Set sail for new shores

Creative director Rich Lambert talks with Oscar Taylor-Kent about crafting an unexplored corner of Tamriel for The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle

- Rich Lambert

For adventurers in The Elder Scrolls Online, journeys across Tamriel have been lengthy, leaving hardly a stone on the map unturned. Set many years before the main RPG series, TESO’s given us looks at those games’ key locations in an earlier age – some still undeveloped, others at their peak. Last year’s Blackwood expansion revisited TES IV: Oblivion and before that Greymoor took us back to zones from TES V: Skyrim. High Isle, however, takes Elder Scrolls fans to a brand-new location, where they’ll discover lore and cultures that have never been explored in the series before.

We ask creative director Rich Lambert if making substantial additions to the huge RPG series increases the pressure. “Oh, absolutely,” he laughs. “Yes, yep. ‘Don’t let us down.’ Yes, there’s all kinds of pressure there, for sure.” But it’s also something the team could get really excited about, owing to having a lot of freedom in how to tackle the new chapter, which kicks offthe Legacy Of The Bretons storyline. “But the flip to that is it’s also almost more difficult because there is no kind of box,” says Lambert. “You have to go in and you have to figure everything out from scratch. So it’s definitely been a fun challenge and a different challenge than what we had in previous years.”

High Isle is certainly different. Home to half-elf, half-human Bretons, with a ‘mediaeval Mediterranean’ vibe, the island and surrounding Systres Archipelago have only been referenced a few times in previous Elder Scrolls games. Here it’s completely built out, and you can explore it for yourself.