Every Chapter The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) releases comes with its own unique list of features and changes, and the upcoming Gold Road is certainly no different. The scope of additions offered in Gold Road is far greater than seen in any Chapter before.
From mechanical depth to earth-shattering lore additions that might just crop up in The Elder Scrolls 6 (whenever it comes out), there’s a lot on offer here—so much, in fact, that it might be a little overwhelming. But all of the biggest points from the Gold Road reveal stream are broken down here to help explain exactly what you’re going to get with your price of admission.
What’s included with ESO‘s Gold Road Chapter?
The first and most obvious new addition is an entirely new region of Tamriel: the West Weald, comprising of a chunk of southwestern Cyrodiilic countryside and the city of Skingrad. Although the game did receive another Cyrodiilic chapter fairly recently with 2021’s Blackwood, it’s a diverse and storied enough province to keep repeated expansions interesting, especially with the changes made in Gold Road. The overarching threat this time around (more on her later) has radically transformed the West Weald with her chaotic, world-altering powers, manifesting a jungle known as the Dawnwood and a stretch of poisoned, corrupted land known as the Wildburn, both of which hold their own dangers and mysteries.
Although there’ll be plenty to see in the West Weald, it’s not going to be all sunbathing and wine-tasting. You’ll also have to hit the books just as frequently as you hit your enemies if you want to take full advantage of all the Chapter has to offer.
The Scribing System
A major feature coming with Gold Road is Scribing, which allows players to customize their skills in far more depth than ESO has offered thus far. Scribing centers around newly-added skills called Grimoires, which are apparently added to previously existing skill lines (although which skill lines get Grimoires and which ones are going to be left in the cold is still up in the air). Using variations called Scripts (of which three exist for every Grimoire), you can customize exactly how your skill functions or add secondary effects—the example provided involved taking a support skill and changing it into an offensive one by using a particular Script.
Granted, this does sound quite similar to the already-extant Skill Morphs, which allow you to choose between two variations of a skill after using it enough times. Hopefully more differences between the systems will emerge as more information about Scribing is revealed—confronting new players with two very similar ways to customize their skills sounds like a recipe for choice paralysis, but experienced veterans will no doubt jump at the opportunity to get granular with it.
Ithelia, the Prince of Paths
What’s a story without a big bad to take down? The villain this time around looks to be Ithelia, the Daedric Prince of Paths—which is a pretty big deal. The Daedric Princes are demon-like entities who are immensely powerful but restricted by certain rules, and more significantly, they’ve had the exact same lineup since the very first Elder Scrolls game back in the 90s. Ithelia is the very first new Prince introduced in all that time, having been sealed away from both mortal and immortal memory by Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of Knowledge (as revealed in ESO‘s last Chapter, Necrom).
After the events of Necrom, however, Ithelia is free once again. As the Prince of Paths, she holds dominion over fate and predetermination—it was that terrifying power that got her literally retconned out of existence in the first place, and now she’s back to use it once again. It’s likely due to her influence the Dawnwood has appeared, and it seems like a safe bet even weirder things are going to start happening simply as a result of her existing.
Gold Road is shaping up to be jam-packed with both significant lore reveals for hardcore fans and gameplay changes for casual ones, but will anything be able to beat High Isle‘s Gwent-style trading card minigame? That remains to be seen when Gold Road launches this summer.
