Call of the Netherdeep is Dungeons & Dragons’ first major campaign set in Critical Role’s expansive realm of Exandria, and it begins in the wastes of Xhorhas. This region, once a decrepit land prowled by demons, has evolved to become a diverse setting full of everything from reincarnating drow to communities that literally rise and fall on the backs of giant tortoises.
For a primer on some of the fascinating landmarks in Xhorhas, take a peek at our quick tour here. When you’re ready to brainstorm a character hailing from this region, click below:
- Goblins, drow, and dragonborn abound
- Xhorhas is a land of survivors
- The Luxon allows for the possibility of rebirth
- The Kryn Dynasty and the Dwendalian Empire don’t get along
Goblins, drow, and dragonborn abound
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount gives us a good look at the people inhabiting Xhorhas. Races common in other parts of the world, like humans and halflings, are decidedly a minority here, and creating a Xhorhasian character affords players the chance to delve into often-underrepresented ancestries. Goblins, for instance, encompass the majority in communities like Jigow, a coastal town composed of ramshackle fishing structures that are built on the shells of gargantuan horizonback tortoises. Bugbears, gnolls, kobolds, lizardfolk, and orcs are also frequently-met citizens of these regions.
The drow form another large swath of Xhorhas’ populace, particularly in Rosohna, the center of the Kryn Dynasty. For Dungeons & Dragons players unfamiliar with Critical Role, it's important to know that the drow of the Dynasty are a far cry from the dark elves on other worlds who were corrupted by the Spider Queen Lolth. Xhorhas’ elves rejected Lolth’s teachings in favor of worshiping a deity of light called the Luxon, and Lolth has instead dug her hooks into a community of hobgoblins located in the fortress of Dumaran.
Last but not least are the dragonborn of Xhorhas, who dispersed across the region after the destruction of Draconia, a floating kingdom that longtime Critical Role fans will recognize. Dragonborn can primarily be found in the forest hamlet of Charis and the city of Xarzith Kitril, which was constructed near Dreemoth Ravine, where the remains of Draconia fell to earth.
Xhorhas is a land of survivors
Xhorhas was once controlled by a group of deities known as the Betrayer Gods. These gods were defeated during the Calamity, a cataclysmic war that scarred the land and resulted in massive casualties. Despite their pain, the people of Xhorhas have risen in the aftermath of this war and carried on, and if there’s one thing that defines the people of the region, it’s the grit of surviving hardship and focusing on future ambitions. Your character might be:
- A ravenite dragonborn descended from a line of enslaved Draconian. When Draconia still floated in the skies, the tailless ravenites were ruled by the tailed draconblood ruling class. Your family now free of draconblood dragonborn, you seek to define your own destiny in Xarzith Kitril and beyond.
- A goblin fighting against the lingering curse of Bane the Strife Emperor, the Betrayer God who created goblins. Bane still haunts his children with nefarious whispers and visions, and every good deed you commit takes you one step closer to defeating the corruption that encroaches on the edges of your mind.
- A drow cleric who ardently hates Lolth and the corruption she has caused throughout the multiverse. You see how the hobgoblins of Dumaran have fallen for her seductive dogma based on violence and political intrigue, and hope to help them find a better way in life.
- A Hollow One, an undead ancestry stemming from Blightshore, Xhorhas’ eastern coast. Sustained by necromantic magic, you lead a twilight existence between life and death, seeking to make the most of your second chance in this world.
The Luxon allows for the possibility of rebirth
Religion in Xhorhas’ Kryn Dynasty revolves around the Luxon, which splintered long ago into multiple dodecahedron-shaped beacons. Four of these beacons are in the dynasty’s possession and are used in a rebirthing process known as consecution. When a devoted follower of the Luxon proves their faith, their soul can be bound to a beacon. Upon death, their soul will be reborn in an infant’s body within a hundred miles of the beacon.
Those reborn via consecution typically remember fragments of their previous life around adolescence, adding extra dimension to any Xhorhas adventurer’s ideals, flaws, and bonds. Your character might be an orc who once lived as a drow and now seeks to draw closer to what the Kryn Dynasty calls an "Umavi"—a state of perfection only achieved when a soul has undergone multiple cycles of rebirth and learned its true purpose.
Alternatively, you could be an orc overwhelmed by the memories of your previous drow life. Perhaps the knowledge of your rebirth causes you to shun the Luxon and escape the bounds of the Kryn Dynasty. The choice is yours, and the storytelling possibilities for your character’s backstory are boundless!
The Kryn Dynasty and the Dwendalian Empire don't get along
Warning! Spoilers for Critical Role campaign two lie ahead!
Watchers of Critical Role’s second campaign will know of the tensions between Xhorhas’ Kryn Dynasty and the Dwendalian Empire to the west. In a nutshell, the Dynasty accused the Empire of authoritarian expansionism and the Empire viewed the Dynasty as a fanatical kingdom far too obsessed with the Luxon. The open conflict between both superpowers, known as the War of Ash and Light, ultimately ended with peace negotiations, but any home campaign can be set before this armistice, or even ignore it altogether.
When crafting your Xhorhasian character, consider how they might feel about the Dwendalian Empire. Will they let mainstream political beliefs about the Empire’s expansionist government color their views of its people? Or perhaps they hate the classist, theocratic tendencies of the Dynasty, where the Luxon is seen as superior to all other religions and the gift of consecution is controlled by the upper class?
When constructing the second Critical Role campaign, Matt Mercer leaned heavily into shades of gray, and the result was a richer world where both the Dynasty and the Empire came across as flawed societies. Lean toward this direction when discerning how your character might initially feel about the wider world—and be sure to give them wiggle room to change their perceptions of the Empire if they just so happen to ally with a trustworthy group of Dwendalian comrades.
Follow the call of adventure across Exandria
Xhorhas is a rich starting point for Call of the Netherdeep, but the campaign promises to expand across all of Exandria, taking players to the continent of Marquet and finally depositing them in the Netherdeep, a mysterious locale reminiscent of the Far Realm and the deep ocean. Sharpen your sword, ready those survival skills born on Xhorhas’ gritty wastelands, and get ready to answer the call of adventure. Call of the Netherdeep drops on March 15 and is available for preorder on D&D Beyond.
Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he's never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood.
I still kind of want to know what happened to the Drow who stayed underground and still worship Lolth.
Finally some good dragonborn art ^
Cool article, EGtW is worth a buy and a read. Good content, good worldbuilding inspiration for any aspiring DMs out there. Solid bestiary too
Are there Firbolgs native to Xhorhas?
Fantastic suggestions!
I would say so, especially in the south of the continent. Maybe near Charis or in the Lotusden Greenwood.
EGtW states that Firbolg aren't native to Xhorhas, but that some have wandered across the mountains, been rescued from the Barbed Fields by the Dynasty, and chosen to stay, creating a small community.
I've never quite understood how material planes mesh in the worlds of D&D. It seems like some, like Wildemount and Toril, share the same outer planes, but some, like Eberron, don't. How does this like... work. And how does no one know about this in the D&D worlds? Like, it takes someone of Elminster-level to know about other worlds when they literally share the same hell and heaven?
I dunno, does anyone have an explanation?
Right! I totally forgot about that! Thank you!
Easy answer: most people can't get to heaven and hell without, you know, dying. Planeshift is a 7th level spell, and portals between the planes are very rare indeed. And then you need to not only go to another plane, but spend the time...casually talking with people, such that you realize they're from a different material world. Most adventurers are rather too busy trying to save said worlds to bother with anything not relevant to the current quest, which is why you only get the Elminster types. I have the distinct memory of flavor text from some Sigil source complaining about Prime adventurers, always in a hurry and never bothering to learn the local politics...
Why Eberron doesn't - I can't remember if this is real planescape lore or something from my head - but everyone sees the outer planes differently; to some there's Yggdrasil, and you can climb through the branches, and to others there's the Great Wheel. They're not physically real places, their planes of thought and magic and divinity. What you expect, based on your religious upbringing or magical studies or whatever, is what you get, quite literally.
Thanks!
I think it was alluded to in C2, but do Exandrian drow have sunlight sensitivity?
They do, that's why Rosohna is covered in eternal night.
A lot of them or at least those under Taldorei are either being driven mad by the Chained Oblivion or are under siege by the forces of the Crawling King. Driders are born from those that fully turn to Lolth to escape the influences of the other too, but a good number of others have been hunting for escape amongst the Kryn or the elves of Lyrngorn.
They're still there. The Kryn are the outliers, more so. And there's a group of Lolth-worshipping drow and hobgoblins (I think) nearby who continually harass the Kryn for their perceived betrayal.
For the Hord!
Jeremy,
Is this information sufficient for creating characters? Or will there be specific character creation information in CotN?
I'd love to be able to have players create characters and jump into the EgtW Urzin game while waiting for CotN to come out, but I'm worried that CotN will contain character creation information or suggestions that would have informed that creation process.
Same question here. I'm hoping to do a session 0 using the heroic chronicle in the Wildemount book towards the end of Feb.
I seriously love the art in this. I really wanna have some posters of this its that good. HANG IT IN A MUSEUM PEOPLE
almost curious how these hobgoblins of lolth are justified as they basically have no real solid connections to lolth, from what i know that is not setting specific, despise elves of all kinds as they embody everything they despise, making it an insult among their kind and far as i know have nothing to do with spiders