I am having a hard time seeing what exactly I should be looking at, maybe a 1st person shot would have been better? I can’t make out the banner too well.

But simply by its location… the new zone could be Winterhold? Will make a nice contrast to Gold Road if that is the case.

BelmontDrakul wrote: »

It is Worm Cult banner. I hope it is Mannimarco's revenge kinda thing. That guy was too lame for a main villain, I expected more epic fight.

Oh, right...
I do this route almost every day and this was never there, but being related to Mannimarco I wonder if it is something we'll see during the Pan-Tamriel celebration in Genuary or if it really indicates to 2025's DLC.

Evidence of acts of Necromancy dedicated to Molag Bal. Suggests Mannimarco and the Pan-Tamriel celebration to me.

Could be for a new event-related quest or just be decoration related to some upcoming house reachable by portal. I say the latter because before U44 added a new house in Blackreach I had already spotted the entrances and even intended to ask in the forums about them.

sorry for double posting, i made a mistake, the guy here looked same from distance. but its a new one too, i never saw him there

Thanks for contributing!
With so many locations it seems to me it could really be 2025's prologue quest - looks cool to me!
And I think it would confirm a more "dark" atmosphere for next chapter, possibly.

Psychopote wrote: »

This is not necessarily linked to the future Chapter, but perhaps to new content /new quests in a future event.

We had something similar in 2020 when we saw these altar/monoliths appearing in Tamriel in various places.

We later found out, during the Festival of New Life, that they were linked to a brand-new quest.

I'm leaning more towards an explanation of this type for the worm cult banners, given the date of their appearance : it seems a bit early for this to be linked to the future Chapter. But we'll see ;-)

Right... I didn't think about that; good insight!

EDIT: but... Pan-Tamriel celebration has already been tested on PTS and there is no tester here to confirm this as part of the event. Isn't this strange?

SkaiFaith wrote: »

Psychopote wrote: »

This is not necessarily linked to the future Chapter, but perhaps to new content /new quests in a future event.

We had something similar in 2020 when we saw these altar/monoliths appearing in Tamriel in various places.

We later found out, during the Festival of New Life, that they were linked to a brand-new quest.

I'm leaning more towards an explanation of this type for the worm cult banners, given the date of their appearance : it seems a bit early for this to be linked to the future Chapter. But we'll see ;-)

Right... I didn't think about that; good insight!

EDIT: but... Pan-Tamriel celebration has already been tested on PTS and there is no tester here to confirm this as part of the event. Isn't this strange?

Pan Tamriel Celebration doesn't have quests so there's not really a way for it to be for the event

Also remember that just because the prologue's in one location, that doesn't mean that the Chapter will be related. Sure, WSkyrim's prologue was mostly in Riften and Eastmarch, but we also saw most of Blackwood's prologue happening in Grahtwood.

It definitely could be a "we found Worm Cultists at locations in Eastmarch, Rivenspire, and Malabal Tor! Go deal with them in those locations and report back" kind of thing.

This does lead me to an interesting thing about speculation: I do think that people do tend to focus a lot on what they want when they're looking for hints, and ignoring anything that doesn't fit nicely into their plans. Case in point: Tanlorin mentions Whiterun at one point and everyone jumped on the "omg Whiterun is coming!" train, but Zerith also has a line in one of his quests about Corinthe and everyone just ignores that... despite the "evidence" for getting Central Skyrim being the same as the "evidence" for the Tenmar Forest. I also always love to point out that "We're going to Skingrad!" was the common thing since Lyris and Sai mentioned going to Skingrad after their quest in the Reach... and then we went to Leyawiin and didn't make it to Skingrad for another 4 years.

Seriously, at this point, anywhere we go has been name dropped by an NPC at one point or another. Heck, we've still got two lorebooks from 2016 that tells us the Vanos siblings were going off to Hammerfell and we never got a resolution on that.
(and I'm seriously wishing on every star I can find that we're getting a Dwemer Artificer class next year regardless of where we go, but that's just me)

Another thing that was interesting was that people called Winterhold due to the Nord-themed Golden Pursuit, but that begs the question of why the Pan-Tamriel celebration (which will start around the same time as the 2025 global reveal) will end up dropping a (gorgeous) outfit style that is not Nord themed, it's actually pretty specific to one of the other alliances.

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

OK, so not the Pan-Tamriel celebration. I'd forgotten it was on the PTS. No sign of any new quests related to it, just masses of old loot.

So, if these new sites are for the 2025 prologue, why the Worm Cult? Surely, they're not going to start making assumptions about player choices concerning Mannimarco like they did with the rest of five companions, are they?

it doesn't even have to be related to Manninarco returning.

the Worm Cult banner could be there, because:
- there's something we need from an abandoned Worm Cult camp.
- the quest involves a Necromancer that is or was part of the Cult.
- the quest involves going to Coldharbour and the camp will have a portal there.
- something else entirely

SkaiFaith wrote: »

as I previously said 2025 Chapter should have been 2024 Chapter...

@SkaiFaith Is that just speculation on your part, or something we have concrete evidence for?

Darkstorne wrote: »

SkaiFaith wrote: »

as I previously said 2025 Chapter should have been 2024 Chapter...

@SkaiFaith Is that just speculation on your part, or something we have concrete evidence for?

Speculation based on facts we know: if you are on the forum by some years you have seen that during the "year long adventures" there was feedback from players asking to stop with that formula;
After U35 and 36 people were leaving due to many reasons and one of the reaction from Zos was in 2022 Director's letter to say that because of the received feedback from 2023 they'd shift the formula to a multi-year one;
Gold Road felt to many players more like a Q4 DLC than a proper chapter, in size, scope, and many other ways;
Scribing... I played through it and I don't think it played any part in West Weald, even the first encounter in Skingrad is just a portal to another location.
And about that "multi-year" statement which referred to Morrowind - Clockwork - Summerset (3 DLCs), well we got a single story cut in 2 with the Ithelia one, and it's done. This, plus the fact that being their decision a "reaction" one, they said themselves (but don't ask me to find the specific quote) that it would have taken time to see the fruit of their new effort.
Also, it takes years to develop an expansion, so Gold Road was highly likely already developed as the Q4 DLC for 2023 when they decided to postpone it to 2024 and flash it out a bit more.
The 2024 music theme is a comeback to the original. We are now seeing a return of the Worm Cultists - it would have felt more appropriate to pair them.
The whole Lamp Knight thing would have fit better with Winterhold as a theme, and now we have a mysterious one appear...

I don't know, to me it feels like this tells a story. But I could be high on Skooma - who knows

LunaFlora wrote: »

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

OK, so not the Pan-Tamriel celebration. I'd forgotten it was on the PTS. No sign of any new quests related to it, just masses of old loot.

So, if these new sites are for the 2025 prologue, why the Worm Cult? Surely, they're not going to start making assumptions about player choices concerning Mannimarco like they did with the rest of five companions, are they?

it doesn't even have to be related to Manninarco returning.

the Worm Cult banner could be there, because:
- there's something we need from an abandoned Worm Cult camp.
- the quest involves a Necromancer that is or was part of the Cult.
- the quest involves going to Coldharbour and the camp will have a portal there.
- something else entirely

A retired Alfiq worm cultist needs help gathering old worm cult banners. They're sewn out of rare scamp whiskers, and years of wearing worm cult robes have left them unable to wear anything less silky smooth. Nothing else will do--it must be scamp whiskers! (Plus, removing the banners also disrupts their travel routes and signaling protocol, if you care about all that.)