Exandria

Exandria is a world on the Material Plane and the primary setting of Critical Role. Exandria orbits a single sun and has two moons, Catha and Ruidus. Exandria has four continents on its surface, and is populated primarily by a wide variety of humanoid races. Like most places in the various Planes of Existence, Exandria is suffused with magic, which crosses its surface in flows of invisible energy called ley lines.

History
 The first known age of Exandrian history is the Founding, in which the gods came to Exandria and created the peoples that live in it, including elves, dwarves, humans, and many others. The gods fought alongside their creations against the elemental titans that already lived in Exandria, resulting in The Schism, which divided the gods between the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods The era ended with the titans banished to the Elemental Planes and the Betrayers banished to prisons in the Outer Planes.

The second age that followed was the Age of Arcanum, a long era characterized by mortalkind challenging the gods that created them and accomplishing grand feats of magic, such as great flying cities and even one mortal mage ascending to godhood. This era came to an end with another mage releasing the Betrayer Gods from their prisons, resulting in the Calamity, a centuries long war between the gods that ended with two-thirds of Exandria's population being wiped out. The Betrayers were imprisoned again, and the Prime Deities voluntarily withdrew from the world, erecting the Divine Gate to prevent them from returning to the Material Plane. This divine exodus came to be known as the Divergence.

The third era, known as the Post-Divergence, has seen mortalkind slowly reclaim what was lost from the Calamity and rebuild many new nations across Exandria's reshaped lands. The events of Critical Role take place in this era, with Campaign 1 beginning towards the end of the year 810 PD.

Calendar
An Exandrian year lasts 328 days over the course of 11 months. Each day is 24 hours in length and the 7 days of the week are named Miresen, Grissen, Whelsen, Conthsen, Folsen, Yulisen, and Da'leysen.

Continents

 * Tal'Dorei
 * A northern continent previously known as Gwessar, Tal'Dorei contains the eponymous Republic of Tal'Dorei, as well as the elven realm of Syngorn, the dwarven stronghold of Kraghammer, the city-state of Whitestone and far to the south, the hobgoblin empire of the Iron Authority.


 * Issylra
 * A continent northwest of Tal'Dorei that contains the region of Othanzia, which includes Vasselheim and Pyrah.


 * Marquet
 * A southern continent to the south of Issylra and the southwest of Tal'Dorei, it contains the erudite orcish society of the Court of the Lambent Path within the jungles of Aeshanadoor, the mountainous Taloned Highlands to the southwest, the lawless badlands of the Hellcatch Valley, the jungle valleys of the Oderan Wilds that occupy the Serpentwind Peaks in the northwest, and the vast Rumedam Desert and Panagrip Sands that cover a third of the landmass, at the heart of which lies the sprawling metropolis of Ank'Harel.


 * The Shattered Teeth
 * Formerly the continent of Domunas that was shattered apart at the beginning of the Calamity, this isolated archipelago of forty-three islands lies south of Wildemount, beyond a fog bank called the "Fool's Curtain".


 * Wildemount
 * Located to the east of Tal'Dorei, this continent contains the trade oriented Clovis Concord to the west along the Menagerie Coast, the austere Dwendalian Empire within Western Wynandir, and the secretive Kryn Dynasty in Eastern Wynandir.


 * Wildemount's Draconia is far enough east of Tal'Dorei's Whitestone that when teleporting from Whitestone in the morning, one arrives in the evening in Draconia.

Oceans

 * Frigid Depths: The cold ocean to the north of Issylra, Tal'Dorei, and Wildemount.
 * Lucidian Ocean: A vast ocean to the south-east of Tal'Dorei and south of Wildemount, containing the Shattered Teeth.
 * Ozmit Sea: The sea separating Tal'Dorei from Issylra and Marquet to its west.

Underdark
The Underdark is a vast subterranean region that exists below the continents of Exandria. A dark and hostile place, the Underdark is almost a world unto itself, with civilizations, monsters, politics, economies, and threats that may interact only sporadically or indirectly with the surface world. Notably, the Underdark has significant connections to the Far Realm, from which many aberrations emerge.

Satellites
Exandria has two moons, named Catha and Ruidus. Though often depicted close to each other, Catha and Ruidus have different orbits and can appear in different points in the sky.

Catha
Catha is similar in appearance to Earth's Moon, though it is closer to Exandria and appears larger in the sky. It has a 30 to 40 day cycle during which it waxes and wanes.

Ruidus
Ruidus appears smaller in Exandria's sky due to its further distance from the planet, and its deep reddish color gives it a dimmer glow. Unlike Catha, it has little to no effect on lycanthropy. It has a very slow orbit, taking around six months (up to 182 days) for a revolution, and is visible for about half of the year. Myths and rumors about Ruidus abound. Some believe it to be as old as the primordials, pre-dating the arrival of the deities in Exandria. Others believe it was created by the Betrayer Gods as part of an ongoing plan, which their defeat in the Calamity prevented them from enacting. Many cultures, across Exandria, believe it to be a sign of ill-omen.

Languages
Many different languages are spoken across Exandria. Common is the most widely spoken among humanoids, though most races also have their own language. A few regional languages are Naush, spoken by the Ki'Nau people along the Menagerie Coast; Marquesian, which is widely spoken throughout the continent of Marquet; and Zemnian, an important language within the Dwendalian Empire, spoken in the Zemni Fields region.

Map gallery
Eastern Exandria= Tal'Dorei= Wildemount= In-game map of Exandria=

Presence in 5th Edition
Outside of Critical Role and its own sourcebooks, the world of Exandria has been mentioned in various books and adventure modules within Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition:


 * The first mention was made in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, as the world where Arkhan the Cruel got the Hand of Vecna, a reference to Joe Manganiello's role at the end of Campaign 1.
 * In Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, the Flotket Alps of Wildemount are suggested as a possible alternative location to run the adventure, instead of using the world of Toril.
 * In Candlekeep Mysteries, different worlds and cities are offered to place the large library where the main plot of the book is focused. One of those worlds is Exandria, putting as examples of good locations the Soltryce Academy of Rexxentrum and the Cobalt Reserve in Westruun.
 * In The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, two NPCs are mentioned as people that arrived to the domain of Prismeer in the Feywild, coming from "the world of Tal'Dorei": Klee Westerly, a nonbinary human; and Hogus Pinsworth, a male stout halfling commoner.