Alright Critters, we’re three-fourths of the way through ExU: Calamity with the third part airing tonight at 7:00 pm Pacific on Critical Role’s Twitch and YouTube.  How’s everyone holding up?  So far so good?  Excellent – it can only get better (or worse) from here, right? I got the chance to speak with Aabria Iyengar and Brennan Lee Mulligan and interview them about Exandria Unlimited: Calamity and about what it was like to dip their toes into a previously unexplored part of Exandrian history.

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity is a four-part mini-series from the minds at Critical Role.  It takes a step back in time, a thousand years before the events of Vox Machina, to explore the explosive end of the Age of Arcanum.

Interview Aabria Iyengar and Brennan Lee Mulligan

How does it feel to be handed the keys to Exandria and given the chance to mold it?

• Brennan: Surreal! Thrilling and daunting in all the best possible ways, humbling in the extreme. Everybody at the CR table has breathed such impossible beauty and life into this world over the course of years, and it is an incredible honor to be entrusted with helping craft a story within it, knowing how much this universe means to so many of my nearest and dearest. Exandria’s majesty knows no bounds: from the people playing within this world in their home games, to the people building out the universe at Darrington Press or The Legend of Vox Machina, it is a true gift to join the many skilled artisans who have fallen in love with Matt’s world and get the incredible opportunity to part the veil and journey into it themselves.

It’s your turn in the player’s seat for this series!  That’s exciting!  Without spoiling anything…  What can you tell us about your character and the part they have to play?

• Aabria: I was so excited to get to create a mage within the Age of Arcanum, so I really wanted to lean in. She’s absolutely one of the best and the brightest within a society that values achievement above all else – so she’s deeply competent, deeply confident, and hasn’t worried about anything as pesky as a conscience in years. She’s going to swing big!

What are you most excited for people to see?

• Brennan: This story is a rare kind of D&D: the players at the table know that doom is inevitable, and the characters wish desperately to avoid it. What you’re gonna watch is a masterclass in a compelling, riveting, heartbreaking type of role-playing, where each of those players is showing you the story of a fully realized character, while highlighting the flaws that may ultimately lead to their downfall.
• Aabria: This is a story of the end of an age and the hubris that ushered it in, and there’s the moment – that moment when the characters truly realize what’s happening and how impossibly high the stakes are. Brennan’s brilliant in so many ways as a storyteller; the sense of ownership he gave us as he painted the world makes the advent of the Calamity just that much more terrifying.

There is so much mystery surrounding the Age of Arcanum and the Calamity, do you think the series will answer fan theories and then some?

• Brennan: A fraction of a fraction, if that! The fun and glory of the Age of Arcanum is how rich and textured a time period it was: Even as we show you the city of Avalir and dive deep into its politics, lore, and arcana, there are so many other places of that time period left to explore! Fans who have long wanted insight into the zenith of that “golden age” will see the tip of the iceberg of what the Age of Arcanum had to offer.
• Aabria: I think more than answering specific theories, this story will shine a light on the vestiges of the age that still exist in ruin and legend across Exandria today. This is just one moment – an important one to be sure – in the world’s long and mysterious history.

On a scale of 1-10 how much emotional damage can we expect? 🙂

• Brennan: I tried to measure it precisely, but the bulb at the end of the damage-o-meter kept shattering with a loud, mournful wail. Is that bad?
• Aabria: THE LIMIT DOES NOT EXIST.

Make sure to check out the first two parts of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity available for VOD on Critical Role’s Twitch and YouTube channels!  VOD of tonight’s episode will be available to Twitch subscribers right after the broadcast and on YouTube the following Monday at 12pm Pacific!

Thanks to Aabria Iyengar and Brennan Lee Mulligan!