Welcome to Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. If you were expecting a fun one, you're not getting one! This is a story of grief, betrayal, loss, and the panic of the coming of a new age, Calamity.
That's right! We're doing a prequel series!
We are going to be telling a story of a different age in Exandria, an age long past. Rumors and legends abound of this time period in the world. This is prior to any Vestiges of Divergence. Prior to the coming of the Divine Gate and the departure of the dieties into realms beyond Exandria. You will find no Tal'Dorei in this version of this world. For, indeed, it has not yet received that name. It is known by its Elven name, Gwessar. We journey to an age long ago to tell a story perhaps of a more sorrowful and bitter time. Shadows stalk this world. Come with us, but please only if you dare.
Available for viewing on YouTube and Twitch
Runtime Break start 6h 8m 2h 41m
Episode 4: Fire and Ruin
Folks, if you're tuning in, this is the fourth and final episode of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity.
Lou:"a.k.a. 'The Fun One'"
"The Fun One." A return to an Age of Arcanum and that age is ending. Here in the world of Exandria you have bee kind enough to follow us for our first three episodes. You know that things are looking grim for The Ring of Brass. It is a true pleasure, honor, and joy to play at the table with all of these six amazing people. And it is a pleasure, joy, and honor to play this game and share it with all of you at home. Thank you for watching.
This is a story of tragedy, loss, and betrayal and we hope that you know, that, within those tales of woe, those grim tidings, we tell this story for a love of stories and for all of y'all at home
Im buttering you up because I'm about to make you quite sad. I don't plan to murder All of you because I think some of you may murder one another. Heeyyy! We're having a fun time.
Betrayal, murder, ruin, the ending of an age. A tragedy of calamitous proportions.
Hey, gang.
Fire.
Everything feels slow. There is movement and there is heat. But the only noise you can hear, despite all this chaos, is breath. It's yours. But it's also a stranger's. Things are expanding once again, Zerxus. Fire moving outward, fast at first, and then slow, as though through glass time. Near you in space is your oldest friend, Nydas, and the oldest friend of your husband Evandrin, Laerryn. All of you are suspended in time. The beginnings of a force more powerful than you have ever felt are starting to pick you up off the stone floor like paper dolls.
Before you, the sundered Tree of Names is erupting into fire, and your companions, Patia and Loquatius, standing right next to it. You, in frozen time, will have a front row seat to see what happens to them.
The first thing we are going to resolve is the branches of The Tree of Names that struck out at each of you.
Alternate Frontend VoD
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Previous Episode Discussion
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Scablamity and earlier, at the top of the episode, Santa Orgy.
So, Avalir, fire spreads. We return in this moment to the City of Crowns. As we do, I think we will actually begin at the Archsept, with Patia Por'co, the closest place to the Hall of Prophecy. Patia, you arrive and see the Archsept untouched. There are active magical wards here repelling extraplanar beings that are not extended throughout the entirety of the city. You enter and see the lights dimmed by the coming of the middle of the night. You see the, sort of, soft red lights around in the dome. Your grandfather, the statue of Imyr the Bold, above you. As you enter the Archsept, what do you do?
"Let us, if we can, if it is alright with you, consider this the boon, and I would like to be paid for my parade appearance."
Loquatius:"If a woman named Bolo calls, just ignore her."
(continued)
Brennan leaves to get a beverage and chugs part of it, "We're off keto. In that moment."
Aabria:"I do believe the man has said, 'come get some'."
Travis:"She wants that smoke!"
Zerxus:"The bar has been broken!"
Aabria:"He knows what he's doing. (cutesy voice) He a monstar. A beautiful monstar. Huh!"
Brennan:"Avalir, be damned. No more mistakes. The names are locked into place. You inscribe the final syllables of the list of all the hundreds of the names that Patia learned. They're fixed into the crystal. This cannot miss. Patia, that's your turn."
Marisha:"Down with the ship."
Natural 20. (the crowd goes wild)
Brennan writes down the remaining health of Vespin as 35. Cerrit hits for 67.
"How Do You Want To Do This?"
Fan Art Moment Cerrit's tomahawk strike penetrating Vespin's arcane shield and sinking into the side of his head.
Travis:"Sam fucking Riegel."
(continued)
Epilogue
Are you the woman who doomed the world or are you the woman who saved it?
Are all of you the heroes that you strove to be, or the villains that, from time to time, you might've been afraid you were becoming?
In a world with this much power, what can be said to be the difference?
Far away the Eldritch Battery, with the names of the Emperor and Empress, alights. Lime green energy rushing through the city. As the city docks atop Cathmoira, the sun threatening to rise above the horizon, the energy rushes into the ground, their names inscribed, to break the ancient wards, to release the Primordials, a Colossus of Fire, a Titan of Earth, to join The Betrayers and bring eternal torment to Exandria.
That is what was foretold. If the Primordials joined, all would be lost.
Dying from his injuries, but smiling because he completed his last instructions, Calum Staffwright connected the broken battery back to the Etheric Net and put it online for you. It is nice, perhaps, to know that a woman of your singular genius was not completely alone.
The energy rushes into the earth, connected to the Leywright, and swirls, preparing to summon them back into Exandria. And instead, the Leywright crafts a path away from this world.
You made your choice.
Safety for Avalir and Cathmoira, and the lands of Domunas, or certainty that Exandria in some form would survive the coming Calamity.
As the magic flows, the Taxmen suddenly stop, and you hear a voice coming through them from the Lord of Hells.
"What?! What have you done?"
Energy erupts, the ground shakes, and the leyline angles up into the heavens. You hear the ground trembling.
"No! No! Nooo!...Well, if Domunas is the smile of Exandria, then let's shatter her teeth!"
In these final moments, there are many things that you do not see, but it would be right for you to know. A ship of sorcerous children: a young Triton girl, a little dragon sorceror boy, and a man whose hat has been freshly de-candled fly from the city of Avalir.
I don't know how to describe what Exandria would have lose. Instead, all of those children with all of the magic within them, are taken away.
For Nydas and Zerxus, as you lay dying, Zerxus, you feel release... The last thing you see, as your body begins to immolate and burn, going to the place were Vespin went, is a griffon made of stars, called back to its feather, bearing on its back a young boy holding a journal. The griffon climbs and climbs, racing against the dawn and the griffon opens a door to a sea of stars. Elias leaps into the arms of Evandrin, reunited. You see the face of your husband and your son, and across endless realms you hear Evandrin's voice, "I know what you gave. You found a path beyond the stars. I do not know whence the gods came from, but i know that you found it in your heard. I promised you, Zerxus, I will find that place. I will find the secret of how these worlds were made, and I will come and find you and bring you home."
Brennan:"When you think of the future and what people will say of this time, do you think anyone will talk about how beautiful your dream was?"
Lou:"No. But that's all right, because it was real for us. (Aabria breaks) For those who survived, they will remember, and it will inspire them to dream of things far greater."
"Wingspan? This is Cleareye. (Wrayne, Cerrit's wife)"
"I hear you Cleareye."
"What's happening?"
"You sound so afraid, don't be..."
"Darling, we are in Gwessar..."
The earth opens, and fire and stone shatter a continent. The Calamity will last for centuries, and at the end of it, two thirds of those living beings of Exandria will be no more. Some large amount of that greater number died, not only in the first year, but in the first moments of Calamity.
As Rau'shan and Ka'Mort, believing that they will rejoin the Betrayer Gods, are instead unmade, disenchanted, bound to a surging leyline and fired, diffused through as many realms as the Leywright could send them through. Two great titans are destroyed. Say what you will about the Age of Arcanum, but great workings were indeed possible.
Gone from Exandria, those Primordials do not join the Betrayers. And though it will see centuries of strife and ruin, one day, the people of Exandria will triumph and the Calamity will end. Divinity will be forever sequestered behind the Divine Gate. At the end of it all hope will return as many times as it needs to. The eruption of ash and fire, molten stone sends a cloud of ash and shadow that will cover Exandria for a hundred years, marking the beginning of this Age of Ruin.
The fire embraces Paia and Nydas. A different fire awaits the First Knight. The fire, as brightly as it may burn, does not burn so brightly as your (L&Q) love, which shines the brightest in your last moment, having given this world a chance.
Ash, heat, rising faster than you can imagine from the earth.
(click to reveal)
Brennan:"And on a 31, at the very top of that cloud, the last member of the Brass Ring gets to keep his promise to his family. You fly for weeks over oceans choked by ash and soot. You don't get to give your kids the world that they deserve, but you get to give them the world that they can fight for with you. In that reunion, is a memory of this place and time, preserved.We've told a story of the coming o fa time of darkness, the coming of Calamity, of shadow and fire and ruin.
Why do we tell stories?
To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous. In Exandria, I don't know that your story will long be known. I don't know who will remain to tell it. But it did happen and it did matter. And though Calamity is here, because of you, it will not be here forever.
(Campaign 3 connections, click to reveal)
So, post-Calamity/Age of Ruin, we haveIn the January 2024 4-sided Dive episode (02:04:56) Marisha revisits how Matt casually mentioned all the underwater nations of Exandria.