One of the core elements to the Elder Scrolls Online is having a story that each player can follow. The game does have a main quest line and it revolves around everyone's favorite Elder Scrolls baddies: the Daedra. There are two pieces of information that I gathered from the website which made me write this article. The first is in the storyline section which talks about how Molag Bal is involved. The second is the concept art picture of the Daedric Titan Monster. If you add these up, I think we are in for a wild ride with the daedra when it comes to Elder Scrolls Online.
Here is a piece from the website that detail's Molag Bal’s involvement.
“So began the grand scheme of Molag Bal, Daedric Prince of domination and enslavement. His Dark Anchors, vortexes of evil magic, weaken the barrier between worlds, threatening to merge Nirn and Oblivion into a single, nightmarish hellscape.”
There are a number of things to think about in this statement. The first is Molag Bal himself. The haunted house from Skyrim still scares the crap out of me. The prince of pure evil looks to play a big role in Elder Scrolls Online and honestly he is the perfect villain. Based on the lore, Molag Bal is also the creator of vampires which we know will also play a part in the game. So this adds up to both undead and daedric spawn of destruction. Some of the artwork shows this very fact coming to life. Also when we demoed the game we did a public dungeon called Crow’s Wood which had a few undead aspects to it. While there are a lot of monsters in the game, the idea of fighting daedra fueled undead is really pretty enticing to my sensibilities.
Another part of this is the Dark Anchors. These are massive hooks that Molag Bal is sending to pull the realms together. These should act as spawn points for daedric incursions. They can pop up anywhere and will give players some great random options when the spawn begins to grow. We did try to make it to one of the Dark Anchors when we demoed the game, but opted for the Public dungeon first. However, the idea of discovering these gates and shutting them down adds a lot to the open world of the game.
)
The next part about the daedra in ESO that gets us excited is the idea of Daedric Titans. This is mentioned in the concept art section. The picture of massive demons attacking the realm of mortals is awesome and hopefully these giants are used as boss mobs in something like a public dungeon. The idea that all players can work together to bring down these foes without being in a specific raid really gives a lot of options. Also, it raises the question that if the Dark Anchors are left unchecked will they eventually begin to spawn Daedric Titans.
So we have a pretty good idea on how the daedra will be used as bad guys. The other question I have is if they will be used in crafting. One of my favorite things to do in Skyrim is to make the daedric armor and weapons. Finding the daedric hearts are not easy, but when I do get them I immediately run off and craft a new weapon. Hopefully, Elder Scrolls Online will use the drops from these monsters to give players the same crafting options that they have in other Elder Scrolls games.
We know that Molag Bal will be making an appearance. It will be curious to see how the other Daedric Princes appear in the game. With the time period set pretty neutral in terms of events like Oblivion and Skyrim, the development and story teams have a lot of options on how to bring these forces into the game. Being a fan of Orcs, I cannot wait to see how Malacath plays a part.
Overall, the daedra are one of the most interesting aspects of Elder Scrolls, from their uses as villains, gods, and even crafting ingredients, it is exciting to see how they will show up in Elder Scrolls Online. At launch I am sure we will find a lot of lore to look through, but even as the game matures, perhaps we will see massive daedric invasions as part of live events and expansions. Here’s hoping.
- Watch a video about The Dreugh
- Read Garrett's last TESO column, Progression as Longevity
- Check out Tamriel, 1000 Years Ago
