The popular actual-play D&D podcast The Adventure Zone, hosted by the McElroy family, recently wrapped up its third season Graduation. While the family had hinted at what the next season might feature, the official announcement of The Adventure Zone's fourth season came in the form of a trailer that introduced the season's tone, musical stylings and name: The Adventure Zone: Ethersea.The trailer for Ethersea features animation by artist Mimi Chiu, who also brought the world of previous seasons Graduation and Amnesty to life for their trailers. Season Four's DM Griffin McElroy provided a voiceover, describing some of the stakes of this season's adventure, but also composed the music, setting the literal tone for the game to come.
The general vibe of The Adventure Zone: Ethersea is post-apocalyptic. The opening scenes of the trailer paint a world of broken-down buildings, decaying ships beached on the turrets of castles. Griffin's voiceover tells viewers that "Magic has a cost -- our ancestors did not pay it," suggesting the world's demise was at the hands of magic.
As the action moves underwater, avoiding the blighted nature of the land, it's clear that Ethersea takes place in uncharted territory for the McElroys: the ocean. While the trailer makes it seem as if life underwater has found a way to survive, it's unclear whether magic will be in regular use this season or if the players must contend with the foreshadowed costs.
Much of the trailer follows three characters: a catfish sailor, a gilled creature with a turtle-dog friend and an immediately beloved armored knight with a growth of coral for a head. Despite many guesses as to which McElroy would be playing which aquatic character, it turns out that the three main player characters for the season have not yet been created. It's possible that fans will see this coral creature brought to life in podcast form, but it's more likely that players Justin, Travis and Clint will craft new creations for the season.
The trailer also features some curious text. As it transitions from the wasted, bleak world above the water to the season's oceanic home, a series of captions appear that read: "When Kingdoms fall...The Sea provides...A Home for all...Beneath the Tides." The unusual capitalization of this poem suggests a possible importance of ideas like kingdom, sea, home, and tides, but aside from the obvious conceptual match-up, it's unclear if they have any greater importance.
The name Ethersea also caught some The Adventure Zone fans by surprise. The show has followed a general naming convention, with each season starting with the next letter of the alphabet. This order was established after the first season had already been named Balance, but the subsequent second season set things right by claiming the "A" name Amnesty. Everything from one-shot live show adventures to donor-only bonus episodes followed the general convention. However, Ethersea seems to be claiming the "E" slot which had previously already belonged to The Adventure Zone: Elementary, a playthrough of the game Four Sherlock Holmes and a Vampire (Who Is Also One of the Aforementioned Sherlock Holmes).
The first episode of Ethersea will be released this Thursday, May 6. As mentioned in a previous episode of the McElroy's after-show about The Adventure Zone, called The The Adventure Zone Zone, the season will begin by collaboratively building the world through a playthrough of Avery Alder's The Quiet Year. While fans may not get to meet the new PCs just yet, perhaps this worldbuilding will provide an explanation for the name of Ethersea.