The popular fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online gets a major update, Seasons of the Worm Cult, today on PC and Mac (consoles will have to wait until June 18), and we’ve got all its details from a press presentation and roundtable Q&A with Zone Lead Jason Barnes and Systems Designer Carrie Day.
After moving away from the expansion-like Chapters, the team is starting its new journey with Seasons of the Worm Cult, which will introduce a new playable zone, Solstice. Located off the southern coast of Tamriel, Solstice is a remote and largely undiscovered island, which ZeniMax Online thought was the perfect backdrop for the return of the Worm Cult, the fan-favorite group of necromancers whom players previously fought and defeated in the original main quest of the game. The design of Solstice features a Mediterranean tropical aesthetic that sets it apart from previous zones seen in The Elder Scrolls Online. A central feature of the island is the ominous Writhing Wall. This ever-present structure looms over the island and will play a crucial role in the overarching storyline, with players tasked to uncover its mysteries and ultimately band together to topple it later in the year in a big event.
Sunport is Solstice’s capital and central hub. The city looks unique thanks to its architecture, which combines influences from various cultures, mainly Argonians and High Elves (Altmer). The narrative moves through the historical conflicts that emerged when the Altmer House Coralia, exiled from the mainland, invaded the island, leading to a significant war with the Argonians. After a fragile peace was established, the current threat comes from the Worm Cult, which has taken over the island’s eastern half and constructed a barrier made of souls. A coalition of heroes called The Stirk Fellowship has arrived to face them, featuring familiar characters from previous questlines in The Elder Scrolls Online, like the Redguard Prince Azah. The players will join them.
‘Players can hop into Seasons of the Worm Cult at any level. We’ve made the story and everything there in a way that will make sense still. If that’s the first thing you do, you can still play the main storyline and all that, you’ll just have your own unique path for it.’
Western Solstice is the half of the island that players will explore right away, starting from today. The area is highlighted by features such as giant seashells and ancient fossils, but there are also haunted manors and Nordic enclaves. The developers have also added new gameplay mechanics like building bridges and controlling magical suits of armor. Additionally, a carnival offers quirky games that challenge players and reveal deeper secrets within the game.
Players will encounter ancient golems infused with Argonian magic and a new creature, the Argonian Behemoth, which character artist Bobby Foster originally created during an internal game jam. Crucially, Seasons of the Worm Cult is the first time the timeline moves forward narratively. This chronological advancement means that the story has evolved beyond the defeat of Molag Bal, but it will not restrict new players from enjoying the game’s content in any order they choose.
Seasons of the Worm Cult will also expand the game with new World Bosses, Delves, a Public Dungeon, and a brand-new Trial, the Ossein Cage. There are 16 Antiquities (including three new Mythic items), four new Trial item sets (including Perfected versions), and a host of other rewards, including even more item sets, and new Collectibles like crafting motifs and pets.
However, arguably the most exciting update for existing The Elder Scrolls Online players is coming for free with Update 46. It’s Subclassing, which will allow players to add skill lines from other classes, greatly enhancing the build variety available in the game. It’s important to note that you’ll always have to keep at least one skill line belonging to your original class. Additionally, you can only grab one skill line from each class; that means it’s not allowed to, for instance, add two Dragon Knight skill lines to a Templar base class.
After the presentation, Jason and Carrie answered several questions from the assembled press and content creators.
‘You do need to have a level 50 character once on your account for subclassing. That is an account-wide restriction, but once that occurs, you can then subclass at any level. You will need to go to a Wayshrine of those three zones to get to the NPC. It won’t just spit you out there. But you could create a character and immediately beeline there and start subclassing to level your account in a whole new way.’
What makes Solstice stand out in comparison to the other parts of Tamriel that are already in the game?
Jason Barnes: I think there’s always unique things every time we come out with a new release of content. Aesthetically, it looks different. Monster-wise, I think there are many new things we’re doing there, new types of creatures we’ve explored. Content-wise, we are exploring some new themes.
One of the most interesting things about Solstice and its release that I didn’t actually touch on is that the Seasons of the Worm Cult is going to play out a little bit differently. In the past, when we’ve done Year of style of gameplay – I’ll use Elsweyr as an example, because I worked on Southern Elsweyr – it was two distinct stories that played out simultaneously. You could complete them in any order and then there was a capper quest that brought the two together, but there wasn’t a distinct order to it.
With Solstice and how we’re doing the storytelling this year in The Elder Scrolls Online, one of the unique things is that it all happens in order. You have to do the story in order. You can’t just jump in and start doing the main quests in another area.
It all kind of chains together, which is really cool because it means the island itself is progressing as the year goes on, and things are opening up and changing. It’s a kind of living environment in a lot of ways, and we’ve never done that before. As the year progresses and each stage kind of hits more, things are going to open up, more stuff is going to start to happen on the island, until eventually at the end of the year, it’s craziness all over, and things are happening. So it’s really kind of an evolving zone, and that’s something that we’ve never done before.
WCCFTECH – How does Scribing interact with Subclassing?
Carrie Day: That’s a really good question. Overall, Scribing will function the way it already has. So, if you have a class mastery ability, it will only function with the class that you created for character creation. That is part of that core functionality. So, class item sets included with that are also going to be tied to that class. So you cannot use class mastery for skill lines you’ve subclassed into.
Is there a certain level that players need to be for Seasons of the Worm Cult content?
Jason Barnes: Nope. They can hop in at any level. We’ve made the story and everything there in a way that will make sense still.
If that’s the first thing you do, you can still play the main storyline and all that, you’ll just have your own unique path for it. One thing I will mention is there’s not going to be a tutorial that spits you out to this island. You’ll actually start in the base game’s island through the new revamped tutorial. If you want to choose to come to Solstice, you can do that right away at level one. You just hop on a boat or grab the Wayshrine and hop over. But yeah, it scales just like all of our other zones in The Elder Scrolls Online.
Is that the same for subclassing in terms of levels?
Carrie Day: You do need to have a level 50 character once on your account. That is an account-wide restriction, but once that occurs, you can then subclass at any level. You will need to go to a Wayshrine of those three zones to get to the NPC. It won’t just spit you out there. But you could create a character and immediately beeline there and start subclassing to level your account in a whole new way.
Players who may not be as aware of the system do get a notification when hitting level 50 that subclassing is available, because it’s a whole new world. You experience it from one to 50, and then once you hit 50, the Champion system opens and all these other features. We want to make you aware that you can continue to grow with subclassing, too.
WCCFTECH – Were there any further discussions on potentially adding a higher difficulty level for story and/or open world content for those who’d like more of a challenge?
Jason Barnes: I will say that there are ongoing plans for that and it’s in the works. We’re not ready to talk about it yet, but we’ve acknowledged openly that it is something we’re looking at, and there’s people working on it. I’ll leave it at that.
Can you tell us a bit more about the role of Writhing Wall?
Jason Barnes: It’s the center of the Seasons of the Worm Cult. Everything really revolves around the Writhing Wall. Again, we can’t get into too many details just because a lot of that’s going to be revealed as we go into the Writhing Wall event that happens later on.
But, in broad terms for Seasons of the Worm Cult part one, it exists everywhere. You can’t go past it. There’s story references to it throughout, and you’ll learn more. I’ve seen this question come up in other places – what happens if I come to the island after the event takes place? Will the story still make sense if the wall is in a different state? Yes, we’ve planned for that. It’ll all make sense if you come in a year or two later to play through this content. We’ve made sure to think through those possibilities.
With the event happening later in the year, can you tell us whether players who don’t have the content pass will be able to participate, potentially, in other places outside of Solstice?
Jason Barnes: Yeah, and we’ll reveal more details on that. But there will be activities going on in the general world in addition to what’s going on in Solstice. That’s about as much as we can say right now. But there’s, there’s definitely gonna be stuff for people to do.
Do you need to re-level up the skill lines when you subclass into them?
Carrie Day: That is actually a really good question. You do actually have to re-level skill lines when you subclass into them. Because subclassing is an account-wide shared progress, your levels are shared, but not when you start day one of this content update. If you have previously hit rank 50 of a skill line, you have a collectible unlocked on your account that says, I already have mastered this and you can use that skill line completely freely to engage with subclass into for build management.
For players who have no existing experience already, they can only learn and engage in subclassing in up to three additional skill lines at a time to mix and match with. But everyone, regardless of whether or not you’re brand new versus someone who is an experienced player, will start those subclass skill lines on rank one. They are leveling faster than your original one to 50 experience because you get increased experience as a max-level character in The Elder Scrolls Online. And we also have introduced a Champion star to assist in that process. So it will be an investment, but it will be an easier investment than you had previously.
With the story progressing and the main quest in the past in reference to the Solstice events, which year are we now in the Second Era?
Jason Barnes: All we’re saying is that it has advanced. We’re not specifically saying that stuff yet, but nice try. I know a lot of people are trying to figure that out.
For the base game, we had the Planemeld Anchors to break as a sort of zone-wide event to showcase the Worm Cult storyline. Is there a similar event in Western Solstice?
Jason Barnes: Stay tuned. That’s all I can say. You will see as the year progresses and things start happening. I will leave it at that. I don’t want to give spoilers, but we’re thinking about it. I’ll keep that there.
‘Mannimarco is gone. It’s Wormblood time. If anyone hasn’t read the meet the character that we released for Wormblood, go and check it out. It has some ties to Mannimarco, but Wormblood is the new, mysterious entity that we will be facing off against. You’ll learn more once you play through.’
How much longer do we have to wait before we can punch Mannimarco for the 9000000th time?
Jason Barnes: Mannimarco is gone. It’s Wormblood time. If anyone hasn’t read the meet the character that we released for Wormblood, go and check it out. It has some ties to Mannimarco, but Wormblood is the new, mysterious entity that we will be facing off against. You’ll learn more once you play through.
What are your personal expectations for Seasons of the Worm Cult, and what do you hope that players enjoy most about it?
Carrie Day: The story is something I’m really excited about. I was not someone who wrote the story when it released 10 years ago, but I was someone who experienced it on day one as a player, and to see that story come back is really, really special for me personally. But my personal expectation for this whole season is that we’re in an incredible new stage of transition and evolution with the game. Subclassing is giving a new way to engage in the game that we’ve never done before. I expect people to be completely unique and do some really crazy things. I’m really excited to see it. I’m excited that people are going to come back to The Elder Scrolls Online excited about the return of the story as well as these new systems. And we’ve also done a ton of new things like a welcome back player feature that is coming next week. I expect it’s gonna feel like a whole new thing, like One Tamriel all over again.
Jason Barnes: From my end, I’m super excited about the big event. It’s unlike anything we’ve really done before. We’ll talk more about that as it gets closer. That’s going to be really cool. And then I’m just really excited about the overall story and where we’re going with it. There’s lots of twists and turns. It’s a lot darker themed in a lot of ways, similar to the base game. It feels like a continuation of what we did back then. Also, just the amount of depth the team has gone through to pay off some of the stories and lingering questions and advancing storylines for various characters and being able to reference back to the things that the players have done. There’s been an extreme amount of time really focused on that and making sure that pays off, especially as we continue into the latter half of the year. I’m super hyped about that. There’s tons of stuff constantly being worked on, things that we haven’t even talked about that are really exciting that are coming to the game.
Thank you for your time.
