Dungeons & Dragons' New Adventure Book Might Finally Address Critical Role's Evil Moon
The newly announced Dungeons & Dragons' adventure looks like it will address one of the longer-running mysteries in the world of Critical Role. Earlier this week, Wizards of the Coast announced it was releasing a full-length campaign adventure book set in the world of Exandria, titled Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep. The campaign will take players from the Wastes of Xhorhas to the desert city of Ank'Harel to the brand new plane of the Netherdeep, which is described as a mix between the Far Planes and an ocean. However, the adventure might also provide some answers about a lingering mystery not yet addressed in Critical Role - namely, the evil moon that hangs over Exandria. The description of Call of the Netherdeep directly references Ruidus, stating that "Above it all, the red moon of Ruidus watches, twisting the fates of those who have the power to shape the course of history."
Exandria has two moons, named Catha and Ruidus. While Catha has its ties to Sehanine, a moon goddess in the Exandrian pantheon, Ruidus is a much smaller moon that sits further away from the planet of Exandria. With a dark red-brown coloring, many cultures in Exandria associate Ruidus as an omen of ill-tidings. Some even suspect that the moon isn't native to Exandria - instead, they Ruidus was created by the Betrayer Gods during the ancient war known as the Calamity for an unknown purpose.
Even if you're a fan of Critical Role (colloquially known as a Critter,) you might not know that Exandria has a foreboding moon named Ruidus. In the third episode of Critical Role's second campaign, several members of the cast expressed shock and surprise that Exandria did in fact have two moons. That's in part because Critical Role's DM and Exandria's creator Matthew Mercer has only hinted at Ruidus's true nature in a few episodes and a couple of supplementary materials. The fan theories about Ruidus range from it being some sort of dormant superweapon to the prison of a Betrayer God to somehow being connected to the Chained Oblivion, a Betrayer God who had a minor role in the second campaign and who seems to be trying to escape its ancient prison.
From the sounds of the new adventure book, we should at least get a little more information about what exactly Ruidus is. Those who pay attention to Critical Role know that Mercer seems to have something up his sleeve regarding this mysterious moon, but whether it comes out in an official D&D book or as one of the threats faced by the characters of Critical Role remains unclear.
Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep will be released on March 15, 2022. The third campaign of Critical Role will debut on October 21st, 2021 on Critical Role's Twitch channel.