A prequel novel to Critical Role by Marieke Nijkamp, focusing on the twin half-elves ranger Vex'ahlia and rogue Vax'ildan. The audiobook version is narrated by Robbie Daymond, with Liam O'Brien and Laura Bailey reprising their roles as Vax'ildan and Vex'ahlia.
Three years before the founding of Vox Machina, the siblings and Vex's bear Trinket had left their home in Syngorn and become involved in a conflict involving legions of undead bridled to the Clasp. The twins find themselves on opposite sides, testing their relationship and threatening the home they had carried with each other for years.
Critical Role: Vox Machina Kith & Kin provides examples of:
- A Minor Kidroduction: The prologue opens with the twins as children still living in Byroden.
- Abusive Parents: Flashbacks to the twins' time in Syngorn show that Syldor is an emotionally abusive parent, berating and belittling his children verbally. The inciting incident that caused the twins to leave Syngorn was Syldor breaking Vex's hazelwood bow that Vax had saved up stolen money for.
- Adaptational Heroism: "Heroism" is a bit of a stretch, but in Campaign One Vax told Vex that the person who was turned into Vex is a child rapist that he had abducted on the Clasp's orders. Lyre, the man in question in "Kith and Kin", is simply a tracker who can command rats who had failed the Clasp one too many times. This is either a result of Retcon, or Vax misremembering and/or lying to Vex to make himself feel better.
- Ambiguously Bi: Averted with both Vex and Vax. The twins were confirmed
as bisexual (with the definition being "attracted to men and women") prior to the novel's release. They both flirt with men and women through the book. - Ambiguous Situation: Did Cyriel sell out Vax? Or is Vax right and she had nothing to do with his thefts being found out?
- And the Adventure Continues: The book ends as the twins walk together out of Westruun and towards Trinket, discussing where they would go in the future.
- Big Bad Ensemble: the main conflict of the story is the ongoing struggle between the Shadewatch, led by Derowen, and the miners, led by Thorn, however, neither of them are true villains, and are just trying to do right by their people. This leaves the ash walkers as the biggest threat. The true Big Bad is Derowen’s brother Culwen, a ruthless cutthroat blackmailing his sister into smuggling materials for him and controlling the ash Walker attacks. There is also a Greater-Scope Villain of sorts in the form of Spireling Gideor, who sent Vex and Vax to Jorenn Village in the first place to strike a blow in his feud with Culwen, though he had no knowledge of Culwen’s villainy or the problems that plague the town.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jorenn Village survives in the capable hands of Wick, and Thorn lives to move on with the rest of the miners, but many of those miners are dead, as is Derowen, leaving Aswin motherless. Vax gets folded into the Clasp, for better or for worse. But Vex and Vax head for Stillben, where they’ll meat up with a group of people with whom they’ll save the world.
- Do You Want to Haggle?: Vex's main method of saving what little coin she and her brother have is by haggling with shop keepers to lower the prices of the items they need.
- Doomed Hometown: The twins journey from Syngorn back to Byroden only to find the town razed by dragonfire and their mother dead and buried, making it a case of You Can't Go Home Again.
- Dramatic Irony: To those who have watched all of Campaign 1, the book is filled to the brim with it. From a younger Vex stating how much she hates lordlings (she would end up becoming a Lady before marrying a Lord), to the belief the twins share that they will always be together (they parted for a time during the year-long break, and then for good as Vax goes to serve as the Champion of the Raven Queen.)
- Entitled to Have You: Lord Berin towards Vex, to the point he hires the Clasp to kidnap her, kicking off the main plot of the book.
- Foil: Derowen and Culwen serve as ones to Vex and Vax. Both brother-sister pair have the brother involved with the Clasp and the sister with some shady deals (smuggling for Derowen, haggling for Vex). Derowen cares deeply for Aswin, and Vex for Trinket (leading to jokes about Vex having a higher opinion of her bear than her brother, and Vax even refers to Trinket as his nephew). Culwen and Vax are protective of their sisters, but to different degrees. Culwen ends up murdering Derowen once she has outlived her usefulness.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- As this is set before their time with Vox Machina, Vex, Vax, and Trinket will all survive the challenges facing them on both sides of the conflict.
- Campaign 1 already revealed that their hometown Byroden was destroyed by the ancient red dragon Thordak - the twins' return journey from Syngorn would be fruitless.
- Simon the snake-belt already appeared in campaign one as Vax’s belt. It was given to Vax by Thorn as a gift at the end of the book.
- Vax becoming a member of the Clasp to save Vex from her stalker was already revealed during Campaign 1. However in the book, we finally learn her stalker's identity, as well as that of the man turned into a copy of Vex.
- Foreshadowing:
- At the end, as the twins are talking about where they would go next, Vax mentions that he could get work in Stilben. That would be the town where they would meet the rest of (the future) Vox Machina, their band of adventurers.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: What the conflict between Shadewatcher Derowen and the mining group's leader, Thorn, is at its core.
- Kick the Dog: Syldor breaks Vex's hazelwood bow as a punishment, because Vax was caught stealing money and gems to buy the bow.
- Morality Pet: Aswin, Derowen's beloved daughter, serves as a humanizing point to the Shademaster. She is intent on protecting Aswin no matter what happens.
- Moving the Goalposts: Done by Syldor and many, if not all, of the twins' tutors in Syngorn in an effort to keep the twins down and reinforce their own biases about half-elves. This affected Vex'ahlia far more than it did her brother, who responded by deciding not to try as hard in his study and focus on his other extracurriculars.
- Our Zombies Are Different: They're called "ash walkers": cursed dead with gray skin and bones, eye sockets burning like embers, covered from head to toe in a layer of ash.
- Prequel: Takes place three years before the beginning of the first campaign.
- Rage Breaking Point: Happens to both twins shortly after reuniting, due to them having been exposed to the different sides of the conflict between Jorenn Village and the group of miners, and their building frustration with each other for not seeing the others' point of view, and escalates to the point where they attack each other's weak spots:Vex: Don't let your judgement be clouded by a pretty face waiting to betray you, brother.
Vax: Then don't let your judgement be clouded by your desperate desire to be accepted! - Retcon:
- When Vex is telling the story of how she got Trinket to Aswin, she tells her that when Vax realized she was kidnapped by poachers, he found their camp and fought the poachers with Vex. However in Campaign 1, Vax never knew about Vex being kidnapped by poachers, and Vex killed them both herself. She kept it a secret from him until it was brought up by Saundor.
- In Campaign 1, Vax tells Vex that a child rapist was turned into a copy of her. Lyre, the version of said character in "Kith and Kin", is only a tracker who failed the Clasp one too many times. That being said, Liam admitted while Vax was talking to Vex that he was struggling to remember the information. During the post-Campaign 1 Talks Machina Fireside Chat (not part of the main show), Matt's version of events tallied up with what was shown in "Kith and Kin".
- Tongue Trauma: Lyre had his tongue torn out by Gideor after being transformed into a copy of Vex for his failure to the Clasp. It's all but stated that Gideor has done this to others in the past.
