Characters / Critical Role Exandria Unlimited Calamity

Main Character Index / Dungeon Master Tal'Dorei (Campaign 1): Vox Machina (Grog | Keyleth | Percival | Scanlan)
Guest Party Members | Allies and Other Characters (Empire/Republic of Tal'Dorei) | Villains Wildemount (Campaign 2): The Mighty Nein (Caleb | Fjord)
Guest Party Members | Allies and Other Characters (Dwendalian Empire | Xhorhas) | Villains Marquet (Campaign 3): Bell's Hells (Laudna) | Guest Party Members | Allies and Other Characters | Villains The Setting Of Exandria: Gods | Historical Figures | Call of the Netherdeep One-Shots (Exclusive): One-Shot Characters (Exclusive) | The Darrington Brigade Exandria Unlimited: The Crown Keepers | The Ring of Brass

---

The characters of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity.

In General

• Almighty Janitor: Downplayed; the Ring of Brass is comprised of a group of extremely influential people, but they are on paper much lower on the city's political totem pole than the Rings of Silver or Gold, who hold all the official political power. Even their name is intended to be a mocking reflection of this, according to Zerxus. They're nonetheless a group of level 14 mages and a Badass Normal, and while they may not run Avalir, they're the ones who keep it running.
• Beyond the Impossible: In the final episode, the Ring of Brass do what even the Prime Deities were unable to do, and that is completely unmake two Primordial Titans. Of course, doing so resulted not only in the destruction of Avalir and Cathmoira, but also the entire continent of Domunas, leaving behind the Shattered Teeth of modern-day Exandria.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: In comparison to the parties of the main campaigns as well as the Crown Keepers, who started out as a scrappy crew of misfits, each of the Ring of Brass are established figures with renowned careers and reputations. This is shown by their character levels as well - while most of the parties started out at Level 1-3^note It should be noted that while Vox Machina was shown at Level 9; the main cast had been playing their campaign for a couple of years prior to streaming, the Ring of Brass are shown to be at Level 14.
• Doomed by Canon: It's in the name of the show - the Calamity is imminent; no one's making it out unscathed.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Zerxus wakes from a nightmare of the Calamity to come, in which he sees his dead husband and a younger form of his son, followed by Pelor curb-stomping Asmodeus—with Avalir as the curb—and he implores Pelor to stop.
  • Loquatius is all glitz and glamor as he broadcasts the morning news. He then has a Walk and Talk with his assistant and feigns modesty when met outside the office by a swarm of fans.
  • Laerryn is running the arcane engine that keeps Avalir aloft, dispensing with pleasantries with each interruption that demands her attention. When she receives astronomical estimates for a coming apogee, she quickly retires to her chambers to weep—only for her ex-husband Loquatius to appear at the door, and they snipe at each other until they remember their wedding at the last Replenishment.
  • Nydas is managing a multitude of preparations for the Replenishment at the Vault of the Golden Scythe—parades, inventories, meeting schoolchildren—all without missing a jovial beat...even when a Magister requests a brief audience with him and begins asking questions he shouldn't be far too comfortably.
  • Cerrit investigates a recreation of the recently-missing Archmage Vespin Chloras's sanctum, and spots irregularities very few would have noticed (with an Investigation check of 31). Sensing something very off, he asks the other investigator working the case to keep all further developments between the two of them.
  • Patia, with unfailing composure, meets with an Archmage of the Septarions beneath a statue of her grandfather, then talks hush-hush politics with his apprentice, expressing disdain when the topic of the gods comes up.
• Hold the Line: The objective of the group's final battle is to hold off Vespin Chloras and his minions long enough for Laerryn to use the Astral Leywright to banish the Primordials. They manage to succeed, with most of group except for Cerrit dying as a result.
• Nay-Theist: None of them have much respect for the gods, and even less for those who worship them, ranging from ambivalence (Loquatius, Nydas, and Cerrit) to outright disdain and open hostility (Zerxus, Laerryn, and Patia). Patia and Laerryn in paticular are shown to believe that they've already reached a point where they are more than equal to the gods via their advanced magic.
• Non-Idle Rich: They're acknowledged as "six people who get shit done", and put the politicking and luxury behind making sure that Avalir is running smoothly.
• Spanner in the Works: It turns out that Zerxus and Loquatius going after Purvan Suul when he left Patia's party saved his life, as Lycretia Hollow was about to invisibly strike him with a powerful spell when they joined him, not leaving his side until he teleported away.
• Total Party Kill: They're all Doomed by Canon; this is the Calamity, after all. However, it's ultimately subverted. In the encounter with Asmodeus, Laerryn manages to escape as Patia and Loquatius are killed and Nydas and Zerxus are incapacitated. Later in the final encounter (after the slain are revived), Patia, Nydas and Zerxus all die, Laerryn and Loquatius stay in the crumbling Avalir, and ultimately Cerrit makes it out as the Sole Survivor.
• Two Girls to a Team: Laerryn and Patia to their four male teammates.

Cerrit

Cerrit "Pinch" Agrupnin

Played by Travis Willingham

Race: Eisfuura (Aarakocra)

Class: Rogue (Inquisitive)

Known as the Senior Sightwarden of the Eyes of Avalir and Guardian of the Seventh, Cerrit is a highly regarded veteran investigator. He's currently investigating Archmage Vespin Chloras's sanctum, highly suspicious of the ritual he was attempting to do.

---

• Ambiguously Bi: Cerrit is married to a woman, but Travis makes comments hinting that Cerrit is attracted to both Nydas and Zerxus.
• Badass Normal: The only member of the Ring of Brass without the ability to cast magic, he's still an incredibly clever investigator and dangerous combatant.
• Bird People: As an eisfuura, Cerrit is naturally one of these. His character art resembles a Philippine eagle.
• Blatant Lies: When he finally finds his children, he tries to stay calm and tell them he'll explain everything later. His ring glows, indicating that he's lying, but when asked, he says it means danger is near.
• Cross Cultural Reference: Travis was inspired by Filipino martial arts when giving Cerrit his Dual Wielding fighting style, which is also the reason for the Phillippine eagle design.
• Dual Wielding: He wields a pair of magical tomahawks as his main weapons, referred to as his hawks and sheathed against his chest, as shown in his character artwork.
• Hardboiled Detective: Cerrit is a brilliant investigator and a grizzled veteran who's Seen It All. Just to play the trope even further, Travis gives him a voice that sounds not unlike Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy.
• Hyper-Awareness: Thanks to some incredible rolls by Travis, Cerrit gets to show this off to an extraordinary degree: he's able to examine a damaged magical item closely enough to determine exactly how it was disenchanted, he detects the remnants of a magic circle that was scoured clean by powerful forces, and he's able to spot a fraction of the pupils of an invisible assailant's eyes and get the drop on them.
• Let the Past Burn: After making sure that his children were brought to safety to their mother, he burns down his own home while the city is under attack by an army of devils.
• Living Lie Detector: To go along with his Hyper-Awareness, Cerrit's also keenly intuitive. When Zerxus comes clean about his nightmares, Cerrit immediately realizes that it must have been an ongoing problem for a while if Zerxus is bothered enough to confide in his friends now.
• Mage Killer: Appropriately for a non-powered policeman in a city of wizards, Cerrit has the Mage Slayer feat, which makes it easier for him to break a spellcaster's concentration and allows him to Counter-Attack those who try to cast while they're in his melee range. It's exactly this that makes it so that he, and not any of his superpowered teammates, get the HDYWTDT agaist Vespin Chloras.
• Not So Above It All: He is no nonsense on the job, but he indulges in his son Kir's spy talk through their sending stones.
• Only Sane Man: As the team's only non-mage, he's the one who doesn't get swept up in Laerryn and Patia's wizardly hubris. He pointedly calls them out for their selfishness and leaves to protect his family.
• Papa Wolf: Or papa bird. When he realizes the extent of Laerryn's plans and the repercussions, he immediately drops the Ring of Brass to run off and get his children out of the city as the Calamity is incited. When he manages to find his children, he sends the two of them away to their mother as he stays behind.
• Parental Neglect: While he clearly loves his children, his job keeps him away from actually spending quality time with them. After he sends them away to be with their mother, he looks at their rooms in their home and slowly comes to realize this. Once the battle is finally over, he promises his wife through the sending stone that when he finds them again, he will be there for them more than he was.
  Brennan: You solve the mystery of who your children were.
• The Promise: He promises his wife and children he will return to them, and will find a way back to them. He does keep his word and reunites with then.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When it becomes clear that Laerryn will forge ahead with her ambition to rewrite the Leylines to allow interplanar travel, even though sending Evandrin to the Celestial realm ended up killing him, Cerrit curtly denounces the selfishness of his colleagues and leaves to get his children out of Avalir. Once they are out, he does return to help the group again.
• So Proud of You: Expresses pride and plays along with his son Kir as he plays detective while tattling on his sister.
  Aabria: He's a snitch.
  Lou: And you're a big fan of that.
  Travis/Cerrit: Yeah, my son's loyal. My son's loyal.
• Sole Survivor: He's the lone survivor of the Ring of Brass after the city falls.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives an angered one towards the Ring of Brass after what they've done and makes it clear that he wants no part in their ambitions. He flees in favor of finding his children.
• Token Good Teammate: Perhaps by virtue of being a non-mage in a city of mages, Cerrit ends up taking the strongest stand against the selfish excesses of the other members of the Ring of Brass. He's the only party member who is completely uninvolved with the Astral Leywright conspiracy and the cover-up of Evandrin's disappearance, and by storming off in disgust after learning the truth, he is also the only party member uninvolved with the exact moment that triggers the Calamity. Poetically, he is also the only member of the Ring of Brass who - against all odds - survives the annihilation of Avalir and Domunas to reunite with his beloved family. However, Brennan noted (in a post-game roundup) that Cerrit does not escape culpability for the Calamity, as despite being "free" of corruption, he failed to notice the warning signs surrounding his friends (and the broader culture of Avalir) and failed to hold them to account until it was too late.
• Uncertain Doom: The series ends with Cerrit escaping the destruction of Avalir and reuniting with his beloved family, but facing a lifetime of struggle and strife as the Calamity befalls Exandria.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Cerrit's role as investigator keeps him away from home frequently, though his children can reach him through a sending stone. It was also confirmed in the post-game roundup that Cerrit's single-minded focus on his job had also cost him his marriage, with Wrayne separating from Cerrit and moving away from Avalir. This leads to a heartbreaking scene in the finale, as Cerrit looks around his empty house and realizes how much time he lost with his family for the sake of his duties.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Cerrit acts like he's the protagonist of a Fantastic Noir story revolving about solving the mystery of what happened to Vespin Chloras. His obsession with the convention of the genre means that he fails to notice that he is actually the protagonist of Tragedy until it's too late.

Laerryn

Laerryn Coramar-Seelie

Played by Aabria Iyengar

Race: Elf

Class: Wizard (School of Abjuration)

Laerryn serves as the Architect Arcane, Hierophant Abjura of the College of Abjuration, devoting herself to maintaining and innovating the city's superstructure. She claims to hate small talk and much rather prefers to be in the underdepths and engine rooms of Avalir than in topside social situations.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: While probably not that affectionate at present, she sometimes refers to Loquatius as "Quay".
• Ambiguously Bi: According to her player, she's asked Quay to shapeshift into all of their friends for sexual purposes, which puts a bit of a spin on moments like this one:
  Laerryn: Hey, when I have to drop this [Reverse Gravity], do you wanna slap me?
  Patia: Hmmmmm... talk to me in sixty seconds!
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Her default attitude toward Loquatius, as it immediately becomes apparent that she still loves him dearly despite the divorce.
  • She has very little patience for Loquatius's antics and is usually very cold towards him. However, when Loquatius asks if they could try to act friendly towards each other for the Replenishment, and then she can hate him afterwards, she pauses. She even quietly admits that she doesn't hate Loquatius.
  • As she sees Loquatius get impaled, she goes berserk and pulls the trigger on the Calamity.
  "Your husband looks afraid."
  • In the second after the explosion occurs, she attempts to protect Loquatius by throwing her gold cloak over him.
  • Post-game, Aabria noted on her Twitter account that it was always Laerryn's plan to try and mend her relationship with Loquatius... after her work with the Astral Leywright had been completed.
• Berserk Button: Doing anything to her creations, or hurting her friends; while she doesn't like to admit it, this includes Loquatius, as seeing him be impaled leads to her pulling the trigger on the Calamity.
• Deadpan Snarker: Dishes out a lot of barbs towards Loquatius when the two meet up for a talk with her even making remarks about Loquatius's secretary Aria who's notably attractive.
  Loquatius: You don't have to... just reply to my messages.
  Laerryn: Oh, the ones from Aria?
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She manages to outright kill the primordials Rau'shan and Ka'mort via her Astral Leywright, a feat not even the Prime Dieties were capable of. She kills herself in the process, though.
• Dispense with the Pleasantries: Admits to being bored by small talk and tells her assistant to get to the point when speaking to her. However, she then tries to circle back around to making small talk at the end of the conversation, only to be told that's not really how it works.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Choosing to stay in the crumbling remains of the city, Laerryn confesses to still loving Loquatius as the two embrace.
  Laerryn: I've spent my life defying the gods... but you were a miracle, and I'm so happy to have been loved by you.
• Facial Markings: She has gold line markings on her forehead, her chin, and around her eyes.
• Fatal Flaw: Her obsession and pride in her work, and herself as the smartest person in the room. It led to the end of her marriage with Loquatius, as she emotionally neglected him in favor of her life's work, and in many ways is one of the main causes of the Calamity when she refuses to abandon her plans for the Astral Leywright, inadvertently weakening the only thing preventing a full extraplanar invasion.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The "Architect Arcane". She's introduced deep in the bowels of the city, monitoring its inner workings, and seems to be Avalir's chief civil engineer.
• A God Am I: A variation; she believes the gods are "not special" and that human magic has advanced to the point where the only difference between mortal wizards and the gods is their access to the celestial realm which is a barrier she intends to break through.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: One of her main color schemes is gold and she's an incredibly powerful wizard.
• Gravity Master: As the Architect Arcane, she has a deep knowledge of brumestones and can use the spell Reverse Gravity to employ their energy at her service.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She has a very short fuse when it comes to Loquatius, who honestly only fuels the flames when he talks. When he makes a smart remark toward her, she gets ready to cast a fireball toward him.
• It's All About Me: Over the course of the series, Laerryn's selfishness becomes increasingly clear, such as her emotional neglect of Loquatius.
• Just Think of the Potential!: She weeps with joy upon being told that the upcoming celestial apogee will supercharge Exandria's ley lines far beyond her projections, and is positively wide-eyed when she realizes that the item Cerrit recovered from the scene of Vespin Chloras' apparent suicide is a Celestial's bow— she later tells Nydas ominously that "we have everything we need".
• Married to the Job: Loquatius describes her as "obsessed" with her work, and she certainly seems to have her mind focused on that above all else. A major participating factor in their divorce is that she would skip major events of Quay's to keep working, and didn't even understand why that upset him.
• Mystical City Planning: Part of the Architect Arcane's job. Laerryn's spellcasting has made use of her surroundings, specifically parts of Avalir's infrastructure or architecture.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ultimately, it's Laerryn who pulls the final trigger on the Calamity by casting Blight on the Tree of Names.
• Playing with Fire: Knows the Fireball spell and Fire Bolt cantrip.
• Portal Cut: How she deals with Rau'shan and Ka'mort. Asmodeus' plan was to corrupt the Replenishment ritual to break the seals holding the primordials prisoner and summon them into Exandria. Instead, Laerryn harnesses the apogee solstice using her Astral Leywright to summon the two primordials into all of the planes simultaneously, shattering them and causing their power to be released as non-magical magma scattered throughout the planes.
• Powerful People Are Subs: Again according to Word of God (the phrase "big brat energy" also came up):
  Aabria: Laerryn's got high CON, she's got kinks and can take a hit!
• Pride Before a Fall: Laerryn's Insufferable Genius tendencies, caustic attitude towards divine spellcasters, and blindness to the greater consequences of her actions (in a way, mirroring the culture of the Avalir as a whole) lead her to inadvertently play a major role in causing the Calamity.
• Science Wizard: She's a powerful wizard who also has practical knowledge of mechanics and engineering, necessary for her work maintaining Avalir's Magitek superstructure.
• Squishy Wizard: Defied. She's got a whopping 142 HP as a level 14 Wizard, thanks to her 18 Constitution and the Tough feat, making her a behemoth compared to fellow Wizard Patia and her 86 HP. Add in her defensive capabilities as an abjurer - including a hack that allows her to infinitely stack her Arcane Ward - and she is not easy to take down.
  Aabria: I built a brick shithouse abjurer AND I LIVE BY THAT. *smiles in arcane ward* Calamity WHO?
• Together in Death: She and Loquatius choose to stay in the crumbling remains of the city, and embrace each other until the end.
• Too Clever by Half: Textbook example; she is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant and powerful wizards in an age defined by how brilliant and powerful its wizards were. And she knows it, leading her to disregard anything she doesn't understand (such as Druidic and Divine magics) as worthless, and seek to perform incredibly dangerous, city endangering experiments.
• Unequal Rites: Disdains both druids (whom she refers to as "leaf-addled") and clerics (and, by extension, the gods). Her absolute unwillingness to concede that she can't understand the forces that they work with ultimately leads to disaster.
  • Even other arcane casters get this from her, as shown by her disdain toward a master of the Evocation school.
    Laerryn: Oh, an evoker? Anyone can cast a fireball, bitch.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Laerryn is so hopelessly invested in her life's work that she weakens the Tree of Names by leeching its power for her own project, not knowing that it was the main thing stopping an imminent extraplanar invasion by the Betrayer Gods and their forces; and then when the Tree of Names hurts her husband in self-defense, she finishes the Tree off with a Blight spell.
• Working with the Ex: She and Loquatius were once married. Their present relationship is somewhat fraught; Loquatius seems to be making attempts to mend fences, which Laerryn rebuffs, but it's very obvious that both still have strong feelings for each other.

Loquatius

Loquatius Seelie

Played by Sam Riegel

Race: Changeling

Class: Bard (College of Eloquence)/Warlock (Archfey - Pact of the Talisman)

One of the Avalir's premier broadcasters as the Herald of Avalir, Voice of the Council, and Scribe of Crowns, Loquatius uses a combination of his charm and changeling abilities to entertain his fans to the fullest. Behind the scenes, however, he's a vain boss who thrives on drama, using the city's politics to fuel his agenda.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: His friends in the Ring of Brass occasionaly refer to him as Quay.
• Attention Whore: One of Avalir's most visible celebrities, Loquatius thrives on the adoration of fans, even when he pretends otherwise.
  Loquatius: If we can't even talk amongst ourselves, it's going to be very awkward for us. It's going to be very awkward for me, frankly. Having to explain why there's this weird coldness in the room, and... you know. I know that you're obsessed with your work-
  Laerryn: Are you making your social status my problem right now?
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • While he and Laerryn both seem mutually spiteful towards each other after their divorce, he does show moments of care towards her. Loquatius tells Laerryn he was hoping they'd at least act a bit more cordial during the Replenishment and remembers when they got married seven years ago during one of its celebrations. Out of the two, Loquatius is making some attempts to mend their relationship to something a bit more amicable. After confronting Laerryn about her plans, he ends up recording what's basically his will to place himself as the Fall Guy while Laerryn would be the hero.
  • During the party, he gently places his arm on her shoulder to give her some inspiration. Something he's noted to have done many times before. Brenan later on describes how mortals usually fall in love with fae, but the opposite happened for Loquatius.
  Brennan: "There are a lot of stories in Exandria of mortals who stumbled their way into the Feywild and fell in love with an enchanting faerie that they met there. But there is one story of a faerie who stumbled into this world and fell in love."
• Believing Their Own Lies: He quietly goes along with Laerryn's plans and starts twisting the truth to protect her. Brennan asks Sam to roll a Deception Check, and after hearing the high number, notes that he was asking to see how well Loquatius was lying to himself.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Played with. He claims to Laerryn he's kept plenty of secrets for her, but when she didn't tell him about her project, which she had showed to Nydas, he gets huffy. Laerryn snaps that Loquatius is the literal voice of the city, and doesn't trust him to not gossip. However, it's shown that he helps Laerryn cover up what she was about to do, with his high deception roll being against himself. He wasn't lying when he said he kept secrets that protected Laerryn.
• Can't Stop the Signal: When Avalir starts to fall and he is told by the Ring of Gold to send orders to keep the city aflot at the price of its inhabitants, he directly defies the order and instead instruct the the people to flee and the figure of authority to remain to fight, denouncing the corruption of the Ring of Gold in front of the city.
• The Casanova: If his fights with Laerryn are any indication, he can't help but flirt with just about anyone he finds attractive. Laerryn gets testy when Loquatius tells her to reply to his messages with a snarky, "Oh, the ones from Aria?" When looking for evidence in one of his file rooms, he reminisces to Cerrit how people usually came here to have some alone time together and make out. Laerryn sarcastically says that along with keeping secrets, Loquatius can barely keep it in his pants.
  • Ultimately, it seems to have been subverted; his relationship with Aria is clearly exactly what he claims it is both times she appears, Bolo seemed to have been brought just to see what Laerryn would do, and there's no other indication besides what Laerryn says that he has ever loved or wanted anyone except Laerryn.
• Character Catchphrase: His signing off, "I'll Seelie you later!"
• Deadpan Snarker: He and Laerryn exchange quite a few barbs between each other when they meet up.
  Laerryn: You have my unadulterated attention.
  Loquatius: Well, that'll make the first time that's ever happened.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Knows the spell Gift of Gab, which allows him to magically backtrack when he says something he shouldn't have.
• Dying Declaration of Love: As the city crumbles, Loquatius and Laerryn confess their love to each other.
  Loquatius: I could be anyone I want to be, but I only want to love you.
• Fatal Flaw: His love for Laerryn. Despite their divorce, it's clear he still deeply loves her. He is willing to not only brush aside his moral beliefs for her, but also turn himself into the Fall Guy so Laerryn won't be demonized for her actions. His love for her plays a part in Laerryn causing the Calamity.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: He wears a gold coat and acts as the face of Avalir.
• Huge Holographic Head: Broadcasts the city's news in this fashion.
• I Choose to Stay: When the Calamity is starting, the Leader of Seelie Court sends out portals all across Exandria, giving her children a way home. He chooses to stay because his heart lies with someone else.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He gets impaled in front of Laerryn, which causes her to go berserk and set off the Calamity.
• Love Makes You Stupid: Although he voices skepticism and concern over Laerryn's plans, his affection for her is ultimately great enough that he supports her until the point of no return. He even records a last will and testament of sorts that sets himself up as the Fall Guy in case Laerryn's plan fails, and falsely casts her as the only person trying to do the right thing.
• Meaningful Name: On two levels. "Loquacious" is another word for "talkative"; the Seelie are one of the types of fairy in folklore. Loquatius Seelie, meanwhile, is a Motor Mouth Changeling— a race that are tied to the Feywild in D&D. The finale reveals that he is in fact a child of the Seelie Court.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: In front of his fans, he's a fun, flamboyant media personality. Backstage, he's a vain and demanding boss, as well as a rather ruthless political operator.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the interest of quickly resolving a fight offscreen, Brennan has Sam simply spend a single mid-level spell slot to defend an arcane battery from some attackers. (Sam jokes that Loquatius simply cast Faerie Fire and the enemies all dropped dead.)
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: He's more open around Laerryn, to both of their detriments. When she comments that she received his messages through his secretary Aria, Loquatius tries to brush it off. He says it's normal for Aria as his secretary to be young, and attractive and that it comes with the territory, not realizing how much more annoyed this is making his ex-spouse.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: He quietly says this as he uses his healing word on Laerryn, as she powers up the city one final time.
• Self-Parody: His on-screen persona is basically a parody of his player's persona during his sponsor plugs.
• Shapeshifter Swan Song: As he's dying, Loquatius' face flashes through many of the visages he's worn over the years, particularly ones that he feels guilt or regret towards.
• Shapeshifting: As a changeling, he has the ability to shift forms into just about anyone. He uses this during his broadcast by shifting into a tiefling during an ad sponsor.
• Take This Job and Shove It: After Loras orders him to direct the magic users of Avalir to stay and meet a terrible end, he deliberately traps Loras with Wall of Force, makes a completely different announcement, then gleefully announces his early retirement before moonwalking out.
  Loquatius: I quit. Consider this my two week notice. Good luck finding a replacement!
• Together in Death: He and Laerryn choose to stay in the crumbling city, with the two embracing each other until the end.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: While not as overly exaggerated as other examples, he still presents a sizable number of titles, as he's known as the Herald of Avalir, Voice of the Council, and Scribe of Crowns.
• Undignified Death: He dies from the explosion blast, with his changeling form shifting through different faces. He also lost his magical clothes in the explosive unraveling of magic items in the Arboreal Calyx; Brennan states that his body is covered in "a thousand tiny lacerations", and Sam notes that Loquatius's penis shifting from different animal penises like a bull's, a duck's, to finally Brennan's face. Zerxus manages to revivify him and bring him back, and his final death is much more dramatic.
• Working with the Ex: Loquatius and Laerryn were once married. Their relationship these days is somewhat tense, but they're able to coexist for high-society events that they're expected to attend during the Replenishment.
• Written by the Winners: Voices a more cynical take on this trope.
  Loquatius: History isn't real! It's just what someone wrote down.

Nydas

Nydas Okiro

Played by Lou Wilson

Race: Human

Class: Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline)/Bard (College of Swords)

A seemingly reformed pirate and current Guildmaster of the Golden Scythe, Nydas values his wealth first and foremost. His charismatic nature hides an immoral nature dedicated to building his business as grand as humanly possible - no matter how underhanded he must be.

---

• The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: When we meet Nydas, he's a greedy and underhanded Merchant Prince who uses public resources to line his own pockets. As the Calamity unfolds, he seems to realize the gravity of his complicity and tries his best to stop it. When that fails, he still spends his final hours doing what he can to save civilians from the destruction of Avalir.
• Badass Boast: As he summons the disgruntled spirit of Sha'korzhan, who - against its will - has been bound to the service of every Dragon of Avalir:
  Nydas: I am the Last Dragon of Avalir, and you will do as I command!!
• Bavarian Fire Drill: He manages to get in the closed off Hall of Prophecies by convincing the guards he has been granted authorization by Loras of the Weaver's Mask. He doesn't even try to come up with a credible justification and simply answer with a Blunt "Yes" when asked if he's allowed to be her.
• Big Brother Instinct: As he lays dying, his brother contacts him and asks if he got out safely. He quietly assures he is safe and dies soon after.
• Character Development: As the Calamity befalls the city, he starts to realize how greedy he was and orders his crew to take the people of the city to safety.
  Captain Badran: We've just received word from the Ring of Gold. They require our ships at the top of the city!
  Nydas: Damn the Ring of Gold! The people of Avalir must survive!
• Conspicuous Consumption: Indulges in this to a grand extreme: his introduction sees him in the middle of a vault filled with obscene displays of wealth, including wheelbarrows full of diamonds and a bridled unicorn. Later, when arriving at Patia's party, he shows up with an entourage of seven hundred automatons and a rare Marquesian tree as a gift for the host.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Nydas is fabulously wealthy but morally bankrupt. He's been selling surplus aether under the table, and directs his underlings to delay payment for services rendered as long as possible.
• Dragon Ancestry: He's a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. When a young student of the Sorcerer's University asks if he's part dragon too, he replies with "Only in name" and blows some smoke out of his nose.
• Dragon Rider: Upon summoning the draconic spirit of Sha'korzhan in battle with the first coin of his hoard, he is able to ride him to take advantage of his flight, speed and abilities.
• Family Theme Naming: He and his brother have names inspired by figures of greek mythology. Nydas is similar to Midas, the king who brought doom to himself through greed and Eaedalus resembles Daedalus, which bring an interesting parallels between Nydas and Daedalus' son, Icarus.
• Feeling Their Age: Lou jokes about Nydas having a dodgy lower back while making a Dexterity saving throw in combat.
• From Dress to Dressing: In the final battle, Nydas takes off his shirt and ties it around his stomach to stop the bleeding after being stabbed by his own subordinate.
• In the Back: The captain of his sailor marines, Badran, stabs him in the back after being told by Nydas to forgo the treasure and save the people instead. Impressively, he manages to hold his concentration on his summoned dragon and returns the favor by stabbing Badran from the front.
• Magic Knight: Combines spell-slinging and sword-swinging in equal measure.
• Mercy Kill: As he falls, Nydas stabs Zerxus in the heart, hoping that this would be able to save his friend from damnation.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He's all in support of Laerryn's plans for extraplanar travel when she demonstrates the Leywright in her laboratory. After he hears a prophecy predicting the fall of Avalir, he becomes convinced that her project has become too dangerous and that the Tree of Names must not fall, and he's the most active in fending Laerryn off as she tries to destroy it. As the Calamity befalls the city, Nydas realizes how his actions played a part and does everything he can to save the civilians.
• Rags to Riches: Started out as a lowly deckhand for a pirate ship before becoming Guildmaster of the Golden Scythe and fabulously rich.
• Reformed Criminal: Nydas used to be a feared pirate. Given his underhanded business dealings, it's questionable how reformed he really is.
• Sudden Principled Stand: When facing down the possibility that the prophecy he heard will be initiated by Laerryn, he does everything he can to stop her.
• Taking You with Me: Attempts this with Zerxus in an act of platonic love. As he takes a fatal wound, he falls so that his sword goes through Zerxus's chest, giving his friend a chance to die before his soul is claimed by Asmodeus.
• Tattooed Crook: As per his old occupation as a pirate, when he discards his shirt for the final battle, he reveals a whole litany of sailor tattoos, from a well-endowed mermaid to a sea monster on the chest.
• Tears of Joy: When Laerryn shows him her experiment on plane shifting, the light is so bright and brilliant it nearly blinds the two. Nydas, however, is just so overjoyed at witnessing such a monumental event that he's brought to tears.
  Nydas: (looking through his finger) It's beautiful!!
• What You Are in the Dark: Initially presented as one of the most corrupt and materialistic of the Ring of Brass, when push comes to shove and all seems to be lost he is the only one to act entirely selflessly by not only sacrificing status and fortune to save the children in the School of Sorcery, but also making his last action to try to save Zerxus via Mercy Kill.

Patia

Patia Por'co

Played by Marisha Ray

Race: Elf

Class: Wizard (School of Enchantment)

Patia is the current Keeper of Scrolls and Archmage of the Librarium Incantatum, as well as the granddaughter of the famed Imyr Por'co. She readily dismisses the strength of the gods, believing that Avalir's innovations - as well as her power - trump the gods' accomplishments.

---

• Alliterative Name: Patia Por'co.
• Anti-Gravity Clothing: Patia wears a brumestone necklance, making if float around her neck. Her magic orb also floats alongside her.
• An Arm and a Leg: As an unfortunate result of sticking her hand where she shouldn't, the Tree of Names starts to absorb her arm, leading to it getting ripped off at the elbow when the tree is destroyed.
• Black Market: She runs a circle of high-ranking people who know to go to Nydas to buy surplus aether under the table. She's not happy when a no-name Magistrate learns of the deal and tries to buy aether from Nydas in broad daylight, and she plans to find who talked.
• Blasphemous Boast: Patia scoffs at the gods, stating that divinity "sounds like such a hollow title" compared to what mortals have built in Avalir.
• Can't Argue with Elves: She rather well embodies the problems with elves (or any long-lived being) by generally ignoring things that don’t directly affect her. This comes to a head when she completely ignores the inter party conflict around the Tree of Names, and it’s her pushing into it that sets it to attack herself and Loquatious in self-defense, leading Laerryn to destroy it and kick off the Calamity.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Besides losing an arm and three fingers in the explosion Patia is the first of the party to die. The explosion is so strong the force of it twists her head so far it snaps her neck. Zerxus manages to bring her back.
• Emerald Power: Her main color scheme is emerald, and like her companions, she is among of the most powerful individual on Avalir, having access to spells powerfull enough to destroy a group of oponents with a handwave.
• Face Death with Dignity: As she helps Laerryn, she realizes she's not going to make it, calmly accepts her death, and not only falls, but also unleashes her held spell: Wish.
• Family of Choice: In their last stand, she tells the Ring of Brass that she loves them and considers them her family.
• Famous Ancestor: Her grandfather was the foremost of the seven archmages who founded Avalir. He's commemorated with a statue, hundreds of feet high.
• Fatal Flaw: Her apathy towards issues she seems beneath her notice, coupled with her single-minded focus on gaining knowledge, leads to disaster.
• Fling a Light into the Future: In her first death, Patia realizes that if she dies, all of the knowledge she has dies with her. During her final hours, Patia sends her Orb, containing all the knowledge and wisdom she's collected over the years as an archmage, historian, and archivist, to Maya, Cerrit's daughter with a talent for history, as the end of Avalir approaches.
• Force Field: Summons a Wall of Force to protect Laerryn and the Astral Leywright during the final battle.
• History with Celebrity: The Raven Queen, prior to her ascension, taught Patia about Apogee Solstices.
• Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: Receives insights into Avalir's history, the Tree of Names, and the nature of the primordials that is powerful enough to be deadly, and overwhelming to receive. She releases it as the equivalent of a reality-reshaping 9th level Wish spell in her final moments.
• Magic Librarian: As Avalir's Keeper of Scrolls and Archmage of the Librarium Incantatum. She scribes collected knowledge with the orb that floats alongside her.
• Meaningful Name: Patia sounds like Hypatia, a famous Roman philosopher and polymath who was murdered by a mob of Christians. Patia herself is a powerful wizard, skilled and knowledgeable in many fields, who rejects the gods as unworthy of worship.
• Mystical White Hair: Her official art depicts her with silvery-white hair and she is an incredibly powerful wizard of high status.
• Power Floats: She's described as floating off of the ground at times.
• Really 700 Years Old: She's around "middle-age" in Elven years (around 300-400 years old), but she can readily pass as a young woman.
• Squishy Wizard: Although her Constitution score is above average, Patia's 86 HP is the lowest in the Ring of Brass. So it unfortunately means, she's the first to die in the Ring of Brass as she gets caught in the explosion of the tree.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Delivers a gruesome death to Lacrytia Hollow by invoking her Impenetrable Bubble around the witch as she's unleashing a Circle of Death, trapping her in her own concentrated spell and reducing her to a fuming pile of dust.

Zerxus

Zerxus Ilerez

Played by Luis Carazo

Race: Human

Class: Paladin (Oath of Redemption)

The First Knight of the city of Avalir, Zerxus is a kind figure that draws his power from the people of the city. Chivalrous, yet awkward, he's trying his best to accomplish his duties even as his relationship with his son has deteriorated. Recently, he's been plagued with vivid nightmares of the destruction of Avalir.

---

• Broken Bird: A rare male example, at the start of the Calamity Zerxus is the First Knight of Avalir, essentially making him a One-Man Army who is deployed on his own to defend the city from overt, external threats. He is immensely physically strong and carries a Holy Avenger, one of the most powerful weapons a paladin can wield. He also has all the powers of a level 14 Paladin despite not having any kind of relationship with any God, drawing his power instead from the people of the city. On top of this Zerxus has a very high Charisma score and a very strong sense of what's right, meaning he bonds with others easily and routinely puts others before himself with little to no thought of personal gain. He is also, as Luis relayed in a message to Brennan during character creation, "not doing good". He is mourning his lost husband while having been compelled to take on the job of First Knight of the city, meaning he has to leave his son thousands of miles away while he lives completely on his own in a tower, emerging either to kill things or take part in social engagements with people he mostly does not like. As a result he is easy prey for Asmodeus to manipulate into creating the conditions which will bring about the Calamity. During a post-show wrap up discussion, Brennan describes his mental state at the start of the one-shot as being: "It could all burn. Maybe it burns today? Tomorrow? Who knows when it burns".
• Crusading Widower: Deconstructed. Zerxus moves Heaven and Earth to have a chance of bringing his lost husband Evandrin back from the dead. That's not a good thing, as it allows Asmodeus to play on his sorrow, and ultimately leads him to enable Laerryn's dangerous meddling with the Arboreal Calyx, which leads directly to the Calamity. On top of that, it turns out that not only was Evandrin alive the whole time, but by the end it's Evandrin who must try to rescue Zerxus from hell.
• Deal with the Devil: Zerxus is ultimately forced into becoming a champion of Asmodeus, taking up the Mace of the Black Crown to buy more time for the Ring of Brass to save the people of Avalir, but damning his soul in the process. A temporarily restored Vespin Chloras manages to delay the contract until sunrise, but it ultimately takes effect at the end.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: The series opens with a dream of him foreshadowing the Calamity. It's eventually stated that he's an oracle.
• Fatal Flaw: He is - like the rest of Avalir - so tunneled by his own beliefs that he fails to acknowledge the possibility of making a mistake. In Zerxus' case, he is convinced that everyone has at least some innate good and can be redeemed, which - although laudable - leaves him vulnerable to being taken advantage of by the many, many corrupt and proficient liars within Avalir. This culminates with Zerxus becoming one of the main causes of the Calamity by providing himself as a conduit to free Asmodeus from the Tree of Names.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • His compassion for Asmodeus is admirable. It's also deeply misplaced, as Asmodeus (who outright admits that he is the "Father of Lies") is able to manipulate Zerxus with a sob story and a Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
  • However, this blind faith is rewarded when he decides to give the same trust to Vespin Chloras, who actually was a deeply misguided victim.
• Horned Humanoid: After taking up the Mace of the Black Crown and accepting Asmodeus' deal, Zerxus grows demonic curved horns out of his forehead.
• Horse of a Different Color: He rides a griffin named Tempus.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: As Nydas falls, he impales Zerxus's heart, hoping it would save his friend.
• Knight in Shining Armor: He's titled the "First Knight of Avalir" and appears to live up to the chivalric ideal: he's a gracious, humble man who will defend those who can't defend themselves (up to and including Asmodeus in a dream).
• Knightly Sword and Shield: Fitting for the noble First Knight of Avalir, Zerxus wields a Holy Avenger with a magic shield. Both of which get disenchanted when Asmodeus enters Exandria after the Tree of Names is destroyed, to be aptly replaced by the Mace of the Black Crown symbolizing the fall of the First Knight of Avalir and the birth of Asmodeus' champion.
• The Lost Lenore: He lost his husband Evandrin, whom he misses and believes should have been alive with the rest of them. He becomes almost paralyzed when he meets Asmodeus, who initially takes on the features of his late husband. Unfortunately, latching onto Asmodeus was deeply misguided, as not only was he manipulating Zerxus but Evandrin wasn't even dead in the first place.
• Magic Knight: Zerxus can cast spells in combat, including Counterspell and Resilient Sphere, among others.
• Nay-Theist: The guests at Patia's are quick to brag when Purvan Suul arrives that their First Knight's divine power as a paladin comes not from the gods, but the people of Avalir itself. As the party examines the dead cultist of Asmodeus, he loses some of his even keel and rails against the gods, saying that "when you bow to one of them, you bow to all of them."
  Zerxus: (To Asmodeus) Look at me! I am the Godless!
• Papa Wolf: In his dreams when he sees his son, one of his first instincts is to call him over away from the pond so he would be safe. He rejects staying in the Astral Planes with Evandrin in large part because it would leave Elias alone and in danger.
• Plagued by Nightmares: The miniseries opens with Zerxus' vivid nightmare of the destruction of Avalir, where he witnesses the city falling to Earth in flames as gods battle each other. He's been having these nightmares for long enough to be charting them in a dream journal; an Insight check by Cerrit suggests that the one we see is "like, the twentieth."
• Pride Before a Fall: In a different way from Laerryn, Patia, and the wizards of Avalir: while he is genuinely kind and upstanding, he believes that everyone is capable of redemption, even when they have shown that they clearly aren't. This causes him to try and redeem Asmodeus, who takes advantage of this by latching on to Zerxus's sympathy. His absolute belief in Asmodeus effectively lures him to pull the Lord into Exandria, causing the Calamity.
• Shrinking Violet: Despite his lofty station and immense strength, Zerxus is quite shy; he admits to dreading the Replenishment festivities because he hates crowds.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Even with his immense power and status, he's not one to really socialize, freezing up when his name was announced at the Replenishment gala.
• Super-Strength: Has a Strength score of 29, one point below the Cap of 30. Luis later confirmed on Twitter that Zerxus wears a Belt of Storm Giant Strength.
• Super-Toughness: He has one of the highest HP totals of the party in Calamity. He also has an Armor Class of 25, the highest of any player character in Critical Role history.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Almost literally. In his dream, Zerxus defends the badly beaten Asmodeus (the Lord of the Nine Hells) against Pelor, the Dawnfather.
• The Antichrist: After falling for Asmodeus' Wounded Gazelle Gambit, Zerxus unwittingly becomes his champion in ushering in the destruction of Avalir and the Calamity. He's able to communicate with the Devils attacking the city and earns the respect of one Erinyes in particular. Zerxus is completely unaware of this, thinking he was just showing kindness to a wounded god and simply telling the city's attackers to stand down in Common (in reality, he was speaking Infernal).
• Token Good Teammate: At their introduction, he's the most morally upstanding member of the Calamity party. Deconstructed, as his kindness towards Asmodeus, while genuine, kickstarts a chain of events that cause things to quickly go From Bad to Worse for Avalir, eventually leading to the Calamity.
• Tragic Hero: Zerxus' Fatal Flaw is - like the rest of Avalir - arrogance and hubris, as he believes so strongly in his ability to see the good in others that he fails to acknowledge the possibility he is being manipulated or lied to. As noted in the post-game roundup, his laudable belief that "everyone can be redeemed" tipped over into the toxic "I can redeem anyone".
• Uncertain Doom: He dies in the final fight for Avalir, with Nydas attempting to save him by stabbing him in the heart. It's unclear if Zerxus has been fully taken by Asmodeus, or if his husband will keep his promise and find a way to save him so their family can reunite.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Zerxus' duties have taken him away from his son, who stayed on the ground in Cathmoira, for seven years, and he's quite anxious about seeing him again. Close to dawn, he sees Elias holding an unsent spellkite for him. When Elias asks him why he hadn't done so, Zerxus gently tells him, "I know why."
• Wrecked Weapon: The mere presence of Asmodeus is enough to destroy his Holy Avenger which corrodes and falls to dust as the Lord of the Hells exits the Tree of Names. Along with his magic shield being destroyed by the wave of disruption, it leaves the Mace of the Black Crown as his only choice.

---