This article contains spoilers for Critical Role’s Campaign 2.

As we’ve come to expect lately, Amazon has dropped the ball and revealed the name of the next publication coming from Wizards of the Coast. The title, “Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount” is incredibly exciting as this will be the first time that in long-form, Matthew Mercer’s world of Exandria will be formally acknowledged within the D&D multiverse.

Of course, there have been nods in previous books. Mercer’s own cameo in Dragonheist being the first, swiftly followed up by 2019’s Descent into Avernus Joe Manganiello’s Arkhan the Cruel makes an appearance in a tower of his own name.

Arkhan visits the monument to commune with his queen and report on his ongoing battle of wills to master the Hand of Vecna, which came into his possession during a brief excursion to the world of Exandria. Descent into Avernus (page 110)

So what makes this announcement so exciting? Is it just pandering to a massively popular streamed game or is there meat on the bones? Of course, we don’t know exactly, but I for one am dying at the chance to get my hands on this world for a number of possibilities. Let’s have a look into them.

An authoritarian state

The Dwendallian Empire is a very controlled society, with a list of specifically approved deities, bans on some forms of magic and tithes to fund the Empire’s endeavours. Authoritative states like this can work and they do so by ruling with an iron fist. The iron fist comes in the form of a many-layered system of control:

Crownsguard – think of them as local law enforcement if your local ‘bobbies‘ carried a board and sword.

– think of them as local law enforcement if your local ‘bobbies‘ carried a board and sword. Righteous Brand – the military, a heavily funded and currently at war. Members are trained for a minimum of three years at a city called Bladegarden and each wear plate mail armour.

– the military, a heavily funded and currently at war. Members are trained for a minimum of three years at a city called Bladegarden and each wear plate mail armour. Vollstrecker (scourgers) – a hidden entity in the land, myth to many and boogeymen to disobedient children. They deal in information and exploration of arcane secrets. Little is known about this group except for what has been revealed by Liam O’Brien’s character Caleb Widogast. What we do know is that they are ruthless in the fulfilment of their objectives and are conniving and scarily devoted.

This touches on only a tiny aspect of a deeply rich and vast empire headed up by King Bertrand Dwendal, but already I can see conflict emerging, ideas for character histories to bounce off of this very idea and motivations for those characters.

War with the Kryn Dynasty in Xhorhas

What I’ve neglected to mention is one of the largest events occurring in the continent. The ongoing war between The Dwendallian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty. The event that led to the war’s beginning was a theft of an item the Xhorhasians hold in the highest regard, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Ghor Dranas, the midnight city

Xhorhasians, mostly Drow emerged from the underground dwellings and formed the city of Ghor Dranas by casting the sky into perpetual darkness. Tell me that is not the coolest, most fantasy-driven descriptor of a city. Illuminated by arcane sconces it evokes images of a city of lights, bringing mysticism and intrigue to a city altogether different from the standard tropes of Drow settlements.

A beacon. Image credit: Lukaluri

Beacons

The item stolen was a Beacon, a sacred relic which forms the Lord of Light. The size of a basketball, this item is a religious artefact, forming the basis of a reincarnation like ritual (known as Consecration) whereby the Kryn can return to the material plane in a new life. Understandably, the theft was not just a matter of pride, but for the people of Xhorhas a matter of life and death. As such, you can imagine their anger at the theft of such an item. But it begs so many questions, why would the Dwendallian empire steal it? Do they know of its potential? Also, what fuels such a power?

Dunamancy, a new school of magic

This leads us to one of my most eagerly awaited pieces of content I’ve been wanting Matt to release. Dunamancy is a new school of magic that focuses on entropy, gravity, and time. Now, of course, when time is mentioned I hear a collective groan of people tired of “big reset buttons” ala Stephen Moffat in Doctor Who and other instances of lazy storytelling. But the way Dunamancy handles this that we’ve seen thus far in the show has been jaw-droppingly original.

Forming their basis on a many-worlds thesis (apt considering Wizards’ multiverse), they have a real basis and reason for existence. Couple that with the narrative descriptions possible with their casting and I find myself grinning ear to ear when they are used.

Let’s take one of the spells we know of, Vacuum Blast. The spell itself is effectively a fireball targeting Con and dealing force damage instead of fire. Creatures in a 20 ft radius around a point of the caster’s choosing make a Constitution saving throw. On failure, they take an undisclosed amount of force damage. Let’s look at how it’s described:

Caulven gets pulled 20ft this way, the gravity shift is like this giant vacuum hole opens up on this side and yanks him in that direction […] You watch him as his body gets pulled in this dark space for a second and is and his body is shredded in the middle of the air […] As arms, legs, pieces start falling and scatter on the ground… Critical Role, Campaign 2 Episode 51

Grim. The spells themselves aren’t particularly overpowered, but it’s the manipulation of space and time which makes these so exciting. It brings another dynamic to established spells that could fall within this school as well. Spells like Haste, Reverse Gravity and Timestop could all be loosely tied with this new school which adds to the mystery surrounding the arcane studies.

New classes/subclasses

With new spells also may come new classes or subclasses. In the Tal’dorei Campaign Setting setting and on DMs Guild, Matt has introduced an array of new ways to play:

Blood Domain for Clerics

Runechild Sorcerer Origin

Way of the Cobalt Soul monastic tradition for Monks

Path of the Juggernaut as a primal path for Barbarians

Blood Hunter Class

Gunslinger Class

Perhaps we could get more refined versions of these rereleased, or perhaps additional subclasses we’ve not encountered in the campaign already?

Fan Service

Then there’s the simple fan service. Critical Role’s second campaign is on its 90th episode. We’ve seen the characters grow from Level 2 through to Level 11 and I still don’t think they are anywhere close to scratching the surface of this massive world before them. But what may come are little nods to events of the past.

Taryon Darrington and the Darrington Brigade.

Mollymauk, perhaps there will be a teaser of his past?

The Gentleman, everyone’s favourite sweaty mob boss. His rise to power and the extent of his influence beyond Zadash.

The Briarwoods, their history and legacy as it’s the place they called home before Whitestone.

Draconia, the sundered land, home and final resting places of one Tiberius Stormwind (of Draconia).

The Plank King, Avantika and the shattered teeth. Ships, sails and the pirate city of Darktow.

There’s so much that can and will be included and I for one am beyond excited for this new release. Tomorrow we’ll get the official announcement and I’m sure there will be a word from the Critical Role guys about this too. I’d love to hear what you speculation is on the new release. If you want to let us know comment below or drop us a tweet @CartHorseCo.

Image credit: Deven Rue & Critical Role

Update

The announcement was made after this article was released and confirmed a lot of things. For the official announcement check out the product overview on the Wizards of the Coast website.

D&D Beyond have also released an extensive array of interviews with Matt Mercer. The full interview can be found below:

Written by Stuart Stuart provides 99% of the technical/website support for our little venture and has been making shit companies look good on the web since the early 2000s. He first played D&D at University and destroyed that game by throwing up on his dwarven wife with a terrible run of natural 1s. As with any good paladin, he now does penance for his sins and runs/plays 5e games in far too many groups. He’s also a fine cook. More articles by Stuart