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.

Cast

 * Luis Carazo as Zerxus Ilerus, human paladin
 * Aabria Iyengar as Laerryn Coramar-Seelie, elf wizard
 * Marisha Ray
 * Sam Riegel as Loquatius Seelie, changeling bard/warlock
 * Travis Willingham
 * Lou Wilson as Nydas Okiro, human Draconic sorcerer/bard
 * Brennan Lee Mulligan as the Dungeon Master

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.