The ESO global reveal streamed on January 27th, and to say that we’re excited is an understatement. The reveal contained some incredible new information from the upcoming DLC, High Isle: Legacy of the Bretons. There’s a lot to look forward to, so we’ve put together a guide summarizing the highlights.
Below, you’ll find everything you need to know about Bethesda’s latest chapter for Elder Scrolls Online, releasing on June 6, 2022.
ESO Global Reveal Stream
If you want to watch the full ESO global reveal for yourself, here’s the link to the full stream on YouTube. The DLC preview starts at 40:09, if you want to skip straight to the meat and potatoes.
Follow along with us if you’d like — let’s jump straight in!
New Zone: High Isle
The biggest announcement from the ESO global reveal was the new zone, High Isle. This year’s adventure is “Legacy of the Bretons,” and will cover Breton lore and culture over four major updates this year.
If you watched the Twitch stream live, you earned the Barnacle-Back Coral Crab non-combat pet. Don’t worry too much if you missed out — you can still get some cool collectibles by pre-ordering the DLC (more on that later).
What can we expect?
The overarching theme of High Isle is to end the Three Banners War. This isn’t to say PVP is ending in Cyrodiil, but it looks like a lot of political factions will be vying for power. Don’t expect just another Daedric invasion like we saw with Blackwood and Deadlands!
ESO’s creative director, Rich Lambert, said they’re “going back to [their] roots in terms of storytelling.” This means we’ll be getting story-rich content full of interesting characters, dialogue, and political intrigue. The new location will focus primarily on Bretons, which Lambert describes as a “traditional medieval feudal society with knights, noble houses, and, of course, all the politics that surround that.” We’ll likely see more than a few nods to this in the quests and overall tone of the DLC.
If you want to brush up on Breton lore before release, we recommend checking out these locations belonging to the Dagerfall Covenant:
- Stros M’kai
- Betnikh
- Glenumbra*
- Stormhaven*
- Rivenspire*
- Alik’r Desert
- Bangkorai
(*Locations that focus heavily on Breton lore)
Where is High Isle?
High Isle is one of the four islands in the Systers Archipelago, located Southwest of Daggerfall and Northwest of Summerset. It’s only ever been documented by a single map in Redguard, so there’s a lot of mystery that promises to delve deep into old lore and uncover all new information.
High Isle is populated primarily by Bretons, and is inspired by the Mediterranean. Expect beautiful coastlines and cliffs dotted with the architecture of medieval Europe. North of the beautiful landscapes and homes of the elite nobility lies the deadly jungle island of Amenos, where criminals of High Isle are sent to die. The art director for ESO, CJ Grebb describes this prison as having “no guards, no law, and little chance of escape.”
These areas are only two of the many vastly different sides of High Isle, with more islands in the Systers Archipelago being released throughout the year. There will hopefully be one new location per each of the four major updates, but that might be wishful thinking.
What’s the storyline of High Isle?
Grebb calls High Isle “a resort destination for Tamriel’s wealthy,” although all can enjoy the tournament grounds and other festivities that take place there. Far away from the mainland, High Isle is an ideal location for peace talks for the Three Banners War. These are held by the “Society of the Steadfast,” a new faction led by the extremely wealthy noble, Baron Vacaro.
Peace isn’t always profitable, however, so there’s bound to be resistance to these talks. Those who directly oppose peace are known as the Ascendant Order, led by the Ascendant Lord, whose goals and background will be uncovered as you play through the new area.
The Ascending Tide DLC will be released in March this year, adding two new dungeons. This will set the story for High Isle’s release in June. They say this area will be readily available for both returning players and newcomers.
This being said, you might want some general knowledge of ESO before heading right into High Isle. New DLC chapters have content that is more difficult than the base game content, it might be frustrating to a new player. All content in ESO is leveled to you, though, so feel free to take this on as early as you want!
Loremaster Leamon Tuttle informed us that we’ll see some of our favorite characters return in High Isle’s main quests. This includes Jakarn, the ever-mischievous ladies’ man from Stros M’kai, and Captain Za’ji, the bumbling pirate turned hero from Southern Elsweyr. These characters and more will help you fight back against the Ascendant Order as they try to form a utopia by renouncing royalty and the classic forms of leadership seen throughout Tamriel. Think ESO meets the French Revolution.
Along with these beloved classic characters, we’ll also meet many new interesting ones, including two new companions!
New Companions: Ember and Isabel
The ESO global reveal also announced a few new faces. Ember and Isabel will be available with the release of High Isle as your new potential companions! According to Lambert, Ember is a “morally flexible” Khajiit with an affinity for magic who grew up on the streets. Isabel is a Breton and an aspiring knight.
Both come with their own unique rapport systems and storylines. You’ll likely get away with a bit of stealing with Ember around, while Isabel might play more like Bastian and lose rapport with you if you pick too many pockets.
You’ll be able to unlock more personal quests for these companions as you earn their trust by boosting rapport, adding even more flavor to the ways you play ESO.
New Game System: Tales of Tribute, the Collectible Card Game
The ESO global reveal also announced Tales of Tribute, a new collectible card game. The game is designed as a resource builder, with both players working toward a victory point goal. Playing the game allows you to earn cosmetic items, furnishings, gold, crafting resources, and much more.
Getting started is relatively easy — you’ll be given four decks after completing the tutorial, and can earn more cards by questing and challenging NPCs in taverns. You can play through the storyline by challenging NPCs of ever-growing difficulty, or by challenging other players. The PVP part of the game includes rankings that pit you against players of an equal level.
Don’t worry — the game will be balanced for both advanced players and beginners. Both players pick two decks to submit, which are shuffled together for each player to pull from. This means that if you have a deck full of common cards and your opponent only has mythic rares, you’ll get to try out some of those fancy cards and your opponent will work with using more common cards. Whoever has more skill will win, effectively avoiding any potential pay-to-win problems that may arise in the future.
Release Date and Pre-Order
High Isle will be released on the follow dates:
- PC/Mac, Steam, Stadia: 6/6/2022
- Xbox / PS Systems: 6/21/2022
*Spanish language support will also be available in June with the release of High Isle.
What You Can Buy and Pre-Order Now
You can pre-order High Isle now and receive a number of different pre-order bonuses. These include the Palefrost Elk Mount (from any pre-order) and the Palefrost Elk Fawn Non-combat Pet (which you’ll only get if you pre-order before April 4th!).
If you buy the Collector’s Edition, you’ll receive a new mount, non-combat pet, outfit style, emote pack, and memento. We don’t have specifics on these yet, but we’re sure to know more soon.
Bethesda Gear Store will also offer an Ascendant Lord statue, High Isle t-shirt, key art lithograph, and more for pre-purchase.
Join the High Ground
That’s it for our breakdown of the ESO global reveal — thanks for reading! High Isle looks to be full of amazing new content, and we hope you are looking forward to it as much as we are. For the latest on ESO and your other favorite games, follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter.
Happy gaming!
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