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Spoilers for Critical Role Campaign 4 follow. 

Everywhere you look in Critical Role Campaign 4, there's some weird, mysterious magic deeply affecting the lives of the core PCs. Some of the most mysterious are perhaps the magics surrounding Taliesin Jaffe's Bolaire Lathalia, who we found out in episode 4 is, in fact, a sentient mask. Ever since, we've known that Bolaire is searching for the rest of his ilk - a host os magical, intelligent masks called the Panto - but we're not 100% certain of the history behind his search.

Fortunately, Jaffe himself was willing to explain their strange relationship.

Jaffe was joining costar Luis Carazo in a discussion with Temple of Geek's Caitlin Tyrrell when he got to talking about Bolaire and the Panto. Prompted by host Tyrrell bringing up Jaffe's previous comments on the masks being something like 'siblings,' the OG Roler decided to get into exactly how the masks are (and aren't) a kind of family.

"I'm really glad you asked that," said The Mighty Nein voice actor, "Because this is something that I've been having to finally articulate deeply for the game itself. [Bolaire's] core fear is disruption; his terror is that all of this will go away. He was not built with fear - this is not a mechanism that feels fear. Most of the emotions and most of the reactions that Bolaire has are intentional; they are responses based on what the appropriate response he thinks would be. Fear is the only new one, really. [...] He's only a couple of decades into having something to lose."

"It's so hard to wrap my brain around the notion of somebody who is fictional on that level," he continued, "There are no parents. There is no past. It's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. You woke up, you are here. You don't know why you're going here, but you have relationships, you have people that you're supposed to talk to, and they know you, and you know them, but you don't know anything beyond that."

In case you need to know, reader, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a meta tragicomedy by playwright Tom Stoppard. In it, the titular characters wrestle with their reality (which is, in fact, the plot of Hamlet) and toy with the notion of only existing as characters in a set plot.

"This is family I've spent maybe a day or two with," said Jaffe, "But I loved them and I know them because I was built to know them and love them. It is so essential and so core; it cannot be turned off. It's the same for them. [...] So there is this inevitable vulnerability because he can't even fathom how to turn that off. It's not possible. So there is a level of deep vulnerability of, 'I don't know who they are now. I don't know who I'm going to find. I know who I knew them to be. And I know that most of that is still true. But are they like me? Have they changed? Have they not?' It is my job to take care of them because we're family.

"The fear is wrapped up not just in panic but also in anticipation and in love. I haven't seen my family in two decades," he concluded, "It's the most complex thing he feels."

We know thus far that the Panto were created as magical weapons to kill a trickster god, a feat they accomplished by putting on a play that made the god unbelieve in herself. But what happened to all the masks besides Bolaire after their purpose was concluded? And how does it affect them as a unit?

Only time will tell.

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.