As The Elder Scrolls Online enters a new chapter in its life today, it does so without the usual aplomb of its annual Chapter update. After deciding to move on from the expansion model that has served the MMO well since 2017, ZeniMax Online Studios launches the first major Seasonal update for the MMO, which is the vision moving forward.
Season of the Worm Cult Part 1 launches today on PC (consoles on June 18th), bringing with it new content, from the new island region of Solstice to the first major continuation of the original MMO storyline, following the resurgence of the Worm Cult.
Welcome to Solstice
The island of Solstice is the main location we’ll be diving into with Season of the Worm Cult Part 1. According to ZeniMax during a press preview last week, this island felt like the best place to bring back the Worm Cult thanks to its relative isolation from the Tamriel mainland.
The island itself blends tropical and Mediterranean vibes, while also mixing architecture of two of the Elder Scrolls’ most diametrically opposed races: the Argonians and the Altmer. While previously warring factions against each other, the two kindreds have found themselves at relative peace on the island, and Solstice also brings with it a new Argonian tribe into the mix: the Tide-born.
During the press preview, the developers showcased many of the island’s regions, from the main town of Sunport, to the Tide-Born’s home of Shell-Tide Village, and everything in between. Looming over it all is the Writhing Wall, a giant barrier of magickal construction erected by the Worm Cult for reasons that are, as of now, unclear.
As our demoist sped across the landscape, the wall loomed over all, a constant reminder of the stakes in Solstice. This is the first time we’ve encountered the Worm Cult since 2014’s main quest storyline, and while Mannimarco himself might not be on the scene, it doesn’t mean the Worm Cult won’t be a formidable foe when push comes to shove.
Players will join forces with the Stirk Fellowship, which is an alliance between members of the Three Alliances, Fighter’s Guild and Mage’s Guild aimed at taking the fight to the Worm Cult on Solstice. Led by Prince Azah and Gabrielle Benele, the Fellowship is tasked with uncovering what the Worm Cult is up to and ultimately stopping them once again before their plans can come to fruition.
The team also mentions that the area of Solstice won’t just be under the influence of the Worm Cult themselves, but also feel the meddling of Daedric Princes, who just can’t seem to keep out of the affairs of Tamriel. Excitingly, though, two of the Princes featured are ones that don’t always get a ton of screen time in ESO: Meridian and Sanguine.
As with all zones in The Elder Scrolls Online, Western Solstice will be littered with points of interest for players to discover, from open dungeons to world bosses, in addition to the overarching storyline dominating the scene. Throughout it all, players will meet up with returning favorites from the OG story, including the main character of his own Khajiit spy novel, Razum-dar.
Despite Season of the Worm Cult Part 1 not being billed as a Chapter expansion, there seems to be quite a bit for players to do – from exploring the new region to taking part in the new 12-person trial: the Ossein Cage. There are also Antiquities to collect, new crafting sets to create, and more.
The Writhing Wall, Subclassing, And More
While this isn’t a part of Season of the Worm Cult Part 1 right away, The Elder Scrolls Online team is planning a server-wide event called the Writhing Wall event, coming in October 2025. This event will see players band together with their server to break through the wall to uncover the secrets of Eastern Solstice, setting up the seasonal story’s conclusion at the end of the year.
This is the first time ESO players will be able to compete against other megaservers to see who can accomplish a task first, and while the team seems to be jazzed out the possibilities, there are still so many questions up in the air for me to feel convinced this will be as exciting as the team is seemingly making it out to be.
For starters, if you don’t feel like dropping the money on the Content Pass in order to have access to Solstice, it’s going to be a bit weird to take part when you have literally no connection to the Wall itself, and the team declined to provide any addition details on what that might be during a Q&A after the press preview last week.
For those who are taking part in the event in Solstice, how does it unfold, and, crucially, how long of a wait after breakthrough will players have before Eastern Solstice actually opens up? Right now Season of the Worm Cult Part 2 has a nebulous release window of Q4 2025, it’s going to feel really, really weird to spend all this energy punching through the Writhing Wall with Eastern Solstice as the pay off, only to be blocked off for a few weeks from actually going through the breach.
Hopefully as the summer unfolds we’ll get more concrete details on exactly how this will play out and how ZOS plans to capture and maintain the momentum of what could be an exciting, server-wide event.
Subclassing was also showcased during the press preview, and this is a feature we’ll need to spend some time on ourselves to fully form an opinion on, but I do adore that the team is doing something as game-changing as subclassing this long into ESO’s lifecycle. Instead of simply being content with their roster of class types, the team is shaking things up in a way that has the potential to change the meta even moreso than Scribing in Gold Road offered.
I do like the fact that this isn’t something you just unlock after launching the MMO for the first time – you must have a level 50 character to subclass. This creates an aspirational goal for new players in an MMO where leveling doesn’t really matter when tackling content throughout the story’s runtime, and it instantly rewards enfranchised players who have longed for ways to shake up their playstyle barring creating an alt.
Subclassing will feature its own progression as well, whether you’re an experienced player or not, which I like, too. You can only learn and use up to three additional skill lines at a time, and those skill lines will start at level one, meaning you’ll need to level them just like your regular class skill lines. Thankfully, this progression is shared account-wide, so if you decide to play on an alt and utilize the same skill line when subclassing, your progress carries over, reducing some of the friction in the system.
Personally, I can’t wait to get in there to see how I can truly revamp the playstyle of my Templar or Necromancer – something I hope to do this week inbetween the impending Switch 2 launch and our yearly romp to Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest.
Thank God ESO runs really well on Steam Deck.
