What was that noise? Don’t worry,
that was just the sound of another
year passing us by. It seems like only
yesterday that we were writing about
Summerset, last summer’s expansive
‘Chapter’ for The Elder Scrolls Online,
and here we are talking about the next
offering, Elsweyr.
This new Chapter takes us to the
homeland of the cat-like Khajiit, a
location that, like Summerset (which
took us to the Elven Summerset
Isles), hasn’t been seen since The
Elder Scrolls: Arena, 25 years ago.
It also introduces dragons to ESO
and adds a new character class, the
Necromancer. Battlemage and former
advisor to the Emperor, Abnur Tharn,
has unintentionally unleashed the
dragons upon Elsweyr and the Imperial
Army is invading from the north. It’ll
be your job to save the home of the
Khajiit by defeating the dragons and
pushing back the Imperials.
This is all just one part of a year-
long adventure called ‘The Season
Of The Dragon’, which kicked off in
March with the smaller dungeon pack,
Wrathstone, and provides a clear
picture of ZeniMax Online Studio’s
plans for future content. With ESO’s
first two Chapters, Morrowind and
Summerset, ZOS released smaller DLC
packs around them, but the content
was unrelated to the Chapter. ForThe Elder
Scrolls Online:
Elsweyr
Journey to the land of the
Khajiit in this ESO expansion
Adam Bryant
PUBLISHER BETHESDA DEVELOPER ZENIMAX ONLINE STUDIOS
ETA 4 JUNESHOPPING
LIST
Some of the
improvements to ESO
that’s come as part of
The Season Of The
Dragon is the Zone
Advisor. This checklist
sits on the same
screen as your map
and allows you to
check off all of the
items, secrets and
locations you’ve
discovered in a
certain area – which
is a godsend for
completionists. No
more writing down
how many Skyshards
you’ve discovered or
which dungeons
you’ve cleared, it’s all
there on one screen.
“We’re integrating a class
into the world in a way that
we’ve never done before”
024 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
PREVIEW
The mysterious Khajiit, M’aiq The Liar, has appeared in every Elder Scrolls game since Morrowind
example Summerset centred on the
high elves and their homeland, but
the Wolfhunter and Mirkmire
DLC packs that followed were all
about werewolves and Argonians.
Things needed to change. “We were
stepping on ourselves all over the
place,” explains ESO director Matt Firor.
“We had this big promotion to get old
users back and new users into the
game and we used a lot of Summerset
content for that, because that was
the biggest thing, but by then we’d
already launched two more DLC
[packs], and people came in and said,
‘Hold on a minute, I thought this was
all about elves, why’s everything about
lizard people?’ And that was like, ‘Okay,
we’ve got to change that,’ and that led
to telling one big story, use all Khajiit,
Elsweyr, dragons, just tell that story
and have one unified message.”Undead rising
The Necromancer class will allow
players to raise the dead to heal
themselves, or to unleash upon the
enemy, but you’ll need to be careful.
Necromancy is illegal and if you’re
caught, you’re going to be in a spot
of bother. “The biggest thing is that
we’re integrating a class into the
world in a way that we’ve never done
before,” says Firor. “It’s okay that you
role-play a benevolent Necromancer,
but nobody in the game is going to
believe it. They’re going to think you’re
evil, and don’t want you in their town.”
As much as we like defeating
dragons and bringing the dead back
to life, we’re more excited to find out
about the Khajiit. We know that they
are an ancient race, older than any
race in Tamriel, other than the reptilian
Argonians. Nobody knows quite
where they came from, but visiting
Elsweyr will give players the chance
to find out all sorts of new things
such as how they live, and the many
difference species of them that exist.
Our favourite so far is the Alfiq species
that look just like house cats but are
highly intelligent and able to talk, and
some of whom are merchants. They
even wear tiny outfits that make them
that much cuter.
Elsweyr looks set to be the biggest
and best offering of content The Elder
Scolls Online has ever had and we
can’t wait to dive in once it releases
on 4 June this year. Q