(SPOILERS) ESO High Isle/Legacy of the Bretons new lore and content plans.
The reveal event for this year's ESO storyline is out, here's a summary of the lore elements and content plans mentioned:
1. This year's storyline is titled '*Legacy of the Bretons',* it will be a story of political intrigue that delves deeply into the lore, history and culture of the Bretons. 2. The Bretons are described as a *'hybrid race'* between Man and Mer and, as such, they are said to have a unique perspective on *'Nirn's oldest feud'* (Man vs Mer, Akatosh/Auriel vs Lorkhan/Shor) which we'll get to find out more about. 3. The story of the chapter will take place primarily in High Isle, an island that's part of the Systres archipelago that's located southwest of Hammerfell and Northwest of Summerset. Though the High Isle will be the main focus initially, the Systres are made up of multiple islands and will gradually be explored throughout during the year long story. 4. The High Isle is famed across Tamriel for it's beauty (it's climate is described as mediterranean like, with majestic waterfalls, coastlines and so on whereas architecturally the buildings draw inspiration from across medieval Europe), it is a place of great wealth that nobles and wealthy individuals from across the continent use as a resort destination.
If Bretonic culture has strong elements reminiscent of certain real life medieval societies than the High Isle is the very epitome of that. The island is always abuzz with fairs, knightly tourneys and demonstrations meant to show off the wealth of it's visitors (even the clothes people wear are often purposefully designed to show off). Aside from visitors, established noble families dominate island politics. Heraldries, plate armor and such galore.
The island is split between settled and visiting nobles/so on who spend their times on gatherings and schemes to acquire more power, and the sailors/workers toiling to survive.
5) Due to it's position as a gathering place for those wielding political influence from across Tamriel, and due to it's relative distance from the mainland largely shielding it from the chaos and war that tends to engulf the continent, the High Isle is a political arena of sorts where visitors scheme to increase their influence.
In Breton politics, and in the Systres especially, dishonesty and trickery can be a 'virtue'.
In the time of the Three Banners War (still raging across the continent with the Imperial City and Ruby Throne unclaimed), these traits have made the High Isle a very attractive destination for secret negotiations. Making use of this, a particularly powerful Isle noble named Baron Vacaro has somehow managed to bring delegates from all three Alliances (Ebonheart Pact, Daggerfall Covenant, Aldmeri Dominion) to High Isle to conduct secret peace talks overseen by his own organization, the Society of the Steadfast.
Things aren't going all that well and there are rumours that someone is attempting to sabotage the peace talks.
6) Someone *is* attempting to sabotage the peace talks, a secret society/organization named *'The Ascendant Order'.* The Order is described as militant and zealous, they are superbly well armed and they've influence that '*runs deep'* across the Systres Isles.
The Order doesn't operate out of the Systres alone, they also have ongoing operations in places like northern Summerset (their regional leader there is an Altmer gryphon trainer, pretty cool) but, despite this, no one outside the organization is quite sure who they are or what they're about (in fact practically no one knew of their existence, they're described as a very secretive group that favors stealth, trickery and assassination in their operations).
The Order's overarching goal is to end the Three Banners War and the chaos engulfing the continent and unite Tamriel, not under an Emperor or an arrangement between kings and nobles however, but rather with all crowns and thrones and nobles completely removed from the equation (they basically want to replace Tamriel's current political systems entirely, their sigil is literally an armored fist punching a crown so hard it cracks).
We don't know what the specifics of their goal are (the letter speaks of an *'Ascension'* but we don't know what that is), but their leader (titled the '*Ascendant Lord'*, the knight in the impressive heavy armor from the trailers) views/describes the end result as '*the* *salvation of Tamriel'.*
7) The Order's plans somehow involve engraved (and probably somehow magical) golden medallions crafted in a '*secret Mages Guild workshop'.* The medallions are copies of a '*master template*' which the Order is looking for as they need it for their plans.
The medallions are engraved with some pretty interesting imagery, a large sailing ship on one side, and some sort of tower framed by overflowing cups pointed downwards (the symbol of Stendarr) and what appears to be the symbol of the Alessian Empire (?) in the background (the Red Diamond/Amulet of Kings).
The letter from the Order's leader and medallions:
[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:ON-misc-2022\_Chapter\_Promo\_Letter.jpg](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:ON-misc-2022_Chapter_Promo_Letter.jpg)
[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:ON-misc-2022\_Chapter\_Promo\_Coin\_2.jpg](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:ON-misc-2022_Chapter_Promo_Coin_2.jpg)
[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:ON-misc-2022\_Chapter\_Promo\_Coin.jpg](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:ON-misc-2022_Chapter_Promo_Coin.jpg)
In addition to this, the Order makes use of a strange form of magic that seemingly manipulates the land or animates it into living creatures, in Summerset they bring the coral to life, in High Isle they make volcanic vents erupt out of the ground and form creatures of living magma (they appear capable of controlling these creations), the volcanic fissures are appearing throughout the Systres and are the Dark Anchor/Abyssal Geyser type event for this storyline. Not sure if they are responsible but the Order's second in command is titled the 'Ascendant Magus' (and probably wears one of the best looking battlemage armors in TES, in my personal opinion)
8) The High Isle manages to maintain it's desired conditions as a resort only due to it's 'dark underbelly', the densely jungled island of Amenos (another of the Systres), where not only criminals but also dissidents and all those deemed *'unfit'* for life on High Isle are exiled. Amenos is fully unregulated, it's everyone for themselves and those who are thrown there seldom make it out.
9) In addition to the above, the player character will be called upon to deal with the Dreadsail Pirates, a group of powerful Maormer brigands operating out of their own island (Dreadsail Reef). The Dreadsails make use of dangerous storm and water magic and are looking for secrets left behind by the All-Flags Navy in one of their abandoned shipyards in Rivenspire. The yard, Shipwright's Regret, is said to have been struck by some unknown catastrophe and is now deeply cursed and haunted, it is also rumoured to hold the secret designs the All-Flags used to create ships more advanced than those of current Tamriel however.
That's it for the most part. Some additional stuff: characters from previous storylines like Za'ji, Caska and Jakarn will be involved, two new Companions (Ember, a Khajiit mage and Isobel, an aspiring Breton Knight) will be added, and the Chapter will add a new in-game Trading Card Game (Tales of Tribute) to ESO itself. The card game is also an in-universe thing and comes with it's own storyline (what it'll be about remains to be seen but the stylized/ornate engraving look for the cards is great).
The reveal event:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IA3L7HqfNI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IA3L7HqfNI)
The cinematic itself:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6sBQfGHSFU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6sBQfGHSFU)
Thoughts ?