Storyline continuity questions

Danikat · March 2018

I've got a few questions about continuity post-One Tamriel and I'd appreciate it if anyone can answer them for me.

1) Am I right in thinking that the 'correct'/original order is: Your Alliance story + Main story + Fighter's Guild + Mages Guild all together, then Cadwell's Silver, then Gold (aka the other 2 Alliances main stories), then Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Morrowind, Clockwork City and then Summerset, all in that order?

2) Does the dungeon DLC (Shadows of the Hist, Horns of the Reach & Dragon Bones) matter for the overall story or are they all stand-alone stories?

3) Will it mess up the continuity if I finish the main story before finishing my Alliance's story?

4) Would there be any continuity 'errors' if I just did the Main Story and my Alliance's story then went onto the DLC/chapters? Will characters talk as if my character has done Cadwell's Silver & Gold even if they haven't or doesn't it really matter?

5) What happens if I complete another Alliance's main story before starting Cadwell's Silver/Gold? Say for example I make a DC character but I go to Khenarthi's Roost right away and complete the entire AD story then start on DC? Do I just pick up Cadwell's quest and then turn it in immediately, or am I unable to do it?
5b) What if I only do part of another alliances story? Like finishing Khenathi's Roost but I don't go on to Auridon. Does that affect Cadwell's?

6) Is it possible to do an Alliance's main story out of order? Could I take a new character to Rivenspire and do the main story for that zone without doing Glenumbra and Stormhaven first?

Nestor · March 2018

1. Sounds about right, but you can do TG and DB at anytime, I say make sure you have enough skill points to invest in the passives. Orsinium should always be saved for Champ Ranks as the exp is so fat in that zone.
2. DLC Dungeons are stand alone, but difficult, recommend you to be at or near cap in Champ Points, story is independent.
3. It gets weird if you do the Main Quest before you do the Alliance Quest at the end. In that you get assigned Caldwell's Silver before you do your Alliance. I have a character that did 0 story Alliance Zone quests before MQ and is now doing Silver
4. They don't really talk about the Alliance or the Main Quest in the Chapters or DLC's
5. You can do the Silver and Gold quests in any order you want, bounce around as you want, but you can turn in Silver or Gold until you complete the zone story quests for that Alliance (as per Caldwell's Almanac)
6. Yes, you can do them out of order. I did AD Zone 5, and have not done any other AD on my latest character. I have some EP zones done, and a couple of DC too.

What is somewhat difficult is to follow the Zone Story Quests as your supposed to now. Before, the level of the mobs kind of told you what area to do next, but now, they are all the same level, so it's easy to get areas mixed up. Particularly in Stonefalls as you jump all over that map. Other zones kind of the same thing. But, Caldwells Almanac at least gives an order to follow to help keep the story in the original order. If you pay attention to the quest givers they usually tell you where to go next.

VaranisArano · March 2018

1. Yep, that's what I'd recommend, though Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild are very fun to play at the same time.

2. Stand alone. White-Gold Tower makes sense as the ending of the Imperial City main quest.

3. Not really, that I can think of.

4. You will meet 2 recurring characters in the Dark Brotherhood for side quests, one from Pact and one from AD. Orsinium is probably best done after the Covenant questlines.
Clockwork City also has some recurring characters from the Pact/Coldharbor and DC storylines.

5. Cadwell's silver/gold isn't so much of a quest as a checklist. I believe you'd still get the reward as long as you've done the quests. You can track your progress in your quest journal, I think under achievements.

6. You can definitely do the zones and quests out of order, but most of them build on prior events.
For the Dominion, definitely do the zones in order since they all flow in a cohesive order.

For the Covenant, I'd recommend Stros M'kai - Betnikh-glenunbra as one story arc, Stormhaven-rivenspire- Bangkorai as another story arc, with Alikr as an interlude.

For the Pact, Bleakrock-Bal Foyen- Stonefalls is a storyline, Deshaan has its own story, Shadowfen has its own story, Eastmarch-The Rift for the Nordic zones, however, I do recommend them in order otherwise there's something that won't make sense at the end of Eastmarch.

Danikat · March 2018

Thanks both, that's really helpful.

I should have mentioned I'm not worried about XP or champion points. Before One Tamriel I was always over-levelled for what I was doing and the only thing that's changed is it doesn't show up. One of my characters is level 47, has only done DC zones in order and is only part-way through Alik'r, I'm pretty sure ZOS intended me to be nearly done with Bangkorai by level 47.

But I have 7 characters and may well make more in future, and aside from my crafter (who just runs around collecting sky shards and, well, crafting) I want to make sure their stories all make sense, but I don't necessarily want to do everything in the same order on all of them. 3 will eventually do everything, so it makes sense to stick to the intended order, but on the other 3 I might be a bit more selective so it's helpful to know what goes together and what I can safely skip or rearrange.

VaranisArano · March 2018

I typically level new characters by picking a couple zones to be "their story". For example, my Nord stamDK is only questing in Eastmarch and the Rift, which will become her backstory of assisting King Jorunn.

Sekero · March 2018

I'm attempting something which might go horribly wrong, but hey-*** I've had fun doing it. I've completed my home alliance (Pact) and have nearly completed "Silver" (Covenant) and I intend to complete "Gold" and then the Colharbour sequence BEFORE I speak to the Hooded Figure.

If that doesn't break, then it will be as you say, Orsinium, Morrowind, CWC. (I'm still on the fence about getting Summerset)

Edit for typo and to add - They censored that? Dear Lord it's an everyday expression in English , just like ***-hum!