Fallen Machina

A D&D 5e campaign set in a mirror-Exandria where Vox Machina rose as villains and were defeated by the figures they slew in the original timeline — the Briarwoods, Dr. Anna Ripley, the Chroma Council of Dragons, Vecna the Whispered One, and others — who are remembered today as the saviors of the world.

“They came as adventurers. They left as ash. The Lady and Lord of Whitestone cleansed the rot. Dr. Ripley closed the wounds. The Council of Wyrms held the sky. And the Whispered One — bless his patient hand — taught us how to remember without flinching.” — The Vanguard Hymnal, sung at every Founding Day in Whitestone, year 836 P.D.

The Premise in One Paragraph

Twenty-four years ago, a band of seven adventurers rose out of the Tal’Dorei wilds and tried to seize Exandria. They called themselves Vox Machina. They were not subtle. They burned Whitestone, gunned down healers, butchered ancient guardian-wyrms, raided sacred libraries, and styled themselves saviors as they did it. They were stopped — at terrible cost — by an alliance of the very figures they had named as enemies: the Briarwoods of Whitestone, Dr. Anna Ripley of Wildmount, the Chroma Council of elder dragons, the Whispered One Vecna, the redeemed shadow Orthax, and others. Today’s Exandria is a world built on the bones of that war. The heroes of that war are the celebrated authorities of the present age. The party plays in the aftermath — and the aftermath is more complicated than the hymnals admit.

How To Use This Folder

Fallen Machina/
├── README.md                       ← you are here
├── 01-Premise/                     ← the high concept, tone, themes
├── 02-Heroes-of-Exandria/          ← the celebrated saviors (canon's "villains")
├── 03-Fallen-Machina/              ← the defeated would-be conquerors (canon's "heroes")
├── 04-World/                       ← post-war factions, locations, timeline
├── 05-Campaign/                    ← hooks, arc options (aftermath/rising/reckoning), seeds
├── 06-Player-Resources/            ← session zero handouts
└── 07-DM-Tools/                    ← how to run it, encounter notes, NPC lists

Read in order if you’re new. Skim Premise + Hooks if you’ve played CR Campaign 1 and the inversion will speak for itself.

Three Campaign Stances (Pick at Session Zero)

The DM picks one of three stances for the present-day world. Each yields a very different campaign:

Aftermath — peace, two decades on. Vox Machina are dead and the heroes rule benevolently. New threats stir. The party are next-generation adventurers in a hopeful world. (Heroic tone.)
Rising — Vox Machina, or remnants of them, are coming back: undead, cults, returned in flesh. The aging heroes need new champions. The party joins their cause. (Classic high-fantasy, urgent tone.)
Reckoning — the heroes have grown corrupt, complacent, or compromised in two decades of victory. Vox Machina were not entirely wrong about some things. The party must navigate murkier waters. (Dark / morally complex tone — closest to the original campaign concept this folder grew from.)

05-Campaign/arc-options.md walks through each.

Status

Campaign concept locked
Folder scaffolding
Heroes of Exandria — the saviors
Fallen Machina — the defeated antagonists (historical, possibly returning)
World, factions, post-war timeline
Campaign hooks & arc options
Player + DM resources
Statblocks for boss encounters (generate as needed)
Session-by-session notes (populate during play)

Core Tonal Promise

This is a world where the heroes won, and the world is grateful. The interesting tension comes from what the victors had to become to win, what they buried to govern, and whether the threat is truly gone. The campaign can lean bright (Aftermath stance) or grim (Reckoning stance) — but the inversion of Critical Role lore is permanent: the Briarwoods are saints, Ripley is a Nobel-tier scientist, the dragons are wise protectors, Vecna is a melancholy sage of memory, and Vox Machina are the history-book villains.