stole his divine aspect, effectively taking his place as the new god of death.
you gotta look into the calamity, brennen lee muligan's performance as the dm is my favorite performance in all of streamed play and it gives context as to the massive world altering event that the lore continuously refers to, the calamity explains how all the ancient magics and items were all so much stronger but the methods to make them are lost
Fun fact, the shadowfell is where most of the undead are, but an area of it (specifically the Raven Queen's territory) also doubles as an entrance to the Afterlife. The Raven Queen is the True Neutral Goddess of Death, Winter and Fate (but interestingly not The Dead, there's a bit of a technicality that's in place so she can't abuse her station like her predecessor/ex did) and comes with an interesting story of her own. She hates undead, and she especially hates Vecna.
Actually crazy and hilarious how Tary just got glossed over so fast lmao bro got shafted Also, he kind of left out all of the biggest moments of the finale that led to Vecna's defeat, like Scanlan's gambit and Arkhan's hand moment
I started on campaign 3 recently. Im up to episode 65. Im trying to catch up to the current episodes so I can watch the stream every week and not be lost
The first season adopted the Briarwood arc because that is them most beloved arc by the fans. Also Brymscythe was before they started streaming their game.
Believe a lot of the creative direction chages in the anime are being done by Sam, Travis (who is CEO), and a bit of Matt. In watch parties and interviews they said the changes made was to fit the narrative in the anime format. Like one the deaths was changed to another character (first being during Syrus battle and the vestige) since it would've been the same character twice. Or details like the belt giving Grog a beard. In the campaign it took him a long time for it to grow and hijinks happened thus, Grog didn't ever get his fully grown beard. Him and Vax made up later in the campaign, but the change to not have all this in the anime is a fair one. If anything, instead of watching the entire campaign there are many clips out there for anime comparisons or even just episode highlights. I've found that even though I can't provide enough attention to watch the entire thing, highlights are good way to catch up, and bypassing like shopping days or most side combats. (To note, I have been watching C3 since it's start and with it being 10pm where Im at, I often fall asleep midway through, usually through combats. So Im very thankful for there being ways to enjoy and play catchup)
When you get around to D&D lore, I particularly recommend looking into the lore for the Eberron setting. It's got pulp noir themes, corporate monopolies, a gnomish gestapo, halflings that ride dinosaurs, a group of orc druids protecting the world from extraplanar threats, doomsday druids, a nation of monsters, an ancient advanced goblinoid civilization, a demon city (not just a city populated by demons, but the city itself is a demon), a five-way civil war that ended two years before the standard campaign start date partly because one side got maginuked and no one really knows what caused it, and more.
I didn’t realize critical roll was behind Vox Machina! No wonder I liked it way better than other projects lol I really need to watch Critical Role lmfao wtf
The first 2 episodes of the Amazon series covers the events that occurred during the group's home games that they played BEFORE ever going live on Twitch. Up until these episodes' release, we've never seen these events before. This recap-speedrun video picks up the Vax Machinca story from when & where they start off during the livestreams, basically going to Craghammer to look for Lady Kima (who was there since episode 1, Nux). You are going to notice differences between the original source material of the live games and the animated show adaptation, b/c it is an ADAPTATION. Some things that work great for a D&D game don't work as well for an animated series, so they've admitted to removing, adding, changing, and moving things in order to make the animated series the best that it can be, NOT the best retelling of their story in terms of accuracy. You could almost think of "The Legend of Vox Machina" as if Scanlan Shorthalt himself was retelling the story while he takes liberties to adjust his version of the story in order to make it more entertaining.
I can’t help but want to see an interaction between a character and a devil just sitting at a table to hash out a contract. That shit would be so funny to me. The person would be all into the occult stereo types and the devil would be full lawyer.
A full deep dive into the lore of D&D... That's a life-long pursuit my friend, and that's if you're only looking into the "official lore" of maybe one or two settings. You could spend hours on the lore of the different types of dragons alone.
![Megan Thee Stallion - Bigger In Texas [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QxTkZTLWdo4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Quando Rondo - Life Goes On [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eIf3fhMXAow/mqdefault.jpg)
"Percy went Alucard!" dude you realize that Percy's creator, Taliesin, is responsible for Hellsing's dubbed version.
My Friend ,You'd be surprised how many people Don't Realize that Percy is a Mix of Alucard and Anderson.
The only Alucard from Hellsing dub i know of is Takahata101. And i know it's the Abridged, but it has better story in my opinion.
@@kolegiumwojny7233bitches love cannons
It's why he's my favorite.
@@kolegiumwojny7233 Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.
Nox: Compliments the show the entire video, questioning who is crazy and psycho enough to do such things.
Matt Mercer: Losing sleep every night while he goes crazy trying to read through tomes of world building lore to make sure things fit and tell a good story.
Matt’s probably loosing it faster then nux
Gods bless Dani Carr
I have just one teeny tiny correction - Matt Mercer not just reads, he wrote like... Pretty much all of the world he makes his campaigns in :D
Fun Fact: the design of the Briarwoods is based on Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey’s cosplay of the two.
I mean it was a damn good cosplay!
The design s based on the cosplay of the design? Take a minute and try to figure out what's wrong with that...
@@elbruces I believe he means the design for the show is based off of their cosplay which came before the show was a thought
@@elbruces I didn’t say anything incorrect, Travis and Laura went and dressed as the Biarwoods for a Halloween episode way before the animated show, and the animators took the two’s cosplay and designed the Briarwoods after the two. You can see Laura’s face in Lady Brairwood
'Guns never hurt anyone in the show' is a wild take after this week's episodes.
Real shit lmao I was sick and the show just rolled on.
If you're serious about learning Vox Machina lore, I would HIGHLY recommend watching "Exandria Unlimited: Calamity". It's a short series (4 episodes about 4 hours each, except the last episode about 6 hours) set in the "Age of Arcanum" in the 24 hours that set in motion the war between the Gods. The lore building is fantastic, and the story is epic (like, when Amazon announced an extended agreement with Critical Role including firm rights, everyone's first instinct was 'Calamity movie! YESSS!!!' levels of epic).
Brennan Lee Mulligan. The GM I aspire to be tbh
Brennan is unhinged. It's great.
Brennan Lee Mulligan, DM, Comedic genius, and most importantly Hell Daddy
Vex's death is such an emotional scene in the campaign, because the character's player, Liam O'brien, had lost his mother, and this scene was such a cathartic moment for him. I love how Matt Mercer used this to help a friend's pain of losing a loved one.
You mean Vax?
Oh hey someone needs Flashcards. Vex is the girl twin, Vax is the boy twin
.... Vax
7:00 Fun fact about Scanlan, is that Sam (the person who plays Scanlan) had never played D&D before. The group started when Liam (Vax) got offered by Matt to play a birthday one-shot, and since Liam and Sam were good friends and ran a podcast together Sam got brought in. They discussed it on their podcast before the game, and Sam asked "what's the worst? Can I be the worst character?" and Liam offhandedly mentioned gnome/bard, and Sam ran with it (I think the clips from the podcast are on yt somewhere). Scanlan's name came from an auto-name generator. The entire character started as a trashy stereotype/laugh - but became so much more, as Sam actually got invested in the character and wanted to figure out why this joke of a character became the way they are, and the trauma and past that formed that person.
Great summary!
Just to add to it, Scanlan´s backstory is loosely based on Eminem, Scanlan having been picked up by Dr. Drenzel (Dr. Dre) for his traveling band, who later works with Kaylie, Scanlan´s daughter.
He left all the pre-stream stuff out. That's where they fight Brimscythe
He left it out cuz this video is covering exclusively the streams major notes
Lord Nuxalore, you're gonna freaking LOVE this. Vox Machina is literally how my friend group be acting, we're all different archetypes, and the shits amazing.
Let's hope he'll come around to react to the show on his channel
I hope he eventually sees what Brennan did for calamity, especially his asmodeus speech
17:07 Matthew Mercer, that episode, that day, that session of gameplay, that moment, all him. The literal tone of the campaign at that moment completely shifted.
If it happened in the show you can assume Matt Mercer concocted it.
16:49 I will never forgive the reaction of the players in that moment. From confusion to absolute horror. I'll never forgive Marisha's handwavings when Matt has described the scene, like she has been begging him to stop. Dude...
@@undeathghost5627not entirely accurate. We didn't get Gilmore/Rakshasa scene.
@@AnyoneCanBeNerdy what does that have to do with anything I said?
@@undeathghost5627 the statement I replied to suggests plot beats specifically of Matt's design would make it into the show. Atleast that was my interpretation of your words. Maybe you meant differently?
i love the story of the vox machina show crowdfunding. they were hoping for maybe 750,000 dollars with stretch goals up to 3 mil over 42 days on kickstarter. they got 11 million dollars in the first two days.
I loved the announcement they did after they had raised 3 mil and their inability to process what had happened, and it just kept going up.
They got 11 mil in 30 days. They did get like 4 mil in 24 hours though. So... Still pretty insane.
The original game started privately as a celebration for the birthday of Vax's player, Liam. It took years before Felicia Days from Geek & Sundry invited them to livestream the campaign, which first aired that Underdark part of the story, even if what happened with the blue dragon did come first.
OG Critter here :) They started the animated series from the 2nd arc in the actual live stream campaign since its the arc that hooked most people. It made me kinda sad that so many people will not know Clorota and his 'tin foil' hat or that Grog had a MAJOR crush on Lady Kima when they met her in the underdark!
Not to mention the EPIC battle with the beholder at the end
Tbf, i don't hink they could have the Underdark, mindflayers, beholders or the horn of Orcus in the show, because of copyright
@@damned0wl but then s4 is gonna have Vekna
@@lillith7257 well, no, it's gonna have "The Whispered One". Any show can have a lich in it, but mindflayers in particular would be a problem - they're too recognizable as DnD monsters, and changing them to something that isn't would just remove the impact they have.
Same goes for beholders - LoVM could make a legally-distinct-totally-not-a-spectator for a monster fight in season 2, but i don't think that would work for an actual villain.
"I can't believe they gave him that sexy voice," my brother, they didn't give the character that voice, it's HIS voice, for HIS character lmao, nobody decided to give anything to anyone.
Vox Machina is campaign 1, takes place primarily in Taldorei. Campaign 2 is the Mighty Nien, (which is also getting a show!) primarily in Wildmount. Campaign 3 is Bell's Hells, which starts of in Marquet. :) all in the world of Exandria.
0:40
Don't forget Campaign 2 is also currently being animated! It releases next year if memory serves.
3:21
They only wanted 2 million. Fans said, "No, have more".
8:11
Kraghanmer was literally the first 2 or 3 broadcasted episodes. 😅
10:32
Before they were known as Vox Machina, they were named "The Shits", quite literally only changing their name once they became official in Emon. 😅
19:40
This is incorrect, the Ziggurat already existed beneath Whitestone.
39:53
A difference from the actual campaign, a god literally bitch slaps the dragon for them. 😅
48:36
Raven Queen was an Elf.
53:09
All the campaigns are connected in one timeline, yes. Currently campaign 3 takes place 30 years after campaign 1.
God I can't wait to see C2 animated. Vox Machina holds a special place in my heart cause it was the beginning of the true explosion of TTRPG's into more popular culture, but C2's characters, every single one of them, just hit *so* good.
actually they wanted 800k not 2mil
@@Force2reckonVodscampaign 1 is great but campaign 2 is really when critical role found its true identity. c1 is more standard dnd heroes doing hero shit. but c2 felt like a group of secret agents disguised as crazy hobos accidentally / intentionally destroying a world ending threat. it's peak.
they're animating campaign two on top of s4 of campaign 1? that is a lot to work on
@@lillith7257 Indeed, but everyone is super excited about it.
He forgot something at the end, after defeating Vecna, Arkhan played by Joe manganiello chops off his hand and grafts Vecna’s hand which is a magical item onto his arm, then plane shifts away presumably to Avernus to try and release his bound god, the 5 headed evil chromatic dragon Tiamat!
They might not do that in the show. Joe probably owns the IP of the character.
@@Ragdefender you’re right, I was just talking in reference the CR lore
@@Ragdefender they also didn’t talk on Orions character and creepiness
Working a desk job during COVID allowed me to listen to ALL of campaign one. It was beautifully done and I shed so many tears through it all and the ending, broke me.
Also, Percy is the GOAT
you call the briarwood arc mid but the whole reason they skipped the kraghammer arc for the show was they wanted to do the most popular arc for season 1
I mean when the other arc he's seen is the chroma conclave you can't really blame him. The fall of Emon is the best depicted "dragon attack" in visual media. It makes every other attempt to have dragons "be scary" look like a fucking joke.
Dude. It’s clear they skipped the KragHammer arc to avoid having to deal with Orian and his whole “ stealing from people with good
Fund me” thing that got him
Booted off the show.
@@pauljinkerson6359 It's not clear to those that don't know, considering he wasn't even mentioned in this video.
Also please don't try dig up information about it. The reasons for his departure are far more complicated and are thoroughly covered by other channels. It really does not need to be discussed anymore.
@@pauljinkerson6359 Pretty sure they would have skipped Kraghammer anyway, Orion or not. Since not much of importance really happened there.
I have literally never clicked a nux video faster. The blue dragon was one arc that was pre-stream. They did that, skipped the "king is influenced by evil" arc and made a few small references to the kraghammer arc but then jumped straight into the Briarwood arc.
Crit role was my introduction to DnD and I will cry forever over Keyleth and ‘I have passed through fire’ but No Mercy Percy lives in my head rent free
Day 20 of asking nux to watch the ben 10 timeline by the ink tank, because it feels like just the kind of lore you like to vore.
My favorite part is the crowd-fundraising for Vox Machina was originally for an animated special.
And it was indeed animated and very special. Just much longer than they could have ever dreamed
The killing the blue lighting dragon arc happened long before the start of the stream, same as saving Uriels family from demons where Pike died and was ressurested so she now has white hair.
You gotta do the Mighty Nein
My understanding of the pre-show lore (at home private games, started as a birthday present for a friend) so the biggest difference is the team had been in the capital a while fairly nameless. Just doing odd jobs they found around the inns.
Until one winter fest a blue lightnight dragon attacks. Events are a little different but the reveal of the dragon being a council member and the team starts working for the council stays the same
Then there's some other plots until the amazon show continues
For now they do some missions for the council, reveal a plot of a demon possessing the king, pike dies and her hair turns white when shes revived and then go on to kraghammer with the mindflairs
The Critical Role crew is SO WHOLESOME too. They are the best of RUclips. If you go back and watch their early stuff, its so raw filmed in their kitchen n shiz. It hasn't changed much either, except for in the production quality. Also when they crowd funded it they broke gofundme records. The fans were like "TAKE OUR MONEY!!!"
When Talison craeted Percy, he told Matt that Percy had a dream with a voice telling him to make the gun, and he purposely didn't want to know weather it was a real demon or him being crazy, leaving this choice to Matt.
Not sure if anyone mentioned, but the beauty behind nux saying it's like Shonen anime d&d, while he talks about the actors who play characters like trunks, Gara, Pain. It's literally anime disguised as high fantasy. Or better it's anime role playing high fantasy
I highly reccomend the Exandria: an Intimate History video, as its an overview of the backstory of the setting
My brother in Sarenrae, Season 1 of Vox Machina wasn't just crowdfunded, it was the biggest success story of Kickstarter at the time (2019) and remains in the top 10 most funded projects on the platform to this day. It is legitimately bonkers.
I whole hearted recommend you to watch Brennan Lee Mulligan's Calamity with the Critical Role cast... It's a standalone story and it's short enough but extremely good! Also the BTS on how he menage the playthrough was incredible, how a master craft the story and improv the beats as the players make their choices and mold the plot points themselves... Really amazing
"I would like to fucking rage"
Bro, I'm so excited that you're getting into the wonderful world of critical role!
Fun fact about the chroma conclave arc beginning. Most of the cast actually thought that the campaign was ending. They (thought they) had wrapped up most of the important arcs in the game and didn’t have anything else to do as a group. Which is when Matt dropped this insanity. If you watch anything from this, I would recommend watching these scene in the campaign. It’s incredible. Talk about “kill your darlings” for Matt.
Also an amazing lore thing that they have released have both been DMed by Brennan Lee Mulligan. Each being only a few episodes long. They are INCREDIBLE pieces of art. They are called “Calamity” and “Downfall” and show both the beginning and ending of an age in Exandria. I would HUghly recommend watching these, not only for how good they are but also for how much lore they reveal in Exandrias world.
Edit: also in game, Vax’s deal with The Matron of Ravens didn’t grant him super speed. Vax already had these incredible boots called “the boots of haste” that granted him super speed and extra attacks. They wrapped them into the “Deathwalker’s Ward” for the animated show.
Scanlan leaves Vox Machina... You cant describe it like that!!! You must react to The Bards Lament video of them playing!! One of the best roleplays ever in the history of D&D
They skipped the 1st arc because they thought the Briarwood arc was a better hook into the story as it was during the original campaign. I wish they would have started from pre stream content though as that would have given us the content we missed the 1st time.
they actually did, the pre stream content was brimscythe/Krieg, what was cut was the underdark part because of Orion/Tiberius if i remember correctly
@alexisbaron1594 Krieg was a very small part of pre stream content and even then they changed alot. Considering how much they've changed Tibereus could have easily been written around so I highly doubt that played a role in them skipping that arc. I know they've talked about in interviews not knowing how many seasons they'd get so getting the Briarwood arc done was important to them.
I have been waiting for you to react to VM for SO LONG!
Finalllly!!!!!! He finally did it. I have been waiting for you to cover lofvm😂😂😂🎉🎉
Yes Vox Machina Lore! Also second, also Nux please do odd world lore next by reliable rhubarb or pupbenny
What Nux doesn't know is that The Dragon at the beginning is from the Home Game, but not in the episodes of the original Critical Role Recorded Table. He was put in as a catalyst point for the 2nd and 3rd season events of the Vox Machina story since he was the fifth dragon that was a part of the 5 Chromatic Dragons known as the Chroma Conclave, so yes even that Dragon in the beginning serves a purpose. The blue dragon is killed right after the group had reached level 7. The Underdark story that gets skipped over in Legends happens when the party is just reaching level 10. The Briarwood Arc takes place from levels 12-13, and to not spoil anything further the Vestiges/Chroma Conclave Arc takes place from levels 14-16.
This is willlddd for me. I've been watching your videos for a while, but I just started watching Vox Machina youtube videos last week because of what happened to Percy. 😭 I had to vent in some comment sections, lol. Didn't expect this, but happy I found it at the perfect time.
I just saw this on my recommendation feed. I've heard some pretty good things about Vox Machina lately, I'll consider checking it out. 😁
NUX YA MADE MY DAY WITH THIS I HAVE VAX’S DAGGERS LITERALLY TATTOOED ON MY HAND CRITICAL ROLE LORE IS SUCH A WIN
I RESPECTFULLY DEMAND CODE LYOKO LORE
Exandria (the world of Critical Role) is actually its own official dnd setting and all three Campaigns take place in it (Vox Machina is 20 years before Mighty Nein (Campaign 2), and the Current Campaign Bell's Hells takes place about 10 years after that)
Oh, a new Nux video, I wonder what drama he pokes with a stick this ti- HOLY SH*T HE'S REACTING TO CRITICAL ROLE STUFF
So glad you did this. I absolutely love this storyline.
I was a backer! The first two episode of the show are based on events that were pre-stream, setting them up as heroes in Emon and honorary members of the Counsel of Tal'dorei. It then skips to the Briarwood Arc, starting at episode 24 of the stream. They did this to avoid issues with a former player character who was removed from the live stream for multiple reasons.
Nux needs to do a side quest lore on Calamity. Not Vox Machina but still Critical Roll
Brennan Lee Mulligan was brilliant!
Is* brilliant xD
@Force2reckonVods IS brilliant you are correct
@@tinkercat8268 "Daddy, why does your ring glow?"
@derkrischa3720 my heart it can't take it 💔
I love Scanlan such an amazing character that starts out as the stereotypical bard. But through the campaign grows so much and has such an amazing character arc. He's also the MVP of so many fights even saving what could have been a few TPKs... And that counterspell in the final fight is both amazing and heart breaking at the same time.
One of my favourite bits of knowledge on this show is how I found out Liam O’Brien is in it. A friend recommended VM to me and I could tell there was something familiar about Vax, eventually I realized he has the same voice actor as Gaara, then for a while (as a Naruto fan) I could only hear Vax as British Gaara. I also thought it was cool when I found out Matthew Mercer was in VM, hearing and recognizing voices from another series I watched and love.
You will enjoy this one. Also, when you get a chance, definitely recommend looking at Mighty Nein. Cause it’s getting its own show soon.
Edit: also, first arc has very good reasons. If you wanna go find lore as to why, I’d check Let’s Talk about Tiberius. You might understand why after.
We need to get this guy to do D&D lore. Probably start with the timeline of the forgotten realms
They cut the Kraghammer/Underdark arc because in the overarching story of the campaign the Kraghammer arc didn't really have major lasting effects on the plot. So it made more sense to use the blue dragon in the first 2 episodes to introduce the characters to new viewers, and then continue with the Briarwood arc because of how deeply it tied to Percy and the ripple effects of that later on.
I love that you keep talking about the "Writing" and it's all just a DND game that people played. Sure there was a lot of work to make it into a show but the story came from this set of people playing and making all these decisions and improving most of these situations. One of the better stories of the last xx years and it's a bunch of friends having fun together.
That final fight with Vecna was so intense I picked my lip bloody in several places. Highly recommend.
Just to clarify a bit: the campaign of Vox Machina actually started in 2013 using D&D 4E and later Pathfinder 1st Edition. They'd been playing together and did several arcs for about two years before it started airing online (which is also when it switched to 5th Edition D&D).
The Blue Dragon they fought in the first two episodes of the campaign was something that happened prior to the stream. Most of the adventures before the live stream are adapted into comics called Vox Machina Origins.
Also, Nux I doubt you’ll see this but you should watch the “From Table to Screen” videos comparing the D&D table game to the show side by side
Whats worse was terrington gifted everyone an amulet that would glow when someone was down, (something like that) can only imagine the emotional pain he had during the first vecna fight
Being far away and seeing your amulet glow knowing your friends are probably dying
MrRhexx has some of the best long form lore videos on DnD, he has an entire trilogy summarizing the overall history of the world and each video is around an hour long.
I started to watch Vox Machina because the animation reminded me of the New Voltron and She Ra, two cartoons that i like very much. I thought : "Cool, its like a D&D cartoon or something." But i am glad that i didnt watched this one with my family like the others. Always read the synopsis and classification first kids.
The classification can be a bit misleading at times. Not in this case but, for example, SG-1 has a nudity tag on every episode because the pilot was originally on showtime where a brief nip isn't a problem.
The Blue Dragon fight took place before the campaign moved from Pathfinder to streaming on Geek & Sundry and being played in 5th edition D&D
Grog Strongjaw is essentially the love child of Kratos and Drax The Destroyer and he’s fkn awsome. Also fun fact when GoW 2018 was revealed and Kratos had a beard Travis Wilingham put out an awsome tweet congratulating Santa Monica Studios and saying Much love Kratos my brother from another mother.
I can't wait to see Nux react to Dimension 20 stuff or Legends of Alventus in the future as well!
nux does critical role now? dream came true!
I didnt know I needed this vid in my life.
One of the greatest through lines in the final battle is scandlan saving his 9th level spell in hopes to cast wish to save vax from the raven queen. It is so beautiful and I don’t know how the show will do that moment justice
I’m shocked Nux hasn’t reacted to Vox Machina and no the Brayer wood arc is first the dragon arc comes next after that
Brimscythe the blue Dragon was pre-stream. In fact this dudes video left out all the pre-stream stuff
For clarification. The Kickstarter was originally supposed to be the arc that later turned into the first two episodes. It was originally just gonna be a "hey, you wanna see a professionally done animated episode of something that happened in the story before we started streaming our games?"
The goal was $750k.
The goal was met in 45 minutes, and all the stretch goals soon after that.
So they made new stretch goals, one of them being a full length series, which they hit too.
They had to skip a lot of the earlier arcs because there was another member, but the player had a lot of drama and things going on, so they decided to cut out the arcs with him in it
i used to drive for greyhound in the us, i would pop in 1 ear bud and just hit play. got through like 2-3 episodes during my 12 hr drive times. got through campaign 1 and more than halfway through campaign 2. really helped me stay awake and the story and lore of their games where great, top tier. the characters each voice actor played had so much emotion and character as well as the humor was fantastic.
I got through the first 2 campaigns, but I’ve hit a stop in the middle of the 3rd campaign. its a bit hard for me to follow, even though it is featuring some of my favorite characters from the crew. I will catch up to it again sometime. But I am LOVING the animation, it reminds me of Batman Beyond art style and those DC cartoons from 2000-2005 era
The Sun Tree moment was when everyone (including his friends) realized what Matt Mercer could be capable of if he used his powers for evil instead of good.
I'd say that the main reason to watch at least a few of the live-stream episodes is to see Matt at work, and realize that even if he doesn't voice a character who's a member of VM, he's actually the most important writer and actor involved.
You should definitely check out Nightmare Time AKA Hatchetfield lore by Starkid (a good video for that is the video: An appropriately unhinged recap of the hatchetfield series by Abbie Mary). Seeing you react to the main Trilogy (The Guy Who Didn't like Musicals, Black Friday, and Nerdy Prudes Must Die) would also be interesting c: They can all be watched here on RUclips for free and Starkid doesn't strike for fair use stuff like reactions so you shouldn't be demonetised. I feel like you'd love the Lords in Black :P
Edit: By the way, the Raven Queen was originally an elf of the Summer Court in the Fey Wild. Raven Queen lore is pretty interesting, do recommend.
The animation show was well-earned, it started as a kickstarter and was just going to be a few eps covering one of the group's adventure, but within the first few hours of the kickstarter they reach well beyond their initial kickstarter (started at $750k which from what i heard ended up in earning $11 million from the kickstarter) which prompted them to make a series out of it. You should look at the video of theirs The Legend of Vox Machina Kickstarter Q&A to see their reaction to the whole thing, which is funny/wholesome.
The three main reasons i think the kickstarter did amazing, 1. the content was good and enjoyable and people wanted to see it animated 2. It's dnd, we dnd players have been thirsting for a series and wizards has yet to give us one (since original animation series i should add) so some of us paid for it with this series 3. People know the voice actors and are fans of theirs and wants to support them. I would not be shocked if some dnd fan was waiting for something like this and had a savings account for a moment like this
Welcome to the gang. This is my lifeline since a few years ago, and i would not be alive today if not for them😊😊
Watching the episode that introduces the chroma conclave for the first time without knowing what was coming was a WILD experience. All of a sudden a true apocalyptic threat is introduced and our main characters are absolutely powerless to stop them from destroying all of Emon. Like in the campaign as they’re trying to fight we get this exchange: “alright cool so that’s a 21 to hit.” “21 misses.”
Don't know if anyone mentioned it but Grogs player and VA is Travis Willingham who is also the VA of Roy Mustang in FMA.
Nux should definitely do the lore of Vecna and the Dragons. There is the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna, if you wear these parts at the same time Vecna is brought back into Mundus (the normal plane where everyone lives) you become a vessel for Vecna as the two piece use you to bring him back to life
This is the worst trade deal in this history of trade deals
@@adriannaranjo4397 well it is more of a free trial than a fair deal, the Eye gives you Xray and other eye magic, the hand gives you supernatural strength and adds cold energy to your spells, but using it requires you to cut off your left hand at the wrist then pressing the hand to the stump and it grafts itself to you. Same with the Eye you have to rip out one of your eyes to implant it. If either of them is removed from you, it is insta death. Of course using both at the same time will give you insane power, such as regeneration, immunity to diseases, and you can turn your enemies skeletons to jelly, but eventually you start becoming Vecna as he overtakes your body and soul being reborn
8:45 Hope he will also watch the 7 hour LotR/Silmarillion lore video "Complete History of Middle-Earth" video by "Wizards and Warriors", to get the full picture.
Scanlan beating Kamaljiori's challenge was an original of the show. In the actual-play it was an interesting puzzle where VM had to figure out what his name was by going into these elemental rifts. This is where Grog actually stabs Pike in the campaign, but it's to save himself from drifting into the air elemental plane
From someone who has been drowning themselves in D&D for 10+ years, I'll give a short rundown on the lore:
There are many different creation myths, but the most populair one is where before the dimensions existed there was only the elemental/primordial chaos and the Primordials who lived in it. After a long war, the Primordial Dragon Aasterian/Io sacrificed himself to create the dimensions of the great wheel cosmology. Somewhere along the line he also created the first gods, his favorites being Tiamat, the evil queen/mother of chromatic dragons, and Bahamut, the good king/father of metallic dragons.
So where each 'canon' of D&D comes in, is that outside of this cosmological system exists a dimension called the Astral Sea, where an infinite amount of systems (or settings) can be found. each guarded by their own version of Io. The main D&D canon is based on the Forgotten Realms setting, with the material plane in that setting being Toril (Baldur's Gate is a city in the Sword Coast region of Toril). Critical Role plays in the Exandria setting.
Some bonus tidbits:
-Vecna was an ancient king that existed in many worlds, the Forgotten realms Vecna sought immortality thru lichdom, and eventually it is said he merged with many other versions of himself to achieve divinity.
-Tiamat and Bahamut were originally set up to breed the perfect dragons, but being directly opposite in every way didnt work out to the point hwere Tiamat rebelled, killed her other brother to frame Bahamut, and got banished to hell as punishment.
-Speaking of, in the Great Wheel cosmology actual Hell (Baator) and Heaven (Celestia) are just 2 of the 25+ dimensions of that setting.
-That Chained Oblivion thing they were on about is the D&D equivalent of Yog'sothoth. in Exandria it was sealed in the Abyss dimension, warping the dimension into an infinitely deep hole.
-Gods are not like we know them in real life. like in marvel they are actual beings living out their lives somewhere in the worlds. They are immortal by all intents and purposes, but their power is directly linked to the amount of worship they recieve. A god that is forgotten will be put into stasis, and its portfolio (its divine aspect) will be given to the next candidate.
-The Raven Queen was an ancient queen who was kidnapped by the former god of death, Nerull, and forced to be his consort. Eventually she tricked Nerull and stole his divine aspect, effectively taking his place as the new god of death.
you gotta look into the calamity, brennen lee muligan's performance as the dm is my favorite performance in all of streamed play and it gives context as to the massive world altering event that the lore continuously refers to, the calamity explains how all the ancient magics and items were all so much stronger but the methods to make them are lost
Lord Nuxalore covering Vox Machina, I’m so happy.
Nux finding the Critter fan base is my favorite thing of 2024
Can't wait for nux to react to the bell's hells story summary (up to whatever point said video goes to.)
Fun fact, the shadowfell is where most of the undead are, but an area of it (specifically the Raven Queen's territory) also doubles as an entrance to the Afterlife.
The Raven Queen is the True Neutral Goddess of Death, Winter and Fate (but interestingly not The Dead, there's a bit of a technicality that's in place so she can't abuse her station like her predecessor/ex did) and comes with an interesting story of her own. She hates undead, and she especially hates Vecna.
D&D lore dive NEEDS a dedicated episode to the original Baldurs Gate games. Replaying it right now and it is so goooood
Actually crazy and hilarious how Tary just got glossed over so fast lmao bro got shafted
Also, he kind of left out all of the biggest moments of the finale that led to Vecna's defeat, like Scanlan's gambit and Arkhan's hand moment
I started on campaign 3 recently. Im up to episode 65. Im trying to catch up to the current episodes so I can watch the stream every week and not be lost
I've been playing DND since 3.5. it's nice to see it more mainstream. I find a lot of people more willing to give it a shot instead of ripping on it.
I’ve waited so fucking long for this.
The first season adopted the Briarwood arc because that is them most beloved arc by the fans.
Also Brymscythe was before they started streaming their game.
Believe a lot of the creative direction chages in the anime are being done by Sam, Travis (who is CEO), and a bit of Matt. In watch parties and interviews they said the changes made was to fit the narrative in the anime format. Like one the deaths was changed to another character (first being during Syrus battle and the vestige) since it would've been the same character twice. Or details like the belt giving Grog a beard. In the campaign it took him a long time for it to grow and hijinks happened thus, Grog didn't ever get his fully grown beard. Him and Vax made up later in the campaign, but the change to not have all this in the anime is a fair one.
If anything, instead of watching the entire campaign there are many clips out there for anime comparisons or even just episode highlights.
I've found that even though I can't provide enough attention to watch the entire thing, highlights are good way to catch up, and bypassing like shopping days or most side combats. (To note, I have been watching C3 since it's start and with it being 10pm where Im at, I often fall asleep midway through, usually through combats. So Im very thankful for there being ways to enjoy and play catchup)
When you get around to D&D lore, I particularly recommend looking into the lore for the Eberron setting. It's got pulp noir themes, corporate monopolies, a gnomish gestapo, halflings that ride dinosaurs, a group of orc druids protecting the world from extraplanar threats, doomsday druids, a nation of monsters, an ancient advanced goblinoid civilization, a demon city (not just a city populated by demons, but the city itself is a demon), a five-way civil war that ended two years before the standard campaign start date partly because one side got maginuked and no one really knows what caused it, and more.
I didn’t realize critical roll was behind Vox Machina! No wonder I liked it way better than other projects lol
I really need to watch Critical Role lmfao wtf
The first 2 episodes of the Amazon series covers the events that occurred during the group's home games that they played BEFORE ever going live on Twitch. Up until these episodes' release, we've never seen these events before. This recap-speedrun video picks up the Vax Machinca story from when & where they start off during the livestreams, basically going to Craghammer to look for Lady Kima (who was there since episode 1, Nux).
You are going to notice differences between the original source material of the live games and the animated show adaptation, b/c it is an ADAPTATION. Some things that work great for a D&D game don't work as well for an animated series, so they've admitted to removing, adding, changing, and moving things in order to make the animated series the best that it can be, NOT the best retelling of their story in terms of accuracy. You could almost think of "The Legend of Vox Machina" as if Scanlan Shorthalt himself was retelling the story while he takes liberties to adjust his version of the story in order to make it more entertaining.
I can’t help but want to see an interaction between a character and a devil just sitting at a table to hash out a contract. That shit would be so funny to me. The person would be all into the occult stereo types and the devil would be full lawyer.
A full deep dive into the lore of D&D... That's a life-long pursuit my friend, and that's if you're only looking into the "official lore" of maybe one or two settings. You could spend hours on the lore of the different types of dragons alone.