hahaha i really have Bryan, but it is so freaking worth it. This isn't just a Crit Role channel but it's a HUGE part of it. Glad to be apart of this with you all!
PD = post divergence. This is the measure of time (like BC or AD) from a fixed point. The divergence is when, as this vid explains, the good gods created the Divine Gate to lock all gods out of the material plane. There are many different planes; the “normal’ world is the material plane where humans and elves and dwarfs and such live. There’s wierd planes, dark planes, happy planes, all of which can be navigated with magic. The hard rule is that gods are locked out of the material plane by the Divine Gate, a self-imposed exclusion to avoid the disastrous wars that took place. Of course, godhood is tempting, so there’s always some shenanigans going on subvert this exclusion. Less important than the specifics, which Matt explains, is the idea that all the Critical Role campaigns take place in this world of Exandria that feels alive, thanks to Matt’s imagination. Although the players have agency to act and adventure and live and die, the world has a history and a future, and is constantly in motion. Vox Machina might be spending time, say, fighting the Briarwoods, but in the background, dragons were up to no good, as we saw in the show. Similarly, in the campaigns, players may meet a character, say, Gilmore, proprietor of Gilmore’s Glorious Goods in Emon. They may chat with him and learn he’s starting to franchise in other cities. As the party goes off on adventure, they may return months later and find Gilmore has opened up a store in another city. A year later, perhaps he has multiple stores on the continent and beyond. This gives a sense that the world keeps evolving around the player characters. So they exist in a living, breathing space.
@@midwestgeeks it’s truly an amazing thing. Matt made basically one town for a one time DND game with the crew to play for Liam’s birthday, and he kept adding stuff until now he has two published sourcebooks, three 100+ episode campaigns, a variety of spin-offs and specials and a damn tv show. Nuts
The events of the Calamity happened everywhere. It's mentioned quickly in the video that only 1/3 of the populations of Exandria survived(?) the Calamity. . P.D. stands for Post Divergence, after the gods left the world. . If you are interested in an intro to the Calamity, Exandria Unlimited: Calamity is IMMENSILY entertaining. It doesn't have any connection to any of the ongoing campaigns but give a wonderful primer in the kind of magic that was possible (and the arrogance that led to the Calamity). v minor spoilers: It also shows what kind of world was lost as you watch the primary campaigns. They go from a kind of standard fantasy medieval world to a post apocalypse feel, realizing that the world is rebuilding from an apocalypse and this is all that's left. . Welcome to the Critter family
@@midwestgeeks it's a mini campaign only 4 episodes so ONLY about 24 hrs lol. It's dm'd by Brennan Lee Mulligan, the DM over at dimension 20, with some regular CR crew and some guests. It's wonderful.
@@midwestgeeks Exandria Unlimited (or ExU) is their name for the mini series that are DMed by people other than Matt, but are still set in Exandria and also part of canon. So far there is a six episode mini series DMed by Aabria Iyengar, called just Exandria Unlimited, a two episode miniseries that's a continuation of that first one, called ExU: Kymal (which is the name of a city) and then there's the four episode mini series ExU:Calamity DMed by Brennan Lee Mulligan.
One thing I think gets lost is the fact that this all started as a "one shot" (a one-off game session) for Liam's birthday (in 2012). They had no plans of continuing it until the (future) cast decided that they had so much fun they wanted to keep playing. So, Matt kind of had to build it out from what was supposed to be a one-off game.
2:14 Divine Magic is any faith based magic, so if you're a cleric or a paladin or a druid that's your kind of magic (Technically in the preview for the next version of DnD druids aren't divine magic useres any more, they and rangers use primal magic, but that's not really relevant to Exandria). 2:34 So basically the Primordials were cool with these gods putting people on their world until they gave those people too much power for their liking. Then the Titans happened. 3:00 Arcane Magic is any other kind of magic, basically. Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, Warlocks all use that kind of magic (technically there'e also blood magic, which I think is it's own thing entirely, but I'm not sure about that) 4:30 that mortal is now the Raven Queen, goddess of fate and the moment of death 4:37 That other dude is called Vespin Chloras. Just in case you do want to watch EXU: Calamity. 7:08 So. The tall, skinny-ish, rectangle-ish continent is Tal'Dorei, formerly knows as Gwessar. Almost all of it is under rule ofthe kingdom of Tal'Dorei under Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei, a direct descendent of the badass lady Zan Tal'Dorei who did the conquering. On the west coast you've got the capital city of Emon, which is where Vox Machina is based at the time we meet them in the stream and LoVM. In the north you've got the Alabaster Sierras, that's where Whitestone is. Whitestone is not technically part of the kingdom, it's a sort of independent-ish city state, because while they couldn't keep up militarily with the whole rest of the continent, they're pretty much the only place where you can mine the raw material for Residuum, so they've got a pretty good bargaining chip and money to boot. 8:45 That's where Gilmore and Jarret are from and where C3 is currently happening. There's also lots of factions and politics there, but I'm not familiar enough with those yet to give a good overview. One thing maybe is that the biggest city is Ank'Harel. It's big and beautiful and strict. 9:50 nope, Exandria already existed, but was just sort of a chaotic melting pot of different elemental forces, when the gods arrived. Where did the gods come from? Who knows. All we know is they tamed those forces and created mortal peoples. 10:18 almost. The gods gave their creations divine magic, which the primordials didn't like, that's why the titans happened. Then was the conflict among the gods, splitting them into Prime Deities and Betrayer Gods. Then because of that conflict (with both the primordials and the Betrayer Gods) the Prime Deities showed the mortals how to make magic without their help (Arcane magic). That was the Schism. Then came the Age of Arcanum (mortals using arcane magic basically like technology, floating cities, hubris and loss of respect for divinity as a whole). During that was the ascencion of the Raven Queen (that mortal mage that defeated the previous god of death). Then this Vespin Chloras guy wanted to do the same, but in the process let out all the betrayer gods, which lead to another big, worldwide war, the Calamity. At the end of that, after the Betrayers were put back, the Prime Deities put up the Divine Gate, which took all of their combined power to create and would, presumably, also take that much power to take down, and since there's more Prime Deities than Betrayers, the Betrayers can't take it down. That's called the Divergence. Hence the new calendar using PD (post divergence) like we use BC/AD/CE to denote time after/before a certain point. 10:42 honestly, I'm not super sure on the history here either, but basically after the Calamity had wiped out all civilisation except for Vasselheim and 2/3 of the overall population one by one different peoples returned to what's now Tal'Dorei. I think the Dwarves were first, but they stayed int the mountains and then came the Elves, called the continent Gwessar, ad only after that came the humans, conflict ensued, the humans made it out on top, the continent now being named for their leader Zan Tal'Dorei. 11:14 The Calamity was a worldwide catastrophe happening basically everywhere at once. If you're talking about the mini series, that takes place in one of those flying Age of Arcanum cities called Avalir. That certainly was over Wildemount some of the time, but it kind of travelled all over Exandria.
I would definitely recommend starting with Campaign 1 for a couple reasons in no particular order: 1) It's the chronological order. You learn about things at the same rate as they are in game (and with all the background you've got now, you've even got a head start), as they become relevant. No need to worry about if you're missing something, because you literally know as much as the players do. 2) The story of Critical Role. That way you can see the cast's development in "real time", how they learned and grew and you can experience every milestone with them. You get to see not just the story of Vox Machina, but also the story of Matt and Marisha and Liam and Sam and Taliesin and Laura and Travis and Orion. 3) The in jokes and references. In C2 they intentionally tried to have as few ties to C1 as possible to make it easy for people to jump in without prior knowledge, but there are plenty of jokes and references that are just the most funny if you watch them in order. 4) The production value. When they started out, they didn't really know how to do this yet. They didn't have much of what you would call a budget and none of them had played DnD for an audience before. Why am I listing this under reasons you should start there? Because they get _a lot_ better and going backwards is difficult if you've been spoiled by gorgeous sets and battle maps and the level of professionalism they are at now. Because C1 is _so_ worth watching and watching them snack and talk over each other in excitement is maybe not the very best audio experience, but it has a charm of its own. 5) You already know the characters. They're already mostly a family when C1 starts. It's right into the story, getting to know characters and relationships while they're being battle tested. The beginning of C2 is very different in that the characters largely don't know each other and are generally not very trusting (except for Jester ofc) so it takes a long while to really get to know them and for them to get to know each other. Which is also cool and totally worth it, just not my personal preference. And no matter which campaign you start with, I know it's tempting to just skip over the intro and outro, but that's where you get to see the actual people behind the characters. Their antics and quirks and general silliness. You don't have to react to them, if you don't want to, but I'd recommend watching them all the same. 6)Oh my god, how could I forget, the FANART!!! Starting a bit into C1 they start showing reels of fanart they've recieved at the break. It's sometimes funnny, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes jawdroppingly gorgeous and always delightful. If you start with C2 you'd have to skip over that part, because there's always still fanart for C1 in the mix and that can get _quite_ spoilerific.
Took a screenshot of this because I am currently having family time and will have to reread this. It's just a lot to get started with haha... But man however the poll gods decide, I am excited either way.
Ahh, it's wonderful to see someone else fall in love with this world! I started watching at the start of Campaign 3 and it sure has been a ride hahaha. Also, I'm seeing a lot of people in the comments talk about what to start with, so: I know you already started with EXU:C, and that is a great choice for sure! It's short enough to not be a huge commitment to start with, but long enough to really get invested, and it's genuinely one of the best things I've ever watched. after Calamity, I recommend starting with Campaign 2. I haven't entirely finished it myself, but I'm not too far from the finish line. I have a shitty attention span and the first three episodes were a little rough for me, because i found them boring compared to the start of Campaign 3, but around E4-6 I was absolutely hooked. I've taken a bit of a break from it now, but for a while I was SPEEDING through campaign 2 at a breakneck speed, I LOVE that group you have no idea. god these characters got good If you skip the fanart sections *(WHICH YOU REALLY SHOULD IF YOU WANT TO AVOID C1/TLOVM SPOILERS, SERIOUSLY),* there's barely any spoilers in the actual campaign for anything prior. The reason I don't recommend starting with C1 is that the production quality can be pretty rough at times, so it's a pretty brutal jump from Calamity to C1. They also had a problem player for the first 26-27 episodes of the campaign who makes watching those episodes uncomfortable a lot of the time and really throws off the mood at the table, i feel. He left after, which is why his character isnt in tlovm. (so, if you do start with c1, you might want to ask c1 fans about where to start) Also might be good not to start with it if you want to watch future seasons of TLOVM without knowing the story prior. AND in C1 you're kind of just thrown into the middle of the campaign, because they were playing at home for like a year(?) before they ever began streaming, whereas with other campaigns you get to see the initial start of the story, the character introductions, the characters getting to know eachother etc. _(Disclaimer: im also pretty biased because half of VM isn't my vibe, personally, (love percy tho, lol) and I never did get through the full campaign. I watched to the end of the Briarwood arc and then I stopped.)_ And as much as it pains me to say this because Campaign 3 is what I started with and is the party that's closest to my heart, and because I have been hoping for someone to finally watch and react to the campaign from the start, I don't recommend you start with Campaign 3. The reason being that there's just too many Campaign 1/TLOVM spoilers, and maybe some Campaign 2 lore spoilers as well. :[ I love the C3 party to bits, I've been loving the story so far and the party is SUPER fun, but I cannot with a clean conscience ask you to start with it without warning you that there are major spoilers in there. EXU (the original one) I never watched and thus cant say much about in terms of spoilers. If you do watch it, it's probably a good idea to watch it between C2 and C3 though, timeline and character-wise. Please don't watch the EXU Kymal two-shot before being further into Campaign 3, as it picks up from some events from C3.
Let it be known that the Vestiges of Divergence that were pictured in this video are not the only vestiges in the entire planet of Exandria, there are more for each side of the gods, champions of the Prime deities get Vestiges while the champions of the Betrayer Gods get “Arms of the Betrayers”. The amount that was pictured is but a silver of the total amount of the vestiges and arms.
Answers to some of your questions! (And welcome to the Critter Community!) 1. P.D. stands for "Post-Divergence." This is the dating system used in Exandria. It refers to the time periods pre- and post- the "Divergence," which is when the Prime Deities set up the Divine Gate and separated themselves from the Prime Material Plane. 2. The events of the Calamity (which lasted for 100 years or more) took place *all* over Exandria. In a sense, we can think of post-Calamity Exandria as a "post-Apocalyptic" world. Of course there was more damage done in some places rather than others, which makes for some wild geographical variety! 3. The story of Vox Machina starts on Tal'Dorei, but without spoiling too much, I'll just say that their journey takes them to other continents at times. (The second campaign of Critical Role, the Mighty Nein, is set primarily in Wildemount, while Campaign 3 started in Marquet.)
I highly recommend starting with the Calamity mini series 👌, I almost would say start with campaign 2 or 3 after. People are gonna say they spoil the show but campaign 1 spoils the show lol so 🤷 , so far Campaign 3 has been the most fun for me.
I agree starting with Exandria Unlimited : Calamity is a good starting point. No spoilers, short enough that you can commit (4 episodes) but long enough to give you an idea what a full campaign might entail. After that, to avoid spoilers for the animation, I would go Campaign 2 - same world, different characters and story. Campaign 3 is still the same world and all new characters, but they tie in with campaign 1 quickly so... I would watch it last.
Honestly, the biggest reason I'd recommend against starting with Calamity (bc I agree it's a fantastic mini series) is that it's a bit of a hard transition from that level of production and professionalism to anything prior, especially C1, when they were fresh from the home game and didn't really know how this whole streaming thing works. It's very worth watching C1, but you do get spoiled (in the original sense of the word) by all the upgrades they get later down the line, both in equipment and performance. That and I personally like seeing the kind-of-meta story of Critical Role itself unfolding in order, around the actual gameplay, watching them get excited over their very first merch/Critter meetup etc. I'd recommend watching C1 til ep 36 (if you're concerned about LoVM spoilers, though I don't personally consider watching source material to be spoilers for an adaptation), then switching to C2. There you can watch til ep 93 without major C1 spoilers, but in-jokes and references will largely go over your head. By then S2 of LoVM will almost definitely be out and you can go back to C1. And really, once you're used to the show as it is in C1 you can go watch EXU: Calamity any time. Though again, references and in-jokes just won't be as good withough context.
Yeah, The intricacy of the worldbuilding is insane. Matt is just shy of writing his own language's at this point, it's really only a matter of time lol.
So, what this video doesn't really go into are the different planes. They're sort of like parallel dimensions, all with their own rules. I'll just run through the one's that come up most, if you're interested in more, there's a page called Planes of Existence on the CR wiki. Don't read past "The Cosmos" and you should be fine spoiler wise. So. The most important one for the show is the Prime Material Plane, that's where Exandria and its moons (Catha, a big white one, basically like our Moon and Ruidus, a smaller red one that's thought of as an ill omen) are. The next closest ones are the Feywild (that's where any and all Fey creatures come from, basically think Midsummer Night's Dream, Seelie and Unseelie courts, don't trust a fey to be straightforward about anything) and the Shadowfell (think undead stuff and general creepiness). Then there are four elemental planes, one for water, earth, fire and air. There are places in Exandria where the boundary between those planes and the Prime Material are weak and they kind of bleed over a little. That's where the Ashari people have settled who have made it their mission to watch over those rifts and make sure they don't open completely (Hence them being split into four sister tribes, Keyleth being from the Air Ashari). Then there are some evil aligned planes, among them the Abyss and The Nine Hells (confusingly, that's just one plane). Some on those are those prison planes that Matt mentioned, where the Betrayer Gods were locked up. There are also some good aligned planes, which is where the Prime Deities live, now that they're no longer able to be on Exandria. Elysium for example. The Divine Gate is, like you said, sort of like a force field around the Prime Material Plane, except it only stops actual deities from moving through it. Mortal people and lesser immortals have an easier time changing planes (not that it's easy, but easi_er_).
@@midwestgeeks Oh sure, all the time. This world hasn't stopped growing and every other episode there's new, juicy lore to learn. You're kind of being thrown in the deep end trying to get to know a world that took nearly a decade to develop to what it is now in just a couple weeks/months. Don't worry about keeping all this straight, I know it's a lot. You'll slowly absorb the relevant bits once you're in the middle of the story. I mostly just write these comments because I like talking about this stuff😅☺
Ok so this may be a spoiler, but Matt said that the Dragons were created to protect the people. But now we have one's that aren't good. Was there an event that made that happen was it a thing where they just evolved and some became bad?
@@theanyktos Keep them coming because though it's a lot to take in, I feed off you all's excitement about it so I love the comments and facts. Thank you so much for all of it!
@@midwestgeeks When the Gods split so did their dragons. The metalic dragons (Gold, Silver, Brass, Copper, Bronze) followed the prime deity Bahamut: The Platinum Dragon and are mostly good. The chromatic dragons (Red, Blue, Green, Black, White) followed Tiamat: The Dragon Queen and are mostly evil.
The main thing I would add to what others have said is that there were two great battles between the gods: The Schism is the first battle when the Primordial Titans rose and the gods split their allegiance between their mortal creations and the Primordial entities, becoming the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods. After the Schism, the Primordials were locked away into the elemental planes and Betrayers were sealed away in their prison dimension. The Calamity is the second battle which happened after the Age of Arcanum, a golden age of magic, invention, and mortal arrogance. One mortal used her arcane abilities to ascend to godhood, defeating and replacing the god of death. Another mortal, in a similar attempt to gain power, released the Betrayers, which led to a global conflict called the Calamity. The Calamity killed 2/3 of the planet's population and left massive scars across the land, some areas were more damaged than others (places where big battles between gods took place are more likely to have more lasting damage/weird magical effects/geographic oddities). After the Calamity, the Prime Deities created the Divine Gate (force shield) to protect the Prime Material Plane from unchecked divine magic. So now all the gods are locked away in their own dimensions, this is the Divergence. I will also say, that while all this background is great to have, it's not necessary to begin any of the campaigns. I started campaign 1, with no background information on Exandria or Critical Role (because there wasn't any available back then) and was able to learn as I watched. Much of this world has been created by Matt and co. as they played with Matt filling in lore as needed at first, before sitting down and actually creating what you've seen with more purpose as time went on. So, it's totally cool if you want to wing it, instead of learning all the background information. The Critter community can always answer any questions that come up.
@@midwestgeeks well I supper appreciate your enthusiasm and joy for this show and community! Your channel has been a lovely ray of sunshine and I hope we as a community can keep that positivity going as you continue your Critical Role journey.
If you're looking for more shows to add to your watch/react list, I highly recommend "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" (52 episodes) and "Masters of the Universe: Revelation" (10 episodes). The former is a full reboot/reimagining of She-Ra, while the latter is intended as a continuation and finale for the original He-Man series.
welcome to the crit family! my lord, there is a lot of content, good luck getting through it all but is a lot of fun if you do go through it! i see you watched exu calamity and i've been wanting to relive it but didn't really have all the time, so seems like a perfect way to do so! subbed now after watching the lvm reacts and the making of lvm, like the energy!
@@midwestgeeks Just so you know, some people recommend skipping C1 to go straight to C2 and those people are wrong, especially if you are interested in the worldbuilding. C1 is awesome and you should watch stuff in order. There are spoilers for C1 in C2 and spoilers for both C1 and C2 in C3 and all of the campaign related one shots have specific watch orders as well (you can think of them as bonus episodes for the campaigns). The reason you may get that recommendation from some people is that the start of C1 is a little rough for a couple of reasons, a major one being an extra player that thankfully is gone by episode 28 and some minor tech difficulties whereas C2 is more polished and professional from the very beginning. The animated series is awesome but it pales in comparison to the rich complicated storytelling of the original story (which isn't me being mean lol, they're only 20 minutes long, it's just physics at a certain point).
@@mayaenglish5424 yeah that part gets a little overwhelming for me to be honest when everyone has a different opinion on what to start with. That’s why I’m leaving it to the poll gods at first 😂😂😂… Looks like calamity is winning out.
It’s been so fun watching someone fall into the Crit Role rabbit hole as hard as a lot of us did!
hahaha i really have Bryan, but it is so freaking worth it. This isn't just a Crit Role channel but it's a HUGE part of it. Glad to be apart of this with you all!
PD = post divergence. This is the measure of time (like BC or AD) from a fixed point. The divergence is when, as this vid explains, the good gods created the Divine Gate to lock all gods out of the material plane. There are many different planes; the “normal’ world is the material plane where humans and elves and dwarfs and such live. There’s wierd planes, dark planes, happy planes, all of which can be navigated with magic. The hard rule is that gods are locked out of the material plane by the Divine Gate, a self-imposed exclusion to avoid the disastrous wars that took place. Of course, godhood is tempting, so there’s always some shenanigans going on subvert this exclusion.
Less important than the specifics, which Matt explains, is the idea that all the Critical Role campaigns take place in this world of Exandria that feels alive, thanks to Matt’s imagination. Although the players have agency to act and adventure and live and die, the world has a history and a future, and is constantly in motion. Vox Machina might be spending time, say, fighting the Briarwoods, but in the background, dragons were up to no good, as we saw in the show. Similarly, in the campaigns, players may meet a character, say, Gilmore, proprietor of Gilmore’s Glorious Goods in Emon. They may chat with him and learn he’s starting to franchise in other cities. As the party goes off on adventure, they may return months later and find Gilmore has opened up a store in another city. A year later, perhaps he has multiple stores on the continent and beyond. This gives a sense that the world keeps evolving around the player characters. So they exist in a living, breathing space.
Is it weird that hearing you all talk about his world like this gets my heart racing with excitement? hahaha... Literally just love stuff like this!
@@midwestgeeks it’s truly an amazing thing. Matt made basically one town for a one time DND game with the crew to play for Liam’s birthday, and he kept adding stuff until now he has two published sourcebooks, three 100+ episode campaigns, a variety of spin-offs and specials and a damn tv show. Nuts
@@OptionZero Absolute insanity lol.... But it's a very good thing. Freaking love stuff like this!
The events of the Calamity happened everywhere. It's mentioned quickly in the video that only 1/3 of the populations of Exandria survived(?) the Calamity.
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P.D. stands for Post Divergence, after the gods left the world.
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If you are interested in an intro to the Calamity, Exandria Unlimited: Calamity is IMMENSILY entertaining. It doesn't have any connection to any of the ongoing campaigns but give a wonderful primer in the kind of magic that was possible (and the arrogance that led to the Calamity). v minor spoilers: It also shows what kind of world was lost as you watch the primary campaigns. They go from a kind of standard fantasy medieval world to a post apocalypse feel, realizing that the world is rebuilding from an apocalypse and this is all that's left.
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Welcome to the Critter family
Holy Shit! That's freaking amazing! Thank you for that!.... So is Exandria Unlimited a Campaign as well or a guide like this?
@@midwestgeeks it's a mini campaign only 4 episodes so ONLY about 24 hrs lol. It's dm'd by Brennan Lee Mulligan, the DM over at dimension 20, with some regular CR crew and some guests. It's wonderful.
@@midwestgeeks Exandria Unlimited (or ExU) is their name for the mini series that are DMed by people other than Matt, but are still set in Exandria and also part of canon. So far there is a six episode mini series DMed by Aabria Iyengar, called just Exandria Unlimited, a two episode miniseries that's a continuation of that first one, called ExU: Kymal (which is the name of a city) and then there's the four episode mini series ExU:Calamity DMed by Brennan Lee Mulligan.
@@liz869 NOTED!!! Thank you!!!
@@midwestgeeks And let me tell you, ExU: Calamity is AMAZING. High-level characters, high-level storytelling, high-level roleplaying.
One thing I think gets lost is the fact that this all started as a "one shot" (a one-off game session) for Liam's birthday (in 2012). They had no plans of continuing it until the (future) cast decided that they had so much fun they wanted to keep playing. So, Matt kind of had to build it out from what was supposed to be a one-off game.
Yeah that is just an amazing thing. Just proves that true storytelling is so freaking important!
2:14 Divine Magic is any faith based magic, so if you're a cleric or a paladin or a druid that's your kind of magic (Technically in the preview for the next version of DnD druids aren't divine magic useres any more, they and rangers use primal magic, but that's not really relevant to Exandria).
2:34 So basically the Primordials were cool with these gods putting people on their world until they gave those people too much power for their liking. Then the Titans happened.
3:00 Arcane Magic is any other kind of magic, basically. Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, Warlocks all use that kind of magic (technically there'e also blood magic, which I think is it's own thing entirely, but I'm not sure about that)
4:30 that mortal is now the Raven Queen, goddess of fate and the moment of death
4:37 That other dude is called Vespin Chloras. Just in case you do want to watch EXU: Calamity.
7:08 So. The tall, skinny-ish, rectangle-ish continent is Tal'Dorei, formerly knows as Gwessar. Almost all of it is under rule ofthe kingdom of Tal'Dorei under Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei, a direct descendent of the badass lady Zan Tal'Dorei who did the conquering.
On the west coast you've got the capital city of Emon, which is where Vox Machina is based at the time we meet them in the stream and LoVM.
In the north you've got the Alabaster Sierras, that's where Whitestone is. Whitestone is not technically part of the kingdom, it's a sort of independent-ish city state, because while they couldn't keep up militarily with the whole rest of the continent, they're pretty much the only place where you can mine the raw material for Residuum, so they've got a pretty good bargaining chip and money to boot.
8:45 That's where Gilmore and Jarret are from and where C3 is currently happening. There's also lots of factions and politics there, but I'm not familiar enough with those yet to give a good overview. One thing maybe is that the biggest city is Ank'Harel. It's big and beautiful and strict.
9:50 nope, Exandria already existed, but was just sort of a chaotic melting pot of different elemental forces, when the gods arrived. Where did the gods come from? Who knows. All we know is they tamed those forces and created mortal peoples.
10:18 almost. The gods gave their creations divine magic, which the primordials didn't like, that's why the titans happened. Then was the conflict among the gods, splitting them into Prime Deities and Betrayer Gods. Then because of that conflict (with both the primordials and the Betrayer Gods) the Prime Deities showed the mortals how to make magic without their help (Arcane magic).
That was the Schism.
Then came the Age of Arcanum (mortals using arcane magic basically like technology, floating cities, hubris and loss of respect for divinity as a whole). During that was the ascencion of the Raven Queen (that mortal mage that defeated the previous god of death).
Then this Vespin Chloras guy wanted to do the same, but in the process let out all the betrayer gods, which lead to another big, worldwide war, the Calamity.
At the end of that, after the Betrayers were put back, the Prime Deities put up the Divine Gate, which took all of their combined power to create and would, presumably, also take that much power to take down, and since there's more Prime Deities than Betrayers, the Betrayers can't take it down.
That's called the Divergence. Hence the new calendar using PD (post divergence) like we use BC/AD/CE to denote time after/before a certain point.
10:42 honestly, I'm not super sure on the history here either, but basically after the Calamity had wiped out all civilisation except for Vasselheim and 2/3 of the overall population one by one different peoples returned to what's now Tal'Dorei. I think the Dwarves were first, but they stayed int the mountains and then came the Elves, called the continent Gwessar, ad only after that came the humans, conflict ensued, the humans made it out on top, the continent now being named for their leader Zan Tal'Dorei.
11:14 The Calamity was a worldwide catastrophe happening basically everywhere at once. If you're talking about the mini series, that takes place in one of those flying Age of Arcanum cities called Avalir. That certainly was over Wildemount some of the time, but it kind of travelled all over Exandria.
I am so in love with this world it is insane haha
I would definitely recommend starting with Campaign 1 for a couple reasons in no particular order:
1) It's the chronological order. You learn about things at the same rate as they are in game (and with all the background you've got now, you've even got a head start), as they become relevant. No need to worry about if you're missing something, because you literally know as much as the players do.
2) The story of Critical Role. That way you can see the cast's development in "real time", how they learned and grew and you can experience every milestone with them. You get to see not just the story of Vox Machina, but also the story of Matt and Marisha and Liam and Sam and Taliesin and Laura and Travis and Orion.
3) The in jokes and references. In C2 they intentionally tried to have as few ties to C1 as possible to make it easy for people to jump in without prior knowledge, but there are plenty of jokes and references that are just the most funny if you watch them in order.
4) The production value. When they started out, they didn't really know how to do this yet. They didn't have much of what you would call a budget and none of them had played DnD for an audience before. Why am I listing this under reasons you should start there? Because they get _a lot_ better and going backwards is difficult if you've been spoiled by gorgeous sets and battle maps and the level of professionalism they are at now. Because C1 is _so_ worth watching and watching them snack and talk over each other in excitement is maybe not the very best audio experience, but it has a charm of its own.
5) You already know the characters. They're already mostly a family when C1 starts. It's right into the story, getting to know characters and relationships while they're being battle tested. The beginning of C2 is very different in that the characters largely don't know each other and are generally not very trusting (except for Jester ofc) so it takes a long while to really get to know them and for them to get to know each other. Which is also cool and totally worth it, just not my personal preference.
And no matter which campaign you start with, I know it's tempting to just skip over the intro and outro, but that's where you get to see the actual people behind the characters. Their antics and quirks and general silliness. You don't have to react to them, if you don't want to, but I'd recommend watching them all the same.
6)Oh my god, how could I forget, the FANART!!! Starting a bit into C1 they start showing reels of fanart they've recieved at the break. It's sometimes funnny, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes jawdroppingly gorgeous and always delightful. If you start with C2 you'd have to skip over that part, because there's always still fanart for C1 in the mix and that can get _quite_ spoilerific.
Took a screenshot of this because I am currently having family time and will have to reread this. It's just a lot to get started with haha... But man however the poll gods decide, I am excited either way.
@@midwestgeeks have fun:)
@@theanyktos With you all and Critical Role, I have no doubt lol.... Really do appreciate your help and comments!
PD is post divergence, when the gods left the world.
AWESOME! Thank you so much for that!!! It's so much fun learning this stuff. Little overwhelming at times, but so worth it!
@@midwestgeeks oh for sure!! We'll answer questions as best we can.
Ahh, it's wonderful to see someone else fall in love with this world! I started watching at the start of Campaign 3 and it sure has been a ride hahaha.
Also, I'm seeing a lot of people in the comments talk about what to start with, so:
I know you already started with EXU:C, and that is a great choice for sure! It's short enough to not be a huge commitment to start with, but long enough to really get invested, and it's genuinely one of the best things I've ever watched.
after Calamity, I recommend starting with Campaign 2. I haven't entirely finished it myself, but I'm not too far from the finish line. I have a shitty attention span and the first three episodes were a little rough for me, because i found them boring compared to the start of Campaign 3, but around E4-6 I was absolutely hooked. I've taken a bit of a break from it now, but for a while I was SPEEDING through campaign 2 at a breakneck speed, I LOVE that group you have no idea. god these characters got good
If you skip the fanart sections *(WHICH YOU REALLY SHOULD IF YOU WANT TO AVOID C1/TLOVM SPOILERS, SERIOUSLY),* there's barely any spoilers in the actual campaign for anything prior.
The reason I don't recommend starting with C1 is that the production quality can be pretty rough at times, so it's a pretty brutal jump from Calamity to C1. They also had a problem player for the first 26-27 episodes of the campaign who makes watching those episodes uncomfortable a lot of the time and really throws off the mood at the table, i feel. He left after, which is why his character isnt in tlovm. (so, if you do start with c1, you might want to ask c1 fans about where to start)
Also might be good not to start with it if you want to watch future seasons of TLOVM without knowing the story prior. AND in C1 you're kind of just thrown into the middle of the campaign, because they were playing at home for like a year(?) before they ever began streaming, whereas with other campaigns you get to see the initial start of the story, the character introductions, the characters getting to know eachother etc.
_(Disclaimer: im also pretty biased because half of VM isn't my vibe, personally, (love percy tho, lol) and I never did get through the full campaign. I watched to the end of the Briarwood arc and then I stopped.)_
And as much as it pains me to say this because Campaign 3 is what I started with and is the party that's closest to my heart, and because I have been hoping for someone to finally watch and react to the campaign from the start, I don't recommend you start with Campaign 3. The reason being that there's just too many Campaign 1/TLOVM spoilers, and maybe some Campaign 2 lore spoilers as well. :[ I love the C3 party to bits, I've been loving the story so far and the party is SUPER fun, but I cannot with a clean conscience ask you to start with it without warning you that there are major spoilers in there.
EXU (the original one) I never watched and thus cant say much about in terms of spoilers. If you do watch it, it's probably a good idea to watch it between C2 and C3 though, timeline and character-wise.
Please don't watch the EXU Kymal two-shot before being further into Campaign 3, as it picks up from some events from C3.
Let it be known that the Vestiges of Divergence that were pictured in this video are not the only vestiges in the entire planet of Exandria, there are more for each side of the gods, champions of the Prime deities get Vestiges while the champions of the Betrayer Gods get “Arms of the Betrayers”. The amount that was pictured is but a silver of the total amount of the vestiges and arms.
Holy Shit! WOW just WOW..... I am literally salivating to finally start this journey with you all hahaha
@@midwestgeeks and i am excited to see you fully immerse yourself into this truly wondrous world that i love with my whole heart
@@KaraOni13 Thank you for the kind words and for the encouragement! Part 1 of the campaign coming out this week!!!
Answers to some of your questions! (And welcome to the Critter Community!)
1. P.D. stands for "Post-Divergence." This is the dating system used in Exandria. It refers to the time periods pre- and post- the "Divergence," which is when the Prime Deities set up the Divine Gate and separated themselves from the Prime Material Plane.
2. The events of the Calamity (which lasted for 100 years or more) took place *all* over Exandria. In a sense, we can think of post-Calamity Exandria as a "post-Apocalyptic" world. Of course there was more damage done in some places rather than others, which makes for some wild geographical variety!
3. The story of Vox Machina starts on Tal'Dorei, but without spoiling too much, I'll just say that their journey takes them to other continents at times. (The second campaign of Critical Role, the Mighty Nein, is set primarily in Wildemount, while Campaign 3 started in Marquet.)
I highly recommend starting with the Calamity mini series 👌, I almost would say start with campaign 2 or 3 after. People are gonna say they spoil the show but campaign 1 spoils the show lol so 🤷 , so far Campaign 3 has been the most fun for me.
I just told someone that I may be screwed bc I am leaving it in you all's hands in the poll in the community tab haha...
I agree starting with Exandria Unlimited : Calamity is a good starting point. No spoilers, short enough that you can commit (4 episodes) but long enough to give you an idea what a full campaign might entail. After that, to avoid spoilers for the animation, I would go Campaign 2 - same world, different characters and story. Campaign 3 is still the same world and all new characters, but they tie in with campaign 1 quickly so... I would watch it last.
Honestly, the biggest reason I'd recommend against starting with Calamity (bc I agree it's a fantastic mini series) is that it's a bit of a hard transition from that level of production and professionalism to anything prior, especially C1, when they were fresh from the home game and didn't really know how this whole streaming thing works. It's very worth watching C1, but you do get spoiled (in the original sense of the word) by all the upgrades they get later down the line, both in equipment and performance.
That and I personally like seeing the kind-of-meta story of Critical Role itself unfolding in order, around the actual gameplay, watching them get excited over their very first merch/Critter meetup etc.
I'd recommend watching C1 til ep 36 (if you're concerned about LoVM spoilers, though I don't personally consider watching source material to be spoilers for an adaptation), then switching to C2. There you can watch til ep 93 without major C1 spoilers, but in-jokes and references will largely go over your head. By then S2 of LoVM will almost definitely be out and you can go back to C1. And really, once you're used to the show as it is in C1 you can go watch EXU: Calamity any time. Though again, references and in-jokes just won't be as good withough context.
@@UncleFanley So it wouldn't be a good idea to go from Exandria Unlimited straight into Calamity?
@@theanyktos Thank you for that! Wow this is a lot to digest haha
Yeah, The intricacy of the worldbuilding is insane. Matt is just shy of writing his own language's at this point, it's really only a matter of time lol.
So, what this video doesn't really go into are the different planes. They're sort of like parallel dimensions, all with their own rules. I'll just run through the one's that come up most, if you're interested in more, there's a page called Planes of Existence on the CR wiki. Don't read past "The Cosmos" and you should be fine spoiler wise.
So. The most important one for the show is the Prime Material Plane, that's where Exandria and its moons (Catha, a big white one, basically like our Moon and Ruidus, a smaller red one that's thought of as an ill omen) are.
The next closest ones are the Feywild (that's where any and all Fey creatures come from, basically think Midsummer Night's Dream, Seelie and Unseelie courts, don't trust a fey to be straightforward about anything) and the Shadowfell (think undead stuff and general creepiness).
Then there are four elemental planes, one for water, earth, fire and air. There are places in Exandria where the boundary between those planes and the Prime Material are weak and they kind of bleed over a little. That's where the Ashari people have settled who have made it their mission to watch over those rifts and make sure they don't open completely (Hence them being split into four sister tribes, Keyleth being from the Air Ashari).
Then there are some evil aligned planes, among them the Abyss and The Nine Hells (confusingly, that's just one plane). Some on those are those prison planes that Matt mentioned, where the Betrayer Gods were locked up.
There are also some good aligned planes, which is where the Prime Deities live, now that they're no longer able to be on Exandria. Elysium for example.
The Divine Gate is, like you said, sort of like a force field around the Prime Material Plane, except it only stops actual deities from moving through it. Mortal people and lesser immortals have an easier time changing planes (not that it's easy, but easi_er_).
Wow it really is a lot to take in isn't it? hahaha... So worth it.... Are you all still learning things I assume being the experts that you are?
@@midwestgeeks Oh sure, all the time. This world hasn't stopped growing and every other episode there's new, juicy lore to learn.
You're kind of being thrown in the deep end trying to get to know a world that took nearly a decade to develop to what it is now in just a couple weeks/months. Don't worry about keeping all this straight, I know it's a lot. You'll slowly absorb the relevant bits once you're in the middle of the story. I mostly just write these comments because I like talking about this stuff😅☺
Ok so this may be a spoiler, but Matt said that the Dragons were created to protect the people. But now we have one's that aren't good. Was there an event that made that happen was it a thing where they just evolved and some became bad?
@@theanyktos Keep them coming because though it's a lot to take in, I feed off you all's excitement about it so I love the comments and facts. Thank you so much for all of it!
@@midwestgeeks When the Gods split so did their dragons. The metalic dragons (Gold, Silver, Brass, Copper, Bronze) followed the prime deity Bahamut: The Platinum Dragon and are mostly good. The chromatic dragons (Red, Blue, Green, Black, White) followed Tiamat: The Dragon Queen and are mostly evil.
The main thing I would add to what others have said is that there were two great battles between the gods: The Schism is the first battle when the Primordial Titans rose and the gods split their allegiance between their mortal creations and the Primordial entities, becoming the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods. After the Schism, the Primordials were locked away into the elemental planes and Betrayers were sealed away in their prison dimension. The Calamity is the second battle which happened after the Age of Arcanum, a golden age of magic, invention, and mortal arrogance. One mortal used her arcane abilities to ascend to godhood, defeating and replacing the god of death. Another mortal, in a similar attempt to gain power, released the Betrayers, which led to a global conflict called the Calamity. The Calamity killed 2/3 of the planet's population and left massive scars across the land, some areas were more damaged than others (places where big battles between gods took place are more likely to have more lasting damage/weird magical effects/geographic oddities). After the Calamity, the Prime Deities created the Divine Gate (force shield) to protect the Prime Material Plane from unchecked divine magic. So now all the gods are locked away in their own dimensions, this is the Divergence.
I will also say, that while all this background is great to have, it's not necessary to begin any of the campaigns. I started campaign 1, with no background information on Exandria or Critical Role (because there wasn't any available back then) and was able to learn as I watched. Much of this world has been created by Matt and co. as they played with Matt filling in lore as needed at first, before sitting down and actually creating what you've seen with more purpose as time went on. So, it's totally cool if you want to wing it, instead of learning all the background information. The Critter community can always answer any questions that come up.
Super appreciate you and your comments! You have no clue how much! :)
@@midwestgeeks well I supper appreciate your enthusiasm and joy for this show and community! Your channel has been a lovely ray of sunshine and I hope we as a community can keep that positivity going as you continue your Critical Role journey.
@@mollymawkery I have zero doubt! That’s why my buddy has been getting into it bc you all have been so positive and amazing so thank you!
Been waiting for this! Love the world building Matt gives us! Thanks for the upload king, it makes my day!
Glad to do it!!! It was a good call on your part bc I truly feel like I learned alot from it and it made me want so much more lol
If you're looking for more shows to add to your watch/react list, I highly recommend "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" (52 episodes) and "Masters of the Universe: Revelation" (10 episodes). The former is a full reboot/reimagining of She-Ra, while the latter is intended as a continuation and finale for the original He-Man series.
SWEET!! Thank you for that Andrew!!! Seriously appreciate that!!!
This info is gonna help you for season 2! Going in well informed
This has been an amazing journey to say the least!
welcome to the crit family! my lord, there is a lot of content, good luck getting through it all but is a lot of fun if you do go through it! i see you watched exu calamity and i've been wanting to relive it but didn't really have all the time, so seems like a perfect way to do so! subbed now after watching the lvm reacts and the making of lvm, like the energy!
Thank you so much!!!! Love the comment and unbelievably nice words!!! It’s gonna be a fun journey!
I recommend you look at a couple of Hearthstone trailers, preferably Scholomance Academy and Kobolds & Catacombs (which is narrated AND sung by Matt)
Oh wow that's freaking cool! Yeah I will definitely check that out! Thanks so much!!! Matt is just a gem!
@@midwestgeeks Here's another one...there's actually a oneshot D&D campaign based off Kobolds & Catacombs on UA-cam; specifically the CR page
@@sadlobster1 hell yeah! Thanks!
@@midwestgeeks You're welcome and here's the link to the oneshot
ua-cam.com/video/qA4-q4gk_yY/v-deo.html
oh, you haven't seen EXU:Calamity yet. Buckle up, Buckeroo.
I have not! I am completely new to all of this. I am letting the Poll gods decide my fate hahaha
@@midwestgeeks Welcome to the fandom, my guy. You're in for a treat.
@@NathanRitchie beyond excited!!
@@midwestgeeks Just so you know, some people recommend skipping C1 to go straight to C2 and those people are wrong, especially if you are interested in the worldbuilding. C1 is awesome and you should watch stuff in order. There are spoilers for C1 in C2 and spoilers for both C1 and C2 in C3 and all of the campaign related one shots have specific watch orders as well (you can think of them as bonus episodes for the campaigns).
The reason you may get that recommendation from some people is that the start of C1 is a little rough for a couple of reasons, a major one being an extra player that thankfully is gone by episode 28 and some minor tech difficulties whereas C2 is more polished and professional from the very beginning.
The animated series is awesome but it pales in comparison to the rich complicated storytelling of the original story (which isn't me being mean lol, they're only 20 minutes long, it's just physics at a certain point).
@@mayaenglish5424 yeah that part gets a little overwhelming for me to be honest when everyone has a different opinion on what to start with. That’s why I’m leaving it to the poll gods at first 😂😂😂… Looks like calamity is winning out.