Balfiera Tutorial Removal + No Direnni Ruins Presence Issue + Ayleids Overrepresented in High Rock.

Aliyavana

In my opinion, the Soul Shriven in Coldharbour tutorial is overall a better tutorial to start a character in, with many base game quests relying on the fact that your soul was stolen by Molag Bal.

My only dissatisfaction with the Gates of Adamant tutorial being replaced is that we now have no Direnni content left in ESO. They have little to no presence on High Rock where they were most prominent during the Direnni Hegemony, nor ruins near Markarth in Skyrim or Elinhir in Hammerfell, which the book '''Once''' stated they held territory around at one point.

Instead, for some reason, the Ayleids have overtaken Elven ruin representation in High Rock, when Ayleids also have a chance to be represented in the provinces of Cyrodiil, Valenwood, Hammerfell, Black Marsh. They can even be found in the Planes of Oblivion. If you do CTRL+F in https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Elven_Ruins you will see 109 hits for Ayleid ruins. This page doesn't include things like houses, group dungeons, and other activities Ayleid Ruins can be found in. The Ayleids are overrepresented as it is.

Ayleids also have also erroneously overstayed in High Rock due to a typo that has been around since ESO has been around. The ruins Enduum has the following text:

"The halls of lost Enduum are given a wide berth by the local Bretons, who claim that its corridors and chambers are haunted by ghosts of the ancient Ayleids who built them back in the Dawn Era." - We know this is a typo because former loremaster Lawrence Schik has already confirmed it is a typo, but it hasn't been fixed

Atharaon:
Can we finally agree the “Dawn Era Ayleids” of Enduum were actually victims of ESO’s early error of conflating the Aldmer with the Ayleids, and so it’s actually an Aldmeri ruin?

Lawrence Schick:
No; the Ayleid Diaspora sent several clans northwest into what would later become High Rock.

Atharaon:
In the Dawn Era?

Lawrence Schick:
“Dawn Era” is the error.

Where are the Direnni Ruins? Ayleids have a chance to shine as they have presence in almost of Tamriel and even Oblivion, and therefore shouldn't have displaced the Direnni to that extent in High Rock.

We only have 3 bits of Direnni places and 1 removed piece of Direnni content. The Direnni Acropolis on Summerset (uses Summerset Chapter assets thankfully), Viridian Watch in Bangkorai which uses Breton Assets (Summerset Chapter assets didnt exist at the time), and Castle Thorn (Lady Thorn is Direnni herself but its a Vampiric castle and isn't really about the Direnni but the Grey Host), and lastly, removed Balfiera which uses Summerset Chapter assets.

The Direnni had a Hegemony and should have had at least a bigger number of ruins to show for it. When the Red Petal Bastion dungeon was released, I was disappointed that we got yet another Ayleid ruin underneath the Breton castle. Ayleids are cool, but we can see them in 4 other provinces. I yearn for more Direnni content.

Enodoc

I don't remember how many of these things say "Ayleid" in dialogue, but many of the High Rock instances could easily be changed to "Direnni" if it's just loading screen text and lorebooks.

Enduum obviously is just a loading screen error, so that one can easily be changed to First Era (rather than Dawn Era) when the diaspora actually happened.

Nerouyn

I can't remember the book's name but when killing time and randomly bumming around the uesp wiki and ESO's lorebooks I noticed a note attached to one for an Auridon retcon.

Originally its ruins were referred to as Ayleid but later changed to Aldmer because the Ayleids never occupied that island.

I didn't mind that correction until they released Summerset with its human gothic and ancient greek style architecture with no relation to Aldmer or Ayleid stuff.

It's understandable that the devs would want to capitalise on all things Ayleid given the prominence of their ruins in the single player Oblivion game. But canon and consistency matter. They shouldn't be cannibalizing either for the sake of $$$$.

Supreme_Atromancer

Yeah from TES lore, Direnni seem like they should be pretty important to both the story of the Bretons and the story of High Rock. Yet we've seen soooo little of them so far. The Sinderill seemed really intriguing, but haven't been heard of since, for example.

Despite the fact that a lot of High Rock is already explorable in-game, I think there are still opportunities for some Direnni content:

Red Petal Bastion was added years after the base-game zone it was put in- I agree it's a shame that it was MORE ayleid stuff, but I guess it demonstrates that any current zone in High Rock (including Wrothgar) could get new Direnni stuff put in at any time.

Plenty of off-map, mountainous areas could hide previously undiscovered Direnni ruins and forgotten strongholds.

Balfiera is arguably more free now for development.

Depending on how ZOS wants to interpret it, Jehanna may exist in the current time. The lands around Jehanna- the western extremities of High Rock- is said to have been the longest mainland holdout for the Direnni.

Adjusting or refreshing base-game zones? Retroactively reimagining or reinterpreting at least some of the Ayleid ruins would be great.

Aliyavana

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

Yeah from TES lore, Direnni seem like they should be pretty important to both the story of the Bretons and the story of High Rock. Yet we've seen soooo little of them so far. The Sinderill seemed really intriguing, but haven't been heard of since, for example.

Despite the fact that a lot of High Rock is already explorable in-game, I think there are still opportunities for some Direnni content:

Red Petal Bastion was added years after the base-game zone it was put in- I agree it's a shame that it was MORE ayleid stuff, but I guess it demonstrates that any current zone in High Rock (including Wrothgar) could get new Direnni stuff put in at any time.

Plenty of off-map, mountainous areas could hide previously undiscovered Direnni ruins and forgotten strongholds.

Balfiera is arguably more free now for development.

Depending on how ZOS wants to interpret it, Jehanna may exist in the current time. The lands around Jehanna- the western extremities of High Rock- is said to have been the longest mainland holdout for the Direnni.

Adjusting or refreshing base-game zones? Retroactively reimagining or reinterpreting at least some of the Ayleid ruins would be great.

It makes me wonder if they had forgotten about the Direnni existing until late in ESO's development, and if they had to retrofit the Direnni into the framework of what ZOS had already had setup in High Rock. ESO had been in development since 2007 and Lawrence Schick had become the game's first Loremaster in 2011 for example. A shame cause Ayleids have so much content than the Direnni in the areas the Direnni should be prominent.