Exploring in The Elder Scrolls Online: One of Your #MillionReasonsToPlay

Countless stories.

Infinite adventures. As any experienced explorer can tell you, there are easily a million reasons to fall in love with The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. It’s why we recently began our #MillionReasonsToPlay initiative, which gave us the opportunity to share our own reasons and – more important – share yours with the worldwide community of ESO players. And because your Tweets, Facebook posts, forum messages and videos were as expansive, interesting and varied as Tamriel itself, we decided to dive a little deeper by asking a few of you for even more details beyond what you originally shared. But that’s not all – we also asked key members of the ESO development team to share their own insights, giving all of us even more reasons to spend some quality time in Tamriel.

Our first topic: Exploration.

Memory Lane

For many of you, one of the great joys of ESO is simply exploring the rich world of Tamriel. We heard lots of tales about terrific places, fascinating discoveries and nifty bits of lore – one-of-a-kind moments that no other game can deliver. But two in particular caught our eye.

Community member Peter Franken has been playing The Elder Scrolls since 1998, starting with The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall – which also happened to be his very first PC game. He was thrilled to discover that he could return to a fully realized Daggerfall in ESO, and equally excited about the choice in front of him: either take the long way there by beginning in the Ebonheart Pact and completing the story as a Nord, or simply creating a character in the Daggerfall Covenant. “I chose the long path,” he says.

Age Required

Why prolong his journey? Precisely because it was the journey that mattered to Franken. “I took my time with the game – I explored every nook and cranny I could find – so it took me 11 months to get to Daggerfall,” he tells us. “In those 11 months I never looked up anything about Daggerfall in ESO. I wanted to be surprised. I wanted to see if the city I visited so much in my childhood would be the city I would love as an adult.”

It was a year well-spent, according to Franken. “The moment I stepped off that boat, my jaw dropped straight to floor,” he says. “It was everything I hoped it would be. After 11 months of questing, exploring, PvP-ing, laughing and making friends, I stood in the city I loved to go to as a kid. And I sure felt like that kid again, who entered Daggerfall for the first time in 1998.”

Bonds of Brotherhood

Nostalgia can be a powerful thing, indeed. But it led to a slightly different experience for Jon Cheverie – one that tightened a brotherly bond. Cheverie began playing with his sibling in the Ebonheart Pact. Together, the brothers completed Stonefalls, then set out to explore the surrounding area. “Looking at the world map, we saw that The Rift was just north of Stonefalls,” he says. “Being huge fans of Skyrim and especially the intricate stories that The Rift held, we decided to make our way to the city of Riften.”

Age Required

Longtime players may have an inkling of where this is going. “We were travelling up a familiar road and reminiscing about older days in Skyrim,” he continues, “when we came around a corner and saw a huge bear with a level that surpassed ours even if we combined ours together. For the first time in months of playing Elder Scrolls Online, I was terrified. We had been walking for some time and the last wayshrine was far behind us.”

Despite his initial panic, Cheverie found comfort in his fraternal union. “Never before had we bonded so quickly playing a cooperative game together,” he laughs. “Every time I enter the Rift I am reminded of this journey with my brother. I will likely never forget that little adventure.”

Exploring the Past

Finding a connection to the past – and to other players – is just one of the many reasons to explore in Tamriel. For those who cherish their history with The Elder Scrolls, Tamriel is laden with ties to earlier games in the series. ESO’s Lead Content Designer Jeremy Sera pointed us to a few neat examples. “The beginning of the Imperial City Prison takes the player through the same section of jail cells where players of Oblivion started the tutorial,” he says. “The journey through the prison features all of the areas players will be familiar with from Oblivion’s tutorial: the prison, the sewers and the Ayleid ruins.”

Age Required

And that’s not all. “The architecture of the White-Gold Tower is consistent between ESO and Oblivion,” Sera says. “The tower consists of all of the same areas that players of Oblivion will be familiar with. In each case the original design was inspired by the source material in Oblivion. We especially tried to pay homage to several key vistas – for example, the first view of the Imperial City Prison when players load into the dungeon, and the first view of the Green Emperor’s Way when leaving the sewers in the White-Gold Tower.”

Some of the bits of familiar lore are even more subtle, though; just ask Creative Director Rich Lambert. “When creating locations and stories in ESO, we scoured the lore for stories we could build upon,” he says. “With ESO being in the Second Era, we’re able to show some of the events players have previously only been able to read about.” A perfect example of this is the Battle of Glenumbra Moors in Glenumbra, which was mentioned in a number of lore books in previous Elder Scrolls games. “We were able to take those books and turn them into a series of quests to let the player experience some portions of the battle firsthand.”

Looking Ahead

For intrepid explorers, ESO offers much more than a nostalgia trip; in fact, the world of Tamriel is always moving forward. Take the recent release of Orsinium, for example. It’s already the source of plenty of wonderful new adventures.

Franken related his experience at the highest point in the city with something approaching poetry. “The view is breathtaking,” he says. “You look over all of Wrothgar and you feel so small in a world that is so big. You can see the mountain ranges and the forests, the snowpelt hills and frozen rivers...I honestly think it’s my new favorite place in ESO.”

Age Required

Cheverie had a similar reaction, describing Orsinium as “mountain ranges and beautiful scenery everywhere.” He even had a happy accident while exploring the area: “I fell through a hole in a bridge and found a lore book!”

There are indeed plenty of delightful surprises to explore in the Orc’s ancestral homeland. “There’s a really cool crafting location hidden behind the Malacath statue,” Sera says. “And the Unfinished Dolmen has some awesome visual storytelling.”

For his part, ESO Content Designer Greg Roth is partial to Nyzchaleft Falls. “Not only is it a boss location with a fun encounter,” he tells us, “it’s also a great-looking area with a stunning frozen waterfall behind some Dwemer ruins.”

Breaking New Ground

Of course, Orsinium isn’t the only place in Tamriel with jaw-dropping vistas and wonderful new places to discover. But it is a spectacularly big world. So we asked the developers about their favorite spots to visit.

Lambert pointed us to a particular spot in Aldmeri Dominion lands. “There’s a spot in Malabal Tor – right near Jode’s Pocket – which overlooks the bay and a beached, ruined ship,” he says. “When the sun is right, the water just sparkles and the whole area takes on this serene feel. There’s a crafting station in the area, so players go there to make gear sometimes. But sometimes you just need to stop and enjoy the view.”

Age Required

Roth had similar thoughts about a location in Craglorn. “There’s a painter who hangs out on a vista near the Skyreach region,” he says, “and when you speak to him he talks about his passion for painting landscapes rather than his usual work in portraiture. When you see the scene he’s planning on painting – especially around sunrise – you can understand why. It’s beautiful and serene, and even a little tragic when you think about the civilization that once existed there.”

But really, there’s so very much to explore in ESO that we could go on for days. There’s something for everyone, from hardcore questers to casual sightseers. Ultimately, Sera may have put it best: “Pick a direction and go – and you’ll run into something interesting.”

Want to share your reasons for playing the Elder Scrolls Online? Join in with the hashtags #MillionReasonsToPlay and #ESO on any of our social media channels:

Facebook: facebook.com/ElderScrollsOnline

Twitter: twitter.com/TESOnline

Instagram: Instagram.com/elderscrollsonline

Tumblr: theelderscrollsonline.tumblr.com

Google+: plus.google.com/+ElderScrollsOnline

And be sure to check out Reason #1,000,000 – a chance to win a million dollars! Find out more here: One Million More Reasons to Play The Elder Scrolls Online