Lyre is a member of the Clasp in Westruun who was tasked with kidnapping Vex'ahlia for Berin Abenard. As punishment for his failure, he was transformed into a copy of Vex'ahlia and given as a decoy to Abenard.
Description[]
Appearance[]
When Vax'ildan first encountered him, Lyre was a young man with silver eyes and a scar running from below his right eye to his chin.[8] He wore all black clothing, including a long ankle-length cloak, a hood, and a mask over his mouth.[1] He wielded long needles, daggers, and blackened darts.[9][5][2]
Lyre was later turned into an exact copy of Vex'ahlia, and Spireling Gideor tore out Lyre's tongue and added it to the Despoiler of Flesh.[2]
Biography[]
Background[]
Prior to his encounter with Vax'ildan, Lyre failed to deliver on at least two other contracts for the Clasp: one involving a "young girl in the Shields" and another involving "a sizable sum of gold owed by a certain bookseller".[10]
Kith & Kin[]
Around 807 PD,[4] Lyre was assigned by Spireling Gideor to kidnap Vex'ahlia.[6] The contract was put out by a local nobleman, unnamed by Gideor but presumed to be Berin Abenard, who had had a confrontation with Vex'ahlia the previous day.[11] Lyre followed Vex'ahlia as she travelled through Westruun at night. She realized she was being followed as she left the the Cobalt Reserve in the Scholar Ward.[12] She encountered a swarm of rats that didn't behave normally, presumably due to being commanded by Lyre, and he shot long needles at her from the rooftops.[13] Vax'ildan, who had also been following her, intercepted Lyre, and the two went tumbling off of a roof.[14] Vax convinced Lyre to bring him to see Gideor, in the hopes that he might be able to cancel the contract.[15] Lyre led him to a basement under a flower shop, where Ro took over, sending Lyre to be healed by Elisen and putting Vax'ildan to sleep to bring him to Gideor.[16] When Gideor later brought Vax'ildan to the Clasp's tavern, Lyre was at the bar with a tankard of ale.[10] Gideor noted that Lyre had previously messed up other contracts, and asked him to help them put this one right.[17] The three men went into a room behind the bar, where Gideor pulled out a staff made of human tongues, the Despoiler of Flesh, telling Lyre he could be useful, instead of being executed.[18] The staff transformed Lyre into a copy of Vex'ahlia, and Gideor tore out Lyre's tongue and added it to the staff.[2] He told Vax'ildan that Lyre would be in the nobleman's custody "for as long as our gentleman contractor has use of him."[2]
Campaign One: Vox Machina[]
When later asked what happened to Lyre, Vax assumed he was "in a dungeon, in a rubber suit", implying that he was still in Westruun as a captive of Abenard.[19] Upon hearing the story, Vex'ahlia expressed interest in finding out who her stalker was.[20] As of the end of the campaign, Lyre was said to probably still a captive of Abenard and living with significant mental trauma.[21]
Character information[]
Abilities[]
Lyre is able to command rats, presumably by some magical means.[22][10] He wields needles, daggers, and darts.[9][5][2]
Appearances and mentions[]
- "Dangerous Dealings" (1x42), mentioned only (first mentioned)
- Kith & Kin (first appearance)
Trivia[]
- Before the publication of Kith & Kin, any detail of Lyre's identity before he was transformed was unknown. Some fans have unofficially dubbed this copy of Vex'ahlia as the Black Vex'ahlia,[citation needed] a reference to the Black Dahlia, an unidentified Los Angeles woman who was a victim to a particularly lurid murder. Like Vex'ahlia's stalker during the campaign, the Black Dahlia's murderer was never found.
- Vex'ahlia's stalker, the Despoiler of Flesh, and this doppelganger were written out-of-game by Liam and Matt for a session Matt ran for Vax and Pike, and to explain why Vax'ildan was a member of the Clasp.[23]
- When the story about the doppelganger was originally retold during "Dangerous Dealings" (1x42), Vax'ildan said that the man who became the Vex copy was a child rapist.[24] Liam later stated that he had a bad memory of the storyline,[25] and this is not mentioned in Kith & Kin, so this was likely either an error, a retcon, or a lie Vax'ildan told to make the story more palatable.
- Vex'ahlia is not aware of Lyre's current whereabouts, though Laura stated that if Vex ever found "her", Vex would hire the doppelganger as a decoy for public events.[citation needed]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 37.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 54.
- ↑ See "Dangerous Dealings" (1x42) at 2:27:39.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1
Critical Role (@CriticalRole) on Twitter: "Check out our updated timeline featuring ALL of our epic adventures throughout Exandria -- including Campaign 3! ⚔️" (2021-10-28).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 39.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 42.
- ↑ See "Talks Machina Fireside Special: Q&A with the Critical Role Cast" (Sx33) at 1:05:25.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, pp. 39–40.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 36.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 52.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 48.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 34.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, pp. 35–36.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, pp. 36–37.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, pp. 41–43.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, pp. 44–47.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, pp. 52–53.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, pp. 53–54.
- ↑ See "Dangerous Dealings" (1x42) at 2:27:41.
- ↑ See "Dangerous Dealings" (1x42) at 2:28:41.
- ↑ See "Talks Machina Fireside Special: Q&A with the Critical Role Cast" (Sx33) at 1:05:25.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin, p. 35.
- ↑ See "Talks Machina Fireside Special: Q&A with the Critical Role Cast" (Sx33) from 1:03:49 through 1:05:56.
- ↑ See from 1x42 through 2:26:19.
- ↑ See "Talks Machina Fireside Special: Q&A with the Critical Role Cast" (Sx33) at 1:05:54.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
