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As we all know there are three available alliances: the Daggerfall Covenant (Breton, Orc, Redguard) the Aldmeri Dominion (High Elf, Wood Elf, Khajiit) and the Ebonheart Pact (Nord, Dark Elf, Argonian). Your alliance will determine your starting location and more importantly the side you will fight for if you choose to take part in the Alliance War in Cyrodiil.

Alliance is usually determined by race with the exception of Imperials, available only with the Imperial Edition, who can join any alliance. Players who own the Explorer's Pack, Adventurer Pack or even purchase the Any Race, Any Alliance Bundle can choose to play any race with any alliance.

I have a few questions though:

Since the Imperial Edition, Explorer's Pack, Adventurer Pack and the Any Race, Any Alliance Bundle all exist, why can't Zenimax just overhaul ESO's character creation with a new update so that after choosing one of the ten races you can then choose an alliance?

Blizzard has introduced new playable races, in WoW, for different expansion sets. Well, since Maormer are featured in ESO I'm surprised they're not a playable race, do you believe they will become playable one day? Additionally the playable Khajiit furstock is Cathay, after the Elsweyr chapter was released, you couldn't play as one of the other furstocks like the Dagi-raht, Tojay-raht, Pahmar-raht etc. I'm not suggesting to make certain furstocks like the Alfiq playable but it would be cool to play as a Pahmar-raht. Do you believe different Khajiit furstocks should become playable? Furthermore, do you believe, after every zone of Tamriel has been revealed, the next zones will be set in Akavir and the Tsaesci will become a playable race?

I think that because those four things exist, ZOS is probably inclined to keep things as is, since this gives players a reason to acquire one or more of those Crown Store offerings which will let players choose any alliance for any race. I'm not necessarily trying to suggest that it's a money thing, because I have no idea how much revenue is generated from those specific Crown Store offerings, but I would imagine it isn't enough to be worried about, since (1) Crowns go on sale several times a year, (2) the various offerings in the Crown Store go on sale every so often, and most importantly (3) those particular offerings can only be purchased once per account. So even though there's probably a nice little chunk of revenue generated by those offerings, there are probably other Crown Store offerings which generate much more revenue. So I'm thinking it's probably more of an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" sort of thing.



I think there are probably limitations to what kinds of body shapes and sizes can be generated by the character creator function, not to mention potential issues with things like costumes, furniture, and mounts which would need to be changed if they were expected to accommodate non-humanoid characters, so it seems highly unlikely that we'll ever see any of the other Khajiit furstocks as playable characters.



During the 10-year anniversary stream from Amsterdam, it was stated that Todd Howard wanted ESO to stay on Tamriel and not go to any of the other continents, although the many planes of Oblivion were okay to go to. It's true that High Isle and the other islands of the Systres are not part of Tamriel per se, but then again, islands such as Artaeum, Betnikh, Bleakrock Isle, Khenarthi's Roost, and Stros M'Kai are not "on" the continent of Tamriel, either, and for that matter neither are Auridon, Summerset, and Vvardenfell, but they are still considered to be part of Tamriel and its lands. But I don't think we're likely to see anything of the other continents of Nirn unless Todd Howard changes his mind about that.

When asked about possible areas of Tamriel for future Chapters, Matt Firor, the studio general manager and president of ZeniMax Online Studios, mentioned that much of Black Marsh, much of Elsweyr, and half of Skyrim had not been done as zones yet. When asked about the ESO roadmap and whether the studio had plans for what to do once it had covered all of Tamriel in future Chapters, Rich Lambert, the Creative Director, replied: “One of the beauties of The Elder Scrolls universe is it’s not just tied to Tamriel. Tamriel is the giant main continent. There are other continents and there are also the infinite worlds of Oblivion that you can go and explore as well.”

Yes, but judging from what was said about Todd Howard's stipulations regarding ESO during the 10th-year anniversary live stream, Rich Lambert is going to have to convince Todd to loosen his prior restrictions if ESO ever wants to visit any of the other continents on Nirn. It could happen-- after all, Rich was successful in getting permission to have dragons in ESO-- but how likely it might be remains to be seen.

I would argue it's already been loosened somewhat. I know the Systres is a minor island chain and it's full of Bretons, but—to me—ESO's High Isle does not count as a Tamrielic landmass.