above average eso enjoyer

When a mod's install instructions say:

MUST BE PLACED FIRST IN LOAD ORDER

This may be one of the longest running secrets in the history of The Elder Scrolls we are about to reveal, this has seemingly stayed hidden for 28 years from general knowledge.

ICYMI, ESO switched to a Seasons model this year, away from their chapter model. Seasons are 90 day windows of themed content rather than one big release on the update day, they're free for everyone, and not temporary. Season Zero goes live April 2nd and we will have One and Two in 2026.

Season Zero

Season Zero will have the Night Market, releasing April 29th and lasting 7 weeks until June 17th. They've already gone over the Night Market before and you may have seen it on PTS. Challenging PvE zone with a competitive (not pvp) element that I'm really excited for (go gilded goad). While it is temporary, it's planned to return at least once and could become permanent based on player reception.

Challenge Difficulty (previously known as Overland Difficulty) goes live June 8th. Also already gone over, optional toggle on the player themselves for reduced damage done and increased taken in overland (plus delves, public dungeons, story instances, etc), in exchange for increased gold and exp gains. No separation of players into different instances based on difficulty toggles.

New PvP reward system called Veterancy. New titles, perk, skill styles and more exclusive to this reward system, based on exp and AP gained in PvP. Rewards update every 6 months with some carrying over.

Quickly went over the remaining class refreshes and class mastery system coming, more details given previously here and timeline below.

Season One: further details given about some new systems previously went over here. Releasing July 2026

Favors are new daily quests associated with specific characters and guilds. Sort of an homage to the original hireling letters, getting a new letter each day with each Favor that continues the story. NPCs mentioned or shown were Telenger the Artifacer, Holgunn One-Eye (with Walks-In-Ash with him), Lady Arabelle Davaux, and Urcelmo.

Rumors sound like unmarked quests with a scavenger hunt, mystery, clue following element. You can track the clues in your journal under the Rumors section, but it's on you to solve them. No UI telling you who to talk to or where to go, said to be rather TES III Morrowind-esque. Some may have multiple endings or more to discover after you think it ends.

Sage's Vault is described as this space between realms that guards Sage Varnet's most prized possessions. We will learn more about it during the Thieves Guild storyline, and gain access to it with Nowhere Keys acquired by doing Season One activities (and other means). You'll tackle each of the three wings of the vault in any order, and they seem to be built to be handled not with damage, but through handling traps and puzzles, using stealth, and traversing the environment. Lots of secrets to uncover in the rooms that help solve the greater mystery of the Vault.

The new stories in Season One are a Thieves Guild sequel and a Sheogorath storyline. The Thieves Guild story has the return of Quen and takes place in Glenumbra. Antagonist is the Koldane Cartel and you'll discover what they're after. New places to hide like flower pots, new ways to stun guards and npcs called somnopowder, and get a new upgradable mythic item during the questline. As always, play in any order is allowed, but you will get more dialogue playing in order and reminder that the OG Thieves Guild is basegame now! The Sheogorath questline is about Sheo wanting to be a mortal for a while and you taking him around Tamriel doing mortal things (and of course things go wrong). Six quests long.

Dynamic World Events, sort of a mix between random encounters and incursions. They scale based on the number of players there and may have different goals than just "kill it until it's over". Some examples given were "rescue animals, defend a farm, team up to hunt down an epic vampire". System plans to be expanded beyond Season One.

High Seas of Tamriel: new event introducing naval combat/ship battles, undersea exploration, various oceanic encounters, deep sea fishing, puzzles and combat on the ocean floor. No date given, but was part of the Season One preview list originally.

Crimson Veldt, the new trial, will be base game. It is set in Hircine's Hunting Grounds and introduces a hardmode difficulty to "basepop" (which i learned today means trash/adds between boss fights... oops)

Season Two, releases October 2026.

Moon Hunter Keep and March of Sacrifices as solo dungeons. Can go solo or with a companion, optional difficulty toggles at the start, and new monster mask and cosmetic rewards

Mention of storms over some of Tamriel's coldest most wintery regions later this year into 2027. An iconic region never before explored in ESO. Stated to be Skyrim but nothing further. I'd guess Winterhold (finally) but who knows! Will be the first season of 2027. New kind of zone mentioned called an "Excursion" zone within it, a "new take on what a zone can be".

Vivec Canals

Prototype Image for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

more good upcoming QOL changes in U50 per the stream today, most interesting thing to me though was some quiet confirmation that the change in studio leadership is what's allowing them to really focus on player feedback to a much higher degree (to the point of having this entirely new team focused on it)

increased the afk timer in the character creator

character screen now says log out rather than back, which was unclear

daily quest limit doubled from 50 to 100

companion exp gain rate effectively doubled, scales with rapport

new player/returning player golden pursuit that rewards for certain tasks players may not know about offhand (bag upgrade, mount training etc)

motifs now more consistently include where they're sourced from in the tooltip

exemplary jewelry can now be deconstructed

improvements to vampire + werewolf quests, including free curing from priests of arkay

overworld transmute stations in places that aren't CWC, namely capital city crafting hubs and certain mages guilds

"I was born 87 years ago. For 65 years I've ruled as Tamriel's Emperor. But for all these years I have never been the ruler of my own dreams. I have seen the Gates of Oblivion, beyond which no waking eye may see. Behold, in Darkness a Doom sweeps the land. This is the 27th of Last Seed; the Year of Akatosh 433. These are the closing days of the 3rd Era, and the final hours of my life."

on the twenty-seventh of last seed, the emperor gave to me

"Fine, I'll deliver the amulet. I have to go to the Priory to record the residents anyway."

"Am I a worthy knight? Sir, I am a census taker. But sure, I'll make a pilgrimage; I'm on the road all the time anyway."

"Well, it's pretty close to nightfall and nobody's going to be answering their doors for the census, I guess I can go kill those goblins for you."

"Ugh, people went into that Oblivion Gate? Damn, guess I have to go in to record them if they're still alive. Might as well try to close it while I'm in there. The things I do for my job."