Dominion storyline

Kinol · April 2021

Hello everyone!
I would like to ask you about your thoughts on the Dominion as a faction. I am a relatively new player (200cp) and so far only know the history of this faction. I'm more of the type of player who definitely enjoys roleplaying. How do you as players and your heroes rate the characters standing in the Dominion? Both my Templar and I were deeply disappointed in the Queen's attitude towards the threat posed by Molag Bal. When the final confrontation arrived, it was very easy for her to send the guild members of the warriors and mages to death without engaging in any fight. This prompted my character to turn away from the Dominion and pushed him into darker and less glorious organizations (Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild). What are your feelings? Could it be that I'm the only one trying to feel so into history?

Crazyprophet · April 2021

Unfortunately all of the Alliances are more concerned with the war in Cyrodiil over the Ruby Throne than the daedric threat posed by Molag Bal. It's a fatal flaw of all the Alliances to be honest. Most of Elsweyr is in some degree of chaos and doesn't even get Dominion support in the Northern and Southern Elsweyr stories.

Ultimately that's a big flaw, you know? They're SO busy fighting over Cyrodiil that their own lands fall to chaos.

Sounds to me like your Templar is making a fair call in being disillusioned. My Imperial Dragonknight felt similar about the Covenant when all was said and done, though he sorta just became a neutral adventurer rather than joining the darker organisations!

Ryuvain · April 2021

Wish we could just be neutral sellswords. I really only follow Elsweyr itself.

psychotrip · April 2021

Is anyone invested in the factions at this point? It just feels like they wasted so much effort on manufacturing this alliance war when they could've just made pvp arenas instead.

Crazyprophet · April 2021

psychotrip wrote: »

Is anyone invested in the factions at this point? It just feels like they wasted so much effort on manufacturing this alliance war when they could've just made pvp arenas instead.

I have a running theory on this, though I by no means know that this theory is correct, so take it with a grain of salt.

But typically speaking, with a few exceptions, the big mmos have always had factions. Faction pride and faction identity are big things among the playerbase, and people get really into it. Hell even in Elder Scrolls games people get pretty attached to their political "factions" (Dunmeri Greathouses in Morrowind, Empire vs Stormcloaks in Skyrim, you know the drill) As such, when making the first Elder Scrolls MMO I feel as though they wanted people to get really into that faction pride/identity. To yell "For the (insert faction here}" as they charge into battle. To argue and debate the merits AND failings of their chosen faction, as people do with the Stormcloaks and Empire.

But I think what they didn't realise until after the fact is two things:

1. The Elder Scrolls games have always been somewhat freeform in terms of what the character can do. Limiting you to your race and faction would be like only allowing Stormcloaks to explore Eastern Skyrim. It takes away a lot of player agency.
2. The factions swiftly HAD TO become irrelevant with new content releases. Simply put, the devs could create better content if they focused on one area at a time. Imagine making a new zone for each faction, every time there was a new chapter? It'd slow everything down. So what was their alternative? Having everyone go to one zone, and trying to justify it. For example, Orsinium in Daggerfall Covenant Territory, Vvardenfel (mostly) in Ebonheart Pact territory, and so on. But can the war remain relevant in these new zones? Not... really? Imagine if we're questing in Vvardenfel on a character who's fanatically loyal to the Aldmeri Dominion, say. And there's a quest to hold off a Dominion attack. Our inclination would be to fight FOR the Dominion, not against it.

So essentially the war was a cool idea to begin with, but... simply could not remain relevant with how ESO is designed. It would have been too difficult, and so essentially the whole thing just got shelved and left as a background part of the lore that is never really developed in any way.

psychotrip · April 2021

Crazyprophet wrote: »

psychotrip wrote: »

Is anyone invested in the factions at this point? It just feels like they wasted so much effort on manufacturing this alliance war when they could've just made pvp arenas instead.

I have a running theory on this, though I by no means know that this theory is correct, so take it with a grain of salt.

But typically speaking, with a few exceptions, the big mmos have always had factions. Faction pride and faction identity are big things among the playerbase, and people get really into it. Hell even in Elder Scrolls games people get pretty attached to their political "factions" (Dunmeri Greathouses in Morrowind, Empire vs Stormcloaks in Skyrim, you know the drill) As such, when making the first Elder Scrolls MMO I feel as though they wanted people to get really into that faction pride/identity. To yell "For the (insert faction here}" as they charge into battle. To argue and debate the merits AND failings of their chosen faction, as people do with the Stormcloaks and Empire.

But I think what they didn't realise until after the fact is two things:

1. The Elder Scrolls games have always been somewhat freeform in terms of what the character can do. Limiting you to your race and faction would be like only allowing Stormcloaks to explore Eastern Skyrim. It takes away a lot of player agency.
2. The factions swiftly HAD TO become irrelevant with new content releases. Simply put, the devs could create better content if they focused on one area at a time. Imagine making a new zone for each faction, every time there was a new chapter? It'd slow everything down. So what was their alternative? Having everyone go to one zone, and trying to justify it. For example, Orsinium in Daggerfall Covenant Territory, Vvardenfel (mostly) in Ebonheart Pact territory, and so on. But can the war remain relevant in these new zones? Not... really? Imagine if we're questing in Vvardenfel on a character who's fanatically loyal to the Aldmeri Dominion, say. And there's a quest to hold off a Dominion attack. Our inclination would be to fight FOR the Dominion, not against it.

So essentially the war was a cool idea to begin with, but... simply could not remain relevant with how ESO is designed. It would have been too difficult, and so essentially the whole thing just got shelved and left as a background part of the lore that is never really developed in any way.

What a waste...