http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2013/05/01/journey-to-coldharbour

Highlights:

Molag Bal is now the "God of Schemes", I guess to keep the game in PG-13 territory. Understandable I guess, kinda makes me think of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Boris_natasha_fearless.jpg though.

"As in all the games of the Elder Scrolls series, in The Elder Scrolls Online there's a cosmic threat to Tamriel." -Lawrence Schick, seemingly ignoring three (arguably four) of the five main TES storylines.

"There is an ancient prophesy in the Elder Scrolls that says the Soulless One will thwart Molag Bal's plan - and in fact, the player is the Soulless One." -Wynne McLaughlin, looking very pleased with himself.

"The player must go to Coldharbour... and find out where his soul is being held and why. What is so special about his or her soul that Molag Bal keeps it secreted in such dangerous places and under such mighty wards and guards?" -Lawrence Schick (so... every player is magic and special? Doesn't that kind of defeat the point?)

On the plus side, Coldharbour is very nice visually. I like the long chain gangs of enslaved mortals - not terribly subtle, but subtlety isn't really Molag Bal's strong suit anyhow. And we got a glimpse of a few new enemies - a palette swap of the flame atronach, a corrupted spriggan that's rooted to the ground, and some kind of new Daedra that looks similar to a dremora or mazken. I'm a little concerned that the Daedroth wasn't present, but we've seen it in screenshots before so we at least know it's in. I'm mostly concerned that after Oblivion, Zenimax has forgotten who the Daedroth actually serves.

http://media.tumblr.com/6fd07fc313af86ba27d60dd22080535b/tumblr_inline_mm2vrppVFW1qz4rgp.gif

Seriously? Why not just make his sphere "Domination", like in the last few games? That's the third daedra to have scheming as their sphere. :/

What's funny is that only one game of the main five have had less than an M rating*. Morrowind is T, and I believe is where he even got the title "King of [censored]". Granted, saying it in a promo video is a bit different than having it tucked away in some books, but there's still other words and titles they could use that better fit him. "God of Schemes" is more appropriate for Boethiah (Prince of Plots), or maybe Mephala. Heck, even Azura schemes more than him.

* Yes, Oblivion started out as T, but got re-rated when they took a closer look at the Dark Brotherhood questline. It should've been M at the start.

Evil Mage ruling over the Empire

Political maneuvering to gain control of a robot god

A crazed god trying to spread a plauge across Tamriel

A massive Daedric invasion led by Dagon

Alduin returns to eat the world

Those all sound like cosmic threats to me.

Seems quite similar to other MQs. No reason to be so damn hostile, its only a game and you dont have to play it or accept any lore/stories it presents

Agreed. Im pleased with the way it looks, and that corrupted Spriggen looked fantastic

In previous articles they have described Bal as the Prince of Domination. And frequently in game too (not that I know........)

Molag Bal is in fact referred to as God of Schemes in Varieties of Faith. However, I agree that it's not his most interesting side, nor a distinctive theme among daedric princes.

Perhaps we could interpret "scheme" as in "pyramid scheme", as a god of "systems", tying in with his Domination aspect: he is the source of all harmful power structures, and Schemes which result in slavery. Anyway, I need to watch this trailer before I form a suitably vitriolic opinion.

...meh. "soulless one" implies we are expected to ignore... all these thousands of other "soulless" players around us. ESO seems to be swinging dangerously between "just another WoW-wannabe MMO" and "just another cliche-rife Elder Scrolls game", rather than finding a happy medium, or at the very least playing up the good aspects of each.

"Cosmic threat" is "a threat from the cosmos". The only one that really matches that is Oblivion (maybe Skyrim too, depending on where you think Alduin's origin is from). The rest are threats to the world*, but that's about it.

As I said in another thread:
"For one, the prophesies told by the Elder Scrolls are constant in flux. They only say what may happen (even giving different views to different readers), not what will happen."
...
"Actually the single player games don't go with the "it's a prophecy in the elder scrolls" route. For Skyrim, the Book of the Dragonborn states that they don't know where the prophecy comes from (maybe an ES, maybe the Akaviri, maybe an unattributed tale). Oblivion's prophecy came from Uriel Septim, most likely from the Oversoul of Emperors in the Amulet of Kings. Morrowind's prophecy came from Azura."

Only one prophecy was really stated to be in an Elder Scroll, I think -- Dawnguard's MQ. And depending on how you play it, the prophecy can even be wrong. Either way, it doesn't come to full fruition as the link between Aetherius and Mundus is not permanently cut.


* Technically speaking, Daggerfall's MQ didn't even threaten the Empire, let alone the world. Numidium's status as a world-wrecking god machine was retconned in with Morrowind. Before that, it was a large, powerful rock golem that the various political powers wanted to conquer the Illiac Bay area with.

The "King of [censored]" is just a nickname, Molag Bal is the Daedric Prince of Domination - don't know why they didn't just go with that, though.

It can also be "threat to the cosmos"

*eats humble pie*

The mainquest is a solo player experience. It might not fit into an MMO in my opinion, but we shouldn't see it as anything else. Hundreds of thousands of soulless ones make no more sense than thousands of dragonborn, sure, but considering how often it is requested to "feel like the hero", I can see why they made this decision.

I'm just happy another writing team gets the chance at a TES mainquest, because the recent ones haven't been really stellar. Of course the summarized PR drivel is never that exciting, so I'll withhold judgement until I get to play.

The only one that could really fit that description is Morrowind, depending on how far Dagoth Ur would go (his stated goal was to drive out the Imperials from Morrowind, and it's more or less assumed he'd conquest Tamriel, but there's nothing really stating how far outside of Mundus he would or could go). Dagon conquering Tamriel wouldn't threaten anything in Oblivion, and neither would Numidium or Tharn. Alduin might, depending if he eats everything or just Nirn/Mundus.

Oh, you pedants on the cosmic threat statement. Jagar Tharn could very well have helped Dagon pull an Oblivion Crisis or Molag pull a (what're we calling this? The Great Anchoring! Hohoho) once he softened up Tamriel. Daggerfall involved everybody's favorite Dragon Breaking machine god. Morrowind involved Dagoth Ur, who was certainly pulling something metaphysical and cosmic. Dagon invaded in Oblivion. Alduin prepared to devour the world in Skyrim.

Some of those may not fit your most precise definitions, but don't waste your energy on statements like that.

Evil mage advances his own political agenda, and is kinda a [censored] ruler but otherwise doesn't pose much threat to the continued existence of Tamriel.

Political maneuvering to gain control of a robot god so the owner can expand his territory and snap up some neighboring kingdoms. In one case, Numidium is used to ascend to godhood, but Mannimarco seems pretty content to float around and not destroy Tamriel.

A crazed god tries to spread a plague across Tamriel in order to establish a new Dunmer empire. [censored] if you're an Imperial, but again, not a threat to the existence of Tamriel itself.

A massive Daedric invasion lead by the Prince of Destruction. That's one.

Alduin returns to conquer and dominate the world, forsaking his true purpose of issuing in the next kalpa. But since NPCs refer to him eating the world, we'll call it a "maybe". That's two.

So as I said, at least three of the last five games have NOT involved a cosmic threat to Tamriel.

Most previous storylines in this vein have dealt with a "chosen one", OR a cosmic world-ending threat. In Morrowind and Skyrim, you were the "Chosen One" of prophesy. In Arena, Daggerfall, and Oblivion, you weren't. Having a storyline of "An evil god is trying to pull the world into his realm so he can enslave and dominate everyone in it, only you can stop him because your soul is so very precious and special" is boring, cliched, and far, far too overdone.

EDIT: @Toesock - But now we're getting into the realm of speculation. Jagar Tharn COULD have initiated another Oblivion Crisis with Dagon, but as far as we can tell, he had no intention of doing so - he just wanted to be in charge. Ditto for the rulers of the Illiac Bay.

OP, is it really necessary to insult the game makers? I'm not saying it's wrong to be critical of them and their mistakes, but there's no need to be mean-spirited about it.

It's possible I was a little too cranky when I wrote that. They just seem to be fundamentally misunderstanding... well, a lot, both about TES lore and storytelling in general. I'll edit out some of the meaner remarks.

Particularly in an MMO setting where every other player you ever run into in the game will have that same claim. At least in the single player games, only your character is capable of fulfilling the prophecy in any given game... but in an MMO, you'll be personally running into hundreds or thousands of other characters that are "the chosen one" as you are.

People have been complaining for years about these "you're the chosen one of prophecy!" main quests, and in a genre (MMORPGs) where it doesn't work all that well anyway, you'd think they'd maybe try to break from it. Or at least think of something really clever to explain why there's millions of other players that are all "chosen" like you are. But instead, we basically get "Bal is evil, you're special because Elder Scroll."

I suppose that you were actually addressing me?

Point is, let's focus on actual issues, such as the boundless hordes of soulless, prophesied heroes.

Noticed http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DlJOPoXUiko#t=90s in Molag Bal's realm with my second look through, so I'm certainly behind that. Fits well.

Did you intend to direct that at me? My comment was in complaint that they bowdlerized Bal to "God of Schemes" (A title much more fitting for Boethiah, Mephala, and Azura), when they could have just gone on calling him "Prince of Domination" as they have for the past couple of games. It's true that Varieties of Faith called him that (which I overlooked), but still - he really doesn't seem like much of a schemer.

I understand, I sometimes post while cranky too. I usually end up complaining about the speculated future of the setting and what I want and don't want.

That aside, I like how we'll be getting to visit another plane of Oblivion.

SW:TOR was the same way. I guess you're just supposed to get used to it not making sense. Maybe I've just become accustomed to ignoring it.

Alternately, for a more lore-themed excuse, perhaps every character is a facet of the infinite possibilities that the scrolls see.

Guild wars, and Guild wars 2 did the " you are the only player actually doing the MQ" thing quite well.

So there is Providence that it can work quite well.

The only thing I don't get: How is the player on Tamriel, let alone "alive" if his/her soul is simultaneously held captive in Coldharbour?

I love the look of Coldharbour and his three humanoid minions. Matches the descriptions very well I think.

Speculation: Well, so you’re supposed to be the only one that can save the world, and so is everyone else. How does this work? Well, because those other players are also all you! Being set in a period of uncertain history, ESO does a typical TES thing and takes the metaphysics of the situation literally. Because in the murky past events are remembered different ways (history may be written by the victor, by the writer is slave to the interpreter) there are thousands of potential Heroes that saved Tamriel. And in the Elder Scrolls Online you’re seeing all those other versions of you moving about, spewing potentia at Misrule’s crude attempt to curtail your Divine Momentum. The name doesn’t matter, and the Artifact Sword doesn’t matter: only the events do. This is one of those cases where “without the hero, there is no event” but the event defines the hero in unexpected ways.

Not widely known, but there used to be an Ayleidic God of Time and Streams. He would go about in a plated carapace, and also aided the most varliant of the slaver-nobles in their daily toil. Al-esh called him Akatosh. Umaril called him Father. Vehk called him Sweetness of Pomegranates. Behind the scenes, this “daedra ascendant” is manufacturing his own removal, for curious reasons that only a mad dragon umpteen-times-imprinted could truly understand. Perhaps a last gasp of pre-Stormcrown virility?

So yeah, the “soulless one” is everyone. I am you and you are me and we are all together, isn’t that how the Loveletter said it?

^ I Love you.

I know it's not a huge deal, but Molag Bal is not the god of schemes... Molag Bal is a rival to that god. Stupid.

So why does the player want his soul when he can survive without it?