After completing the Main Story?

Bananko

From a lore perspective, after completing the Main Story (i.e. defeating Molag Bal and all that), must I then complete Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold before moving on to Orsinium?

Taleof2Cities

No, you can complete any DLC questline before Gold and Silver.

Alchemical

Silver/Gold happen in parallel timelines, iirc, so they are happening concurrent to your primary playthrough. Even if you're trying to 'follow the story', I don't think it matters if you do silver/gold in any particular order.

I also thought Imperial City came before Orsinium.

ProfessorKittyhawk

Some recurring characters from the other alliances may pop up in the dlc zones so it might be worth it to play through gold and silver before doing them.

But aside from IC Orsinium is probably the next thing you should do as far as story chronology is concerned. Ends with hints of things to come. After that the next major thing is Morrowind and then Clockwork City. Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood don't really build upon the new story they're building but you do see a few familiar faces from the various alliances which is fun. They refer to things you did with them in their respective alliance stories which is good continuity.

But really the way ESO is designed you can do whatever whenever you want. But that's my suggested order of doing things of you're concerned about order.

Jarryzzt

ProfessorKittyhawk wrote: »

Some recurring characters from the other alliances may pop up in the dlc zones so it might be worth it to play through gold and silver before doing them...

This is true, however in my experience I still regularly run into characters I've already done quests with who essentially act as if they've never seen me before (e.g. the dark elf brother-sister duo). Granted, I am hopping between DLC packs and I recognize how much of a headache it would have been to enforce that sort of continuity...

...point is, unless one is looking for one of the not-very-many "hey, I've seen you before!" interactions, it doesn't really matter very much. I don't think, at any rate.

runagate

Craglorn comes before Orsinium

The DLC before there were DLCs

MLGProPlayer

No. Cadwell's Gold/Silver quests are an "illusion". They don't fit into the chronology of the story. You use Meridia's magic to "experience" the main story from the other alliance's perspectives. You can do it whenever you want, or not do it at all.

The story goes in this order:

Main story > Orsinium > Dark Brotherhood > Morrowind > Clockwork City

Craglorn and Thieve's Guild can be done whenever.

MLGProPlayer

runagate wrote: »

Craglorn comes before Orsinium

The DLC before there were DLCs

I don't think anything that happens in Craglorn is connected to the overarching plot.

The other DLC/expansions are all directly connected (events at end of main story are connected to events in Orsinium and DB, and then events there are connected to events in Morrowind and CWC).

Lyserus

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

No. Cadwell's Gold/Silver quests are an "illusion". They don't fit into the chronology of the story. You use Meridia's magic to "experience" the main story from the other alliance's perspectives. You can do it whenever you want, or not do it at all.

The story goes in this order:

Main story > Orsinium > Dark Brotherhood > Morrowind > Clockwork City

Craglorn and Thieve's Guild can be done whenever.

If you create a new character it is without a doubt that morrowind comes before vanilla.

I believe this is the correct order with reasoning （spoiler）:
1.Morrowind: If you have the chapter then you must start at here. And also you are pre-vestige during this period.
2.Vanilla: It's here mostly because other stories are hinted happen after this.
3.Imperial City. Supposely you joined alliance war after vanilla. And also white gold tower should be Molag Bal's last attempt to conquer Nirn.
3.5 .Thief guild/ darkbrotherhood: There is no clear clue, but since you get to meet old friends in vanilla here, and Vestige is less likely to mess around during major threat, I put these here because it's after Molag Bal threat and before new threat is hinted in orsinium.
4.Orsinium. The appearance of the Prophet （and him not mentioing Molag Bal but other threats）states Molag Bal has been dealt with.
5.Clockwork city: The factorum prophet not mentioning anything but Summerset means nothing major happens between these. Tho supposely there is another story dlc before next chapter, but we don't have info about it.

Shadow of Hist, Horn of reach and Craglorn has no clue about when them happened, but there is chance I missed sth

vyndral13preub18_ESO

It wasn’t given much of a thought in the whole do anything you like when ever you want. So just wing it. Most characters won’t recognize you anyway. It would drive me nuts if I was really into the story.

starkerealm

Alchemical wrote: »

Silver/Gold happen in parallel timelines, iirc, so they are happening concurrent to your primary playthrough. Even if you're trying to 'follow the story', I don't think it matters if you do silver/gold in any particular order.

I also thought Imperial City came before Orsinium.

Yeah, this is basically accurate. There's some weirdness, when you move into the DLCs, because it's possible to encounter situations that simply aren't possible from a single timeline. The specific example I'm thinking of is interacting with Raz and Naryu at one point, with both characters remembering and reacting to your prior adventures with them.

That said, the way alternate timelines work in ESO is... well, weird. So the idea that both of them are getting blended into the same universe along with you isn't that strange.

Jarryzzt wrote: »

ProfessorKittyhawk wrote: »

Some recurring characters from the other alliances may pop up in the dlc zones so it might be worth it to play through gold and silver before doing them...

This is true, however in my experience I still regularly run into characters I've already done quests with who essentially act as if they've never seen me before (e.g. the dark elf brother-sister duo). Granted, I am hopping between DLC packs and I recognize how much of a headache it would have been to enforce that sort of continuity...

...point is, unless one is looking for one of the not-very-many "hey, I've seen you before!" interactions, it doesn't really matter very much. I don't think, at any rate.

The game puts a priority on characters who have a major role in their respective alliances, over ones who you may encounter in side quests. Lady Laurent, the vampire hunter and the twins are all excellent examples of this. They can respond to you remembering who you are, but they're also just self-absorbed enough to accurately reflect if you've interacted. At the same time, Raz and Naryu get significant dialog changes based on your history.

Robo_Hobo

Craglorn and IC both seem pretty self contained so long as they're both done after the main quest. Thieves guild can be literally any time and Dark Brotherhood has a side quest like that makes it suggest it's before Morrowind.

But yeah Orsinium-Morrowind-Clockwork city after main quest

It's trickier if you want all of the extra dialogue from as many possible things. In that case just go by the release order. Your alliance quests, Mages and Fighters Guild quests and all but last main quest - Coldharbour - last main quest - cadwells silver/gold - Craglorn - Imperial City - Orsinium - Thieves Guild - Dark Brotherhood - Morrowind - Clockwork City

starkerealm

Lyserus wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

No. Cadwell's Gold/Silver quests are an "illusion". They don't fit into the chronology of the story. You use Meridia's magic to "experience" the main story from the other alliance's perspectives. You can do it whenever you want, or not do it at all.

The story goes in this order:

Main story > Orsinium > Dark Brotherhood > Morrowind > Clockwork City

Craglorn and Thieve's Guild can be done whenever.

If you create a new character it is without a doubt that morrowind comes before vanilla.

I believe this is the correct order with reasoning （spoiler）:
1.Morrowind: If you have the chapter then you must start at here. And also you are pre-vestige during this period.
2.Vanilla: It's here mostly because other stories are hinted happen after this.
3.Imperial City. Supposely you joined alliance war after vanilla. And also white gold tower should be Molag Bal's last attempt to conquer Nirn.
3.5 .Thief guild/ darkbrotherhood: There is no clear clue, but since you get to meet old friends in vanilla here, and Vestige is less likely to mess around during major threat, I put these here because it's after Molag Bal threat and before new threat is hinted in orsinium.
4.Orsinium. The appearance of the Prophet （and him not mentioing Molag Bal but other threats）states Molag Bal has been dealt with.
5.Clockwork city: The factorum prophet not mentioning anything but Summerset means nothing major happens between these. Tho supposely there is another story dlc before next chapter, but we don't have info about it.

Shadow of Hist, Horn of reach and Craglorn has no clue about when them happened, but there is chance I missed sth

No, this sequence is a bit scrambled, and it doesn't actually matter if you roll up a character post-Morrowind or not, for the timeline.

For whatever it's worth, with the release of Morrowind, ZOS retconned that all events happen simultaneously, which doesn't make much sense, so let's just loop back and run through these in order.

The base game zones and Cadwell's Silver are first. These operate, roughly, in sequence with one another. Starter zones happen first, then the zones occur in order. For Covenant that means Stros M'kai -> Betnikh -> Glenumbra -> Stormhaven -> Rivenspire -> Alik'r -> Bangkorai. Zones in alternate alliances occur simultaniously. So, for example, Glenumbra, Stonefalls, and Auridon are happening at the same time. Once you've finished your alliance's storyline, you gain access to Coldharbour, and then you resolve the main game. This all happens in 2e582.

Craglorn takes place somewhere around 3 months later. It's an independent story, but it does fit into the timeline.

Imperial City follows that. IIRC, this is the last release set in 282.

Wrothgar is 283. Again, a three month time skip. Thieves Guild first, then Dark Brotherhood follow, again, three month time skips. As far as I know, Shadows of the Hist takes place three months after Dark Brotherhood, but it is hard to pin down. At this point there's a 9 month time skip, before Vvardenfell. So that actually happens in 284.

Horns of the Reach probably fits in after Vvardenfell, either way Clockwork City is set six months after Vvardenfell.

So, this leads to some weirdnesses, like, "how can your character from Morrowind be roled up after the planemeld, but then return to it?"

Two pieces. Officially, now, everything takes place at the same time in 282... which doesn't make a lot of sense. Alternately, (and more coherently), the wayshrines you're porting to don't just take you to a different place, they also move you around in time, and sometimes out of your timeline. This last observation should be somewhat obvious, when you consider that you can wayshrine to Coldharbour and the Clockwork City. The time travel thing is a bit more complex.

The events in the original campaigns presented clear escalation as you progressed. Some of this has been wiped by One Tamriel, but the basic idea is still present in a lot of the content structure. As you progress, the Daedric forces you face are better equipped to deal with enemies. Second, and more significantly, there are only a handful of anchors after Coldharbour, and those are incomplete or abandoned. After you've finished the base game, the planemeld is over, and future zones do not suffer from dark anchors, as you progress.

There's another, slightly more bizarre, way to nail down that characters from Morrowind are time traveling. If you go back to previous zones, Narayu (somewhat obviously) won't recognize you (unless someone can correct me on this). However, her dialog will make reference to events in Eastmarch and The Gold Coast, if you've completed her part in those quests. Because she's also getting a full costume change on The Gold Coast and Vvardenfell, it seems unlikely in the extreme that she would change back into her old gear for those zones.

Iccotak

the whole "Silver & Gold" story questing happened because they realized the lack of content a player in one alliance has.
Also it makes Alliance choice kind of meaningless in the story.
My only real gripe with ESO is that the base game could use improvements.

The vanilla zones lack the attention to detail the DLC/Expansions have. In both story and landscape quality.
Vanilla zones still have the old art style that they ditched as we can see in future installments. They literally changed art directors.

But the DLC content is fantastic

TheShadowScout

Lorewise, as has been mentioned, Cadwells is more of an "alternate timeline that shows what would have been if you fought on a different side", thus can be done at any time. Craglorn came first after the mainstory, then Imperial City, then Orsinium the next year after the mainstory, then Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, them Morrowind and Clockwork City, if a you are keen on diung them all in lore-timeline sequence...

Technically it -does- of course make sense to do Cadwells before the DLCs. If only because of all the many, many skill points... you will want them for the TG and DB skilllines. And the ledgerdemain training will also help in those...

Lyserus

starkerealm wrote: »

Lyserus wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

No. Cadwell's Gold/Silver quests are an "illusion". They don't fit into the chronology of the story. You use Meridia's magic to "experience" the main story from the other alliance's perspectives. You can do it whenever you want, or not do it at all.

The story goes in this order:

Main story > Orsinium > Dark Brotherhood > Morrowind > Clockwork City

Craglorn and Thieve's Guild can be done whenever.

If you create a new character it is without a doubt that morrowind comes before vanilla.

I believe this is the correct order with reasoning （spoiler）:
1.Morrowind: If you have the chapter then you must start at here. And also you are pre-vestige during this period.
2.Vanilla: It's here mostly because other stories are hinted happen after this.
3.Imperial City. Supposely you joined alliance war after vanilla. And also white gold tower should be Molag Bal's last attempt to conquer Nirn.
3.5 .Thief guild/ darkbrotherhood: There is no clear clue, but since you get to meet old friends in vanilla here, and Vestige is less likely to mess around during major threat, I put these here because it's after Molag Bal threat and before new threat is hinted in orsinium.
4.Orsinium. The appearance of the Prophet （and him not mentioing Molag Bal but other threats）states Molag Bal has been dealt with.
5.Clockwork city: The factorum prophet not mentioning anything but Summerset means nothing major happens between these. Tho supposely there is another story dlc before next chapter, but we don't have info about it.

Shadow of Hist, Horn of reach and Craglorn has no clue about when them happened, but there is chance I missed sth

No, this sequence is a bit scrambled, and it doesn't actually matter if you roll up a character post-Morrowind or not, for the timeline.

For whatever it's worth, with the release of Morrowind, ZOS retconned that all events happen simultaneously, which doesn't make much sense, so let's just loop back and run through these in order.

The base game zones and Cadwell's Silver are first. These operate, roughly, in sequence with one another. Starter zones happen first, then the zones occur in order. For Covenant that means Stros M'kai -> Betnikh -> Glenumbra -> Stormhaven -> Rivenspire -> Alik'r -> Bangkorai. Zones in alternate alliances occur simultaniously. So, for example, Glenumbra, Stonefalls, and Auridon are happening at the same time. Once you've finished your alliance's storyline, you gain access to Coldharbour, and then you resolve the main game. This all happens in 2e582.

Craglorn takes place somewhere around 3 months later. It's an independent story, but it does fit into the timeline.

Imperial City follows that. IIRC, this is the last release set in 282.

Wrothgar is 283. Again, a three month time skip. Thieves Guild first, then Dark Brotherhood follow, again, three month time skips. As far as I know, Shadows of the Hist takes place three months after Dark Brotherhood, but it is hard to pin down. At this point there's a 9 month time skip, before Vvardenfell. So that actually happens in 284.

Horns of the Reach probably fits in after Vvardenfell, either way Clockwork City is set six months after Vvardenfell.

So, this leads to some weirdnesses, like, "how can your character from Morrowind be roled up after the planemeld, but then return to it?"

Two pieces. Officially, now, everything takes place at the same time in 282... which doesn't make a lot of sense. Alternately, (and more coherently), the wayshrines you're porting to don't just take you to a different place, they also move you around in time, and sometimes out of your timeline. This last observation should be somewhat obvious, when you consider that you can wayshrine to Coldharbour and the Clockwork City. The time travel thing is a bit more complex.

The events in the original campaigns presented clear escalation as you progressed. Some of this has been wiped by One Tamriel, but the basic idea is still present in a lot of the content structure. As you progress, the Daedric forces you face are better equipped to deal with enemies. Second, and more significantly, there are only a handful of anchors after Coldharbour, and those are incomplete or abandoned. After you've finished the base game, the planemeld is over, and future zones do not suffer from dark anchors, as you progress.

There's another, slightly more bizarre, way to nail down that characters from Morrowind are time traveling. If you go back to previous zones, Narayu (somewhat obviously) won't recognize you (unless someone can correct me on this). However, her dialog will make reference to events in Eastmarch and The Gold Coast, if you've completed her part in those quests. Because she's also getting a full costume change on The Gold Coast and Vvardenfell, it seems unlikely in the extreme that she would change back into her old gear for those zones.

You hardly give any story evidence at all and your “timeline” is just the release date which doesn't mean much.

If you own the chapter and you roll a new character you ALWAYS start in morrowind, and that's enough proof.

I do give some credit to “wayshrine travel thrpugh time”. However it's more like a game experience issue since Dev can't go update all the zones after each dlc, than an actual lore-related issue

JD2013

Here’s what I think is the correct sequence, pardon me if I’m wrong;

Main Story - Planemeld
Imperial City - Last Ditch effort by Molag Bal with the Planemeld
Craglorn
Wrothgar - Varen shows up and tells you about a Daedric war brewing.
Thieves Guild - No main story connotations
Dark Brotherhood - No main story connotations
Morrowind Prequel Quest - Allusions to the Daedric war
Morrowind - More allusions to the Daedric war, has a certain Daedric Prince involved
Clockwork City prequel quest - not done completely yet but definitely to do with another certain Daedric Prince
Clockwork City - Did a bit on PTS, definitely involves a Daedric Prince and massive hints towards the Daedric war

Samadhi

General question regarding the main story and Coldharbour
is the Gabrielle and Darien pair up when fighting alongside the king standard regardless of starting Alliance, or does it change by alliance?
it strikes me as weird if EP and AD characters do not meet and get to know them prior to what happens in Coldharbour

Also only remember the Ayleid King appearing (very briefly) in the DC main quest but not in the others, is that accurate or my misremembering?

WhiteCoatSyndrome

For what it's worth, there's a lorebook in Craglorn with dates (just the day and the month, no year) listed that mentions Hel Ra Citadel opening.

@Samadhi that's correct re: King Dynar. The Dremora woman who shows up in Coldharbour and IC prison also appears in the EP questline (in Shadowfen IIRC) and not in the other two also.

ADarklore

Lyserus wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Lyserus wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

No. Cadwell's Gold/Silver quests are an "illusion". They don't fit into the chronology of the story. You use Meridia's magic to "experience" the main story from the other alliance's perspectives. You can do it whenever you want, or not do it at all.

The story goes in this order:

Main story > Orsinium > Dark Brotherhood > Morrowind > Clockwork City

Craglorn and Thieve's Guild can be done whenever.

If you create a new character it is without a doubt that morrowind comes before vanilla.

I believe this is the correct order with reasoning （spoiler）:
1.Morrowind: If you have the chapter then you must start at here. And also you are pre-vestige during this period.
2.Vanilla: It's here mostly because other stories are hinted happen after this.
3.Imperial City. Supposely you joined alliance war after vanilla. And also white gold tower should be Molag Bal's last attempt to conquer Nirn.
3.5 .Thief guild/ darkbrotherhood: There is no clear clue, but since you get to meet old friends in vanilla here, and Vestige is less likely to mess around during major threat, I put these here because it's after Molag Bal threat and before new threat is hinted in orsinium.
4.Orsinium. The appearance of the Prophet （and him not mentioing Molag Bal but other threats）states Molag Bal has been dealt with.
5.Clockwork city: The factorum prophet not mentioning anything but Summerset means nothing major happens between these. Tho supposely there is another story dlc before next chapter, but we don't have info about it.

Shadow of Hist, Horn of reach and Craglorn has no clue about when them happened, but there is chance I missed sth

No, this sequence is a bit scrambled, and it doesn't actually matter if you roll up a character post-Morrowind or not, for the timeline.

For whatever it's worth, with the release of Morrowind, ZOS retconned that all events happen simultaneously, which doesn't make much sense, so let's just loop back and run through these in order.

The base game zones and Cadwell's Silver are first. These operate, roughly, in sequence with one another. Starter zones happen first, then the zones occur in order. For Covenant that means Stros M'kai -> Betnikh -> Glenumbra -> Stormhaven -> Rivenspire -> Alik'r -> Bangkorai. Zones in alternate alliances occur simultaniously. So, for example, Glenumbra, Stonefalls, and Auridon are happening at the same time. Once you've finished your alliance's storyline, you gain access to Coldharbour, and then you resolve the main game. This all happens in 2e582.

Craglorn takes place somewhere around 3 months later. It's an independent story, but it does fit into the timeline.

Imperial City follows that. IIRC, this is the last release set in 282.

Wrothgar is 283. Again, a three month time skip. Thieves Guild first, then Dark Brotherhood follow, again, three month time skips. As far as I know, Shadows of the Hist takes place three months after Dark Brotherhood, but it is hard to pin down. At this point there's a 9 month time skip, before Vvardenfell. So that actually happens in 284.

Horns of the Reach probably fits in after Vvardenfell, either way Clockwork City is set six months after Vvardenfell.

So, this leads to some weirdnesses, like, "how can your character from Morrowind be roled up after the planemeld, but then return to it?"

Two pieces. Officially, now, everything takes place at the same time in 282... which doesn't make a lot of sense. Alternately, (and more coherently), the wayshrines you're porting to don't just take you to a different place, they also move you around in time, and sometimes out of your timeline. This last observation should be somewhat obvious, when you consider that you can wayshrine to Coldharbour and the Clockwork City. The time travel thing is a bit more complex.

The events in the original campaigns presented clear escalation as you progressed. Some of this has been wiped by One Tamriel, but the basic idea is still present in a lot of the content structure. As you progress, the Daedric forces you face are better equipped to deal with enemies. Second, and more significantly, there are only a handful of anchors after Coldharbour, and those are incomplete or abandoned. After you've finished the base game, the planemeld is over, and future zones do not suffer from dark anchors, as you progress.

There's another, slightly more bizarre, way to nail down that characters from Morrowind are time traveling. If you go back to previous zones, Narayu (somewhat obviously) won't recognize you (unless someone can correct me on this). However, her dialog will make reference to events in Eastmarch and The Gold Coast, if you've completed her part in those quests. Because she's also getting a full costume change on The Gold Coast and Vvardenfell, it seems unlikely in the extreme that she would change back into her old gear for those zones.

You hardly give any story evidence at all and your “timeline” is just the release date which doesn't mean much.

If you own the chapter and you roll a new character you ALWAYS start in morrowind, and that's enough proof.

I do give some credit to “wayshrine travel thrpugh time”. However it's more like a game experience issue since Dev can't go update all the zones after each dlc, than an actual lore-related issue

The bolded is absolutely NOT TRUE... it ONLY applies to those who own Morrowind. Therefore it's tough to place a timeline on 'whether you own the content or not' scenario. I'm betting the next 'Chapter' will have another new starter quest and if you own it, new characters will start there instead. Therefore, just because a new character starts in a particular zone doesn't mean that's where the timeline starts.

Lyserus

ADarklore wrote: »

Lyserus wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Lyserus wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

No. Cadwell's Gold/Silver quests are an "illusion". They don't fit into the chronology of the story. You use Meridia's magic to "experience" the main story from the other alliance's perspectives. You can do it whenever you want, or not do it at all.

The story goes in this order:

Main story > Orsinium > Dark Brotherhood > Morrowind > Clockwork City

Craglorn and Thieve's Guild can be done whenever.

If you create a new character it is without a doubt that morrowind comes before vanilla.

I believe this is the correct order with reasoning （spoiler）:
1.Morrowind: If you have the chapter then you must start at here. And also you are pre-vestige during this period.
2.Vanilla: It's here mostly because other stories are hinted happen after this.
3.Imperial City. Supposely you joined alliance war after vanilla. And also white gold tower should be Molag Bal's last attempt to conquer Nirn.
3.5 .Thief guild/ darkbrotherhood: There is no clear clue, but since you get to meet old friends in vanilla here, and Vestige is less likely to mess around during major threat, I put these here because it's after Molag Bal threat and before new threat is hinted in orsinium.
4.Orsinium. The appearance of the Prophet （and him not mentioing Molag Bal but other threats）states Molag Bal has been dealt with.
5.Clockwork city: The factorum prophet not mentioning anything but Summerset means nothing major happens between these. Tho supposely there is another story dlc before next chapter, but we don't have info about it.

Shadow of Hist, Horn of reach and Craglorn has no clue about when them happened, but there is chance I missed sth

No, this sequence is a bit scrambled, and it doesn't actually matter if you roll up a character post-Morrowind or not, for the timeline.

For whatever it's worth, with the release of Morrowind, ZOS retconned that all events happen simultaneously, which doesn't make much sense, so let's just loop back and run through these in order.

The base game zones and Cadwell's Silver are first. These operate, roughly, in sequence with one another. Starter zones happen first, then the zones occur in order. For Covenant that means Stros M'kai -> Betnikh -> Glenumbra -> Stormhaven -> Rivenspire -> Alik'r -> Bangkorai. Zones in alternate alliances occur simultaniously. So, for example, Glenumbra, Stonefalls, and Auridon are happening at the same time. Once you've finished your alliance's storyline, you gain access to Coldharbour, and then you resolve the main game. This all happens in 2e582.

Craglorn takes place somewhere around 3 months later. It's an independent story, but it does fit into the timeline.

Imperial City follows that. IIRC, this is the last release set in 282.

Wrothgar is 283. Again, a three month time skip. Thieves Guild first, then Dark Brotherhood follow, again, three month time skips. As far as I know, Shadows of the Hist takes place three months after Dark Brotherhood, but it is hard to pin down. At this point there's a 9 month time skip, before Vvardenfell. So that actually happens in 284.

Horns of the Reach probably fits in after Vvardenfell, either way Clockwork City is set six months after Vvardenfell.

So, this leads to some weirdnesses, like, "how can your character from Morrowind be roled up after the planemeld, but then return to it?"

Two pieces. Officially, now, everything takes place at the same time in 282... which doesn't make a lot of sense. Alternately, (and more coherently), the wayshrines you're porting to don't just take you to a different place, they also move you around in time, and sometimes out of your timeline. This last observation should be somewhat obvious, when you consider that you can wayshrine to Coldharbour and the Clockwork City. The time travel thing is a bit more complex.

The events in the original campaigns presented clear escalation as you progressed. Some of this has been wiped by One Tamriel, but the basic idea is still present in a lot of the content structure. As you progress, the Daedric forces you face are better equipped to deal with enemies. Second, and more significantly, there are only a handful of anchors after Coldharbour, and those are incomplete or abandoned. After you've finished the base game, the planemeld is over, and future zones do not suffer from dark anchors, as you progress.

There's another, slightly more bizarre, way to nail down that characters from Morrowind are time traveling. If you go back to previous zones, Narayu (somewhat obviously) won't recognize you (unless someone can correct me on this). However, her dialog will make reference to events in Eastmarch and The Gold Coast, if you've completed her part in those quests. Because she's also getting a full costume change on The Gold Coast and Vvardenfell, it seems unlikely in the extreme that she would change back into her old gear for those zones.

You hardly give any story evidence at all and your “timeline” is just the release date which doesn't mean much.

If you own the chapter and you roll a new character you ALWAYS start in morrowind, and that's enough proof.

I do give some credit to “wayshrine travel thrpugh time”. However it's more like a game experience issue since Dev can't go update all the zones after each dlc, than an actual lore-related issue

The bolded is absolutely NOT TRUE... it ONLY applies to those who own Morrowind. Therefore it's tough to place a timeline on 'whether you own the content or not' scenario. I'm betting the next 'Chapter' will have another new starter quest and if you own it, new characters will start there instead. Therefore, just because a new character starts in a particular zone doesn't mean that's where the timeline starts.

Your eyes are sharp to catch this part instantly since you only read that part..
If you read my whole post you will realize just infront of your bolded words I said "If you own the chapter"

And if you don't own the chapter, of course you are not going to start there, you simply miss the part and go straight ahead to vanilla content, since you didn't purchase the previous part, not that hard to understand that logic right?
and..
READ CAREFULLY

Robo_Hobo

I wonder if future chapters, e.g. summerset, will also have a new tutorial with the new character starting there if you own it.

ProfessorKittyhawk

Jarryzzt wrote: »

ProfessorKittyhawk wrote: »

Some recurring characters from the other alliances may pop up in the dlc zones so it might be worth it to play through gold and silver before doing them...

This is true, however in my experience I still regularly run into characters I've already done quests with who essentially act as if they've never seen me before (e.g. the dark elf brother-sister duo). Granted, I am hopping between DLC packs and I recognize how much of a headache it would have been to enforce that sort of continuity...

...point is, unless one is looking for one of the not-very-many "hey, I've seen you before!" interactions, it doesn't really matter very much. I don't think, at any rate.

True. The Vanos siblings always seem to have that going on in the dlc content. But anyone else tends to remember past interactions. Raz. Naryu. Narsis Dren. The Dunmer vampire hunter dude. Lady Laurent and Stibbons is a weord one because they seem to recognise you in Orsinium after helping them on the DC stuff but not when you meet them in Vvardfenfell.

But for me the instances where they do recall past interactions are like icing on a cake to me. Makes my actions and all in the game feel worthwhile. Though I do wish we'd meet up woth the dashing Jakarn again. But I guess Steve Blum is a bit busy to come back for that. That or ZOS doesn't have the money to pay big name VAs anymore.

zaria

Iccotak wrote: »

the whole "Silver & Gold" story questing happened because they realized the lack of content a player in one alliance has.
Also it makes Alliance choice kind of meaningless in the story.
My only real gripe with ESO is that the base game could use improvements.

The vanilla zones lack the attention to detail the DLC/Expansions have. In both story and landscape quality.
Vanilla zones still have the old art style that they ditched as we can see in future installments. They literally changed art directors.

But the DLC content is fantastic

Gold / Silver is because players wanted more questing content without having to have adds in other alliances.
However today you can do all without the faction quests first.

Yes you can run into this
https://isriana.deviantart.com/art/TESO-Not-The-Soldier-They-Were-Looking-For-655446253
You could before one tamriel too..

zaria

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Lorewise, as has been mentioned, Cadwells is more of an "alternate timeline that shows what would have been if you fought on a different side", thus can be done at any time. Craglorn came first after the mainstory, then Imperial City, then Orsinium the next year after the mainstory, then Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, them Morrowind and Clockwork City, if a you are keen on diung them all in lore-timeline sequence...

Technically it -does- of course make sense to do Cadwells before the DLCs. If only because of all the many, many skill points... you will want them for the TG and DB skilllines. And the ledgerdemain training will also help in those...

This the all at one time is an idiot answer to the debated question on that to do first.
However its an MMO, so you can have done main quest on an alt 3 years ago or run into other players who did it 3 years ago.
Problem will be worse with more dlc in the future.

Vizikul

Lyserus wrote: »

If you create a new character it is without a doubt that morrowind comes before vanilla.

I believe this is the correct order with reasoning （spoiler）:
1.Morrowind: If you have the chapter then you must start at here. And also you are pre-vestige during this period.
2.Vanilla: It's here mostly because other stories are hinted happen after this.
3.Imperial City. Supposely you joined alliance war after vanilla. And also white gold tower should be Molag Bal's last attempt to conquer Nirn.
3.5 .Thief guild/ darkbrotherhood: There is no clear clue, but since you get to meet old friends in vanilla here, and Vestige is less likely to mess around during major threat, I put these here because it's after Molag Bal threat and before new threat is hinted in orsinium.
4.Orsinium. The appearance of the Prophet （and him not mentioing Molag Bal but other threats）states Molag Bal has been dealt with.
5.Clockwork city: The factorum prophet not mentioning anything but Summerset means nothing major happens between these. Tho supposely there is another story dlc before next chapter, but we don't have info about it.

Shadow of Hist, Horn of reach and Craglorn has no clue about when them happened, but there is chance I missed sth

If you complete the Orsinium storyline after you completed the main one, the person you chose to sacrifice (Varen Aquilarius in my case) ghosts around and tells you a big war is going to happen after the gates of sotha sil's city are opened again - which happens in Morrowind. So, Morrowind cannot happen before the main story or Orsinium.

Publius_Scipio

You can do whatever you want in any order you want. The stories are all self contained. The original "main story" get your soul back adventure is its own thing regardless of alliances. Each alliance has its own story arc encompassing their respective territory zones. Each DLC and Morrowind chapter has its own story.

Cadwell Silver and Gold were originally there to allow the player to run through the other two alliances' zones and story, using the same character you finished the main story/character's home alliance story with. No need to roll new character. Otherwise back then you would have to create entirely new characters for each alliance to experience the entire game.

To answer your original post question directly. There is no "must" complete.

starkerealm

Samadhi wrote: »

General question regarding the main story and Coldharbour
is the Gabrielle and Darien pair up when fighting alongside the king standard regardless of starting Alliance, or does it change by alliance?
it strikes me as weird if EP and AD characters do not meet and get to know them prior to what happens in Coldharbour

Also only remember the Ayleid King appearing (very briefly) in the DC main quest but not in the others, is that accurate or my misremembering?

There's a weird bias in favor of Covenant in Cold Harbour. They also have Skordo, who returns from the Rivenspire storyline.

Lyranth, the dremora you interact with repeatedly in Coldharbour, and again in ICP, is from the Pact storyline. (Specifically Shadowfen.)

The Twins (Kireth and Raynor) are from the Pact storyline (repeatedly), and pop up at the library, along with Telenger (Dominion) and Lady Laurent (Covenant). All of these characters have had similar sub-plots from the previous zones.

A lot of the NPC vendors in The Hollow City can be found in earlier zones scattered across the game. (Specifically the ones who come to the city after you repopulate it. The ones there when you begin are not present.)

There are other Pact and Dominion characters that show up periodically, but the only one I'm sure of off hand is Holgunn.

Generally speaking, the characters you encounter in Coldharbour remain the same, regardless of your alliance, though some characters will react to you with altered dialog if you've encountered and completed their quests before.

LadyLavina

@Bananko What to do after the main story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7c7OY7FrdU

starkerealm

Lyserus wrote: »

You hardly give any story evidence at all and your “timeline” is just the release date which doesn't mean much.

If you own the chapter and you roll a new character you ALWAYS start in morrowind, and that's enough proof.

I do give some credit to “wayshrine travel thrpugh time”. However it's more like a game experience issue since Dev can't go update all the zones after each dlc, than an actual lore-related issue

In fairness to you, I was pretty tired when I was typing that up last night.

The main systems you can use to pin down the timeline are NPC reactions. Depending on the characters in question this can make things easier, or be completely unhelpful.

They very simple detail is that recurring NPCs remember and comment on prior events. Naryu is one of the most useful examples, because you're allowed to "reminisce" with her, commenting on your adventures. This also becomes the template to determine that something isn't quite right.

Naryu pops up on four occasions. Deshaan, Eastmarch, The Gold Coast, and Vvardenfell.

Now, if you interact with her for the first time, then she won't remember prior interactions. Makes sense. However, if you interact with her in the locations above, she can only remember encounters from earlier entries on the list. So, if you've completed Balmora, and then go to The Gold Coast, she can't remember that. In fact, she'll explicitly tell you at the end of her storyline on The Gold Coast that she's being sent to Vvardenfell next (along with changing into her custom armor, instead of normal Dark Elf gear.) On Vvardenfell, she will comment on her armor being new, even if you haven't played through her Gold Coast content. This is slightly more pronounced when you can run through the Vvardenfell Tutorial, then go to The Gold Coast, she won't recognize you, then come back and clear Balmora, where she will.

Some of this can be chalked up to the writing. But it does create a solid sequence of events.

Okay, that's one character, and it only pins down a sequence for those zones. Thing is, there's a lot of minor interactions like this. Some queue off of characters like Kireth and Raynor, Lady Laurent is another example. But, they're rarely as useful. Gabrielle has a stray line about her sister being missing in Craglorn, but this can only occur if you've finished Coldharbour, and she's looking for Darien. So, that detail becomes a strange edge case.

So, the short answer is that, yes, there is evidence to support most of this timeline. The shaky stuff are the Dungeon DLCs. Pinning down Hew's Bane is annoying, and off hand I do not remember what the evidence was for placing it where I do.

Also, there's an open question on how much longer this stuff will actually shake out. ZOS has said (specifically with the release of Morrowind) that everything now happens simultaneously. As in, that's the official explanation. That there is no timeline. As I said earlier, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but it seems likely that moving forward, ZOS may attempt to "future proof," NPCs with dialog conditions you cannot currently meet, but may be able to after completing future content (and it's possible this is already the case with CWC callbacks on Vvardenfell that I haven't seen yet).

Bananko

LadyLavina wrote: »

@Bananko What to do after the main story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7c7OY7FrdU

Exactly!