Candela Obscura

The cast of the first chapter of Candela Obscura

## Ashley Johnson
Luis Carazo
Zehra Fazal
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Marisha Ray
Ashly Burch
Noshir Dalal
Gina Darling
Liam O'Brien
Sam Riegel

**Candela Obscura** is a horror drama that premiered Thursday, 25 May 2023 on Twitch, and has aired monthly since, usually on the last Thursday of the month. It has been presented as chapters consisting of three standalone episodes each.

The podcasts and YouTube video-on-demand versions for Chapter One were released two weeks following the initial stream on Twitch. Subsequently, the YouTube schedule was adjusted to the Monday following the initial air date.

## **Cast and characters**

### **Chapter One: The Circle of the Vassal and the Veil**

 Ashley Johnson | Auggie James | Criminal

### **Chapter Two: The Circle of Needle and Thread**

 Travis Willingham | Nathaniel Trapp | JournalistDetective

## **The World**

The city of Newfaire is built on the ruins of an older city called Oldfaire that had advanced knowledge of magick and technology. "The Flare" is the boundary between Newfaire and another realm inhabited by strange and often dangerous creatures. "Bleed" is a reality-distorting residue that is left behind when something crosses the Flare. Candela Obscura is an organisation that investigates these incursions from beyond the Flare, made up of small groups called Circles that answer to a Lightkeeper that gives them their assignments and is at least sometimes a former Circle operative. The members of a Circle are frequently people who have had some encounter with the incursions from this other realm.

Other groups interested in The Bleed which Candela Obscura has encountered in their investigations include the Office of Unexplained Phenomenon (OUP), a quasi-governmental group; the Red Hand, a secret society of aristocrats and artists who covet Bleed-affected objects; and EONS (the Esoteric Order of New Sciences), who seem to have a complicated relationship with Candela Obscura.

## **Gameplay**

### **Character classes**

#### **Face**

* Journalist - Cunning
* Magician - Intuition

#### **Muscle**

* Explorer - Nerve
* Soldier - Intuition

#### **Scholar**

* Doctor - Intuition
* Professor - Cunning

#### **Slink**

* Criminal - Cunning
* Detective - Nerve

#### **Weird**

* Medium - Intuition
* Occultist - Intuition

## **Production**

The series was created and produced by Taliesin Jaffe and Chris Lockey, and utilizes the Illuminated Worlds System from Darrington Press LLC. Development of the game system and of the show itself began in 2018, around the same time Critical Role was working on "Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace" (Sx46). According to Marisha Ray, one of their goals was to "put the horror in humanity and the humanity in horror".

A 26-page *Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide* PDF was available for download from the Darrington Press website the day of the first streamed episode, including a circle sheet, Field Guide, and five pre-generated blank sample character sheets.

In addition to the *Quickstart Guide*, Darrington Press published the *Candela Obscura Core Rulebook* on November 14, 2023, featuring the core rules, information on the setting in the Fairelands, sample assignments, and other information for both playing and gamemastering.

The concept art for the main set, a smaller subsidiary set, and several props was created by Shaun Ellis, and the sets were then fabricated by Flip This Bitch Both Shaun and FTB had previously worked with Critical Role Productions in designing and building the set for Campaign Three.

## **Episodes**

The fourth chapter of Candela Obscura was announced to begin airing 29 February 2024 at the conclusion of the finale of Chapter 3.

## **Trivia**

* According to Ivan Van Norman, Head of Darrington Press LLC, "Candela Obscura" translates to "the light in the obscure". A "candela" is a unit of light intensity.

## **External Links**

* *Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide* on the Darrington Press official website
* San Diego Comic-Con 2023 - Critical Role: Making Candela Obscura! on the Critical Role YouTube channel
* Everything you need to know about the lore of Candela Obscura 🕯️  on the Luboffin YouTube channel
* Candela Obscura Official Trailer on the Critical Role YouTube channel
* How To Play: Candela Obscura (Critical Role's New RPG) on the Critical Role YouTube channel
* Crafting a Mystery with Matthew Mercer - Candela Obscura on the Critical Role YouTube channel
* Creating Characters for Candela Obscura - Chapter 1 on the Critical Role YouTube channel
* Creating Characters for Candela Obscura - Needle & Thread on the Critical Role YouTube channel
* Candela Obscura Full Credits on IMDb.
* "Our *Candela Obscura* Original Soundtrack is Out Now!" on CritRole.com
* "‘Critical Role’s Taliesin Jaffe & Anjali Bhimani Tease New ‘Candela Obscura’ Series" on tvinsider.com.

## **References**

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1  HYPE! CANDELA OBSCURA – OUR NEW HORROR TTRPG SHOW PREMIERES MAY 25TH!  on CritRole.com .
2. ↑  CRITICAL ROLE PRESENTS CANDELA OBSCURA!  on CritRole.com .
3. ↑ See *San Diego Comic-Con 2023 - Critical Role: Making Candela Obscura!* at 1:42.
4. ↑ See *San Diego Comic-Con 2023 - Critical Role: Making Candela Obscura!* at 9:00.
5. ↑ See "Coming Nov. 14: Candela Obscura Core Rulebook in Standard and Limited Editions!", Darrington Press, October 17, 2023.
6. ↑  Shaun Ellis (@shmaba) on Twitter: "So now that you’ve all seen the first episode of #CandelaObscura and read the QuickStart guide (you \*have\* done that right??) i thought I’d share just some of what I’ve done for this project." (2023-05-31).
7. ↑ See "Critical Role: Candela Obscura" on the FTB Design website.
8. ↑ See "Campaign 3: Behind the Set" at 08:45.
9. ↑ See *San Diego Comic-Con 2023 - Critical Role: Making Candela Obscura!* from 8:43 through 11:40.

**Art:**

1. ↑ Official map of Newfaire, by Marc Moureau (source). This file is a copyrighted work. Its use in this article is asserted to qualify as fair use of the material under United States copyright law.