What Order Should I Do ESO's Story Arcs? - A Guide

VaranisArano

Since One Tamriel, players have been able to go anywhere and do anything in Tamriel. This makes for an awesome open-world sandbox style adventure in the vein of past Elder Scrolls games, but also messes with quest and storyline continuity something fierce.

Add to this post-One Tamriel world zones from DLCs and Chapters, and the world gets very confusing for anyone who wants a coherent, cohesive, immersive storyline that spans the entire continent.

This write-up is aimed towards new players wondering "Where do I begin so I can experience the great stories that ZOS wrote into ESO without being completely lost?" I'll try to avoid spoilers as much as possible while explaining the rationale for quest order. If you just want a list of quests in order, I highly recommend this resource: http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Quests


Starting Tutorial: The starting Tutorial changes with each Chapter. If you own only the base game, you will start in Coldharbor. If you own the ESO/Morrowind, you will start in Morrowind. If you own Summerset, the most current Chapter, you will start in Summerset. There is no option to change your starting location from these places. If you skip the tutorial, you will end up in the ending region of that tutorial (Starter Island, Morrowind, Summerset, respectively.)

Getting Started

The Vestige
Important Spoiler Below for the Coldharbor Tutorial/ The Hooded Figure Quest

The Player Character becomes a soul-shriven Vestige with no soul in the Coldharbor Tutorial. Many quests in the base game zones and some quests in the Daedric Wars zones will acknowledge this. Therefore, I highly recommend that you complete this tutorial as soon as possible after starting a new character. You will need to wayshrine to the starter city of your alliance, talk to the Hooded Figure and complete the Coldharbor Tutorial quest so you can get started on that portion of the Main Quest. Starter Cities are: Davon's Watch, Stonefalls for the Ebonheart Pact; Vulkhel Guard, Auridon for the Aldmeri Dominion; Daggerfall, Glenumbra for the Daggerfall Covenant.

What if I want to roleplay a vampire/werewolf?
The shrines for vampire and werewolf are found in the Rift, Reaper's March, and Bangkorai. You can hunt for NPC mobs of werewolves and bloodfiends or you can do what I did and ask for a bite in zone chat. Many players will give a bite for free. I got mine quickly by offering to pay for it.


From there you have a choice of two major Content Arcs: Molag Bal's Planemeld or the Daedric Wars

Molag Bal's Planemeld
This arc takes up the majority of the base game zones and the Main Quest. It precedes the Daedric Wars arc chronologically.

The Daedric Wars
This arc takes up Morrowind ->Clockwork City -> Summerset Isles, though each is designed to be able to be a standalone story. This arc is after the Planemeld chronologically but can be completed beforehand with minimal immersion problems.


Daedric Wars: Morrowind, Clockwork City, Summerset Isles
Since its the most recent content, let's deal with this first.

Chronologically, the Daedric Wars happens after the player has completed the Main Quest of the Molag Bal's Planemeld Arc. It also happens after the Orsinium DLC, which has an easter egg from the end of the Coldharbor questline and another easter egg foreshadowing events in Clockwork City. Nevertheless, players can experience the Daedric Wars arc without having completed the Planemeld or Orsinium (which has very little bearing on the arc).

Morrowind, Clockwork City and Summerset Isles are designed to be standalone. I think they are better in their chronological order. Morrowind serves as an extended prologue to the events of Clockwork City.


Molag Bal's Planemeld: Alliance Zones, Coldharbor, Fighter's Guild, Mages Guild, and the Main Quest

The Main Quest starts in the starter city of your alliance when you talk to the Hooded Figure and you'll experience the original Coldharbor tutorial. This will dump you on your alliance's starter island(s). Starter Cities are Davon's Watch, Stonefalls for the Ebonheart Pact; Vulkhel Guard, Auridon for the Aldmeri Dominion; Daggerfall, Glenumbra for the Daggerfall Covenant.

From there, the pre-One Tamriel order goes like this:
Starter Island(s)
1st Zone (start fighters and mages guild, start Haborage quests for Main Quest, writ certifications, etc.)
2nd-5th zone, doing fighters guild, mages guild, and Main quests as you level up, until you've finished your alliance, guilds, and stopped getting Main Quests.
When you get the "Messages Across Tamriel" quest, you'll gather the 3 faction leaders and prepare to assault Coldharbor
Do the Coldharbor quests. These are prerequisites for completing the Main Quest.
Complete the Main Quest
Talk to Cadwell about doing Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold which are the other faction's questlines.


Alliance Zone Order

Ebonheart Pact has a fairly fragmented storyline, but there are a few events that will only make sense if done in order (technically Deshaan and Shadowfen could probably swap around without a problem).
Chronological Order: Bleakrock Isle -> Bal Foyen -> Stonefalls -> Deshaan -> Shadowfen -> Eastmarch -> The Rift

Daggerfall Covenant is also fairly fragmented, but has more characters that carry through from zone to zone. (Technically, Alik'r Desert could be done at any time after Stormhaven, story wise.)
Chronological Order: Stros M'Kai ->Betnikh -> Glenumbra -> Stormhaven -> Rivenspire -> Alik'r Desert -> Bangkorai

Aldmeri Dominion has a very coherent and cohesive storyline with tons of recurring characters. Please do this questline in order or you will be very confused.
Chronological Order: Khenarthi's Roost -> Auridon -> Grahtwood -> Greenshade -> Malabal Tor -> Reaper's March


DLC and Other Zones:

• Cyrodiil: Cyrodiil is a PVP zone, where the quests are very simplistic and have little to no story, due to the risk of fighting enemy players. It happens concurrently with the Planemeld and before the White Gold Tower dungeon.
• Imperial City: the Imperial City is a PVP zone with a PVE/PVP main quest. The main quest will involve questing in PVP-enabled areas with lots of miniboss NPCs. White Gold Tower dungeon makes a nice conclusion to the IC main quest (though that dark anchor still doesn't close.)
• Craglorn: Craglorn is part of the base game but has its own problems apart from the Daedra. Several parts of the quests strongly advise getting a group of players together to complete them.
• Dungeons and Dungeon DLC: aside from White Gold Tower, none of the dungeons have any impact on the storyline as a whole
• Gold Coast: Gold Coast happens after the Planemeld and has recurring characters from all three Alliance storylines
• Hew's Bane: happens after the Planemeld, I don't believe it has recurring characters from the alliance storylines?
• Orsinium: happens after the Planemeld and before the Daedric Wars Arc. This has an easter egg for something at the end of Coldharbor and an easter egg foreshadowing Clockwork City and coming after the end of the Main Quest. I highly recommend doing Orsinium after doing the Daggerfall Covenant questlines.

So what if I really miss or want to have the pre-One Tamriel Questing Experience?

1. Start a new character and wayshrine to your Alliance's Starter City
2. Accept the Main Quest from the Hooded Figure
3. Complete your Alliance's Main quest in order alongside the Fighters and Mages guild quests for that zone, and the Harborage quests for the Main Questline. Originally the Main Quest progressed at every 5 levels, but now its not necessary to wait.
4. Coldharbor Questline is the prerequisite for completing the Main Questline.
5. Having completed the Main Questline, accept Cadwell's Silver and Gold to experience the other Alliance questlines.
6. Experience the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Imperial City, and Orsinium DLCs and Craglorn, in whatever order you want.
7. Begin the Daedric Wars plotline with Morrowind -> Clockwork City-> Summerset.


Its entirely possible to have a great and fullfilling questing experience running around doing everything in whatever order you want. Its an Elder Scrolls game in that regard. If, on the other hand, you want to experience the coherent, cohesive, immersive storyline of the Elder Scrolls Online that spans the entire continent for the first time since TES: Arena, following the chronology of the original pre_One Tamriel ESO through the threat of the Planemeld and onto the rising threat of the Daedric Wars is one of the best ways to do so.

I hope you have fun questing through ESO's story arcs!

White wabbit

Or just go to Alkir Dolmens

Joxer61

That was/is very awesome and helpful info!! Just what a returning player needed. I had completed the quest lines up to Caldwell's Gold before leaving game and was wondering where to start again, or do I need to start again? Thanks heaps!

VileIntent

White wabbit wrote: »

Or just go to Alkir Dolmens

Doing this makes you miss an extreme amount of skill points. Besides being absolutely boring.

Lakhitia

Wonderful guide, immensely helpful. Thanks!

SkyIsTheLimit1206

VileIntent wrote: »

White wabbit wrote: »

Or just go to Alkir Dolmens

Doing this makes you miss an extreme amount of skill points. Besides being absolutely boring.

r/woooosh

NewbieOKS

Thanks to @VaranisArano ...

Can you also make a new thread in the ESO reddit community and ESO steam community forums (as a guide)? Copyright and the credits should be yours of course

VaranisArano

I don't have a Reddit account, but you are welcome to go ahead and post it with credit if you think it would be helpful.

NewbieOKS

VaranisArano wrote: »

I don't have a Reddit account, but you are welcome to go ahead and post it with credit if you think it would be helpful.

You can make one, its easy.... r/elderscrollsonline

Ashnarug

Starting a new character and wayshrining to a starting city will make the crafting certifications available at level 3.

Cannot find Felarian however for the jewelry crafting certification. Hope he can be found elsewhere than Alinor.

VaranisArano

I believe crafting writs can't be done until level 6 though.

PrayingSeraph

I do remember from Morrowind launch that apparently ZoS said that Morrowind takes place before planemeld on new starting characters, but after planemeld on existing characters. Which at the time made sense as the it makes little sense for your new tutorial character to travel on a trip to morrowind as talked about by a letter you get, meet Naryu....then teleport off morrowind to meet a stranger...

They also have that DC high elf dwemer expert guy who leads the quest in Morrowinds dwemer public dungeon. Nurano or something? Anyways at the end of his Morrowind quest, his assistant says they are heading to Bthzark next, which is his story area in Stros Mkai. This seems to allude that Morrowind happens before planemeld...

Its confusing...

VaranisArano

PrayingSeraph wrote: »

I do remember from Morrowind launch that apparently ZoS said that Morrowind takes place before planemeld on new starting characters, but after planemeld on existing characters. Which at the time made sense as the it makes little sense for your new tutorial character to travel on a trip to morrowind as talked about by a letter you get, meet Naryu....then teleport off morrowind to meet a stranger...

They also have that DC high elf dwemer expert guy who leads the quest in Morrowinds dwemer public dungeon. Nurano or something? Anyways at the end of his Morrowind quest, his assistant says they are heading to Bthzark next, which is his story area in Stros Mkai. This seems to allude that Morrowind happens before planemeld...

Its confusing...

There's a fairly major reason why Summerset happens after the Planemeld. Serious Spoilers below, but I won't go into detail.

Darien Gautier reappears in Summerset, having "died" at the end of the Coldharbor zone quests, and being hinted at being in the Colored Rooms of Meridia in Orsinium.

As for Morrowind, yeah, the whole continuity with Naryu gets all messed up if you do Morrowind before you do the Pact quests.

Kesarai

omgosh, I just found this and thank you for putting it all together!!

I am one of those types that need to do at one of each faction from start to finish in the order it is intended. I have been searching for something/anything that would tell me where to go after main story (in character/quest progression) and with all the various DLC's and added content, along with the ability to do any of them at any time made things confusing to me.

Again, thank you tons for taking the time to put all this together!

Tandor

Brilliant guide, thanks for putting so much thought and time into it. Shame I can't give it both an "Insightful" and an "Awesome" !

Justwondering

Hi, I wonder if you could help please, I have checked my quest list and none of my quests states "main quest" just a list of areas with quest names below them.

I am wanting to play the story but I am totally unsure which are side quests and which are main quests.

I have all the main expansions up to Morrowind, I do not have the ones released after Morrowind.

VaranisArano

Justwondering wrote: »

Hi, I wonder if you could help please, I have checked my quest list and none of my quests states "main quest" just a list of areas with quest names below them.

I am wanting to play the story but I am totally unsure which are side quests and which are main quests.

I have all the main expansions up to Morrowind, I do not have the ones released after Morrowind.

So, I'm just a touch confused about your question, so I tried to answer both commonly asked questions.

Many people get co fused,about the,progression of the game's Main Quest, so here's the link to the main quest if you just need a reference: http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Main_Quest

But for a more organic way of finding it, with spoilers.

If you haven't started the main quest at all by talking to the Hooded Figure, go to your Starter City for your alliance (Davons Watch, Vulkhel Guard, or Daggerfall) and talk to the Hooded Figure.

you'll be sacrificed to Molag Bal and wind up in Coldharbor, becoming the Vestige.

If you are already the Vestige and are trying to find the next step after a Main Quest, go back to your Starter city and the Prophet should show up to give you the next part or return to the Harborage.

If you have

,recovered the amulet of kings

and it seems like they won't give you new main quests, you may be at the point of "Messages Across Tamriel" and "The Weight of Three Crowns". At this point, the Main Quest takes a brief break as you invade Coldharbor. You need to

finish the Coldharbor zone by ending the threat of the Planemeld.

Once you've finished Coldharbor, the final part of the Main Quest should kick in letting you

face off against Molag Bal to regain your soul.

Now if what you were asking is how to tell major zone quests from minor side quests in a zone, as far as I know there no way to simply tell that in game. There might be an add on, but I have no idea. However, there's a few methods that can help.
1. Check the zone achievements.there are often achievements associated with the major quests in a zone. Beware, those achievements sometimes contain spoilers.
2. If youve obtained Cadwell's Silver and Gold, you can check the list of those quests.
3. Refer to an outside,source like http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Quests which will point you to the major quests in each zone.

Personally, I tend to follow along whereever the major questline is pointing me, doing side quests along the way, which worked out really nicely for me when I did Summerset.


Hope that helps answer your question!

kadar

@VaranisArano

Hey so on my main, I've done about half of the clockwork city questline (I think) before I took a break from the game for ~6months, and almost none of the morrowind. Do you think I should do morrowind before heading back to Clockwork?

VaranisArano

Morrowind functions as an extended prologue to Clockwork City, but their plots don't intersect too much, so I think you'd be fine to do it in whatever order you like.

peppercats

PrayingSeraph wrote: »

I do remember from Morrowind launch that apparently ZoS said that Morrowind takes place before planemeld on new starting characters, but after planemeld on existing characters. Which at the time made sense as the it makes little sense for your new tutorial character to travel on a trip to morrowind as talked about by a letter you get, meet Naryu....then teleport off morrowind to meet a stranger...

They also have that DC high elf dwemer expert guy who leads the quest in Morrowinds dwemer public dungeon. Nurano or something? Anyways at the end of his Morrowind quest, his assistant says they are heading to Bthzark next, which is his story area in Stros Mkai. This seems to allude that Morrowind happens before planemeld...

Its confusing...

Just wanted to point out that I did Morrowind first then the base EP story, and Naryu -- that is, Naryu during the EP story in Deshaan -- referenced having met her before.
Not sure when they added it, but I think that closes a hole in the story.

Interestingly, where does this place Morrowind now? Can it just float at any part of the ESO timeline prior to clockwork city?

Crapgame

VaranisArano wrote: »

I highly recommend doing Orsinium after doing the Daggerfall Covenant questlines.

Can you expound on this? I'm at this crossroads.

VaranisArano

Crapgame wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

I highly recommend doing Orsinium after doing the Daggerfall Covenant questlines.

Can you expound on this? I'm at this crossroads.

Sure. Orsinium takes place after the DC storyline in the timeline. But I recommend it for a couple of other reasons.

One, you'll meet a couple recurring characters, Neramo (met in Stros M'Kai and Betnikh. I don't think it matters which one you do first, but I think its nice to meet the characters in the storyline before you do the DLC. There's also the alchemist from Glenumbra, Alinon.

Two, Orsinium is all about establishing the Orc Kingdom of Orsinium and to a lesser degree, how the Orsimer view their new kingdom and the Bretons and the Redguards they are allied with now. Doing the DC quests first will help give a lot of context for the politics and history of the Covenant as it impacts the opinions of the Orsimer of Wrothgar, particularly Stormhaven.

Finally, there's a spoiler for another recurring character in the DC storyline

Near the end of the main quest you can find a note from Darien Gaultier explaining his post-Coldharbor experiences and Darien shows up a lot in the DC storyline.

So for most players, I would recommend playing through the Daggerfall Covenant zones before doing Orsinium. Its chronologically accurate and helps provide a lot of context for what's happening in Orsinium.

The exception would be if you wanted to roleplay a rather isoloated Orsimer from the clans of Wrothgar, where it could be an interesting story to do Wrothgar first, and then branch out into the wider world of the Daggerfall Covenant story line.

Hope that helps!

Crapgame

That helps a lot. Thank you!

ShadowHvo

Beautiful guide! But it makes me wish that we could choose our tutorial zone... Because I really do miss the original Coldharbour Prison.

I really think that the information in this guide is something that should be available ingame, since a lot of new players often seem rather confused of the continuity of the Planemeld, Daedric Wars and the "side" stories.

An easy pop-up while creating a new character would be awfully simple and fitting to fix this, plus it would give the player a choice.
---
Planemeld - Start at the very beginning of the Elder Scrolls Online and become the Vestige, the soulless hero condemned to daedric realm of Coldharbour.

Morrowind - Start upon the seas with your sails set forth for Vvardenfell, the strange volcanic island of the Dark Elves.
Set after the events of the Planemeld.

Summerset - Start your journey upon the Isles of Summerset, the mystical homeland of the High Elves.
Set after the events of the Morrowind.

*Choice of starting location does not impact available content or quests.

Starting in the Planemeld is advised for full canonical continuity.
---

I wish something like this was a thing, just to make it clear while still offering the player a choice.

GLP323b14_ESO

This is perfect.

Exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!

CMDR_Un1k0rn

Just want to give my thanks for this.

FrancisCrawford

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my take on Orsinium/Wrothgar is:

• King Kurog, a/the central character, has a backstory in Rivenspire. So ideally you do Rivenspire before Rivenspire.
• There's at least one easter egg there timed for after you've done the main quest (Coldharbour, Molag Bal, etc.) but before both the Gold Coast and Summerset. But it's really minor.
• The only recurring characters I recall are Kireth & Raynor Vanos, and Narsis Dren.

I'd note that there are a bunch of recurring characters in the game overall whose main function is to be involved with (and often give) side quests; examples include Kireth & Raynor Vanos, Narsis Dren, Neramo, Telenger, Lady Laurent & Stibbens, and more. It's not terribly practical or important to try to line up their quests in order. Generally the nature of these quests is either:

• Aid them in their research.
• Help them survive their research.

That said:

• There are two natural starting points for Neramo: Stros M'Kai (regional main quest line) and Morrowind (public dungeon).
• The most natural starting point for Lady Laurent & Stibbens is probably in Glenumbra.
• The most natural starting point for the Vanos siblings IMO is probably in Wrothgar, but for them the order hardly matters.
• Narsis Dren is actually introduced in the emails you get from your first blacksmithing hireling. But those might be even funnier if you'd already met him elsewhere in the game.
• Neramo and the Vanos siblings are involved early in the Clockwork City main quest line.

FrancisCrawford

And to be clear -- join the Fighters Guild as almost the first thing you do in the game!! You'll be killing a lot of things that advance your rank in the guild skill line, but they only count after you've actually joined the Guild.

VaranisArano

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

And to be clear -- join the Fighters Guild as almost the first thing you do in the game!! You'll be killing a lot of things that advance your rank in the guild skill line, but they only count after you've actually joined the Guild.

Yep. From a purely story-telling perspective, the storyline of the Fighters Guild advances through your Alliance's base game zones starting with Auridon/Stonefalls/Glenumbra. However, you can gain Fighters Guild exp from killing daedra/undead and closing dolmens as soon as you join them which won't have any impact on the questline AFAIK. This exp is not retroactive, so it pays to join up as soon as possible. Morrowind, Summerset, and presumably the new stater zone with the Elsweyr chapter all have places to join the Fighters Guild.

The Mages Guild questline advances similarly, but the exp from finding lorebooks is retroactive, so there's not the same need to join up quickly.

FrancisCrawford

VaranisArano wrote: »

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

And to be clear -- join the Fighters Guild as almost the first thing you do in the game!! You'll be killing a lot of things that advance your rank in the guild skill line, but they only count after you've actually joined the Guild.

Yep. From a purely story-telling perspective, the storyline of the Fighters Guild advances through your Alliance's base game zones starting with Auridon/Stonefalls/Glenumbra. However, you can gain Fighters Guild exp from killing daedra/undead and closing dolmens as soon as you join them which won't have any impact on the questline AFAIK. This exp is not retroactive, so it pays to join up as soon as possible. Morrowind, Summerset, and presumably the new stater zone with the Elsweyr chapter all have places to join the Fighters Guild.

The Mages Guild questline advances similarly, but the exp from finding lorebooks is retroactive, so there's not the same need to join up quickly.

Also to be clear: In both the Fighters and Mages Guilds, the quest chain has nothing to do with leveling the skill line. You just get the stories themselves from doing the quest, along with the quest rewards, of which the only notable one is the two skill points you optionally get at the end of the Mages Guild line.

Similarly, while the Psijic Guild skill line is indeed advanced through quests, those deviate at a very early stage from the main story quest line in the Psijic Guild, which gives you three skill points.

richo262

I hope they introduce this information, or something that guides the player like this, into the new UI system they have for quests. I've completed it all, in the correct order, but a mate of mine was totally confused when he started in Morrowind.