14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at ZeniMax Online is offering more information on the factions and the lore of its upcoming The Elder Scrolls Online, with the focus on the Aldmeri Dominion, which brings the Elves, the Khajit and the Bosmer together.
During an extensive Questions & Answers session, the team says that the idea of the Dominion was hatched by Queen Ayrenn, which saw the troubled times that lay ahead and decided to rally the entire Elven race around her banners.
The Khajit needed allies and decided the Elves offered the best deal, while the Bosmer needed strength in order to battle forces sent by the Cabal of the Imperial City to take territory away from them.
The developer talked about the area controlled by the Dominion: “At launch, you will be able to explore two corners of Elsweyr: an island off the south coast, and the far northwest corner of Anequina, around the city of Dune and Fort Sphinxmoth. Most of Elsweyr is still in the grip of the Knahaten Flu, and isn’t a place you really want to go until the epidemic has run its course.”
It also seems that the design of Valenwood will be based on information that players have received during The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and on real-world deep jungles and that ZeniMax Online will make sure that the various Elf sub-races are well differentiated.
It seems that practicality will be more important than lore for the developers at ZeniMax Online, as they have answered a question about the fantastic descriptions for Alinor buildings by saying, “The architecture of the High Elves is fanciful, certainly, but it’s also practical, constructed of real-world materials. Architects can’t make buildings out of poetry!”
The Elder Scrolls Online will use a free-to-play structure and is set to launch in 2013.