2014 year, chapter Coldharbour.

The Year 1 stories: Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood.

Those stories are still the best this game has ever had. Sure, I personally could take or leave the TG and DB guilds themselves, but the characters in them are so compelling. And Wrothgar as a whole is still the best Chapter this game has ever done, even though it wasn't a Chapter.

In terms of gameplay, it's hands down whenever we got a new Class in 2017, 2019, and 2023. Being able to make a new character and experience the whole world in a completely different way is great, and I love the level up process and making each of my backstories feel unique. I really hope that I'll get another chance to do that soon...

Though it wasn't called one, Orsinium had all of the attributes of a Chapter. I recall really enjoying its main quest back in 2015 because it wasn't over the top in any way and I don't recall any cheap story gimmicks. But maybe I'm forgetting something. I recall it being a very solid and gritty traditional North American high fantasy experience.

It's crazy because I've played *SO* much eso the past 11 years, even considering a 5 year break, but I've only completed the following main stories:

- Cadwell's Gold (2014)
- Orsinium (2015)
- Elsweyr (2023)
- Blackwood (2023)

The biggest reason is because the combat is so ridiculously easy, I just can't stand it. It's just pure tedium to me. It wasn't as bad the first couple of years and I completed Cadwell's Silver and Gold in the original vet difficulty which was the best overland experience I've had in ESO.

Also the original vet Craglorn story was AMAZING to play through. It was designed for groups! I remember there was a competition of some sort in the 2014 Quakecon which involved soloing a Crag delve and it was impressive to many that someone could do it! How times have changed.

The first vet content nerf came during the summer of 2014 and then of course vet overland was eliminated with 1T during fall 2016.

The end of Orsinium gave my character the 1000-yard stare and for that, it's a 10/10

Elsweyr. Dragons and cat people. Yes, please!

I voted Morrowind because it also had Clockwork City. But Summerset is a VERY close 2nd.

I voted for Elsweyr. It's the chapter that came out when I started playing the game and I still enjoy replaying both the zone story and the side quests. Exploration was great fun in both northern and southern elsweyr and hunting dragons was a lot more fun than the recent incursion designs.

But my absolute favorite story zos ever told is Orsinium.

The map is great in terms of exploration. There are dozens of hidden little nooks and crannies, the shift from flat tundra to rocky mountains made the zone feel more real. Here's a hidden campsite, there's a treasure behind the waterfall. Oh, you climbed up to the harpy nests? Guess what, here's a thieves trove. Enjoy! Climbing a steed hill was rewarded with a beautiful view if not even more. Climbing anywhere in recent releases since blackwood is rewarded with an invisible wall shoved into my face and a wagon load of disappointment.

The zone's design and it's side quests focused entirely on the people of Wrothgar (Minus Rigurt, who isn't my type of character. Personally, I don't enjoy him.), highlights their diversity, gives somebody who has never touched an elderscrolls game ever before a perfect introduction to the orsimer of the wrothgarian mountains and the most significant happenings in their history and how the current story and it's politics affects their life here and now. And most importantly they were interesting and fun stories to follow along. Even the museums quest wasn't just a tedious checklist to run through but actual fun because it sent you back out into a zone that was fun to explore and forced you to face enemies that were fun to fight. The world bosses weren't hitting me with wet wipes or artifically stretching the fight with an invulnerability phase. The bosses got to finish their dialogue because they didn't wimper and die under 2 separately casted elemental barriers.

The dialogue was well written. It didn't feel like I was reading through the script of a saturday morning children's cartoon but an actual good dialogue adressed at a mature audience that made me want to hear more. Not endure more. There were sad stories, uplifting stories, the type of story that allowed itself to tell of the cruelty and bitterness that comes with war. Talking to NPCs in Orsinium or really anywhere in Wrothgar had the chance to reward you with information on delves, points of interest and even unmarked locations of interest. They held little side bits of story you could visually pick up on when exploring. Zos still loves to weave information about little decorative bits into their dialogue here and there. Like the Maormer ghost in Solstices thieves hideout and her captain out by the harbour. But the majority of dialogue feels lacking nowadays.

In Orsinium, the sidekick Eveli Sharp-Arrow was an actually memorable character that was used to depict the effects of war and loss of innocence when faced with the harsh reality. Which, in my humble opinion, was a great choice. It was a refreshing contrast to the usual "I'm an adventurer now, it's that easy"-trope that is so utterly overused in media. What we see of Eveli in later releases shows none of that. She became 'another Rigurt' for me.

That young bosmeri archer with the large starry eyes and innocent pigtails didn't change a bit after Orsinium. She remained starry-eyed and she kept the pigtails and I truly believe Zos missed with that. Adding her brother didn't help, it just made me feel sorry for him having to endure Blackwood-Eveli as a sister.

Ah yes, Orsinium. The one and only DLC that holds a secret, special fish that you only hear about from an npc in the wilds. That can only be reeled in if you listened to her advice on how to do it and especially 'when'. That was fun. The only rewarding instance of fishing I remember. The long wait for the special guest in Apocrypha was just boring and had me install an addon that allowed me to play Tetris while I waited for a fish to bite.

Orsinium, just like Elsweyr, also introduced new wildlife. Not repainted mobs, but actual new models to fit the new exotic zone. Echatere? Love them. Would settle down as an Echatere herder if I could. Love the scarred version too, what a poor sight to behold. The Chub Loons? The little, penguin-like birds that share their territory with the local hoarkers? Love them too. I believe the harpies also got a brand new model, not just a paint job but do feel free to correct me on that one because I'm not entirely sure right now. However. these two new mobs alone added character to the zone. Added to it's visually identity. Just like the several new models we saw in Elsweyr. It helped making the new place to set foot in feel truly foreign and enticed to see more.

I'm rather disappointed with what happened to this concept of visual identity with past releases. Oh yeah, seen that critter before. On the other side of the continent in a completely different terrain and weather. Nothing weird about it. The endlessly reappearing models of wild animals and plants all over tamriel over the past years reduces the fun to explore for me. It feels like we see 1 new model per DLC now when it comes to the open world. A whole new isle, a newly filled out empty space on a continents map. Here's 25 models you've seen before and one new one. We may have changed the color of the fur in some cases tho, isn't that exciting?

No. It's fun when it's used to depict the border between two different biomes. It's fun when it's used to portray an invasive species taking over. It feels entirely out of place when there's no such reason for them to be there and you end every 'Why the hell are you here?' with a 'Guess that's cheaper'.

Orsinium was great. It was fun, it still holds up for me as the best story Zos ever told and it wasn't as forgettable to me as Gold Road or Blackwood or half of Necrom.

Edit: I'd like to add Murkmire as an honorable mention. Unique in it's story, focusing heavily on the people of blackmarsh and a fascinating focus on the relationship between the Hist and their creations. The zone is fun to explore, even tho mostly flat, the area is nicely broken into different areas with the placed settlements. Making the shift between swamp and dense jungle more believable. We get to see what influence the Hist holds in it's own domain. The scars left by multiple invasions. If you don't know much about argonians but would like to learn, go visit murkmire. Not Solstice, murkmire.

I don't really think of Dragons as being the cornerstone of Elsweyr, even though they really were. All i cared about was the homeland of the Khajiit.

I'd go with Wrothgar myself

Out of the options Elsweyr, because it brought Necromancer. Not listed Murkmire, Wrothgar, and then Elsweyr would come in 3rd for my favorite stories.

The fact that our best Chapters were stories told so long ago, just shows how far ESO has veered off the path in storytelling.

While Necrom was pretty great, everything else after Elsweyr just felt extremely weak and artificial.

I picked Elsweyr for overall quality but I personally enjoyed The Reach more. Unfortunately, Greymoor is not as good as Elsweyr. So as a total year long story, Elsweyr is better. But if I had to give it to only a single entry as a standalone, it would be The Reach.

I translate this question to "which year expansions pack would you suggest to absolutely buy purely for storytelling?", in which case I'd say year 1 wins hands down: Orsinium + Dark brotherhood + Thieves guild + Imperial City is simply overkill.

Honestly compared to those, all other years are way below in storytelling quality. Some I have appreciated more than others but none was on par with year 1.

If we'd have to evaluate DLCs individually or on other parameters my opinion would be different, but since this is how I got the question this is definitely my answer.

Thieves Guild (Hew's Bane) though this is rather unfair as the early content drops they had a lot more time to develop. It's pretty obvious when you look at them but was also confirmed in the recent podcast. The "year of" format then forced everyone into a production line mode of content creation. Perhaps, after this transitional year, they will be able to do things in this way again.

2025. it's awesome to have a sequel story to the base game stories and some others too.
i love Solstice's side quests too. especially from Everlasting Fair, Shor's Stand, and Shell tide village.

though 2023's Bal Sunnar probably had my favourite dungeon story with the time travel.
i hope we see Saresea again.