Degree Project Level: Dalarna University, Bachelor’S the Portrayal of the Irish English Accent in Critical Role

Degree Project Level: Dalarna University, bachelor’s The Portrayal of the Irish English Accent in Critical Role

From Mollymauk to Lucien, from Taliesin Jaffe to Matthew Mercer

Author: Jacob Pettersson Supervisor: Jonathan White Examiner: Julie Skogs Subject/main field of study: English Linguistics Course code: EN2035 Credits: 15hp Date of examination:

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Abstract

The study aims to investigate the differences between Taliesin Jaffe and Matthew Mercer’s portrayals of a standard Irish English accent in Critical Role in their respective performances of the character Mollymauk/Lucien. Using previous studies on Irish English pronunciation, the presence of each established feature was investigated to find how authentically the actors succeed to produce the accent. The main features investigated were the rhoticity, plosivization of /θ/ and /ð/, lenition of /t/ and /d/, yod-dropping, diphthongs, and some monophthongs. Using transcripts to locate the instances of said features, the audio of the footage was studied to discover whether the phonemes were produced in accordance with the proposed realizations within Irish English. Both actors were found to excel and struggle with different features, with plosivization of /θ/ and /ð/, lenition of /t/ and /d/, and aspects of yod-dropping proving especially difficult to consistently produce in accordance with supraregional Irish English. The study concluded that neither accent comes close to achieving an authentic Irish English accent and that both portrayals share many similarities with each other, as well as overlapping with the actors’ native General American accent, especially in cases where Irish English and General

American shared potential realizations of phonemes.

Keywords: Irish English, phonetics, acting, Critical Role, accents

1. Introduction 4 1.1. Aim and Scope of the Study 4 2. Theoretical Background 5 2.1. The Portrayal of Accents in Media 5 2.2. Irish English 6 3. Material and Methodology 9 3.1. Material 9 3.2. Method of Analysis 10 4. Data Analysis and Results 11 4.1. Rhoticity and the realization of /r/ 11 4.2. Plosivization of /θ/ and /ð/ 12 4.3. Lenition of /t/ and /d/ 12 4.4. Yod-dropping 13 4.5. Vowels 13 4.5.1. FACE 13 4.5.2. GOAT 14 4.5.3. PRICE 14 4.5.4. CHOICE 15 4.5.5. MOUTH 15 4.5.6. NORTH 16 4.5.7. CLOTH 17 4.5.8. STRUT 17 4.5.9. NURSE 18 4.5.10. TRAP 18 4.5.11. PALM 19 4.5.12. LOT 19 4.5.13. CURE 20 4.5.14. LETTER 20 5. Discussion 20 6. Conclusion 21 Primary material 23 References 23 Transcripts 25 7. Appendix 26

6.1. Episode Transcripts 26 6.1.1. Episode 1 26 6.1.2. Episode 2 27 6.1.3 Episode 26 31 6.1.4 Episode 114 36 6.1.5 Episode 115 37 6.1.6 Episode 116 37 6.1.7 Episode 117 37 6.1.8 Episode 120 39 6.1.9 Episode 130 41 6.1.10 Episode 133 41 6.1.11 Episode 134 41 6.1.12 Episode 136 42

1. Introduction

Critical Role is a weekly internet show featuring a cast full of prolific voice actors in which they play the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons (Critical Role, n.d.). Through the narrative-driven structure of the game, the cast has produced hundreds of hours of content over the years, spanning across two separate campaigns with over 100 episodes each (Critical Role, n.d.). Each member of the cast creates and plays their own unique character for the duration of the campaign, going on adventures and exploring the world created by the game master, Matthew Mercer (Critical Role, n.d.). In their second campaign, the hedonistic amnesiac and metaphorical peacock played by Taliesin Jaffe, Mollymauk Tealeaf, was killed in battle in the 26th episode, resulting in the rare occurrence that Jaffe was forced to create a new character (“Mollymauk Tealeaf”, 2021). Over 90 episodes later, Mollymauk, now going by his name from his life before the amnesia, Lucien, returned as a character on the show, this time played by the game master, Matthew Mercer, as a major antagonist of the show (“Lucien”, 2021). When Mollymauk was first introduced as a character on Critical Role, Jaffe portrayed him with an Irish English accent that quickly sparked a debate among fans of the show regarding its authenticity, as the cast consists entirely of American actors. Jaffe himself discussed some of the difficulties of preparing for the new role, stating that he tried five different varieties of Irish English accents before settling for the version heard on the show (Geek & Sundry, 2018, 21:23-21:35). Upon making the decision to reintroduce the character to the show, Matthew Mercer was tasked with attempting to replicate Jaffe’s particular variety of an Irish English accent. When asked, Mercer explained that his intention with the accent was to do his own interpretation of Jaffe’s accent rather than to return to its Irish English roots (Critical Role, 2021, 10:54-11:10).

1.1. Aim and Scope of the Study

With the steady rise in popularity of Dungeons & Dragons content to the likes of Critical Role on streaming platforms such as twitch.tv, it is slowly establishing its place in media (Bilsand, 2015). As a result, imitations of various accents in an unscripted and improvised environment is putting people’s skills to the test and introducing an entirely new area that is waiting to be studied. By investigating imitations where there is no opportunity for multiple takes, the way accents are perceived and replicated by people, ranging from professional voice actors to complete amateurs, can be studied. Thus, it opens up new doors not previously available from conventional media forms such as TV and movies. The present study paves the way for further research on the topic to be made, by exploring an understudied field. The aim of the present study is to investigate the portrayal of Irish English accents in Critical Role through Jaffe’s and Mercer’s renditions. The accents are phonetically compared to studies about Irish English based on key features of the supraregional variety of the accent identified by previous research. Furthermore, as Mercer’s version of the accent is stated to be directly derived from Jaffe’s, the findings about both accents are also referenced against each other in order to detect similarities and differences. The study also takes development over

time into consideration in order to find how the accent may change as the actors grow more comfortable with the patterns and know what parts they wish to emphasize or alter. It should be made clear that the present study only aims to investigate the extent to which the actors adopt an Irish English accent and thus excludes any features pertaining to the broader dialect, such as grammar and vocabulary. Although it is likely that some dialectal features may be present in the material, the present study is only concerned with the phonetics of the utterances.

● How successfully do Matthew Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe replicate an authentic Irish English accent?

● Is the community’s perception of Matthew Mercer being better at mimicking Irish English supported by closer analysis?

● After taking over the role, does Matthew Mercer's accent share more key-features with authentic Irish English or Taliesin Jaffe's rendition of the accent?

● Due to the improvised nature of Critical Role, does the accent change as the campaign goes on, in particular between Taliesin Jaffe’s portrayal in the first and last appearance of his character?

Based on the community’s perception of the two actors’ performances, it can be hypothesized that Mercer succeeds in producing Irish English features more frequently than Jaffe. A further hypothesis can be made based on the claims made by the actors in the Critical Role cast regarding the time it may take for their accents to settle in, thus causing the accents to change in several ways from the early to late episodes.

2. Theoretical Background

2.1 The Portrayal of Accents in Media

Several previous studies have analysed the ways through which various accents are depicted in media such as film and television series. Some such studies cover accents native to the English language, whereas others cover foreign accents naturally found among L2 learners of English across the world. The 1995 movie Braveheart features an attempt at reproducing a Scottish accent so infamous that it was ranked first on a BBC (2013) list of poorly executed Scottish accents on film. In a study of Mel Gibson’s accent as the lead actor of the movie, Pedersen (2007) investigates the claims about the poor execution. The study notes that the film aims to tell a story based on Scottish history and thus the pressure for accuracy and authenticity was higher. It is, however, stated by Pedersen that the character Gibson portrays, Robert de Bruce, would not have spoken Scottish English but rather Gaelic, but that the producers for financial reasons opted to have the film “transposed to a simplified version of the language situation of the Great Britain today” (p. 78). Thus, the major Scottish characters in the film were given Standard Scottish English accents, regardless of the characters’ social class or more exact

geographical origins. The study primarily evaluated Gibson’s accent based on the Scottish Vowel Length Rule but also included an analysis of other vowel features as well as his use of three separate consonant sounds (voiceless /ʍ/, dark /l/, and trilled /r/). Upon examination, Gibson’s replication of Standard Scottish English is revealed to struggle with accurately producing the desired vowel sounds and frequently trills his /r/ sounds even when a native speaker of the accent would not. Pedersen attributes some of the vowel failures to Gibson’s native General American accent as his errors often coincide with the expected pronunciation in General American. On the other hand, it is noted that Gibson at least appears to be aware of the rules regarding vowel length as he displays enough proficiency with it to make his base knowledge known in addition to giving his accent more depth than the most surface level stereotypes. Pedersen ultimately concludes that Gibson’s accent, in spite of its flaws, achieves enough authenticity to serve its purpose for international cinemas; yet is doubtlessly easy for a native speaker to identify as inauthentic. It is, however, possible to remove the dimension of needing the accent to be authentic in the case of a context to the likes of a fantasy setting similar to that of Critical Role’s Exandria. The HBO show, Game of Thrones, is another such example of a linguistically studied piece of media where there is no way to measure how true to its world a certain accent is, due to the fictional nature, thus allowing for a greater margin of error without affecting its credibility as it might in a film like Braveheart (Chatellier & Villain, 2020). The accents in Game of Thrones are divided into three categories: the Northern, the Southern, and the foreign, the former two of which are rooted in their present-day equivalents in Britain. The cast of both the Northern and Southern characters consists of people from all parts of the British Isles and beyond, even including at least one actor with English as their second language. Chatellier and Villain take a more sociolinguistic approach to examining how the use of Northern and Southern British accents affects the viewer’s perception of the characters and the two political houses, Stark and Lannister. Additionally, the study also examines the phonetics of the accents, discovering that the group of Northerners appears very heterogeneous, speaking in a wide variety of accents ranging from Sean Bean’s natural Yorkshire accent to only vaguely modified Standard Southern British English (SSBE) accents, also known as Received Pronunciation (IPA, 1999, p. 4), such as in the case of Kit Harrington. On the contrary, in spite of the greater range of origins found among the actors portraying the Southerners, all the examined characters are noted to display clear traits of an SSBE accent.

2.2 Irish English

In order to carry out the present study, it is vital to establish a framework of key-features in Irish English. Thus, multiple previous studies on various Irish English accents from across the island have been collected with the goal of discovering the phonemes that serve as the strongest markers of the accent. First, it is vital that the term “Irish English” is properly defined and understood. Sometimes also known as Anglo-Irish or Hiberno English, the Irish English accent is, much like the English and American accents, in reality, a collection of many different regional accents (Hickey, 2004). As a result, attempting to classify any Irish English imitation as authentic or not may prove very difficult, as it is possible that some regional variety of the

accent, however obscure it may be, could be reminiscent of the produced imitation despite lacking commonalities with other, more well known, varieties. Thus, the concept of a standardized variety of the accent is made particularly relevant. In Irish English, Hickey (2004, 2012) demonstrates the effects of supraregionalization, a phenomenon that causes specific regional features of Irish English to be replaced by streamlined variations that in turn make the accent more broadly accessible. As a result, a non-vernacular variety of Irish English was formed, maintaining many of the unique features derived from the Irish language, while simultaneously standardizing Irish English (Hickey, 2004). This supraregional variety of Irish English has been chosen as the reference that Jaffe and Mercer’s renditions is compared, as no specific regional variety has been cited by the actors as their target accent. However, it should be noted that supraregional Irish English does not cover the Ulster region, which may instead be generalized under the term Ulster English (Hickey 2012). Hickey (2004, 2012) cites the following features as defining for supraregional Irish English:

● Dental fricatives (/θ/ and /ð/) undergo plosivization, eg. [θɪn]→[t̪ɪn] and [ðɪs]→[d̪ ɪs]. ● Intervocal- and word-final alveolar plosives are replaced with apico-alveolar fricatives, eg. [bæt]→[bæṱ] and [bɪd]→[bɪḓ]. ● Vowels are rhotic, causing /r/ to be pronounced wherever it would be found in written text. The /r/ sound is realized as a retroflex- [ɻ] or palatalized [ɹ] approximant. ● Vowels are more monophthongal in quality compared to received pronunciation, especially when occurring before alveolars, labials, or /r/ as opposed to being word final, eg. [feɪs]→[feːs] and [beɪ]→[beːɪ]. The /oʊ/ vowel, however, is an exception and is frequently realized as [oʊ] or [əʊ] unless rural. ● The /ʌ/ vowel is retracted to [ʌ̈ ], eg. [kʌp]→[kʌ̈ p]. ● Unstressed central vowels are found in /lm/ clusters, eg. [ˈfilm]→[ˈfiləm].

Kallen (2013) emphasizes the importance of the aforementioned features pertaining to the coronal group, eg. /t, d, θ, ð/, describing it as “The single most distinctive area of Irish English consonant phonology today” (p.50). Additionally, Kallen (2013) presents six key-features used to classify and distinguish accents of the English language. Accompanying the list of said traits, Kallen provides the ways that they are realized in Irish English in particular. The features mentioned by Kallen are as follows:

● Rhoticity: Irish English is considered completely rhotic. ● Labiovelar fricative ([ʍ]) retention: The feature is commonly retained, primarily among older speakers. ● H-Dropping: Irish English features no h-dropping. ● Yod-Dropping: Irish English features no yod-dropping, but has a tendency to be realized as a palato-alveolar fricative ([ʃ] or [ʒ]) instead of a glide ([j]) after coronal plosives. ● Dark /l/: Younger speakers of Irish English have introduced the velarized /l/. ● Predictable correlation of vowel length: Irish English has a predictable correlation.

Out of the listed features, only rhoticity is made a focus in Hickey’s (2004, 2012) aforementioned studies. Furthermore, it should be noted that Kallen (2013) considers the realization of /r/ as a uvular fricative to be a third variation of the phoneme; however, the use of this variation is explained by Hickey (1989) as a feature of only a few regional Irish English accents and thus they are not considered a feature of supraregional Irish English in the context of the present study. To examine the vowels of Irish English, the present study uses Wells’ (1982) lexical sets as a framework to describe the pronunciation of words that share vowel sounds. Each lexical set is commonly referred to by specific words determined by Wells (1982) that exemplify the vowel sound, eg. FACE and NORTH. The lexical sets have been provided with transcriptions of their Irish English pronunciations by Hickey (2004) and Kallen (2013) and serve as the basis of the vowel analysis in the present study.

Table 1: Comparison of vowel sounds of Irish English and General American Lexical Set Standard Irish English General American Kallen (2013) Hickey (2004) Wells (1982) Cambridge Oxford FLEECE iː iː i iː iː NEAR iːr iːr ɪr ɪr ɪr KIT ɪ ɪ ɪ ɪ ɪ GOOSE uː uː u uː uː CURE uːr uːr ʊr ʊr ʊr FOOT ʊ ʊ ʊ ʊ ʊ FACE eː eɪ eː eɪ eɪ eɪ SQUARE eːr eːr ɛr er er DRESS ɛ ɛ̞ ɛ ɛ e e GOAT oː oʊ əʊ oʊ o oʊ əʊ FORCE oːr ɔr oːr or ɔːr ɔːr NORTH ɔr ɒr ɑr ɒːr ɔr ɔːr ɔːr THOUGHT ɔː ɒ ɑ ɒː ɔ ɑː ɔː CLOTH ɔː ɒ ɑ - ɔ ɑː ɔː STRUT ʌ ɔ̈ ʊ ʌ̈ ʌ ʌ ʌ NURSE ʌr ɛr ɔ̈ r ɚːr ɜːr ɝː ɜːr TRAP æ a æ æ æ æ BATH æ aː aː æ æ æ LOT ɑ ɒ ɑ ɑ ɑː ɑː PALM aː æː - ɑ ɑː ɑː

START aː ɑː ɛː ɑːr ɑr ɑːr ɑːr PRICE aɪ ɑɪ əɪ aɪ aɪ aɪ aɪ CHOICE ɔɪ ɒɪ ɑɪ ɒɪ ɔɪ ɔɪ ɔɪ MOUTH aʊ ɑʊ ɛʊ aʊ aʊ aʊ aʊ happY i iː i ɪ i i lettER ɚ ɐr ər ɚ ɚ ər commA ə ɐ ə ə ə ə

With Jaffe being “born and raised” in Los Angeles, California (Critical Role, 2018a, 1:27-1:31), and Mercer having spent his first 8 years in West Palm Beach, Florida, before moving to Los Angeles where Critical Role would eventually come to be based, the present study considers General American to be applicable to describe their natural accents (Critical Role, 2018b, 5:35-7:26; Critical Role, n.d). Thus, General American is used as a reference for comparison between the actors’ natural accent and Irish English. Wells’ (1982) original General American transcriptions for each lexical set, as well as alternate transcriptions from two reputable, free online dictionaries, the Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) and the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries (n.d.) have been used to establish the vowels sounds of the accent and have been added to Table 1.

3. Material and Methodology

3.1 Material

The material used in the present study was collected from the archived episodes of Critical Role Campaign 2 on both the Geek & Sundry and Critical Role YouTube channels. Due to the amount of episodes in which either Jaffe or Mercer’s rendition of the character appears on the show, only strategically chosen samples are used in the present study as the total airtime for both renditions of the character would be spread out across well over 100 hours of content. In total, approximately 2,000 words worth of spoken dialogue were gathered from the beginning and end of each actor’s portrayal of the character at the time of the study (Mercer has since portrayed his character in more episodes). When a singular episode did not contain a sufficient quantity of material, complementary data was gathered from the previous- or following episode to reach the desired number of words. Ultimately, the chosen episodes were 1, 2, and 26 for Jaffe’s performance, and 114, 115, 116, 117, 120, 130, 133, 134, and 136 for Mercer’s performance. As Mercer’s version of the character plays a smaller role in each episode where he appears, it forces the study to use a greater number of episodes to reach the desired number of words. Furthermore, due to the fact that Mercer’s portrayal of the character was still ongoing at the time of the present study, the later episodes (130-136) contain only half as many words as the other sample sizes. Thus, data from these episodes is adjusted accordingly when necessary.

Full-text transcripts of each selected episode were acquired on the Critical Role wiki to ease the effort of identifying parts in which Jaffe and Mercer had dialogue. By searching in the transcripts, all of Jaffe and Mercer’s spoken lines in any given episode could be identified and later found in the episode recordings. The time stamps of when each line is spoken was written down for later analysis. Due to the structure of the game, the lines needed to be filtered by determining whether they were intended to be spoken by the actor or the character, as the actors often break character to make jokes with one another or give descriptions of their characters’ actions, allowing the actors to revert to their natural accents for the duration. In cases where said intent appeared unclear, the line was omitted from the study to avoid unwanted data of their native accents to influence the results. Furthermore, in circumstances during which multiple actors were speaking at once or other disruptions occurred that interfered with the clarity of the audio, the lines were excluded from analysis due to the difficulty of hearing the specific sounds produced by the actor. Lastly, in instances where a word was clearly mispronounced through heavily slurred speech, the particular word was excluded from the collected material as the accent would be impossible to determine.

3.2 Method of Analysis

The gathered material is analyzed based on how well the actors succeed in replicating the features of Irish English established from previous research. For the present study, only some of the aforementioned features of Irish English is used as a reference to identify authenticity. Features such as the retention of the labiovelar fricative [ʍ] and the usage of dark /l/ are cited by Hickey (2013) and Kallen (2013) to have experienced recent developments causing younger and older speakers of Irish English to differ in their usage. Thus, the present study excludes them from the analysis as the data about their usage would be inconclusive in regards to how closely Jaffe and Mercer succeed in performing an Irish English accent. The inserted unstressed vowel in /lm/ clusters are also ignored due to its absence in the selected materials. H-dropping and predictable vowel length is also ignored as they are features that can predictably be successfully produced by both actors as a result of their natural General American accents that share these features without any distinction. Due to the importance of the features related to the coronal group, the plosivization of /θ/ and /ð/ and the lenition of /t/ and /d/ receives much attention in the present study. Furthermore, the remainder of Kallen’s (2013) six general features used to distinguish English accents, namely rhoticity and yod-dropping, are both key-features used in the analysis as it is possible for the rhoticity to prove difficult if it is conflated with one of the many accents like Received Pronunciation that lack full rhoticity, or that their natural General American yod- dropping is retained (Glain, 2012). Regarding vowels, diphthongs are of particular interest due to Irish English having been stated to be comparatively monophthongal. Thus, the FACE, GOAT, PRICE, CHOICE, and MOUTH vowels from Wells’ (1982) lexical sets are given priority. For monophthongs, the vowels that are most different from that of General American is the primary focus, as these are the most likely to be incorrectly produced as a result of transfer from their natural accents. For this selection, it should be noted that there was no distinction made between r-colored

vowels and vowels followed by an /r/ sound. For a monophthong to be included in the present study, at least one of its Irish English pronunciations of its lexical set needed to differ from the suggested General American variants. In the cases where only vowel length separated the Irish English and General American realizations of the lexical set's vowel, it would be considered insufficiently different to be investigated. Thus, the monophthongal vowels that fulfil these criteria and are thus chosen to be included in the analysis are as follows: CURE, NORTH, CLOTH, STRUT, NURSE, TRAP, LOT, PALM, and lettER. The commA vowel was excluded due to a lack of instances. Daniel Jones’ (1956) recording of the cardinal vowels was used as reference to help determine how the vowels were produced by Jaffe and Mercer. Using said established key features of Irish English along with the transcripts of the selected parts gathered from the Critical Role wiki, the material is searched and marked where said features are expected to be produced according to the theory. To mark the transcripts, they are first phonemically transcribed using the toPhonetics (Lingorado, 2021) website, in order to produce a document that can be searched for any given phoneme. With the Writer’s Highlighter (Wishinkwell 2021) add-on for Google Docs, the phonemes in the phonemic transcriptions were marked in different colors to easily be found. The marked transcripts were then used to find the instances where the phonemes were produced in the episodes, making it less likely that any particular instance would be overlooked in the analysis process. Lastly, the audio material was studied based on how well the actors succeeded in producing the expected realizations of each phoneme. The rates of success to produce each of the key-features in the material was noted in tables for ease of later comparisons. In the instances where either actor fails to produce a feature in accordance with Irish English, the way in which it was actually realized was noted separately for potential further analysis. Lastly, once all material was analyzed and entered into each respective actor’s table, the numerical success and failure rates, in combination with any potential notes of failure, is studied and compared between them to conclude the degree to which they both, respectively, succeed in achieving an authentic Irish accent.

4. Data Analysis and Results

4.1 Rhoticity and the realization of /r/

With regard to rhoticity and the realization of the /r/ sound, Jaffe overall succeeds in accurately portraying an Irish English accent. Though it is expected that Jaffe would accurately retain the /r/ sound in every expected context due to his native General American accent, his natural accent also causes him to frequently realize the phoneme as a postalveolar approximant rather than the suggested palatalized or retroflex approximant. On some occasions, Jaffe’s /r/ sounds do, however, become realized in a more Irish English manner by shifting its place further to a more retroflex or palatalized position. On the contrary, Jaffe failed with his production of the /r/ sounds twice in the first two episodes. In the very first episode of the campaign, not long after making his very first entrance, Jaffe’s rhoticity is produced more akin to that of Received Pronunciation. In the sentences “You’re pure, you’re of virtue, you are a worthwhile and wonderful human being” (Geek & Sundry, 2018a, 51:33-

51:39) and “If you are going to find her?” (Geek & Sundry, 2018a, 53:00-53:01), the /r/ sounds in pure, her, and all instances of are/you’re in both sentences are dropped. Furthermore, in the second episode, the /r/ sounds are produced as [r] trills in the words front and more in the sentence “Just shocked to see someone die in front of me not more than--” (Geek & Sundry, 2018b, 32:42-32:50). The non-standard pronunciation is noticed by both Jaffe himself and the remaining cast, as they make sarcastic comments about the infectiousness of the trilled /r/ sounds in the seemingly Scottish accent of the character with whom Jaffe was interacting, implying that Jaffe unintentionally mimicked the accent of the other character (Geek & Sundry, 2018b, 33:13-33:31). As all instances of Jaffe’s issues maintaining Irish English rhoticity are present in the early episodes and none in the later ones, it appears that Jaffe’s experience doing the accent over the course of the series helped increase his consistency. Across all his episodes, Mercer’s rhoticity and realization of the /r/ phoneme was consistently produced accurately. Apart from a single instance where the word growing is produced with a slight trill, Mercer successfully produces the phoneme as an approximant.

4.2 Plosivization of /θ/ and /ð/

The first area in which Jaffe appears to struggle is in the expected plosivization of the /θ/ and /ð/ phonemes. Throughout his performance of Mollymauk, only two occurrences were identified in which the vital aspect of Irish English was properly produced. In the second episode of the campaign, the /θ/ in thing/things is realized as [t̪] in the phrases “they have all my things” (Geek & Sundry, 2018b, 1:20:12-1:20:15) and “It’s not actually, like, [a] real thing” (4:04:57-4:05:00), as it would be expected if spoken with an authentic Irish English accent. In all other circumstances, including the word they in the first of the two sentences where the accurately realized phonemes were found, the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds spoken by Jaffe remain dental fricatives rather than the more Irish plosives. Thus, the two instances of a correctly plosivized realization of /θ/ can be considered accidental, as it appears unlikely that Jaffe would be failing to produce the desired plosive sound in all but two instances due to the high frequency of the phoneme’s appearances in an initial position. Similarly, Mercer also appears to struggle with the plosivization of the dental fricatives. Not entirely unlike Jaffe, who displayed some, albeit very limited, use of the feature, there were no detected instances where Mercer produced the plosivized realization of the /θ/ and /ð/ phonemes, rather, he opted to retain his native General American pronunciation of the phonemes as fricatives. Due to the extremely low frequency of Jaffe’s usage of the feature, combined with Mercer’s complete absence of it, it can be concluded that neither Jaffe nor Mercer appear to be attempting to implement the dental plosivization of /θ/ and /ð/ in their accents, thus decreasing their authenticity significantly.

4.3 Lenition of /t/ and /d/

Another sound Jaffe produces with a similar degree of accuracy as the plosivized /θ/ and /ð/ are the lenited /t/ and /d/ sounds. Again, there are only two instances where this feature is produced in its expected context, namely in the sentence: “That does have a vibration, doesn’t

it?” (Critical Role, 2019, 1:58:30-1:58:32) and “I say we just camp at the house, at this point” (Critical Role, 2019, 1:45:41-1:45:43), where the /t/ phonemes in it and point respectively, are lenited to the appropriate [ṱ]. Unlike Jaffe, there were a significantly larger number of occurrences where Mercer correctly used the lenited version of either /t/ or /d/. Additionally, there was a great difference in the quantity of such occurrences between the earlier and later episodes. In the first episodes, Mercer used the lenited form 23 of 642 times, and in the later episodes 29 of 288 times, bringing the total number of instances to 52. Thus, Mercer used lenition only 3.56% of time in the early episodes, whereas he did it in 10.07% in the later episodes, indicating an improvement over time. Furthermore, among these 52 instances of the lenited /t/ and /d/ sounds, 43 were lenitions of /t/, whereas only 9 were lenitions of /d/. In cases where the /t/ and /d/ phonemes were not lenited, they were most often produced as very clear plosives, however, with a total accuracy of 5.59% across all the analyzed episodes, it can be concluded that Mercer is aware of the feature of Irish English. However, due to the feature’s importance to the Irish English accent, it is unlikely that Mercer utilizes it as frequently as a native speaker of the accent.

4.4 Yod-dropping

Jaffe and Mercer both display difficulties with retaining the yod in words where it can be expected to be dropped in General American. Some examples of words that experienced yod- dropping are knew, assume, nudity, pursuing, opportunity, and student. Following labials, velars, /f/, and /v/, where the yod would normally not be produced within the General American accent. (Glain, 2012). Examples of such words are curious and few, which were successfully produced with the yod by both actors. It can therefore be concluded that the actors did not modify their native usage of yod-dropping, resulting in an insufficient degree of yod-retention to be considered authentic to Irish English.

4.5 Vowels

Jaffe and Mercer displayed a tendency to use the vowels found in General American (GA) in most instances, both when the GA realization overlapped with Irish English (IrE) as well as when there was no overlap between the GA and IrE realizations.

4.5.1 FACE

Table 2: Vowel pronunciation in FACE words. Exclusively IrE Possible in IrE & GA Not found in IrE or GA eː eɪ Jaffe 1-2 11 88 1 (aɪ) | 1 (ɛ) Jaffe 26 8 97 2 (ɛ) Mercer 114-120 - 91 2 (aɪ) | 2 (e)

Mercer 130-136 1 61 1 (e)

The most noteworthy difference between Jaffe and Mercer’s production of the FACE vowel is their usage of the monophthongal [eː] realization. Throughout the analyzed episodes, Mercer uses the uniquely IrE pronunciation only once in the 153 instances. Otherwise, he uses the realization found in both IrE or GA. Though Jaffe more frequently produces the uniquely IrE realization of the phoneme in the form of [eː] in nearly 10 percent of the 208 instances, the inconsistent pronunciation of the monophthongal realization makes his accent come across as less systematic than Mercer’s, whose greater consistency adds somewhat to the authenticity.

4.5.2 GOAT

Table 3: Vowel pronunciation GOAT words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA

oː oʊ əʊ Jaffe 1-2 18 73 5 1 (ə) | 1 (ɔ) Jaffe 26 3 81 3 5 (ɔ) | 1 (ə) | 1 (aʊ) Mercer 114-120 8 67 7 2 (ə) | 1 (ʉː) Mercer 130-136 2 47 - -

Jaffe can be noted to have a greater frequency of using the exclusively IrE monophthongal realization of the phoneme in the earlier episodes, with a frequency of 18.4%, before eventually settling for the GA and IrE overlapping [oʊ]. Mercer initially uses the monophthongal realization of the phoneme a total of 9.4% of all instances, before reducing his use by more than half in the later episodes, opting to use [oː] in only 4.1% of the instances. Jaffe’s lower frequency of usage of the monophthongal realization of the GOAT vowel mirrors the patterns of his production of the FACE vowel, while Mercer uses the monophthongal realization more often with the GOAT vowel compared to the nearly complete absence of it in his realizations of the FACE vowel.

4.5.3 PRICE

Table 4: Vowel pronunciation in PRICE words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA

ɑɪ əɪ aɪ Jaffe 1-2 8 - 205 6 (aː) Jaffe 26 12 1 144 4 (aː) Mercer 114-120 10 3 187 1 (ɜɪ) | 1 (ɛɪ) | 2 (aː) Mercer 130-136 1 - 95 -

The most commonly occurring diphthong in the present study, the PRICE vowel, can largely be considered to be successfully produced by both actors as the overwhelming majority of instances correctly uses the preferred vowel. In total, Jaffe produced the [aʊ] phoneme in 91.6% of the instances, while Mercer succeeded in 94% of the instances. Mercer often reduces the vowel to [aɪ] due to his fast speech in segments of the show, causing it to appear somewhat monophthongal in quality, though still diphthongal enough to be considered typical for IrE and GA. Additionally, both Jaffe and Mercer frequently produce the initial position of the [aɪ] diphthong in a more central position rather than the traditionally more fronted position, causing it to be pronounced more similar to [äɪ] in many instances. It should also be noted that Jaffe semi-consistently produced the PRICE vowel as [aː], though at a significantly lower frequency than he monophthongal variant of GOAT or FACE.

4.5.4 CHOICE

Table 5: Vowel pronunciation in CHOICE words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA

ɑɪ ɒɪ ɔɪ Jaffe 1-2 8 - 8 - Jaffe 26 8 - 8 - Mercer 114-120 4 - 4 - Mercer 130-136 3 - 3 -

The CHOICE vowel is the least frequently occurring diphthong in the material of the present study. Though neither actor uses the preferred [ɒɪ] realization of the phoneme, all instances were found to be produced as [ɔɪ], making it sufficient to be considered a plausible authentic realization of Irish English. As there is no distinction between the two actors, nor between the early and late episodes, the CHOICE vowel can be considered the least remarkable of all five diphthongs in the present study.

4.5.5 MOUTH

Table 6: Vowel pronunciation in MOUTH words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA

ɑʊ ɛʊ aʊ Jaffe 1-2 7 0 36 3 (ɑː) | 1 (ɔɪ) | 1 (ɐʊ) Jaffe 26 4 0 38 1 (ɑː) Mercer 114-120 4 0 39 2 (ɑː) | 1 (ɜː) | 1 (oː) Mercer 130-136 0 0 20 1 (ɐː) | 1 (ɑː)

Both Jaffe and Mercer can be considered to successfully produce an authentic MOUTH vowel in the vast majority of cases. Jaffe in particular appears to prefer a slightly more central initial position for his pronunciation of the [aʊ] realization. Thus, the pronunciation of the phoneme becomes similar to a comprimise between the [aʊ] and [ɑʊ] realizations. Additionally, the MOUTH vowel was sometimes reduced to [aʊ]. With the more central initial position and partial monophthongization, the actors’ realizations of the MOUTH vowel has multiple similarities with the PRICE vowel.

4.5.6 NORTH

Table 7: Vowel pronunciation in NORTH words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA

ɑr ɒr ɔr Jaffe 1-2 - 1 19 9 (or) | 15 (ər) Jaffe 26 1 - 3 25 (or) | 18 (ər) Mercer 114-120 - 2 13 18 (ər) | 6 (or) | 1 (oər) | 1 (ɜr) Mercer 130-136 - - 8 8 (or) | 3 (ər)

Both actors frequently produced the [ɔr] realization of the NORTH vowel in a more closed manner (instances noted in Table 7 as [or]). As IrE features more open versions of the NORTH vowel, as is seen by the two open vowels listed as uniquely IrE, the tendency of both actors to sometimes produce the vowel in a more closed manner can be considered atypical for IrE. Furthermore, the data about Jaffe and Mercer’s pronunciations of the NORTH vowel was heavily affected by the words for and or, as these words in particular were often pronounced in a way that differed from most other words containing the same vowel. Due to the words being spoken quickly between other words that were given more articulation, the majority of instances where the former of the two words appeared, as well as some instances of the latter, saw the vowel reduced to an atypical [ər] rather than the more common [ɔr] and [or], thus resulting in a significant portion of the instances being listed in the Not IrE or GA category. If the data of the words for and or be removed, nearly all occurrences of the [ər] realization of the NORTH vowel would disappear.

4.5.7 CLOTH

Table 8: Vowel pronunciation in CLOTH words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA

ɒ ɔ(ː) ɑ(ː) Jaffe 1-2 - 6 3 1 (ʊ) | 2 (ə) Jaffe 26 2 2 5 1 (a) | 1 (ə) Mercer 114-120 5 5 6 - Mercer 130-136 5 1 8 -

Jaffe and Mercer displayed a noticeable difference in how they produced the CLOTH vowel. Firstly, it should be noted that Mercer successfully produced all instances of the CLOTH vowel with phonemes considered to be common in Irish English, whereas Jaffe had produced it in other, atypical ways in more than 20% of all instances. Secondly, Mercer does not only show a much higher rate of using the two open vowels than Jaffe, but specifically uses the [ɒ] realization of the CLOTH vowel five times as much as his co-actor; a realization that is not found in their native General American accent. Though both actors remain inconsistent in their realizations of the vowel, Mercer’s lack of atypical realizations and high rate of open vowel usage renders him the more authentic of the two regarding the CLOTH vowel.

4.5.8 STRUT

Table 9: Vowel pronunciation in STRUT words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA

ʌ̈ ɔ̈ ʊ ʌ Jaffe 1-2 101 33 2 23 31 (ɐ) | 36 (ə) | 5 (ɜ) | 4 (ɔ) Jaffe 26 72 20 1 16 31 (ə) | 29 (ɐ) | 2 (ɔ) Mercer 114-120 67 47 15 22 30 (ə) | 1 (ɜ) | 29 (ɐ) Mercer 130-136 37 26 12 10 2 (ä) | 14 (ɐ) | 14 (ə)

The realizations of the STRUT vowel found among both actors is one of the most difficult to draw conclusions about due to the data being divided between many different realizations of all three categories (IrE, IrE and GA, Not IrE or GA). Though both actors primarily used the IrE realization [ʌ̈ ], this particular pronunication made up less than half of all pronunciation instances for either actor in any given span of episodes. Many instances of the word of were realized in a rounded [ɔ̈ ] or [ɔ] vowel while words like was were realized by Mercer with a more closed [ʊ] vowel.

4.5.9 NURSE

Table 10: Vowel pronunciation in NURSE words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA

ʌr əːr ɜːr Jaffe 1-2 - 15 19 1 (ɜː) | 1 (ɛr) | 1 (ɔr) | 1 (ɐ) Jaffe 26 - 17 22 1 (ɐ) Mercer 114-120 - 22 22 1 (ɔr) Mercer 130-136 - 14 10 2 (ɔr)

The spread of the pronunciation of NURSE vowel as [ɜːr] or [əːr] was quite similar throughout all the analyzed episodes for both actors. The difference between the more open [ɜːr] and the more closed [əːr] appeared to be more dependent on how well articulated the word within which it occurred was, rather than the accent itself.

4.5.10 TRAP

In the vast majority of cases, both Jaffe and Mercer produced the TRAP vowel with an [æ] which sounds similar to their native General American accent, in line with many of the previous results. Jaffe’s later episodes proved to be a minor outlier as many of the vowels were realized as the slightly more open [a].

4.5.11 PALM

Table 12: Vowel pronunciation in PALM words. IrE GA Not IrE or GA

aː æː ɑ(ː) Jaffe 1-2 - - 35 3 (ä) | 1 (ɒ) Jaffe 26 - - 34 6 (ä) | 1 (ə) Mercer 114-120 - - 28 - Mercer 130-136 - 1 9 1 (ʌ) | 1 (ä) | 1 (ɜ)

Both Jaffe and Mercer can be considered to have insufficient production of the typical forms of the Irish English PALM vowel as they, in nearly all instances, chose to maintain their General American [ɑ] realizations of it. Though Jaffe in 9 separate instances used a more centralized realization of the open vowel, [ä], which approaches the IrE realization [aː], it was insufficient to make the PALM vowels sound authentic, as it instead gave the appearance of an unwillingness to commit to or inability to produce the more authentic IrE pronunciation. The sole instance where the vowel was produced in accordance with the studies of Irish English appeared in episode 136, in the sentence “I think that’s far enough,” (Critical Role 2021d, 2:27:51-2:27:54) where far was produced as [fæːr]. With the PALM vowel being one of only two investigated vowels to have a GA realization that is not considered overlapping with a potential realization of IrE, it further strengthens the trend of both actors producing vowels as they would in GA.

4.5.12 LOT

Table 13: Vowel pronunciation in LOT words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA ɒ ɑ(ː) Jaffe 1-2 19 53 17 (ɔ) | 1 (ə) | 3 (ʌ) Jaffe 26 15 57 7 (ɔ) | 1 (ɐ) | 2 (ʌ) | 1 (ä) | 3 (ə) Mercer 114-120 13 61 11 (ɔ) | 3 (ə) | 1 (ʊ) | 1 (ä) Mercer 130-136 5 16 6 (ɔ) | 1 (ä)

The LOT vowel, much like the majority of vowels with an overlap between General American and Irish English, displayed the actors’ tendency to use the shared vowel between the accents. However, there was less of a tendency to use the shared pronunciation than other vowels, as the combined total of [ɒ] and other realizations made up as much as 43% of all instances in Jaffe’s early episodes and Mercer’s late episodes. The high percentage of [ɔ] realizations should also be noted as they can be considered to be borderline cases where the

actors attempted to produce the vowel as [ɒ] but, due to the context of the vowel, may have produced it somewhat less open than what would be expected of Irish English.

4.5.13 CURE

Table 14: Vowel pronunciation in CURE words. IrE GA Not IrE or GA uːr ʊr Jaffe 1-2 - 14 1 (ʉr) | 3 (oː) | 1 (ʊə) | 1 (ɛr) Jaffe 26 - 11 3 (or) Mercer 114-120 1 31 1 (ʉr) | 2 (or) Mercer 130-136 - 6 -

With a lacking overlap between General American and Irish English realizations of the CURE vowel, both Jaffe and Mercer consistently produced their native GA pronunciation over the one of IrE. Thus, it can easily be determined that neither actor produced the CURE vowel in a way that can be considered authentic to IrE.

4.5.14 LETTER

Table 15: Vowel pronunciation in LETTER words. IrE IrE & GA Not IrE or GA ɐr ər Jaffe 1-2 3 43 - Jaffe 26 1 46 - Mercer 114-120 - 42 - Mercer 130-136 - 16 -

The LETTER vowel followed the general trend of both actors primarily using their native GA realizations that overlap with the IrE rather than the uniquely IrE realizations. While Mercer made no deviations from the overlapping realization, Jaffe had a low number of instances where he used the uniquely IrE realizations albeit at a rate of less than 5%.

5. Discussion

For future research, some weaknesses of the present study should be noted. Firstly, the study primarily focuses on how closely the two actors succeed in pronouncing features of Irish English that differ from their own, native accents, but fails to take into account that other features may have been incorrectly altered rather than retained. Such a phenomenon may occur among the vowels excluded from this study, especially in cases in pairs of lexical sets

such as NORTH and FORCE, CLOTH and THOUGHT, or TRAP and BATH, as their General American realizations are largely identical whereas their Irish English pronunciations differ. The FORCE, THOUGHT, and BATH vowels are thereby among the more likely vowels to be incorrectly altered to a non-Irish English realization due to a lack of separation of the sounds. Secondly, the present study lacks a means to investigate how Jaffe and Mercer’s accents may correlate with the inauthentic renditions of Irish English that are often presented in popular media such as film or TV. When an inauthentic accent is broadcast to the massive audience of a Hollywood movie or its likes, it gives the audience a false perception of what an Irish English, potentially teaching them to associate the inauthentic features of it with Irish English. Such an investigation would require a study of how the Irish English accent is portrayed in media, along with what an average non-Irish English speaker would identify as a feature of the accent. It is likely that some of the features of Jaffe and Mercer’s accents that deviate from authentic Irish English may stem from consumption of movies and games that feature inauthentic Irish English accents. Thirdly, the study also disregards inflection patterns of the accent. Though Hickey (2004) makes brief mentions of such patterns for several regional Irish English accents, especially that of Ulster Irish, the lack of a description of inflexion in supraregional Irish English has resulted in the aspect being excluded from the present study. Future research may therefore wish to take inflections into account, as many forms of Irish English appear to have patterns that differ from accents such as General American or Received Pronunciation. A fourth remark should be made about the imbalance in the number of episodes used between Mercer and Jaffe in regards to the analysis of diachronic change in the accents. Though the sample episodes chosen for Jaffe cover a greater span of time, with a gap of nearly two years between the filming of the first and last episodes, the low number of episodes makes it possible for an over- or underrepresentation of certain realizations of various features as each episode had a greater impact on the total data. Meanwhile, the episodes featuring Mercer’s rendition covered only a six-month span, yet diminished the impact of a single outlier episode by including a total of nine episodes compared to Jaffe’s three. Lastly, one more issue to keep in mind is the fact how different accents use the same transcriptions for different sounds, eg. /ɔ/ in General American is considered significantly more open than its Received Pronunciation counterpart. However, the present study utilized the cardinal vowel system for the placement of the Irish English vowels, which at times struggles to perfectly align with General American that was often used for comparison, especially in the case of the /ʌ/ vowel which is a closer approximation of /ɐ/ in the cardinal system.

6. Conclusion

Regarding the first research question concerning the authenticity of the actors’ accents, Jaffe and Mercer both produce some features of an Irish English accent more accurately and other features less accurately. Based on the collected data, it is difficult to consider Jaffe and Mercer’s depictions of Irish English authentic sounding, primarily due to lacking consistency,

total absence of plosivization of /θ/ and /ð/, low frequency of lenitions of /t/ and /d/, and absence of yod-retention. Though their tendency to use of Irish English vowel sounds that overlap with General American did not reduce the potential authenticity, a higher usage of uniquely Irish English vowel realizations would have greatly helped make the accents more distinguished from General American. Rather than being authentic Irish English, the accents of both actors come across as a form of faintly hibernicized General American. In regards to the second research question about the community’s perception of Mercer’s accent being better than that of Jaffe, because many of the same features of Irish English were represented to a similar extent in both actors' accents, it is difficult to claim that either rendition is a significantly more authentic portrayal of Irish English than the other. Though Mercer’s accent did feature certain aspects of Irish English that were absent in Jaffe’s, most noticeably lenition, the differences found in the present study do not support the community’s perception of Mercer’s Irish English accent as substantially better at achieving authenticity compared to Jaffe. It may, however, be the case that Mercer’s comparably high consistency made the accent more natural in the sense that it comes across as a plausible way for a speaker of the English language to speak, disregarding the geographical origins of the accent. Concerning the third research question about whether Mercer’s accent has more in common with Jaffe’s accent or an authentic Irish English accent, as it is mentioned above, Jaffe and Mercer’s accents have much in common in regards to which features of Irish English they produce or not. These similarities are made especially clear in the later episodes as Jaffe’s consistency with features such as rhoticity improved. Due to these factors, the present study concludes that Mercer’s accent can indeed be considered a closer approximation of Jaffe’s previous rendition rather than an authentic Irish English accent, as it is further corroborated by Mercer’s own claim that he intended to do his “own spin on it [Jaffe’s accent]” (Critical Role, 2021, 10:54-11:10). Lastly, the final research question about the aspect of diachronic change in the actors’ accents has been examined and the present study concludes that there was some element of change over time when the early and late episodes were compared. However, the results concerning how much the accents changed varied depending on the feature. Jaffe’s accent in particular became more consistent with time, whereas Mercer’s accent changed less, with increased lenition in the later episodes being the primary source of change.

Primary material

Critical Role. (2019, December 20). Found & Lost | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 26 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZVqPja6Alg&t Critical Role. (2020, November 2). An Open Window | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 114 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGcLpm4iEBg Critical Role. (2020, November 9). Fetching Fables & Frosty Friends |Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 115 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwTzNMNQCEA Critical Role. (2020, November 16). Under the Timeless Ice | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 116 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhlfFwDOwPM Critical Role. (2020, November 23). The Tortoise and The Dare | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 117 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRgFL6Zi3nM Critical Role. (2020, December 21) Conscientious Company | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 120 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDudet-qZIg Critical Role. (2021, March 22). The Calm Before The Storm | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 130 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ-dVqIlKAk&t Critical Role. (2021 April 12). Hunter and Hunted | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 133 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hB73g8SF_k Critical Role. (2021 April 19). The Streets of the Forgotten | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 134 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTwG0Tfvkbo Critical Role. (2021, May 3). Hell or High Water | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 136 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3M4B2HmeS8 Geek & Sundry. (2018, January 15). Curious Beginnings | Critical Role: THE MIGHTY NEIN | Episode 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byva0hOj8CU Geek & Sundry. (2018, January 22). A Show of Scrutiny | Critical Role: THE MIGHTY NEIN | Episode 2 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPELLuQXVcE&t Geek & Sundry. (2018, August 3). Curious Beginnings | Talks Machina | Campaign 2 Episode 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/_qyjSmkSyF0?list=PLxpS2Q

References

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Critical Role. (2018, September 19). Between the Sheets: Taliesin Jaffe [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZyspWOP0o8 Critical Role. (2018, October 31). Between the Sheets: Matthew Mercer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN6A82H6VCI Critical Role. (2021, January 21). Talks Machina: Discussing Up to C2E121 - Ice and Fire [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqAujrTiOek&t Glain, O. (2012). The yod /j/: Palatalise it or drop it! how traditional yod forms are disappearing from contemporary english. Cercles (Rouen, France), 22, 4. Hickey, R. (1989). R-Coloured vowels in Irish English. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 15(2), 44-58. doi:10.1017/S0025100300002978 Hickey, R. (2004). Irish English: phonology. In Schneider, E. W., Burridge, K., Kortmann, B., Mesthrie, R., & Upton (Eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English Volume 1: Phonology (pp. 68-97). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi- org.ezp.sub.su.se/10.1515/9783110197181 Hickey, R. (2012). Standard Irish English. In R. Hickey (Ed.), Standards of English: Codified Varieties around the World (Studies in English Language, pp. 96-116). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139023832.006 International Phonetic Association. (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: a guide to the use of the international phonetic alphabet. Cambridge University Press. Mollymauk Tealeaf. (2021, March 9). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Mollymauk_Tealeaf?oldid=117773 Kallen, J. L. (2013). Irish english: Volume 2, the republic of ireland. De Gruyter Mouton. Lingorado (2021). toPhonetics [Online software]. https://tophonetics.com/ Lucien. (2021, March 22). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Lucien?oldid=118490 Oxford Learner’s Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ Pedersen, J. (2007). There Is More to Being a Scotsman than Putting on a Kilt and Trilling Your /r/s. A Study of Linguistic Credibility in the Hollywood Movie Braveheart. Miscelanea, 35, 77-90. http://www.du.se.proxy.aspx/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.www.bibproxy.du.s e/?url=https://www-proquest-com.www.bibproxy.du.se/scholarly-journals/there-is- more-being-scotsman-than-putting-on-kilt/docview/85686635/se-2?accountid=10404 Jones. D, (1956). [Demonstration of the Cardinal Vowels], Linguaphone. Wells, J. C. (1982). Accents of English 1: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. Wishinkwell (2021). Writer’s Highlighter [Computer software]. Play Store. https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/writers_highlighter/1033878279784?h l=en&pann=docs_addon_widget

Transcripts

A Show of Scrutiny/Transcript. (2019, December 1). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/A_Show_of_Scrutiny/Transcript?oldid=81233 An Open Window/Transcript. (2020, November 4). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/An_Open_Window/Transcript?oldid=109748 Contentious Company/Transcript. (2020, December 25). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Contentious_Company/Transcript?oldid=112603 Curious Beginnings/Transcript. (2020, May 30). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Curious_Beginnings/Transcript?oldid=92042 Fetching Fables & Frosty Friends/Transcript. (2020, November 9). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Fetching_Fables_%26_Frosty_Friends/Transcript ?oldid=110196 Found & Lost/Transcript. (2019, November 18). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Found_%26_Lost/Transcript?oldid=80462 Hell or High Water/Transcript. (2021, May 3). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Hell_or_High_Water/Transcript?oldid=121243 Hunter and Hunted/Transcript. (2021, April 17). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Hunter_and_Hunted/Transcript?oldid=120388 The Calm Before the Storm/Transcript (2021, March 29). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/The_Calm_Before_the_Storm/Transcript?oldid=1 18990 The Streets of the Forgotten/Transcript. (2021, April 2021). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/The_Streets_of_the_Forgotten/Transcript?oldid= 120506 The Tortoise and The Dare/Transcript. (2020, November 23). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_The_Dare/Transcript?oldid=1 11204 Under Timeless Ice/Transcript. (2020, November 16). In Critical Role Wiki. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Under_Timeless_Ice/Transcript?oldid=110764

7. Appendix

6.1. Episode Transcripts

The transcripts for each episode were collected from the official Critical Role wiki. The parts included in this appendix are those relevant to the study.

6.1.1. Episode 1

(“Curious Beginnings/Transcript”, 2019)

Well. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a group of people more in need of a good time in my entire life. Mollymauk Tealeaf of the Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities. If there was ever a group of people that needed a good time to go out, have a laugh, see things that you have never seen before, and my god, take my word for it, one month’s time, people will be buying your ale to hear the tale of what you saw at the Traveling Carnival of Curiosities this night. It’s just five copper. A steal. At five silver, it would be a steal, at five gold? Worth every penny. But if you’ve got the five copper to spend, we would happily have you all. Ah. I’m less of a performer and more of an intermediary for these parts. I do on occasion perform. I can read fortunes– I knew you were going to ask that. Well. Who has coin for a fortune? What is your name? I know your name now! Oh, my name is Molly to my friends, and we’re friends, now, aren’t we? Pleasure. Mollymauk. Molly for short. This is Yasha, she’s a charm. Now. Would anyone like a fortune read? Do you have coin? Two copper. Your first card, the Silver Dragon. This is good. You’re pure, you’re virtue, you are a worthwhile and wonderful human being, obviously, or creature of some repute. It’s true. And heading towards the Anvil. That is a destiny forged. There is something bright and adventurous in your future. Of course you did. That’s all the cards. I’m simply a vessel for higher powers. If you’re going to find her? Give me a little bit more. Who’s this 'him’ that you’re looking for? You’ve already found the clue you’re looking for. You just don’t know what it is yet. Apparently. Well, it’s what the cards are saying. It’s right in front of you. Sadly, I don’t have that sort of specifics. That’s much more expensive. Well, you find us at the show, you’ll find my tent and I’d be happy to give you a more complicated reading. So much fun. On the house!

Some of our acts are a little complicated, with performers who are not of the traditional variety. Can make some of the locals get a little shifty, if you know what I mean, and it’s good to have a few people around who are capable of keeping issues contained. We cannot be held responsible for anything that may happen to someone who is ill or infirm. It is such an exciting, impressive show. First show is tonight. Or you could stay here and buy beer for the people who do see the shows, and you can hear all about it and pay more. You are all the most charming people I’ve met in– yes. Well, we’d better be getting on. Charm. Pure charm. See you tonight!

6.1.2. Episode 2

(A Show of Scrutiny/Transcript”, 2019)

I'd like to make a counter offer? I think maybe it has nothing to do with us. I think maybe we were just caught in the crossfire. Sorry sir. Trying to keep my mouth shut. Exactly how did we kill them, exactly? Thank you. Yes, you see-- Oh, are you waiting for me to speak? Yes, he’s the only one. No. Just shocked to see someone die in front of me not more than-- This has never-- anything like this has ever happened before. And thank you. For the record, I don’t owe any of you anything-- --I swear, but thank you, and I’m ready to help with this. No! That’s an act, that’s not anything. It’s just a show! It’s nothing special, it’s just a guy making a buck, all right? He’s fine! By the way, where's the obnoxious one? The really loud-- Is this part of the show by the way? I was just curious. I'm going to be very helpful and not go in there with the two of you while you try and get her out. I'll stand guard. I have nowhere to go. She didn't. You're putting your neck out for Toya for some strange reason and I don't know why, she's perfectly capable of handling herself. Not that I can remember. They all look the same after a while. Nothing like this. Hundreds, possibly thousands of shows. Yeah, thousands of shows. Nothing. Never. It's not us. Which other two? Oh, your friends! You call them Stinky and the little one? All right. If I'm going to listening to somebody's life story I'm going to need a drink. You, gorgeous, what's your name? Adelaine, I would like a round for all these terrible people and one for myself. What's the difference between these three beers? I've honestly got to admit, they all taste the same to me. Let's get a round of von Brandt for everybody. I don't know. I'm going to ask for one of each of these beers because I want to have a tasting competition. I'm not going to be drinking alone.

How'd you etch a deck in the table? I think that's what they look like. She's blue. It's very true. I'm from the circus. Oh yeah. Quite a while. Long as I can reasonably remember at the very least. It's been a while. It's nice. I like it. They’re good people. Work hard. That's a very funny story, actually. Me too. Thank you. These swords-- you buy a drink and we'll see. Mother always told me to never give a story away for free. I already like your mother. I can tell. I want to hear you say it, anyway. That's 40 days. Sorry! Drinking! I did order two extra. Two extra? You're no fun. Are you trying to learn magic? Is that a thing? He's family. We take care of each other. He's a good man. Well, they have all my things and they have all family. I'm going to figure out what is going on. Try and find out what's actually doing this. I assume since it's none of us, it's going to happen again. Well, I-- I'm sure if we sleep on it, we'll think of something. That's fair. A bit, yeah. Where exactly am I going to be sleeping, by the way? I mean, I can sleep down here, but it might be nice. Excellent. You don't mind? All but the one you bought me. To be fair, I didn't give you that story. I am, of course. You seem honest. Well, the swords are magic. According to my mum, they go back in our family generations to a very unusual rare line of tiefling that came from a demon of ice that lived inside a volcano. Our family, and I take this with a grain of salt, were royal guards, were entrusted with these magic swords and these swords can only be activated by the blood of the royal family. So in honor of any fighting I ever do with them, I make sure my blood is at least drawn once. Well, I mean look at me. It'd be a little tricky for me, I'm going to look like what I'm going to look like. But the rest of you could do a little work. We could just shower this one that would be enough. I tend to find these things don't blow necessarily as more they just eventually decide someone's guilty and take their revenge on them. Not this particular one, but yes. None taken, really. A little taken, but that's fine. She's right, immediately the two of us are going to get hit with this.

Who was he, would be my question. Seems to be the most appropriate thing to ask at this point These small towns, most everyone knows everyone else. Is this a metaphor or is this actually a real thing? What did the man drink out of curiosity? What was his final drink? I'm a bit of a macabre person myself. I'll take one more, and I'll get one of my own. They say that solitaire is the game for the death-obsessed. There's inevitability to every hand, most of them are doomed from the start no matter what you do. Any interest to buck fate and try your hand at an opponent for once? No money, just friendly. I slide the rest of my whiskey over. I've been called worse. I'm just a man who saw another man die yesterday. It's been heavy on my conscience and I was just wondering if there was anything you could tell me about Enon. I'm regretting it myself. Has he? That's not what other people have said. Why do you think he went? Why do you think that happened to him? Fuck the circus. So that's what you think happened to him, then? I feel like there's something evil afoot. Again, I've been called worse. Sure you have in your time, as well. I love small towns. Awfully convenient. That rule's been around for as long as I can remember because it makes people think the show's dangerous. Gives them a thrill. We're not really worried about people having a heart attack; we want people to be worried about having a heart attack, because then they're more excited to come see the show. This is how these shows work. Before my time. It's a boilerplate. If you were trying to hide doing something to someone it's a great candidate. If I was trying to get away with something, terrible idea. Wait, what? What kind of weird? Start at the docks, but I'll keep that in mind. I was about-- nope, nevermind. I was about to be very impressed, but I take it back. I'd like to avoid the guards for as long as possible. You think anyone would have wanted him marked or harmed in some way? Looks like mine. Much bigger. I'd say the docks are his home, if we could figure out where he lived. He was last seen at the circus! You don't happen to know what happened to his son, by any chance? I take the compliment. I'm putting it my pocket. I'm keeping it for later. Well, she's making friends with everybody. I don't see any of you making friends. Were you being sarcastic-- oh, no you weren't, okay. Catching up on that. Only the pure of heart make their answer out of riddles. Back to the tavern. You're going to probably, you know, poof. I can maybe put a rope through the window.

I got rope. I'll go through the front like a proper person. Any progress? That was a power move right there. No, you know what? I’m going to take it. How long have you known this one? That explains a lot. I feel like there should be some more gossip then there is, that's very true. I leave the rope tied in here. Can we use your cat? Reel it back up in so that there's no trace of us until we need to get back there. No, I'm telling you that your cat is going to haul up a rope. It's not that heavy of a rope, it’s just hemp. Well, if I throw it back up there then I imagine you cat can knock it back down at the very least. Not that big of a town. Oh for god's sake. Oh, well then, I'm taking my string back. Maybe we have to go back to the circus. It’s early enough maybe we should just-- I hate to admit it, but maybe-- it’s not us. It’s where we camp. They’re not going to talk to you without *me*, so I’m coming, too. We were told to set it up here, if I recall. That sounds right. If I recall, we were specifically told to set up tent right here. Do you know what's going on? How is it? What's happened? I could be worse. They couldn't be worse. And then Yasha Yasha'd. I don't know. Did Toya see anything? Did she say anything? No, I've picked up a few scragglers. They're idiots, but they're helping. What do they think happened? What are they asking? What would be the point? Yasha's the newest, but she can be flighty. You've never met it-- Well, nevermind. Circus shitty. In a tent over there. Is everybody still here? They've not taken anyone away other than-- We're carnival people, we've all got our issues. You don't end up here unless you're a little weird. Oh, for fuck’s sake. I'm going to do my best. That's what I'm trying to figure out, what the fuck is going on. They're with me, it's been complicated. Gustav's in deep. Bosun's in deep. What did you see? I don't know. For fuck's sake, they're going to kill every last fucking one of us unless we figure this out. What do you think? I don't know. I think that they're trying to cover something. Her name's Beau. She's helping, she's awful, you have a lot in common. I've absolutely been talking shit. You're both terrible. They may not let us leave. They may be killing us all. They're weird out there. They're very weird out there.

It's not fucking Gustav. It's like she's never experienced boredom. It's very weird. Hey, Ornna? I mean, I know your feelings on all this. What do you think? Really? What exactly would you have done? They were useless. Well, that's on me and-- That's on me. They would. Ornna, Ornna. Ornna, you might as well come clean, this is classic you. I'm just trying to-- Oh, fuck you, too. It's no secret that Ornna and Gustav have their differences, but this ridiculous. I mean, she knows damn well that half the circus would leave if he got fucking arrested and died. But this is not his style. What do you mean evil kind of vibe? He's what? That's just a name. It's not actually, like real thing. That just-- What do you-- Not yet. Girls, we’re not supposed to be here. Can you help us handle this? We’ll do what we can. If something goes wrong, nudity usually works.

6.1.3 Episode 26

(“Found & Lost/Transcript”, 2019)

Fjord never came back after watch last night. Fjord? Jester? The Traveler's bullshit! That really would've worked. First, thank you. Second, they may have just taken the ones that were furthest away from the light. They just picked them off, maybe? You walk away from camp, that's what happens. I mean, it's not the biggest or strongest. It's the-- What the fuck is going on? We don't know! Probably! I haven't really thought this through. Where did you come from? What are you doing in the bloody bushes by our campsite? We're having a very weird day. We more or less got robbed last night and you're the first living human being that we've seen-- or, not human being. [dwarf] Last night. Not yet. But keep it drawn. We're having a very bad morning. I apologize if we came off a little terse. All right, fine. Oh no.

I have an idea. We've all had a bit of a morning. Let's sit down. Have a drink. We can get you liquor. We can talk about anything you've seen traveling on the road in the last day or two. I'm Molly. Is your name Pleasure, then? Oh, okay. That would’ve been very inconvenient parenting. There's weird parents that do things. Never mind. They’re very weird parents Let's sit. Is that true? Well we're not necessarily nice people, so that'll work out fine. We're not. We don't leave people behind, and that's the deal. Molly, pleasure. Nott. She does have a fair point, though. We are a little squishy. You're in good company right now. We lost the charm. throw me a cigarette please. I'm not one to interrogate someone's past. Information's information. We could use some help. You could also hire us. 20 gold. Yes, that's how I know you can afford us. And we split whatever we find. You pay at the end of the deal. I try not to learn their names. I don't want to get attached. Yes. Don't panic about it, it's going to be fine. I'm all in for this. We have spare horses now. We're half packed already. Or we take the horse and cart at reasonable speed. Or stow it. So we're going to drop a Loaf. Let's leave a marker. If he's going to die, we have to leave a marker so we can come back and find where he's been interred. I was going to say-- Keg's been on this road before. I have a giant dragon tapestry. I'm more than happy to kill something at this point. I've got some anger and aggression to work out. Oh, for gods' sakes. Oh, for gods' sakes, Do we want to head a couple hours or have this unbelievably safe place. What looks like a very safe place, although-- never mind. We're going to-- terrible things are just going to happen. I'm accepting it, this is going to be a cursed trip. Do we want to stay in the haunted house? Well here's the question: do we just go until we have to stop and then we camp wherever we're going to camp, or do we find something like this, which is possibly a little safer and then just wake up very early and run and go further? Trust the local.

Or you could go through the chimney or the collapsed roof. We have-- I like her. We always know to look. Well this obviously brought luck to whoever was here. Caleb, you want to do a little scan while we're here? See if anything tingles your fancy. Yes. Let's go! let's go! Loo! No! Use the ground. Keg can ride with me, this is not a problem. If you want. You're already taking a good hard look at your decisions. This is good. I'll ride with you then. You get your own horse. Truly nothing escapes your astute observation. I feel like if you give it to me, I'm going to end up dropping it and it's not really going to be that useful. I say we just camp at the house, at this point. I need rest and we have... Not going to get much further. I say we wake up early. It's going to be dusk in less than an hour. Wherever we happen to find ourselves. I've still got my tent, so, sure. All right. There's another... there's another campfire. 200 feet, give or take. Do you want to send a bird, maybe? She's sleeping. I'd say go ahead. I figure if they were meaning us any harm they wouldn't set a fire. A child? That does have a vibration, doesn't it? I'm not at my best right now. If they're human, even if they're friendly, I'm not the first face you'd want to see. You have a friendly owl. Fine. We've got a bit of a situation outside. It's going to require some delicacy. Caleb’s dead. It's all over. There's a boy, there's an old woman. One, two, three, four, five-- Five! We've lost a few recently. Just woke up and they were gone. We'll see. Well, we’re making our way to see if something can be done. I genuinely don't know how to say no to tea. You can't heal a dead horse. Downtrodden. I'm feeling all right, but-- Some people make tea. I will definitely take some.

Always. Do you know which way this friend of yours was heading to find them? It was north on the path, I suppose. We'll see what we can do. If it's possible we'll see what we can do. All things being equal. The horses? You did very well. You were nearly charming. Everybody's doing so much better suddenly. It's as if the vacuum means other people have to start pulling some slack. It's nice. Well suddenly you're being kind of charismatic. Nott's making moralistic judgments that are in the direction of reasonable. Some days it's not hard to do a good turn. Cheers. I'd forgotten about that. Been a little distracted. Let's do it. Do we want to go at a steady pace for this last hour, or do we want to push for a fast pace? Want to do one more hour and call it? [Oh, well] Let's send the owl. If we can find a stone for cover, maybe. We'll set up a proper camp. We're trying to sleep for gods' sakes! Let's take the next one. Want to gamble? No, I'm not. This is a game we used to play. Put a question on the deck, whoever draws the highest card has to answer it. Tarot cards but they have numbers. I know. I'll throw one out there for you. What's the best lie you've ever told? I'll give you mine if you give me yours. Whoever gets the highest has to tell. Or whoever gets the lowest has to tell. Shite. Best lie I've ever told... I pretended to be royalty for three weeks. For a scam. I was-- Just a little while after I had gotten my consciousness sort of sorted out, and we got into a town and figured out that we could actually get some nice digs and they were seeing if I could maybe bullshit my way through it, and it was kind of my test. So I pretended to be a reincarnated royalty from across the sea That was a lot of fun. I like knowing that because it's not there that it doesn't matter? And it helps knowing I don't think it matters for anybody. I don't care where anybody's from, it's nice. I certainly don't care where I'm from. That's usually how this rolls. Politician? No, no I'm very impressed, actually, that's-- you are a good friend to have and a terrible enemy to make. To not quite being the worst people. Cheers.

Night. That's very fair. They really had it coming. No, let's slow our pace. I think we should wait until they start to set up camp. They've got to stop at some point. They're going to have to camp. And a druid. Do you know anything about the cages they keep their prisoners in? Are they magically enchanted or are they just cages? I sort of figured. I figured everyone else figured at this point, really? I do, too. But, you know, people say things. How bad are the terms that you're on with these people? We're starting to get a plan. I have a plan. It's a bit of a crazy plan. They're carrying the means of their own undoing. If we can free whoever is in those cages, we get a lot of allies. Anybody in there I'm sure is going to have feeling towards these people. I like waiting until they camp and coming in at night. If we can just get into that cage and untie them without them noticing. Wait until the sun sets right before they go to sleep. I can be into that. Ambush. Free people. All one big thing. I'm sure they’re not used to being attacked by people who actually know what they have. Let's full-speed blow past them, just nod and keep moving. All right. This is a good plan First: do we have any dynamite? We have acid Do we have enough Dispel Magic that we can reveal the cart so we can see it? Yeah, like can you make magic go away? Magic. Have you never seen anybody do this before? Just make magic go away? They're cloaking the cages. You could maybe free the people inside the cages with your magic hand thing that you do. And if their horses die those carts aren't going anywhere. And then they're stuck. They're out, they're helping us. But if we kill the horses then the carts can't leave. That's fair, too, but they could try and run. They don’t drug their prisoners? They don't drug them? One last question. How secure are these carts, or do they just trust that nobody's going to get out of the hog tie? As long as we can pick some locks, untie some ropes. Honestly, once the combat starts, especially if you've got Fireballs we can just make sure those horses are toast. I could teleport into one of the cages and start untying people. With you at the top of one hill if we get you some cover, you at the other hill if we give you some cover giving you both some distance, the three of us getting into the middle of it, coming at them at all sides.

Always take out the magic users first. And if we can get a few friends in whoever is in those cages, for all we know that's where they've got our people. Is there a way to embed a spell into the ground? Me too. If they try and climb the hills towards either of you, you can have some ball bearings to help slip them back down. Does it even have anything in it? We know. There's part of me that's wondering if we hid you in the downed tree if you could sneak in and start working on the cages before they even know there's a problem. Between two hills. If we can pick the locks and untie everybody. We don't need to slow the horses. We have a tree. If we want, we have a-- We could put her under the tree. If you find somebody bleeding under a tree, that's not ridiculous. Tree fell, you happened to get hit. Good luck. We could put you on top of the tree if you feel like you want to have some words with this people. I'm all right with that. You guys work on people--I still think opening the cages is going to be a good call. We'll see what happens. I'm all right for this plan. If the front one is slowed down then they're all going to be slowed through there. And now they're ready for a fight. If you slow the first cart, then the other two behind it are not going to be able to go any faster, either. And then we can push the tree on the first cart. That'll be fun. The first one, since it's damaged. Or the first one would be more engaged with us. If you're invisible, you could maybe help get everybody out. You wouldn't be able to commit it to memory and then rewrite it later? But it's near-perfect. How long does Invisibility last? I like this plan. It's ridiculous. There we are. We're not ranged people. And you can do stuff once Slow's cast, you can also do other things once it's rolling. If things look like they're trouble, you'll just go with it. Go for the druid first? All right. That'll do. We've got a plan. You got that one? Right.

6.1.4 Episode 114

(“An Open Window/Transcript”, 2020)

Oh, well lookie here. A return visitor. Now, don't get running, you've curiosity to sate, right? I take it you're the one who's been peeking recently. I have to thank you, for without your scent, I wouldn't have been able to follow her.

Now, don't be alarmed. I see many things with mine eyes. Been trying to watch this one's path a while now until you found me. Saw the threads and we made a detour. Shame really, all that knowledge and so little understanding. Ah! But you see now things are set right. Once more, I have what she took from me To alpha and alpha we trek 'til homeward bound we be. Maybe we'll see you there.

6.1.5 Episode 115

(“Fetching Fables & Frosty Friends/Transcript”, 2020)

Oh, I'm so glad you decided to come. We were somewhat worried I'd scared you off. It would seem curiosity always wins. I don't mean you any harm. I'm just pursuing my interests, and if you have similar interests, well, I'm inviting you to come along. You don't have to.

6.1.6 Episode 116

(“Under Timeless Ice/Transcript”, 2020)

My apologies, you've arrived early. I was hoping to tidy up a bit.

6.1.7 Episode 117

(“The Tortoise and The Dare/Transcript”, 2020)

Well, I mean, we're not in the middle of anything right now, necessarily, so, please, come in. Not unless you give us a reason to. In fact, I think I've only met you. Well, sort of met, at a distance, at least. I'm a bit curious who you are. Well, I think.... Right, right, no, you said there was a past, an encounter with something I wasn't quite present for, but nevertheless, for this time, let us meet for the first time. I am Lucien, the Nonagon. Not particularly. Well, we have quite a bit of history, eh? I assume that you're all referring to the... uninvited guest who took the reins for a bit. It was likely a fragment left behind. Try as she might, the soul was too strong for her to sunder and I was pieced back together. Such is the blessing of the true Nonagon. That means many things. She was... an ambitious woman, that reached beyond her means. She lacked the imagination to achieve the things that I am achieving. A number of years, maybe. Now, I've answered a few of your questions, I've got a few of my own. It's only fair, I assume. You all seem mighty curious, you in particular. Why is it you followed us? I'm sure she will, I'm sure she will, but, you know, as the adage goes, you play with fire, and I, on some scale, do feel sorry you got roped into that, but, well, I couldn't miss an opportunity. It seemed our paths were diverging to a point in an unexpected way and she's a figure of enough power that it's best to get the jump if you can. In time, I'm sure. So you felt for this empty speck. That explains a bit.

It's hard to have contempt for something that doesn't really matter. It was but a part of myself, and I'm back. I mean… It's a bit strange, sure, but I'm sure all information will be laid bare when I finish my path. First time, hopefully the last time. So tell me again, why are you here? Is it vengeance? I understand grief can be hard sometimes for folks to swallow, but your friend is gone, and I've taken back what's rightfully mine. North-ish. I've got unfinished business here in Eiselcross. To Aeor, if we're being specific. If you're worried about this death being put upon you, well, rest assured, when I finish my journey, I'm more than happy to take my place, wherever such laws would deem it unnecessary. To explain what I've done. Little bit of column A, little bit of column B. No, they just happened to be first, and not eager to share. It was a title that I claimed before my brief departure from this plane. Why yes, they do. I can see many things through these eyes. I can see through many eyes still. That way, not much can escape my vision. This blessing. We're just well-connected. Well, if you're on the same path as us, perhaps you'll see. I have nine eyes here. Each of them granted to me by each eye that gave me this title. Maybe you'll meet them. You said you were looking for work, right? You're directionless, pathless, aimless and fearful to return for reprisal awaits you, given the loss of your employer. Well, you're free to follow. I can guarantee you, where we're going, it's only going to get stranger. Not so much in the classic sense. Divinity seems to nudge and push in places, unchallenged. Indeed. Well, nevertheless, this has been a fun, fine conversation. We'll take what we were looking for and be on our way. And if you'd like to follow behind, well-- Be our guests, On the field, and perhaps a bit beyond. Aye. Maybe you'll find out. She was a traitor. Someone who agreed to help me, us really, some time ago, and, well, lied. Lied and put me from this plane for some time. Shattered me, if you will. Scattered this spirit, but they put me back together. Aye. It's one thing to be in a different body, it's another to have your very essence scattered. Your very immortal soul divided into pieces, like so much confetti. I believe you seemed to fall for one of those pieces that stuck behind, but the thing is, this soul bore the mark of those that gave me this title. They knew my import and they put me back together. And the moment that vessel became empty once more, well, I was happy to return. So if we both found our ways back to our true selves, well, it's a year for celebration, is it not? No. Just a healing one. I am... I don't think servant's the right word. I am a student, as well as an entrusted representative. Oh, no. This is one of many gifts I bring. The ticket through the veil lies a little further down. There's a lot of things that are possible up in Aeor's ruin. I sense you're one curious about possibilities as well. Well, then you're going to have a lot of fun. There's so much to find.

Oh. Vess has more selfish tendencies. I was the first chosen. She was the imposter, the intended usurper. Oh, those were her misunderstanding of the tome that she took from me. She had no claim to the title. Nevertheless, our work here is complete. You all seem very curious. So we're free to leave? Of course. Well, we'll be on our way. Should you feel inclined, and the curiosity continues to tug at your souls, well, follow the footprints in the snow. I say this with absolute respect. Traveling with this many is an impediment to the speed of our journey. Follow if you like, but too many to keep track of, too much to draw attention, and to be perfectly honest, I like to travel with those who I can truly understand, It's possible, depends on how carefully connected they are at the time. If it helps put your feelings to rest, I am sorry, for whatever it's worth, that your friend is gone. Whatever part of me they were, is not of me anymore. Truly gone. And I understand that can be challenging, and I'm sure even my presence now opens a wound. You're real cute. I'll ask that you stay at least a bit back, because you're starting to get annoying Well… To alpha and alpha, then homeward bound, right? I've got a couple of other things to pick up, But there's always more to learn. I can't give you all the secrets right now. That's not fun. You want to earn knowledge. Of course. Well, a fine gesture. We could all use some luck on the road ahead. So you're keeping up well enough. I hope you're staying close. There's a lot to see when we get there and it'd be a real shame if you petered off the trail. I'm curious what you want out of this. I understand that you all lie with such confidence. I admire that. It's gotten me through, well, most of my previous life. But there are still challenges with a mortal body. Such as the cold.

6.1.8 Episode 120

(“Contentious Company/Transcript”, 2020)

Ah! I was wondering when you'd awaken. Well. I agree. We'll take a moment and appreciate it together. Occasionally you get a good pretty one. Not always, but right now it's worth appreciating. This whole landscape is made of rough days. Exhausted. Not a lot of sleep, you know, when you're trying to catch up to some folks that-- -- seem to be overachievers. I don't think I've technically met most of you, just the blue one. Oh, right, right, yeah, the weird period. Don't worry about it. Didn't have to. Apparently, you all found what we were looking for, and went rushing off. So twice now we've changed our trajectory, trying to keep up with you. Same place, originally. Yeah. Not going to lie, kind of impressed. We've all not really had much of a meal, not slept. I think it's time for a discussion, if you don't mind getting the rest of your friends up there.

Good, good. What's your deal? Ambition but no direction? ‘Confused ambition.' Would you call that curiosity? Strange analogy. Maybe our paths aren't too far off anyway. At the very least-- They're rousing, they're rousing. Be patient, eat your jerky. Don't want any untoward behavior unearned yet, Zoran. Morning Oh, I'm sorry, you all resting? You have a nice night's sleep? Of course, of course, we're happy to wait here for a bit. I figure, you know, we've only trudged through a night in the dark, trying to catch up to and your group for grabbing the thing that we were after. Well, you all got extremely, how do I put it, eager to not walk the path I left for you, instead cut us off at the pass. And you know what, I appreciate initiative. But unfortunately I can't say that we're really in a mood for waiting that much longer, so… I'm not upset. Do I appear upset? Well. So my question would be, what purpose did you have in acquiring this? Did you acquire it for us? Well, then that would be a gracious blessing upon us all, doing us a great favor, and for that, we would be very thankful. Let's have a conversation, and when that's done, you're welcome to continue sleeping, having your breakfast. You can go about your merry way. Or if the hooks are in you, there are more answers where you walk. But nevertheless, you took something. Where would it be? Well, you said you got it possibly as a favor for us. I think this is a fantastic chance to show that you are indeed a friend. Someone whose been wanting to learn, someone whose been wanting to see what most eyes are not capable of seeing. I can guarantee there're some things you've never seen, dear. We're on the cusp. A brief journey. And I think it's quite fortuitous that our paths have converged in this way, as you've helped us now on two occasions. So far, at least the things that we need from the outside. Everything else lies within the actual ruin itself. Perhaps. You're right, you found that, and now we found you. So the law would say under these conditions, that perhaps you're ours for the taking. Wouldn't that be right? I'm not here to pick a fight. I'm here to ask-- -- for something that I was after. And I'm giving you the opportunity to be a friend and help us. Well, you hadn't yet proven that you were on the up and up. As you can imagine, there are a lot of people here who would be curious about what we're doing, and would be eager to put a knife in our back. So I assumed if you were indeed curious, if you were wanting to learn more about... the Eyes of Nine, then you'd follow. I was surprised that you seem to have a bit more gumption and get up and go than we were expecting. Leverage, well that makes this a negotiation. You know what I want, what we want. What do you want? That it would be. Have I betrayed your trust at all? But you're the kind of person that waits for someone to betray their trust all the day is long? That's a sad way to live.

Well. The thing that you have is not the only one of its kind. It would be far more convenient for us to have it now, but should you not wish to, we can find another. Indeed. So what is the trade then? You will give us the stone, and we tell you what it is we're after. Well, boys and girls, it has been a bit lonely traveling out here alone. Are we against having a few more companions? Very well. Is that one coming? Do, um... do you need-- Very well. Well then, y'all look a bit tired and I think we can use a bit of rest. Finish up, have some breakfast, then I guess we'll be on our way together. I think we've got quite a bit to talk about on the road ahead.

6.1.9 Episode 130

(“The Calm Before the Storm/Transcript”, 2021)

Well, if this isn't unexpected. Looks like the children are all growing up. Well, what do you want? You're the one who reached out to me. Well, too bad. You found me. You don't have to be rude about it. Now to your sudden... we'll say, follow up on our excursion, left us a bit in a lurch, so we had to double time it. But we're keeping a schedule. How about you? Great, great. Well. You can see quite a bit with two eyes. Imagine what you can see with three." And you focus on the symbol of Ioun with the three eyes and all three eyes--

6.1.10 Episode 133

(“Hunter and Hunted/Transcript”, 2021)

Fuck. Fuck. Well, that's a real dickish thing to do! Well, this [right] fucks up my plans a bit. (sighs) But well played. I cannot lie, well played. Cree, take care of this. Apparently. Well. Yes, well. I guess there's only one thing left to do. I'm not going to lie, that was inspired, well thought out. More than I expected. You're brave. But you've also shown to be more of a thorn in my side than I ever gave you credit for. That's not going to fly. But I'm excited for you to see my handiwork soon enough. Just putting a bit of space between us. You understand. I've got important work to do. But please, come along. Hate for no one to see the product of our hard work.

6.1.11 Episode 134

(“The Streets of the Forgotten/Transcript”, 2021)

Don't worry, we're getting there. I can feel it. But they're close now, too, the wee babes, lost without their king. Endless hunger, limitless potential, without focus, divided among thousands of mewling fragmented minds. The Nonagon saw this in them. And I'll be reborn greater. I am their savior, as they were mine. I will save them from their pain, from their wasteful existence. And you're to join me there, in their memory. Ah, I'm sure there's certain little joyful gifts to find around here. These people were quite creative in their magical pursuits. Maybe we'll find something that can patch us up right quicker. Let's get some shuteye. Well, you. I'll keep an eye out. Your friends are peeking. You are wily bastards. Continuing to stick my sides like a thorn in my drawers. Clever, but, well, not enough I have to respect it. I'm not here to kill you. Yet. (laughs) I'm here to open a door, to take my reign. Long may it be. You're welcome to watch. If you can keep up. There's so much beyond this door. So much.

6.1.12 Episode 136

(“Hell or High Water/Transcript”, 2021)

I was wondering when I'd sense your closure. Oh, don't be shy. Let's have a conversation. I've made some precautions, but I think it's worth a talk, right? Shh, wait, we've got company. We don't want to be as impolite as they've been. I think that's far enough, for I've my thoughts on turnabouts should you take another step. You may have to just twiddle the finger. I know how you figured these little scramblers work, seeing as you murdered most of our crew with them, so you know that if I think so much as a greener color shade. You all go. And you bleed from every memory. Not terribly long, maybe about a better part of an hour. But we had to set up some precautions, since you tend to follow and nip at our heels, and well, you taught us a few tricks along the way. Sure. Step in a bit. I've not been a poor host. I lent you my personal reading. And taking what I was owed, I borrowed a few things with intent to return them, though some of these pretties intrigue me. We defended ourselves when assailed and even then I invited you to come see what we've been working on. Letting bygones be what they are and still, you treat us with such animosity. Shame. Manners are important and the last thing to go when an age runs dry. I do still very much want to show you what I've been working on, but I feel like you've shown me how hard it can be to trust. So I need you to earn it. Because try as I might, a part of me still likes them. Long ago, there was a group of people who had an idea to get away from oppressive minds and pursue their dreams. And when destruction came, not of their making, they were ready, or so they thought, as they shunted their people across the planes to safety, in the astral plane where they knew they could make their dreams a reality. Unfortunately, what they didn't account for was this terrible psychic storm that awaited them, that racked every mind and spirit and shattered them until they became one with their own city. Death would have been a sweet mercy, but instead thousands of people and the Somnovem that guided them, were broken. And over time, slowly reformed, powerful. The instinct of their dreams driving them in a place where they could will their dreams to be, were their will not so fragmented. They needed help. But it was hard to push through the hunger. For now the city was alive, and things that live need to eat. I was lucky to be a mind free, one to speak to it and there's so much that they could do, but they lack the guidance. It's a waste of potential. But I think I can show them.

And maybe if you decide to be more friend than foe, when all is done, I could make your dreams come true as well. Well, like I said. You've got to earn your path. Show me that you really have what it takes, beyond being a thorn in my drawers. This door can go many places. Well, I'm certainly going on one. I guess it's a shame to work so hard, and, I don't know, not to have anyone who really understands it, who's right there to see it. But I've seen potential in at least a couple of you. You're already walking the right path. Yes. Well, I'd love an audience, but I'd like for you all to earn your ticket. Come join the show. The other side perhaps. Well, I think it's time you paid the ticket taker.