Announced in late January, Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom is the Chapter that will conclude the Shadow Over Morrowind storyline designed for the MMORPG by Zenimax Online Studios this year.
At a recent presentation held for the press, the development team unveiled Necrom, though they actually started with news on the game’s healthy player base. Whereas 20 million players were confirmed last year, two million accounts were created since High Isle, bringing the new total to 22 million players and counting (there’s a free play event and discount sale running right now, so a bunch of newcomers are bound to be moving their first steps in Tamriel during these days). The scope of Elder Scrolls Online is simply huge, as the game sports 9 million words, 200K lines of spoken dialogue per language, and over 26 million lines of code.
All of those numbers will grow even more the Necrom Chapter, which is mainly set in two zones, the Telvanni Peninsula and the Daedric Realm of Apocrypha, with the latter being more represented (a roughly 40-60% split) in terms of overall playtime.
The Telvanni Peninsula had not appeared in an Elder Scrolls game since the very first installment of the franchise, Arena, released in 1994. It is home to the highly reclusive and self-centered mages of House Telvanni of the Dunmer, or Dark Elf, race. Visually, it takes some cues from the beloved Morrowind geography with the giant mushrooms. Still, it is also slightly different in that there are no huge active volcanoes here, and it is a bit more verdant overall.
The Telvanni Peninsula is also where Necrom, the hub city that gives this Elder Scrolls Online Chapter its name, is located. Necrom is rumored to be incredibly old and possibly built on the bones of a creature once defeated by Vivec, the Dunmer Warrior-Poet God. It’s also where the noble Houses bury their dead.
Apocrypha, on the other hand, is the kingdom of the Daedric Prince of Knowledge, Hermaeus Mora. It looks very different and everything is seemingly made of books, including some cute creatures. The first biome is admittedly very much based on the appearance of Apocrypha in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but the second biome is a lot more alien, as it is meant to reproduce the true state of Hermaeus Mora’s mind.
The central narrative of Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom sees Mora under attack from fellow Daedric Princes Vaermina and Peryite, with the help of a Telvanni Mage (Master Shelreni) and a mysterious Dremora (Torvesard). Leramil, one of Mora’s agents, petitions player characters for help as the consequences should the conspiracy succeed would be dire for Tamriel. Players will also be able to rely on a few more supporting NPCs, such as the Dunmer ghost Meln, the Watcher Scruut, and the Curate Gadayn, Novice of the Necropolis at Necrom. Sotha Sil, the Dunmer Tribunal God and creator of the Clockwork City, was also confirmed to be making an appearance at some point in the storyline. The plot is said to be grandiose, but it’ll also end on a big cliffhanger, which is something unusual for the game.
There’ll be around 30 hours worth of new content in The Elder Scrolls: Necrom. Other notable additions include two new companion NPCs (the Redguard Xander and the Argonian Sharp-as-night) and a new 12-player Trial called Sanity’s Edge. The setting on this one will be unique to say the least, as players will enter the mind of a powerful Mages Guild member to help him fend off the psychic attack of an agent of Vaermina. It’ll be divided into three major sections: the Nightmare, where Mages are being persecuted; the Dream, where the Mages are the persecutors; and the Broken Mind section.
According to Elder Scrolls Online Creative Director Rich Lambert (whom I interviewed earlier this year), Sanity’s Edge can be compared to Rockgrove in size and challenge level. Lambert also said the development team came up with some cool new mechanics that push the game’s technology to its limits.
Of course, for many fans the juiciest feature of The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom is the Arcanist class. Zenimax Online hadn’t added a new class since the Elsweyr Chapter, which saw the introduction of the Necromancer.
The Arcanist is obviously based on the Chapter’s overall Hermaeus Mora theme. While its skill lines offer access to the same roles of any other class (tank, DPS, or healing), the Arcanist’s abilities look and sound different. Most importantly, they play differently, thanks to the crux system. The class abilities can be used on their own, but they can also build and/or spend crux points, which can augment them in various ways. Some skills also have different mechanics, requiring beam-like targeting for either damage or healing, unlike other classes.
The Public Test Servers (PTR) for Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom are going live on April 17th for PC/Mac. The full release of the Chapter is scheduled for June 5th on PC/Mac and June 20th for PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
