Era of Reclamation

Fan art of heroes and villains of the first three campaigns, by Lap Pun Cheung.

The Era of Reclamation is the 843-year period beginning with the Divergence and ending with the main gods of the Exandrian pantheon binding themselves to that world as mortals to evade the release of Predathos. It is roughly defined by the existence of the Divine Gate, which separated the gods from Exandria. The first three campaigns of Critical Role all take place in the final decades of this era.

History

Departure of the gods

The Era of Reclamation began shortly after the wars of the Calamity ended, capped off by the Battle of Ghor Dranas. The Betrayer Gods had been banished from the Material Plane, and the Prime Deities had apparently departed, an event remembered as the Divergence. The calendar of Exandria would record this as the year zero PD, or "Post-Divergence".

Screenshot of the Divine Gate, by Cyarna Trim from "Exandria: An Intimate History" (Sx61) at 5:14.

Not all of the gods had actually departed. The All-Hammer remained behind for years in the unwitting mortal form of Garen Hearthheart, building components of the Divine Gate, which would prevent gods from returning to the Material Plane. However, it could not be completed until all the gods had left the world. After Garen helped to found Kraghammer and supported the construction of the town that would come to be called Stilben, he was approached by the Platinum Dragon, reminded of his divinity, and finally departed the world to place the final keystone of the Divine Gate.

For several centuries, all the gods remained behind the Divine Gate, exerting influence on Exandria indirectly, through their worshipers and by sending occasional envoys with considerably less than godlike power to pass through the Gate. With the departure of the gods, their most devout followers had to re-learn how to channel divine magic, through faith rather than through direct invocation.^{[citation needed]} Brief divine interventions could still be called down on Exandria; shortly after 510 PD, when Vasselheim came under a terrible siege, a powerful artifact called the Star of Exaltation was used as a focus in a ritual to bring the Platinum Dragon's intervention to defend the city.

Rebuilding

Official art of drow facing the sun as they emerge in the ruins of Ghor Dranas, by Livia Prima from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 20.

The Calamity had destroyed virtually all civilization on Exandria. Of all the cities of Exandria, only Vasselheim remained standing, and survivors ventured out from there to resettle the world. Some groups of subterranean folk like dwarves and drow who had been buried in the ruins of the Underdark gradually dug their way out to rebuild. Some who survived the destruction of their flying cities founded new societies in the Zemni Fields and Draconia. Some elven societies that had fled to the Feywild to wait out the Calamity returned to Exandria, and the pallid elves, who had been plunged into an underground redoubt, stayed there for centuries without contacting the outside world. Some societies that had frozen themselves in stasis to survive the Calamity remained that way for the entirety of the Era of Reclamation, or nearly so.

Divine remnants

Official art of Uk'otoa assaulting unwelcome ships on the Lucidian Ocean, by Zoltan Boros from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 17.

Not all the entities empowered by the gods were removed beyond the Divine Gate. Several of them became lesser idols.

• Uk'otoa, a leviathan servant of the Cloaked Serpent, claimed dominion over the Lucidian Ocean for centuries until cultists of the Cloaked Serpent managed to seal the demigod away deep beneath the waves.
• Desirat the Twilight Phoenix, companion and mount of the Lord of the Hells, remained imprisoned beneath Mount Mentiri.
• A scout of the Crawling King, a great worm called Quajath, was presumed dead but what remained of it was simply trapped in Eiselcross.
• Xalicas, a solar who served as the right hand of the Arch Heart, was so gravely wounded as to be unable to move for a century, and was left behind.
• The Arms of the Betrayers were scattered across Wildemount.
• Alyxian, a Ruidusborn empowered by the blessings of three gods so that he was believed to be a demigod, was trapped in the Netherdeep and slumbered there until very late in the Era of Reclamation.

A number of powerful artifacts left over from the Calamity, some of them created by the gods themselves, came to be known as Vestiges of Divergence. Several of them played a role in influential events. Another artifact that survived the Calamity, the Orb of Avalir, preserved much knowledge from the preceding age and was thus closely guarded by the Cobalt Soul.

Battle of the Umbra Hills

Around or shortly after 511 PD, in the final battle of the Scattered War, one of the Demon Princes of the Abyss, Graz'zt, was summoned to the Battle of the Umbra Hills in Gwessar. Though Graz'zt was defeated and banished, all of the realm's greatest mages fought in that battle and, witnessing the terrifying incursion of demons and devils, they saw that the spawn of the Betrayer Gods could return to Exandria despite the Divergence. Yurek Windkeeper, the respected high enchanter of Syngorn, brought together the most trusted and capable mages to form a private society, the Arcana Pansophical, to prevent such "surprises" in the future.

Ascension of a new god

In early 812 PD, the Remnants were able to bring back the arch-lich Vecna from his near-destruction. He once again pressed the limits of arcane power, and for only the second time in the history of the world, a mortal attained the power of a god. Vecna sought then to gather worshipers and expand his power, while the Prime Deities sought to defeat him as the Betrayer Gods were once defeated.

Fan art of Vecna's banishment, by Lap Pun Cheung.

Unlike during the last war, the Divine Gate stood as a barrier between the Prime Deities and the newly ascended Vecna, who came to power on the mortal side of the gate. It seemed that the responsibility for his banishment would therefore fall upon a select few mortal champions, bearing the gifts of their gods from across the Divine Gate.

Vox Machina, guided by blessings from Ioun, Pelor, Sarenrae, and the Raven Queen, took it upon themselves to confront and seal away Vecna. Atop Vecna's tower in the moving city of Thar Amphala, as Vecna led an assault against Vasselheim, Vox Machina and a few allies confronted the new god. By enacting the same Rites of Prime Banishment that were used to seal away the Chained Oblivion, they successfully exiled Vecna from the Prime Material Plane.

End of the Era

Fan art of Ludinus and the Malleus Key in Marquet, by Wesley Griffith.

A powerful wizard who had been born in the Calamity, Ludinus Da'leth, resented the gods for the destruction they had brought to the world, and plotted for centuries to remove them. His plans came to fruition in 843 PD, taking advantage of an apogee solstice. His plan was to release Predathos, the god-eater, from its prison in the red moon Ruidus. Using powerful arcane installations called Malleus Keys, he intended to bore directly into the moon to Predathos's prison, but his designs were partially frustrated at the last minute by Bells Hells and some of their allies. However, the Keys did tether the moon in place above Marquet, and the work of breaking through to the god-eater began.

In the weeks that followed, Bells Hells gathered information, relics, and allies, and was entrusted by an ad-hoc global alliance called the Exandrian Accord to stop Ludinus. They succeeded in stopping Ludinus, but—encouraged in part by the Arch Heart and the Raven Queen—they decided to break through the final barriers into Predathos's cage, subdue the entity while it was still weakened from its long imprisonment, and absorb its power to create a little time for a negotiation with the gods.

Warning that they would not be able to contain Predathos long, Bells Hells persuaded all the Prime Deities and Betrayer Gods—save for the Chained Oblivion, who was a different sort of entity—to take on mortal form and bind themselves to Exandria through the Rites of Catatheosis. The Divine Gate was shattered, and the gods were set to be born as mortals in a cycle of reincarnation.

Technological advancement

In the final decades of the Era of Reclamation, Percival de Rolo invented firearms, and that technology began to diffuse and advance across Exandria. Moreover, the uncovering of ancient ruins from the Age of Arcanum began to turn up some of the previous age's advanced technology, and the reverse engineering of those artifacts had begun to accelerate magical technology.

References

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