Critical Role: The Mighty Nein -Children of Empire – Review

The story of The Mighty Nein continues in the latest Critical Role novel ‘Children of Empire.’

*warning: minor spoilers below for The Mighty Nein: Children of Empire

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein – Children of Empire represents an exciting new stage in novels featuring the world of Exandria, the setting of Critical Role for its first three D&D campaigns. The previous novels, excluding Tusk Love, all focus on events that happened during or prior to each of Critical Role’s three Exandrian campaigns. The Mighty Nein: Children of Empire is different, in that it explicitly takes place after the events of Campaign 2. The story is in fact the start of a brand new adventure for The Mighty Nein, though the story particularly focuses on Caleb Widogast and Beauregard Lionett, the titular “children of Empire” referred to in the title, as both grew up in the Dwendalian Empire.

The story takes place within a year or two of the events of Critical Role’s second campaign as Caleb Widogast and Beauregard “Beau” Lionett set out to fulfill their dream of taking out the internal corruption within the Dwendalian Empire, with a particular desire to take down Martinet Ludinus Da’leth, a task that is easier said than done. This is a story primarily filled with a lot of social and political intrigue, though the story doesn’t forget about combat either. The action is centered mostly on the continent of Wildemount, where the second campaign was set.

Being the first canon sequel to the events of the Mighty Nein’s story, this novel had some pretty big shoes to fill. Author Nibedita Sen does a fantastic job in bringing these characters, older and growing wiser after their many adventures, to life on the page. Fans of Critical Role will particularly enjoy how Beau and Caleb’s continuing friendship is depicted. The “Empire Kids” as they were dubbed during Campaign 2, developed a quasi brother-sister relationship that is on full display in this story. Every conversation they share, you can see how much the two have grown, and how far they still have to go before they return as level 20 adventurers in Campaign 3.

One of my favorite things about this novel, in fact, is how much time is spent focusing on how much Caleb and Beau have grown, while still acknowledging that they are very much works in progress. Caleb, for example, has come a long way regarding his memories of what happened to his parents. However, given enough stress, he can still fall into his old depression. Beau, in a similar sort of way, has progressed greatly when it comes to practicing patience. At the same time, if Beau is pushed far enough, she can and will run her mouth at the worst time possible. It’s nice to see these heroes being presented in such a realistic way. Just because they beat the big villain at the end of Campaign 2, doesn’t mean all their problems are over and everything is perfect. They’re still learning, they’re still growing, such is true of everyone in the world.

As beautiful as Children of Empire is, I do worry that readers new to the world of Critical Role may have a hard time getting in to it. Unlike the previous novels, which are prequels, The Mighty Nein: Children of Empire is best experienced if one has seen Campaign 2 and, to be fair, Campaign 3 of Critical Role in order to fully appreciate all of the plot revelations delivered in the story. Considering Campaign 2 alone consists of 141 episodes, that is a tall order. There are also Easter Egg references to several live show events (separate from the campaigns) that are bound not to land as well for someone who hasn’t seen them.

For instance, in the most general terms possible to avoid heavy spoilers for Campaign 2 and 3 of Critical Role, Caleb and Beau find themselves encountering a massive entity, one whose existence has only been hinted at up until now. While everything about this creature is horrifying, those who have seen Campaign 2 and 3 of Critical Role and know the full lore will be jumping up and down with excitement at seeing this long teased creature revealed. Whereas those who are new to Critical Role might be horrified by the monstrosity of it all, but otherwise not read much into it.

I need to make it clear that I’m not saying The Mighty Nein: Children of Empire can’t be enjoyed by newcomers to Critical Role. As always, enough backstory is woven through the story that readers will have all the information they need to know to follow the main plot along. But there is a lot of nuance that will be lost along the way if the reader hasn’t seen the second campaign.

One final detail that I love in this book is how Nibedita Sen teases more adventure to come with The Mighty Nein. One quest in particular hasn’t been described in any format before, so hopefully there will be a follow up novel in the future that keeps the story going.

I still highly recommend Critical Role – The Mighty Nein: Children of Empire. For fans of Critical Role, this is an excellent continuation of the second campaign. And even if you’re new to Exandria, maybe this will inspire new readers to check the original campaigns out.