🔗 Share this article

Critical Role's fourth campaign explores the fresh world of Aramán, a universe vastly different from the familiar former world where past adventures took place. In this realm, deities met their end by people merely 70 years ago, arcane forces run rampant, and society must figure out how to rule their communities absent godly guidance.

The World of Campaign 4

Whereas Exandria exemplifies a universe shaped by divine presence, this new world is defined by their total nonexistence. Seventy years ago, a monumental conflict unfolded, and humanity defeated the last of divine beings. The seven lords of creation now gone, humanity had to make do by themselves in a changed existence, filled with chaotic sorcery and uncertainty.

The main setting for the premiere is Dol-Makjar, located on the eastern edge of a territory known as Kahad. This mountain city deeply respects the revolutionary heroes of the Shapers' War. Sculptures of these figures project from the fortifications of the settlement, confronting nearby peaks seemingly restraining them.

Whereas Dol-Makjar serves as the beginning location, numerous other sites are named during the story. One notable place is the Rookery, evidently the cultural neighborhood of the city, where performers, wordsmiths, thespians, and everything in between reside. Within this neighborhood that the story unfolds the majority of the episode during the initial installment. This is also where the performance venue, the Dithyramb of Azgra, is located.

Further into Kahad sits a different settlement called Dol-Rungja, although its important regarding this place has yet to be revealed.

Tir Cruthu embodies the land of mythical beings and an obscure realm outside the material world. Apparently this fairy realm is gone, though, and the portal to the fae realm is shut. The significance of this development is yet to be revealed, but it's evident to influence this character, who has now begun to age since getting disconnected from that dimension.

Finally, there is the Mournvale, a land distant from the primary setting and where this character and a particular group live. It appears the realm of elvenkind, but again, numerous details remain a mystery at present.

The Story of Campaign 4

The plot starts in the settlement of the mountain city. At the start of the installment, the city's inhabitants come together for a very important event: the capital punishment of the central figure. Per the official, this individual is going to be executed for serving as "a traitor, arcanist, killer, and obvious insurrection against the city and its people." This individual previously a celebrated soldier, but presently he's seen as an outlaw by the ruling council to the leadership group.

During the execution, numerous distinct people with relationships to him gather to watch. These constitute the central figures for the campaign, comprising Azune Nayar, another individual, a third person, Halandil Fang, Thimble, a sixth person, Wicander Halovar, an eighth individual, Tyranny, a tenth character, Bolaire Lothaire, Kattigan Vale and Vaelus. A handful of these characters seek to free Thjazi; though, the attempt proves unsuccessful and Thjazi is put to death.

Thjazi's death triggers the storyline of the fourth campaign, but everything is tightly connected to the contemporary background of the setting of Aramán. Seventy years before present circumstances, after the defining battle with the final deity getting destroyed, people needed to confront the dilemma: what comes next? Magic rapidly became uncontrolled and erratic absent deities existing, and the uncertainty about the final resting place of the dead travel, given that deities are no longer available to transport them to the next world, remains explained.

Predictably, mortalkind joined forces and started constructing their civilization fresh. Nevertheless, as expected, not everyone approved of the direction this changed existence would look like. Despite limited knowledge extensive details regarding the War of Axe and Vine, it gets referenced multiple instances in the first episode, and this individual was regarded a celebrated soldier after that war came to an end. Nevertheless, two years later, the character launched the Falconer's Rebellion against the ruling families of Dol-Makjar. The cause is still revealed, but considering that Thjazi states that the ruling clans "are stronger than ever", viewers can infer two things: the Rebellion failed and the Sundered Houses' authority persists as total in the city of Dol-Makjar.

Furthermore, with magic functioning unpredictably, it appears to be regulated and strictly supervised. Pretty different from the way sorcery get regarded in considerably more positive light in Exandria.

The Characters of This Adventure

Alongside the primary characters, viewers meet numerous notable supporting characters in the community of the mountain city.

Foremost among them is, of course, Thjazi Fang. A rascal, a criminal, a revolutionary, a romantic, a sibling, a celebrated figure: This character acts as the focal point regarding which the first episode {centers|focuses|revol