Critical Role reveals new Age of Umbra Sallowlands characters ahead of upcoming premiere

Critical Role has revealed the five adventurers at the center of its upcoming Daggerheart mini-series, Age of Umbra: Sallowlands, offering fans their first look at the group that will explore the dark corners of the Halcyon Domain. The reveal also arrives at an interesting moment for Critical Role, as the six-episode mini-series is set to premiere just days after the latest scheduled installment of Campaign 4.

Revealed on X.com Tuesday, the announcement included character art for Dillwyn and Badger, Sister, Caguama, Alphonse, and Mercy. The characters are described as “sun-warped” survivors. Like last year’s Age of Umbra mini-series, Sallowlands will run six episodes starting July 9. The cast for the show includes Critical Role co-founder Laura Bailey, Jennifer English, Abubakar Salim, Vico Ortiz, and Zachery Renauldo. Among the cast, English and Ortiz are new to Critical Role, but both have extensive D&D experience.

“This swathe of cracked badlands holds secrets that could lead them to salvation — or into the jaws of ancient horror,” reads an official description on the Daggerheart website, which also notes that players will “encounter brutal adversaries and high stakes in this dark and emotional actual play, which explores themes of desperation, survival, and love in the face of overwhelming odds.”

When the original Age of Umbra was announced last year, it was described as “a dark mirror to the brightly playful fantasy of Critical Role’s previous The Menagerie one-shots.” The newly revealed characters certainly reinforce that darker tone.

The Halcyon Domain is a world abandoned by the gods, where the souls of the dead are reborn into twisted nightmares and an ethereal mass called the Umbra corrupts everything it touches. Communities have developed around “flickers of hope” called Sacred Pyres. Between the grim setting and grotesque character designs, Sallowlands looks closer to Elden Ring than to traditional heroic fantasy. Mercer himself has previously described the setting as “Soulsborne-esque, super dark and deadly.”

It’s unclear precisely who is playing which character, but the way the information is presented in the announcement makes it seem like Bailey is playing a goblin ranger named Dillwyn with a badger animal companion (named Badger?). English is likely Sister, a towering, pale wizard. That would mean Salim is Caguama, a turtle-like Galapa druid. Alphonse, presumably the character played by Ortiz, looks like they crawled straight out of Bloodborne with what appears to be a blunderbluss, tattered leather robes, and a fractured ram skull on his head (probably of the Firbolg ancestry). Lastly, there’s Mercy, an undead giant with rusty blades strapped underneath their forearms, possibly played by Renauldo.

On Critical Role’s current schedule, the two parts of Campaign 4 episode 31 are set to air on July 2 and July 7. Both Mercer and Bailey are part of that campaign, and no episodes beyond those dates have been announced. While Critical Role has not indicated whether Campaign 4 will pause during Sallowlands, the timing certainly leaves room for the six-episode mini-series to take over the spotlight for the rest of the summer.