Elder Scrolls Online Gold Road revealed as next Chapter marks 10th anniversary

The next Elder Scrolls Online Chapter, Gold Road, takes players on a quest to uncover the mystery of Ithelia, the forgotten Daedric Prince, as well as introduces a new, customizable gameplay feature.

This year Elder Scrolls Online is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and the game has certainly come a long way from its April 2014 launch.

Despite early teething pains, the game’s expansive lore — and the popularity of the setting — kept fans coming back for more, striking out on adventures in Tamriel.

And now, the latest Chapter in ESO history begins. No doubt it’ll trigger some nostalgia for an old fan favorite TES4, Oblivion. ESO Creative Director, Rich Lambert, offered press a sneak peek at just what was in store ahead of today’s global reveal.

ESO’s next chapter – Gold Road

Set in West Weald, with Skingrad as the Chapter’s new main hub city, Gold Road will take players on a journey through three new biomes. First, there’s the Gold Road itself. An area designed to capture all the richness and beauty of Cyrodiil in the autumn season. Then there’s the Valenwood Annexation, a dense, jungle rain forest and the rugged Colovian Highlands.

Gold Road will continue the story threads of the last Chapter, Necrom. Following the trail of the Forgotten Prince – Ithelia, a Daedric Prince we’ve never learned about before. According to Lambert, players are set to “play a big role” in just how the forgotten prince’s story plays out.

Alongside Ithelia, there’s a splinter faction of Wood Elves devoted to her, the “Recollection”. This group are the ones responsible for the dense, rainforest jungle that’s rapidly emerged in the Valenwood Annexation.

That said, playing previous chapters won’t be necessary to follow Gold Road and Ithelia’s story. Although if you haven’t finished Necrom yet, there’s still time to complete the story before Gold Road drops.

All in all, there’s supposed to be 30 hours of new content for players old and new to whet their appetites with. The new Chapter is packed with everything; new quests, dungeons, a new world event. There’s even a new trial, Lucent Citadel, set to make its debut.

New Gameplay Feature: Scribing

But new story isn’t all Gold Road is bringing with it. A brand-new feature arriving with the Chapter is scribing.

From a lore perspective, scribing can best be described as a precursor to spell crafting. Like a glimpse at what the magic that could become spell crafting looked like 1000 years ago on Tamriel.
The new feature comes complete with a major quest line. Featuring none other than the wife of Arch-Mage Shalidor, Ulfsild, and her own magical research.

But from a gameplay perspective, scribing provides a new way for players to customize skills along both weapons and world lines. At launch the focus will be on the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Soul Magic, Assault & Support.

One of the most exciting aspects of scribing is styling.

Styling will allow players to change the aesthetics of their spells, initially starting with the color scheme, for example making the spell Wall of Elements, purple. According to Lambert, providing “more player customization avenues” is a focus for the team and the devs have said they intend to continue development of styling to include other customizable effects eventually.

Devs also laid out their road map for 2024 with the reveal. Players can expect new dungeons to drop soon, as part of releases in the first quarter. Gold Road will arrive in the second quarter. There’s more to be announced as the year rolls on. With devs also teasing a new housing feature coming in Q3 and the game’s two companions and brand new PvP content dropping in Q4.

It looks like the tenth anniversary year is shaping up to be a big one for ESO.

The Elder Scrolls Online, Gold Road, is set to launch in June 2024.