RexBrews Reviews: The Tales of Kale Vala

The Tales of Kale Vala is a narrative-driven series of short stories based on a Dungeons and Dragons 5e actual play, Small Embers. Set in the world of Elestia, The Tales of Kale Vala is narrated by Richard Godden, weaving tales from the realm written by Dice Company’s host and DM, TC Patrick.

This review will be part one of two as we take a look into the world of Dice Company. In a future post, we will take a closer look into the Actual Play Podcast, Small Embers, but today I want to focus on The Tales of Kale Vala.

Overview

The Tales of Kale Vala was originally intended to be a supplemental short series to provide background into the lives of the player characters in Small Embers. The first few episodes follow early life events for Vander Finnic, Augustus Zeno, Bennie Quez and Tock, the protagonists for Small Embers, all of whom I will look into further in part two of this review.

The first five episodes of The Tales of Kale Vala, and the fantastic narration of Richard Godden, were so well received that Dice Company decided to expand the mini series. Episodes 6 through 19, with the exception of episode 11, were written and performed by Richard.

The series following the first five episodes shifts focus onto world events that are pertinent to the world of Elestia, where both series are set in. These short stories follow the lives of Demi-Gods and prominent figures throughout Elestia, jumping across the world and planes to give a glimpse into the lives of the mortals, as well as the Gods.

Episodes listened to: 

In a short time frame I was able to finish the entirety of the Tales of Kale Vala series. Each episode is under an hour, ranging from as short as 22 minutes, to as long as 57 minutes.

Total Listening Time: 12+ Hours

Setting and Story:

The world of Elestia is a high-fantasy setting, set in a time period comparable to the late Medieval – early Victorian era. The Tales of Kale Vala features themes ranging from wild western and early Victorian, to high-fantasy depictions of the realms of Gods. Elestia has familiar themes and inspiration drawn from a significant amount of popular literature, making it a setting that is easy to become familiar and invested in.

Elestia has typical early conquest and colonial themes suitable for the era, while adding a healthy mix of fantasy, automata, cowboys and even theater into the story. The series does well to balance a variety of these different themes so that each tale is unique from the previous. Each tale told through The Tales of Kale Vala offers a unique look at the world, through many different lenses. 

Each story focuses on a different historically significant figure to the world of Elestia — many have direct ties to the main campaign, Small Embers. From backstories of the protagonists, to the history of demigods they’ve met, to even a dramatic telling of a true crime mystery, every tale defines the stakes for the story of Small Embers.

The pantheon of this setting is vast, with many gods and demigods meddling in the affairs of mortals. The gods, while unique in their own rights, are familiar in a way that is reminiscent of other settings and stories.

Cast and Characters:

Richard Godden is a professional voice actor and portrays the host and narrator for the Tales of Kale Vala, the titular Kale Vala. Richard started in the Small Embers story as a minor guest player early in the series, then returned later to play multiple roles.

Each story is told from the perspective of Kale Vala, who narrates journal entries or diaries, or recounts stories told to him throughout his travels. Kale Vala is an incredibly charismatic, well learned and travelled, perfectly portrayed character that is easy to grow attached to. He is an Archivist, who has travelled the world of Elestia many times over. Chronicling the tales and stories passed to him and preserving the adventures, misadventures, and deeds of various denizens of the world.

While each tale focuses on different protagonists and antagonists, there are a few recurring characters, most notably, Papa Ungarmas. The Dwarven demigod of Dwarven Christmas, Papa Ungarmas is an incredibly lovable character with a smooth Scottish accent, as joyous as our very own tales of old Saint Nick.

Episode 11 is the outlier for this series, as it takes a notably different approach to the storytelling. While still hosted and narrated by Kale Vala, the story takes a more hands on approach with the voice-acting and writing style of Zeus Legion, one of the original editors of the Fandom Wiki. This wild-west inspired tale sets an important precedent to the events of Small Embers, as it tells the story of how magic was released to the world, taking it from a rare commodity, to a necessity.

My Scores for Tales of Kale Vala:

• Humor – 7/10
• Drama – 9/10
• Fantasy – 8/10
• Storytelling – 9/10
• Setting – 8/10

Overall Impression:

As someone who generally does not like similar media such as audiobooks, solo podcasts or independent YouTubers, I was immediately drawn into this podcast by the smooth narration and well-told tales depicted by Richard Godden. His smooth and enchanting portrayal of a charismatic archivist is enough to catch attention, but the stories he tells anchor that attention, that ultimately left me hooked. 

This series can also be listened to independently from the main campaign Small Embers, although it does give further insight and backstory into the world of Elestia.

This series is perfect for fans of high-fantasy, short stories, and smooth Scottish accents.

Where to listen:

Tales of Kale Vala and more from Dice Company can be found wherever you choose to listen to podcasts, currently listed on 19 different platforms, notably Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

More from Dice Company:

The Tales of Kale Vala follows characters and events that appear in their main campaign Small Embers which uses the Dungeons and Dragons system.

In addition to this campaign, they have multiple mini series using other systems, namely:

• The Curious Case of Ernest Wainwright – A Candela Obscurra series
• The Ungovernables – A Dungeons & Dragons series
• A Storm in a puddle – A Warhammer Fantasy series

For their members on Patreon, they also have a series titled Extra Role which features a round table type discussion, as well as having a collection of one-shots available.

• Follow Dice Company on Bluesky

About the Author