Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, abbreviated as ExU: Calamity, is a four-part miniseries and the third installment of the Exandria Unlimited series. During the Age of Arcanum, six respected heroes discover a hidden corruption underneath Avalir, the city they've sworn to protect, and do everything they can to prevent The Calamity.

Premise
During the Age of Arcanum, the flying city of Avalir celebrates the eve of the Replenishing, the day Avalir completes its seven-year trip around Exandria and reunites with its sister city Cathmoíra on the continent of Domunas. The Ring of Brass, six friends who hold positions managing and leading Avalir, learn that Vespin Chloras is missing after a recent attempt to ascend to godhood like the Matron of Ravens. This leads them to the discovery of a corruption underneath Avalir, prompting them to try to stop the inevitable, The Calamity.

Cast

 * Travis Willingham as Cerrit Agrupnin, eisfuura Inquisitive rogue: Cerrit is a detective and Senior Sightwarden of the Eyes of Avalir. His attention is brought to the disappearance of Vespin Chloras, an archmage believed to have been attempting to copy the Raven Queen's ascension to godhood. Though he has seen many similar cases in the past, strange details of this one lead him to suspect something is amiss.
 * Aabria Iyengar as Laerryn Coramar-Seelie, elf wizard: Laerryn is Architect Arcane, tasked with keeping Avalir afloat and maintaining its magical infrastructure. She is dedicated to her work, including one that requires a piece of metal attuned to the Celestial Plane, and has just now reached a breakthrough on a project. She was married to, then divorced, Loquatius.
 * Sam Riegel as Loquatius Seelie, changeling bard/warlock: Loquatius is a broadcaster and journalist at the Herald's Tome who is deeply anxious about his broadcast ratings and print circulation numbers. He is similarly anxious about his relationship with Laerryn, and he appears to be seeking a reconciliation between them.
 * Lou Wilson as Nydas Okiro, human Draconic sorcerer/bard: Nydas is the guildmaster of the Golden Scythe, a guild of merchants and patron of a sorcerer's academy for children. Through his position at the guild, he oversees many of the logistical preparations for events in the city. He is struggling to receive payments from his merchants on time.
 * Marisha Ray as Patia Por'co, elf wizard: Patia is Keeper of Scrolls at the Library Incantatum and daughter of Imyr Por'co, the mage responsible for the final enchantments on the brumestone that lifted Avalir into the air. She is a member of the Ring of Silver but seeks to rise into the highest level of the city's hierarchy, the Ring of Gold.
 * Luis Carazo as Zerxus Ilerez, human paladin: Zerxus, First Knight of Avalir, receives his divine magic not through an oath to a god but through an oath to the people of Avalir. He grieves his late husband, Evandrin, and worries about his young estranged son, Elias. Zerxus is plagued by a recurring nightmare involving Asmodeus, Elias, and the phrase "Ghor Dranas".
 * Brennan Lee Mulligan as the Dungeon Master: The Dungeon Master is responsible for running the game, including devising encounters, managing the environment and world, playing the non-player characters, and structuring the story.

Calamity was the first appearance of Luis Carazo and Lou Wilson on a Critical Role Productions show. Aabria Iyengar was the Dungeon Master for the two previous Exandria Unlimited series, the eponymous Exandria Unlimited and Exandria Unlimited: Kymal, and played in the The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood specials. Brennan Lee Mulligan was previously a player in the special.

Laura Bailey was originally a member of the cast, but she left early in the character creation process due to scheduling conflicts. Marisha joined the cast in her place, and her character is an iteration of the early character concepts that Laura developed.

Production
Marisha Ray, creator of the Exandria Unlimited series, said that they were interested from the beginning in exploring different parts of Exandria's timeline. During development for Exandria Unlimited in 2021, Matthew Mercer, Dungeon Master for Critical Role, idly mentioned to Brennan during that he wanted to see a series set during the Age of Arcanum, prompting Brennan to begin developing the idea for Calamity. After a month or two, Marisha had Brennan pitch the concept. Calamity was in production for six months prior to its airing, with Brennan working closely with Matthew, Marisha, Lore Keeper Dani Carr, and producer Kyle Shire throughout. The finale was filmed on May 24, 2022.

Brennan pointed to Exandria Unlimited's shorter anthology structure as ideal for telling a tragedy. He credited the complexity of the tragedy to the players' skill at improvising hubristic, misguided, arrogant decisions that lead to disaster and said of them: "All of those six people are playing a D&D campaign backwards in high heels." He additionally pointed out that this narrative working toward an unavoidable end was uncommon in Dungeons & Dragons, "How many campaigns are you set to enact not only your own demise, but the demise of your civilization?"

Because the story was self-contained and taking place in an unusual time and place in the lore, instead of building their characters independently as they do for Critical Role, the cast built their characters together as a group and discussed their relationships to one another. They also discussed their individual places in the power structures of the city because Brennan wanted the party to be powerful from the beginning, playing what Marisha described as "characters who are in control and are movers and shakers".

During the week before the premiere, from May 20 to May 25, 2022, Critical Role hosted Instagram Story "takeovers" in which one cast member a day posted updates, including answering fan-submitted questions, throughout the day. Lou was unable to participate due to scheduling issues.

Episodes
Calamity is airing four episodes between May 26, 2022 and June 16, 2022 on consecutive Thursdays in place of Campaign 3, which took a break from broadcast during the series. Marisha said that this break was both to preventing "burning out" the audience, give Matt Mercer a break, and allow Calamity space to breathe.

Like all other Critical Role content, episodes will be broadcast on Twitch and YouTube with VODs posted to YouTube the following Tuesday and audio-only podcasts available the following Thursday.

Trivia

 * This is the campaign with the earliest in-universe chronological setting.