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After beginning as a humble game of D&D between a couple of nerdy voice actors, Critical Role has turned into a full-fledged media empire. The TTRPG liveplay series has taken on the form of comics, a Prime Video animated series, and prose novels, and recently, we've seen those quirky kinds of adaptations loop back in on themselves. Twice this year, Critical Role has published works that aren't just adaptations, but metatexts that were created as though they were written in the universe of Critical Role itself (or Exandria, for all you Critters out there).

One of those texts is Critical Role: The Armory of Heroes, a detailed art book written by Martin Cahill featuring gorgeous imagery of the tools and outfits from the world's characters by artist Ana Fedina (AKA Anafi). During the book's promotion, Popverse got to chat with Critical Lore's Licensing Brand Associate, Niki Chi, who reminded us that AoH wasn't the only recent art compendium written from an in-universe Exandrian perspective.

"Our Chronicles of Exandria: The Mighty Nein Part Two artbook," Chi said, "Also features a unique in-universe perspective, written by our very own Dani Carr!"

Carr, for those not in the know, is Critical Role's own lorekeeper, the person who keeps track of the many historical events and mythology that come together to make up Exandria. In 2024, she was also the author of the aforementioned artbook, which makes use of her wide-ranging knowledge to dive into details that fans might not have caught in Critical Role's Campaign 2.

But that's not the end of the list - 2025 also saw the release of romantasy Tusk Love, a novel which began as a story-within-a-story in the mind of GM Matthew Mercer, but is now a book by Thea Guanzon that you can actually buy. So will there be more books in the same vein of these two, wherein the reader will feel they exist right alongside their favorite Critical Role characters? Chi says, Yes.'

"We're always brainstorming on new stories that we can expand on within the world of Exandria," Chic concluded, "And sometimes it can be difficult to choose which characters we want to explore further. Collaborative projects are a great avenue for opening up new storylines, and we already have some projects in motion as we speak."

Critical Role: The Armory of Heroes is available now. 

With two animated series on Prime Video, Campaign 4 in full swing, and so much more Exandrian lore to come, Critical Role is showing no signs of slowing down. That's why the adventuring party at Popverse are here to bring you everything we can from those nerdy-ass voice actors & Bo., including:

• How to watch Critical Role in order
• Travis Willingham on the differences between The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein
• Taliesin Jaffe on playing Mollymauk Tealeaf for Campaign 2 vs. playing him for Prime Video
• Matt Mercer's homebrew warrior class (created originally for Vin Diesel)

...and much, much more. Roll initiative, player. Magic awaits.