How Critical Role Campaign 4 is gaining momentum, preparing for the final episode of its “overture” and split the players into three separate partieswe're still learning more about the mysterious world of Araman, created by Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan. Exandria (the setting for the previous three Critical Role campaigns) relied heavily on established Dungeons and Dragons knowledge. Instead, one of the most exciting parts of Campaign 4 is how Mulligan uses these common references to create something truly original.
The audience has already been introduced to A sad and twisted version of the Celestials of Aramanbut episode 3, “Scissors of Scissors”, also reveals some information about their villainous counterparts, demons. The term was used in Campaign 4 in a fairly general sense, but what's interesting is that it also refers to people who in other D&D settings would be classified as “tieflings”, including the demon sorcerer Tyranny, played by Whitney Moore.
Traditionally, tieflings are mortals with Devil ancestors, but it seems that in Araman they are true demons whose souls took up residence in a mortal body as a result of a transaction. In the third episode, we learned that demons reside in a place called the Pit, which is ruled by an evil being called High Prince Kshaaravi, the Shadow of Suffering. Ksha'aravi made a deal with House Halovar in which he provided them with demons to use as agents and models of redemption for the Shining Faith. In exchange, he will receive the souls of mortals and part of the Thread, a substance with divine properties produced by the Khalovars.
If you're finding this all puzzling, you're not alone (but you can always check out our helpful guide to lore of the fourth campaign). Mulligan is a master of tease, and he's very meticulous about how much he reveals in each episode. However, based on what we know, we can assume that the tieflings of Araman are the souls of demons inhabiting a mortal body. This is a nice twist on one of the popular D&D character types and could potentially make it more interesting.
The origin of tieflings dates back to 1994 and the iconic Setting up a Planescape Campaign for AD&D Second Edition. They were vaguely described as having an otherworldly heritage, implying that it came from devils, demons, or other evil planar beings. Planscape author Zeb Cook said in a later interview that he intentionally left the tieflings' origins vague because he simply wanted to create a reformed devil/antihero character archetype, partly to appeal to the gothic and emo style. However, the third and fourth editions of D&D further defined and narrowed these origins (a choice that Cook criticized), leading to the current consensus that all tieflings have origins leading to the Lower Planes.
While the specifics of these origins vary widely, the common thread is that tieflings are humans with Fiend blood in their veins. In D&D, Fiends are denizens of the Lower Planes of the evil alignment, including the Abyss, the Nine Hells, Carceri, Gehenna, Pandemonium, and maybe a few more I'm forgetting. This cosmology is common to almost all D&D settings, including the world of Exandria, where Devils make many appearances. Although these evil beings reside in the Lower Planes, they can be summoned to the Material Plane or accessed through portals. They survive in their physical bodies, but can only be truly killed on their home planes.
The description of the Pit and its inhabitants made in the third episode of Campaign 4 avoids these common elements. Kshaaravi is very similar to Asmodeusruler of the Nine Hells, with all this intrigue and trading of souls, but I got the impression that the demons of Aram
