Critical Role: Downfall – New Clues Reveal the Gods Involved with Aeor’s Fall
The cast of Critical Role are literally playing God in their latest miniseries Downfall. Here are the deities they're bringing to life.
This article contains spoilers for the first episode of Critical Role: Downfall.
The fall of the ancient Exandrian city of Aeor has long been one of Critical Role’s biggest mysteries. A society from the Age of Arcanum that sought to destroy the Gods, and almost succeeded before the Gods themselves struck the floating city from the sky, condemning its wreckage to the icy wastes of Eiselcross. Now, as a sort of side quest in the Bells Hells campaign, we finally get to see a glimpse of how Aeor fell in the three-part series Critical Role: Downfall.
Helmed by Game Master Brennan Lee Mulligan in place of Matthew Mercer, the cast in this story are not playing the mere mortals of Aeor who sought to become more powerful than the divine, but rather the divine themselves in avatar form sneaking aboard the floating city to stop them. Who exactly their characters represent is never explicitly said in the episode, but it wasn’t hard for fans to hazard their best guesses as these beings were introduced and the episode progressed.
As with any other Critical Role project, with new characters comes new character art. While many of these characters may look more unassuming than their Godly counterparts on the surface, the binary code located at the bottom of each card designed by Jordyn Torrence helped fans make the connections on which God each character represents.
For Ashley Johnson’s character, Trist, the binary code translates to “mercy,” a core tenet of Sarenrae, the Everlight, who represents redemption, healing, and temperance in Exandria. If you want to peel back this onion even further, the Everlight is the deity worshiped by Johnson’s Vox Machina character Pike Trickfoot, who was instrumental in reviving Everlight worship throughout Exandria.
The code for Laura Bailey’s character, Emhira, translates to “death” which is the domain of the Raven Queen. Not only is her inclusion on this quest prescient as she was the first mortal to kill a God and ascend in their place, but the Raven Queen also claimed Vax’ildan (Liam O’Brien), the twin brother of Bailey’s Vex’ahlia, as her champion during the Vox Machina campaign.
Asha, Talesin Jaffe’s character, has “nature” in binary code written on her card, the domain of the Wildmother, Melora. Jaffe’s second character in The Mighty Nein, Caduceus Clay, had a strong connection to the Wildmother, representing yet another full-circle moment.
As for the new cast members joining Downfall, the translation for Abubakar Salim’s Aeormaton S.I.L.A.H.A is “beauty,” and evocative of Corellon, the Arch Heart. The commandments of the Arch Heart encourage followers to create, inspire, and find beauty in all that they do. The word “silaha” also translates to “weapon” in Swahili, an apt name for an Aeromaton created by a God.
Nick Marini’s character Ayden has the word “dawn” hidden in his card, which means that he is very likely the Dawnfather, Pelor. The Dawnfather is the God of sun, summer, and agriculture in Exandria.
Finally, the binary code translation for Noshir Dalal’s The Emissary reads as “law,” signifying a connection to the Lawbearer, Erathis. Unlike the others, the Emissary isn’t a full avatar of the Lawbearer, as made evident by Asha’s disappointment that her love couldn’t seem to be bothered to come in person.
Unlike other Critical Role character art, these very specifically don’t have the level that these characters are at. Since they are playing mortal manifestations of the Gods, it’s pretty safe to assume that they are high level, but we’ll just have to wait and see if it’s revealed later on in the series.
As for the other Gods that make an appearance at the end of the episode, there’s still a lot we don’t know about them. Arcadia is likely Ioun, as Brennan refers to her as the “Goddess of Knowledge.” Father Milo is likely Asmodeus – who else of the Betrayers would be brash enough to masquerade as a priest of the Dawnfather? But Tishar, Umleta, and Zaharzht are still somewhat of a mystery, aside from the fact that they are also Betrayer Gods rather than Prime Deities.
Watching the cast literally play God has been an incredible experience thus far. Just as with EXU: Calamity, we know that these iterations of these characters are likely doomed from the start. But the added layer of them being eternal beings beyond these mortal forms makes the plot that much juicier. We get to experience this world-ending story unfold alongside them, and it will be interesting to see just how much this quest transformed the gods into who they are in present-day Exandria.
The last two episodes of Critical Role: Downfall will stream live on Twitch, YouTube, and Beacon on July 18th and 25th respectively at 7 p.m. PT/ 10 p.m. ET. VODs will be available to watch for subscribers immediately, and will be free to watch for everyone on YouTube the following Monday.
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Brynna Arens (she/her) is a freelance writer who studies movies, TV, and pop culture through an intersectional feminist lens. She'll watch almost anything tbh, but it's…