Byron Anders

## Professor Byron Anders

Screenshot of Professor Anders from "The Legend of the Cast of The Legend of Vox Machina".

### Actor

* Matthew Mercer (*Critical Role*)
* Stephen Root (*The Legend of Vox Machina*)

## Character Information

### Family

* House Anders
	+ Regae Anders (relative)

### Connections

* The de Rolo family (tutor, betrayed them)
* The Briarwoods (allies)
* Vecna

## Status

### Death episode(s)

* "Reunions" (1x33)
* "A Silver Tongue" (LVM1x08)

## Appearances

### First seen

* "Reunions" (1x33) (stream)
* "Shadows at the Gates" (LVM1x04) (animated)

### Television

*The Legend of Vox Machina* (5 episodes)

**Professor Byron Anders** was Percy's former tutor. He assisted the Briarwoods in the seizure of Whitestone and became one of Percy's targets for revenge, appearing on The List.

As an NPC in *Critical Role*, Anders was played by Matthew Mercer. In *The Legend of Vox Machina*, he is voiced by Stephen Root.

## **Description**

### **Appearance**

Anders is an older gentleman with short grey hair and a little bit of facial hair. During the battle with Vox Machina in the *Critical Role* stream, he wore a breastplate.

### **Personality**

In the streamed campaign, Byron Anders was a devoted cultist of Vecna and acted as an inside man for the Briarwoods to take Whitestone castle. In the animated series, Byron Anders's betrayal was motivated by his frustration over the ambitions that he believed had been shattered by the de Rolo family, and working under their wing as teacher to the de Rolo children.

## **Biography**

### **Background**

Anders was a lesser noble of Whitestone and a tutor to the young Percy prior to the arrival of the Briarwoods. Percy believed that Anders was responsible for letting the Briarwoods capture Whitestone Castle in the night. Waiting for unwelcomed guests, Anders prepared a push-tile, dealing cold damage, and two helmed horrors in the back of the room — ready to receive orders.

### ***Critical Role***

**"Reunions" (1x33)**

While Vox Machina was looking for Cassandra de Rolo in Whitestone Castle, Anders hid in his room, threatening her to be quiet, hoping to avoid the group's attention. They almost passed him by, but Vax heard distant whispers, found out that Percy's sister was in danger, and burst into the room shouting "Jenga". To distract Vox Machina, Anders *Dominated* Grog and cast *Minor Illusion* to seemingly cut Cassandra's throat. Nevertheless, Vox Machina managed to prick out both of his eyes and defeated him with Percy delivering the killing shot.

Afterwards, Vax searched the Professor's desk and found a collection of letters describing the Briarwoods' machinations, written in the hand of Lord Riskel Daxio.

### ***The Legend of Vox Machina***

In *The Legend of Vox Machina*, Anders was fought in one of the noble manors instead of Whitestone Castle, in place of Count Tylieri, who did not appear. In "Scanbo" (LVM1x07), Anders actually cut Cassandra's throat, precipitating the battle with Vox Machina. Keyleth was able to heal her before joining the battle. Anders used a strange, seemingly-living silver tongue to *Dominate* the party and turn them against Percy, but Percy was able to distract him by apologizing for his family's perceived slights against him. Percy then used a ricochet shot to shoot out the tongue and end the domination before donning his mask and, surrounded by smoke, kill Anders with a shot to the head. Anders's name faded from The List as the smoke enveloping Percy dissipated.

## **Character Information**

#### **Bard Abilities**

##### **Class Features**

* Bard College: Unknown
* Bardic Inspiration (≥d10)

#### **Bard Spells**

##### **4th-level**

* *Confusion*
* *Dimension Door*

##### **5th-level**

* *Animate Objects*
* *Dominate Person*

### **Notable Items**

* Boots of Levitation
* Briarwood letters

## **Quotations**

* **Anders:** *(addressing Cassandra, holding a knife to her throat)* "Shh! You be quiet until you're told to speak. They should be close."

## **Appearances and mentions**

* Campaign One: Vox Machina
	+ "The Feast" (1x24), mentioned only (first mentioned)
	+ "Stoke the Flames" (1x30), mentioned only
	+ "Reunions" (1x33) (first appearance)
	+ "Jugs and Rods" (1x94), mentioned only (indirect mention only)
* *The Legend of Vox Machina*
	+ "Shadows at the Gates" (LVM1x04), unnamed, non-speaking appearance, in a flashback
	+ "Fate's Journey" (LVM1x05), first identified, non-speaking appearance, in a flashback
	+ "Spark of Rebellion" (LVM1x06)
	+ "Scanbo" (LVM1x07)
	+ "A Silver Tongue" (LVM1x08)

## **Trivia**

* A few months after the Whitestone Rebellion, Percy decided to gift Zahra Hydris the crypt formerly owned by House Anders.
* He was related to Regae Anders, the man who acted as Grand Purveyor of the Grey Hunt three years before the Briarwoods attacked Whitestone. However, their exact relationship is unknown.
* Since he ended up becoming the tutor of another noble family, it is likely that Byron did not have a prominent position in the administration of House Anders.
* It seems that with his death his family became either extinct or without notable presence in Whitestone.
	+ Percy defined the Anders family as "forfeit", which doesn't necessarily mean that every member was dead, but in any case they didn't have a presence to oppose the seizure of their mausoleum, and by 836 PD the noble house was considered "long-forgotten" in the city-state.

## **References**

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 See *The Chronicles of Exandria Volume One: The Tale of Vox Machina*, p. 28.
2. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, from 2:00:40 through 2:02:50.
3. ↑ Rolled a 9 for Bardic inspiration, which at the very least requires a D10; bards unlock this at level 10.  See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, at 1:51:41.
4. ↑ "The Legend of the Cast of The Legend of Vox Machina"
5. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, at 1:15:50.
6. ↑ See "Duskmeadow" (1x57) at 3:29:34.
7. ↑ See "The Feast" (1x24) at 0:27:26.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Matthew Mercer confirmed on Twitter that it was an illusion when Professor Anders cut Cassandra's throat.
9. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 2, from 29:11 through 31:54.
10. ↑ See "A Silver Tongue" (LVM1x08) from 2:48 through 14:35.
11. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, at 1:24:55.
12. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, at 1:19:48.
13. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, at 1:23:50.
14. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, at 1:48:35.
15. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, at 1:23:34.
16. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 1, at 1:34:17.
17. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33), part 2, from 0:26:22 through 0:27:00.
18. ↑ See "Reunions" (1x33) at 1:14:54.
19. ↑ See "Duskmeadow" (1x57) at 3:29:34.
20. ↑ See "Jugs and Rods" (1x94) from 2:39:25 through 2:39:52.
21. ↑ See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 78.

**Art:**

1. ↑ Screenshot of Professor Anders from "The Legend of the Cast of The Legend of Vox Machina". This file is a copyrighted work. Its use in this article is asserted to qualify as fair use of the material under United States copyright law.
2. ↑ Fan art of Vox Machina fighting Anders, by HollyOakhill (source). Used with permission.
3. ↑ Fan art of Professor Anders, by Kileigh Gallagher (source). Used with permission.