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Here's something I probably don't need to tell you, die-hard Critters out there. From the earliest days of Critical Role fan art, there's always been a purple motif for the characters of Delilah and Sylas Briarwood, the necromantic romantics that served as the villains of the first arc. A decade later, the color has become synonymous with the pair, even though we've never exactly gotten a reason. So, when I got the chance to speak with someone actually responsible for bringing the pair to life, I had to ask for their expert opinion.

The expert in question is Aviv Or, the artist on such Critical Role graphic novels as Critical Role: Tales of Exandria Volume 2--Artagan and the upcoming The Legend of Vox Machina: The Whitestone Chronicles Volume 3--The Briarwoods. The OGN, which saw Or working with colorist Diana Sousa to bring Exandria to life, dives into the history of Delilah Briarwood in particular. And since it's our responsibility for the visuals of this uncharted chapter of Delilah's life, we asked her to parse our purple perplexities.

"Purple is mystical, magical," Or said, "It's kind of the in-between light and dark. It's dusky, When you think about purple, you think about mysterious."

Particularly, said Or, this holds true in a medium that those nerdy-ass voice actors behind Critical Role have a lot of experience in: Anime.

"In anime," Or continued, "It's often the magical aura of someone evil. Or maybe not necessarily evil. [...] t's the bad side of the good and evil spectrum, along with magic and mystery."

Outside of anime, Or points to historical eras similar to the one Exandrian citizens find themselves in as another possible influence.

"Purple was one of the colors that were related to royalty," she continued, "It was harder to to get in terms of dyeing clothes and things, so maybe that kind of elevates it above the norm. That gives it that kind of that essence - it's special, it's unique, it doesn't belong to us.

"But that's just me speculating," Or clarified, "Because I haven't really, I haven't studied much in terms of color or fashion or history of all of that."

I mean, that sounds pretty on-point to me, Aviv.

The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 is streaming now on Prime Video. The Legend of Vox Machina: The Whitestone Chronicles Volume 3--The Briarwoods comes to bookstores everywhere June 30.

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:

• Critical Role release schedule
• Critical Role's Campaign 4 characters ranked
• How to watch Critical Role in order
• Ways for you to relive the Critical Role panel from ECCC '26
• 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.