At the game awards in December, The Elder Scrolls Online debuted a teaser trailer putting a pin in last year's adventures in Elsweyr and teasing this year's new excursion to Skyrim. Today Bethesda is showing off more of what to expect when we return to the Nord homeland. The snow and ice will have an extra bite, it turns out, because Western Skyrim has a vampire problem. 

Despite The Elder Scrolls V permanently linking Skyrim with dragons in our minds, ESO just got done with those particular baddies in Elsweyr. The new areas of Skyrim coming to the MMO version of Tamriel are designed to tell darker, "gothic" stories. A vampire lord has amassed an army of other vampires, witches, and weres to terrorize the north. Lyris Titanborn, the nord with giant blood from ESO's original campaign story, will join players for the full year of the Skyrim arc.

The next year of ESO is officially called Dark Heart Of Skyrim, spread out over four updates throughout the year, starting with the Harrowstorm dungeon DLC. In February, all players will have access to the free prologue quest for Dark Heart of Skyrim and players who have bought or upgraded to the new expansion will continue on to the dungeon. On May 18th, the Greymoor chapter, which seems to be the meat of the story for the first half of the year, will continue the events from Harrowstorm. 

The second half of the year will add another dungeon and story zone to ESO's map, both of which are so far unannounced. The year's updates will also bring new public dungeons, Harrowstorm group world events similar to the current Dark Anchors, and a 12-person trial called Kyne's Aegis.

As with Elsweyr, The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor is becoming the definitive edition of the game. New players who buy ESO for the first time will start their adventure in Western Skyrim at level one while getting ESO's past chapters packed in. Current players can upgrade to Greymoor which will also include ESO's other chapters: Morrowind, Summerset, and Elsweyr.

Correction: This story originally indicated that the Greymoor Chapter will be accessible with an ESO Plus subscription. That is not the case.

ZeniMax Online Studios unveiled a new Elder Scrolls Online cinematic at The Game Awards tonight that signals the conclusion of the Season of the Dragon. It's a suitably epic affair, packed with struggle and sacrifice, triumph and loss, and when it's all over and the smoke clears, the next phase of the big Tamrielic MMO is revealed: We're going to Skyrim.

Alas, details on the "dark heart of Skyrim" won't be shared until January 16, 2020, in a Twitch livestream set to begin at 2 pm PT/5 pm ET. ZeniMax hinted that it will be major in-game event, though, describing it as "The Elder Scrolls Online’s next year-long adventure and Chapter."

You can play The Elder Scrolls Online for free until Wednesday. Bethesda is holding a free play event in its sprawling MMO, and it gives you access to the full base game for a week.

The free play event started yesterday and runs until November 13 at 10 am EST / 3 pm GMT. If you've played in any of the past free play events, your character and progression will carry over into this one, but if you're creating a new ESO account, you'll get 500 crowns to spend in the in-game store, which is a nice little bonus.

Bethesda says this event gives you access to four starting classes: Nightblade, Templar, Dragonknight, and Sorcerer. You'll be able to explore 23 zones while pursuing the game's main storyline and the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild quests.

To get going, head over to the event page and select your platform, then follow the instructions to download The Elder Scrolls Online client. It's worth a try, if you've never played—after a rocky first year, The Elder Scrolls Online has found its footing and become one of the best MMOs out there.

The Elsweyr expansion to The Elder Scrolls Online finally brought dragons to the MMO world of Tamriel. Their flying, fire-spitting presence is bad news for the cat-like Khajiit who live in Elsweyr, but beginning on October 3 it'll be good for the actual, real-life cats (and other fur-bearing creatures) who live among us.

From October 3 to December 9, ZeniMax will donate $1 for every five dragons killed to the Best Friends Animal Society and Four Paws charities. The Best Friends Animal Society is dedicated to promoting and establishing no-kill animal shelters throughout North America, while Four Paws is a European advocacy group "for animals under direct human influence," ranging from pets to the "wildlife entertainment industry." ZeniMax has committed to donating up to $200,000 in the Slay Dragons, Save Cats campaign, split evenly between the two charities.

Special events will take place during the charity drive, beginning with Dragon Rise, which offers three unlockable rewards for all Elsweyr players: A Green Dragon Imp pet, a Grim Harvester costume, and the Dragon's Treasure Trove. Dragon Rise begins on October 3, five days before the charity campaign begins, but all dragons killed during the event will count toward the total. Other events include the Witches Festival, Undaunted Celebration, Dawn of the Dragonguard, and the year-ending New Life Festival, which will actually take place after the charity campaign is over but still sounds like a good time.

Offing a million dragons to hit the maximum donation amount is a pretty big task, but it's actually already been done: Bethesda said that more than a million of them have been turned into boots and pocketbooks since the Elsweyr expansion went live in June, so just keeping up that pace over the next few months should be enough to get the job done.

Details on the Slay Dragons, Save Cats charity campaign can be had at elderscrollsonline.com. Ahead of the launch of the event, ZeniMax is retweeting photos of players' cats (and a few dogs) with the #SlayDragonsSaveCats hashtag on Twitter. Enjoy!

Skyrim's dragons set the standard for towering, fire-breathing lizards in videogames. Though only a minor part of an enormous canon, Alduin and his ilk are now an inextricable icon of the Elder Scrolls universe. That's why it surprised me that The Elder Scrolls Online waited so long before finding an excuse to bring dragons back to Tamriel—not just as an out-of-the-way boss but as the winged terrors we so fondly remember from Skyrim.

Thank god for Elsweyr, The Elder Scrolls Online's latest expansion, then. Though it's set in the arid deserts of the Khajiit homeland—far from the frigid tundra of Skyrim—a silly mage has gone and awoken a fleet of dragons that are ravaging the poor Khajiit of Elsweyr. But how does fighting a dragon in Elder Scrolls Online compare to fighting on in Skyrim, and which game has the best dragons?

Dragon vs. dragon

Considering ESO is calling 2019 its Season of the Dragon, it's fair to say that dragons will play a big role in the MMO's evolving story—and I hope that means how dragons are implemented will evolve too. With Elsweyr, players get a new zone to explore along with a bunch of new quests. But what interested me was the ability to fight dragons which would spawn periodically across that new zone. While completing the main story, you'll also encounter more than a few dragons during scripted cutscenes and boss battles, but I'm going to mainly focus on the dragons that periodically spawn across Elsweyr.

Below: ESO's dragons can take a lot of punishment.

Fundamentally, these roving dragon boss battles are similar to ESO's other open-world events like Dark Anchors. The idea is that these trigger intermittently and encourage all nearby players to drop what they're doing and rush to complete the event for lucrative rewards. Dragons in Elsweyr are no different—except they fly around the map and land in a random area instead of always spawning in the same static location.  

Unlike in Skyrim, though, you are not the Dragonborn. You can't shout away your problems and you don't get to consume a dragon's soul when you defeat one. More importantly, that means you're also complete shit at killing a dragon and have no chance of taking one on alone. Each dragon that spawns is meant to be killed by dozens of players working together, which immediately gives the fight a different flavor than in Skyrim. And though they often try to mimic the way Skyrim's dragons behave, ESO's dragons more often feel like a crude approximation.

Dragons in ESO are effectively a run-of-the-mill raid boss. Once they land, they tend to sit there patiently waiting for nearby players to form up and attack. That's a far cry from in Skyrim, where dragons will often ignore me entirely in favor of burning down Whiterun or savaging nearby creatures. That's one of the reasons why I love Skyrim's dragons so much: They're an organic (and terrifying) part Skyrim's natural ecosystem. When I discover one, it's almost always stirring up its own kind of trouble that I just happen to walk in on. That's not the case in ESO.

Below: Dragons in ESO will just sit there and patiently wait to be attacked.

Once a dragon spawns in Elsweyr, it'll circle the zone for a bit before finding a place to settle down. Because ESO doesn't have the same sweeping vistas or extended draw distances as Skyrim, however, I found it nearly impossible to track one just using my faculties alone. A dragon's location on the map is always marked by an icon so you can easily track them down, and once they've settled on a spot they won't fly off again.

In fact, beyond waiting to be attacked, dragons in ESO just don't have much of a personality. Half of the fun of Skyrim was having a dragon randomly try to burn Riften to the ground while I was there just trying to complete some other quest. Even though dragons were pretty easy after a certain level, their unpredictable nature created a subtle tension while playing. But in ESO, dragon fights are always optional—they'll never come knocking.

Fortunately, fighting a dragon in ESO is much more fun than watching one. Because I'm not the Dragonborn (and only level 8), I have to be extremely careful during combat. With dozens of players fighting alongside me, it's easy to become overconfident—something that ESO's dragons love to punish.

During a fight, dragons will use their dragon-shouts to call down meteors or knock you down. If too many players try to get at its flanks, a nasty tail swipe will send them all flying. And if you get too close, an aura of flame will constantly burn away your health. It's a lot to manage for a newcomer like me, and it's an enjoyable challenge having to dodge these different abilities.

Like most MMO bosses, fights with a dragon happen across different phases. The first few times I fought one, everything felt chaotic and exciting, but now I'm starting to notice a predictable sequence of events that makes these encounters a little tedious. After a few minutes of battling the dragon on the ground, it'll almost always take off and hover over the arena or perch on a nearby rock to spew a few fireballs. Around this time, it'll also strafe the battlefield with fire breath, forcing combatants like me to dodge out of the way. But then the dragon will land again and the process will repeat. Every dragon I've fought so far has this same process.

It's not that I expect these dragons to have dozens of abilities that keep me on my toes, but it is disappointing that the fights seem to follow the same sequence again and again. Again, part of the fun of Skyrim was how unpredictable dragons could be. One minute they'd be strafing you with fire-breath and the next they'd be landing on top of you to take a bite out of your face.

Below: I wish ESO's dragons had more space to just exist in the world. Part of what made Skyrim so immersive was marveling at an off-in-the-distance dragon doing its own thing.

Before writing this I did take the chance to reinstall Skyrim and play for a few hours. And though I still prefer Skyrim's dragons, they aren't nearly as well-animated as I remember—especially when fighting in crowded areas like Whiterun. The way Skyrim's dragons fly around is often a bit clumsy. Dragons will turn on a dime in an awkward way or their animations won't match their movement, which ruins the joy of watching one from a distance sometimes. ESO's dragons, on the other hand, move more naturally—a big improvement on when I first fought them months ago. 

If it sounds like I hate ESO's dragons, though, I can assure you I don't. I'm just disappointed that they're not more dynamic and unpredictable. Instead of emulating Skyrim's dragons, Zenimax Online Studios has created just another MMO boss with a slight twist—but there's such a great opportunity to do something so much bigger than that. Skyrim launched in 2011, and its dragons were part of what made that RPG feel so ahead of its time. ESO's take on the winged terrors doesn't feel nearly as imaginative.

Earlier this week, Bethesda Netherlands shared a small Elder Scrolls tabletop adventure set in Elsweyr, to promote the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online expansion of the same name. Players could download the digital pages, print them out, and then rock their own tabletop RPG while waiting for the new MMO content to arrive. 

It sounds like a really sharp idea, but there was one big problem: People quickly noticed that the adventure bore a very strong resemblance to The Black Road, a tabletop adventure for Dungeons & Dragons that was released in 2016. And we're not talking occasional superficial similarities: Paige Leitman, who co-authored The Black Road with Ben Heisler, put together an "annotated Powerpoint presentation" comparing their original work with the Elsweyr adventure, and the two are almost identical: 

The Elsweyr adventure was taken down quickly once the plagiarism came to light, and Bethesda said on both Twitter and Facebook that it is trying to determine who is actually responsible for the plagiarized content. Tweets announcing the adventure are also gone, and so is Leitman's Powerpoint presentation, although you can still catch it on Ars Technica. Leitman said in a followup tweet that she's "going to let the Powers That Be handle this." 

I've reached out to Bethesda and Wizards of the Coast for more information on the situation and will update if I receive a reply. 

The Elder Scrolls Online's Elsweyr expansion is little over a month away, so Bethesda's giving the new necromancer class a proper welcome this week, breaking down the lore and mechanics of Tamriel's most hated mages. Watch the goths in action in the trailer above. 

“In broad strokes, necromancy is about the creative manipulation of the soul, or animus, which is one of the basic building blocks of life in Tamriel,” explains Leamon Tuttle, ESO’s loremaster in a class preview. “Necromancers use their power to cast spells, bind souls into service, and use lesser Daedric spirits to reanimate corpses.”

Playing as a necromancer might be a bit trickier than the other classes. Necromancy is illegal, you see, so summoning an undead horror is going to send NPCs running to the cops to grass you up. Rude. You'll need to be sneaky, then, and try to keep your true nature a secret. Some powers will be less noticeable, though, letting you use them without fearing the long arm of the law. 

“A player who chooses to assume the role of a necromancer in ESO needs to understand that they’re playing something of an outlaw class,” says Ed Stark, lead content designer. “It’s similar to a player who decided to engage in wholesale crime—they’re taking on a bit of an increased risk in exchange for increased excitement.”

Steven called the criminal side of necromancy "the best thing" about the class in his Elsweyr preview. But while you might have to commit to a life of crime, that doesn't mean you have to be an evil necromancer. Like the MMO's other classes, the necromancer has several different paths for you to explore, so you can take on the role of party healer or transform into a huge Bone Goliath and just pummel things. 

Elsweyr is due out on June 4, with early access beginning on May 20. Expect more necromancer-themed videos and blog posts from Bethesda across the week.  

Few videogames get dragons right. Most treat them like your common wrym—dumb firebreathers with clipped wings. But dragons should be more than just big and scary (and fiery). They're majestic, intelligent, flying creatures that inspire both awe and dread as they soar overhead. That's how I felt the first time I properly fought a dragon in Skyrim, and though Bethesda's beloved RPG could've done dragons so much better, it's pretty much become the benchmark. After playing around 30 minutes of The Elder Scrolls Online's new dragon-focused expansion, Elsweyr, I'm not quite sure its take on dragons meets that standard.

During the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week, I got the chance to be one of the first to play ESO's upcoming June expansion. Elsweyr isn't just a standalone update, though. It ties into ESO's Season of the Dragon, which will feature a total of four premium updates (including Elsweyr) that'll tell a sprawling tale about how dragons have mysteriously invaded the Khajiit homeland.

With an entire friggin' year dedicated to them, I'd expect ESO would have some mighty fine dragons. After all, this ain't Season of the Guar or Season of the Cliff Racer (*shudders*). But my first taste of ESO's dragons was pretty underwhelming. Fortunately, I enjoyed just about everything else about Elsweyr—especially its new necromancer class. 

Here be… dragons? 

Before I was able to play Elsweyr for myself, creative director Rich Lambert warned us that Elsweyr was still a work in progress—and that became immediately obvious. Art assets like statues or certain decorations were blacked out as they were still being modelled, and none of the voice over work had been completed, either. Instead of the top-quality VO I've come to expect from ESO, I was listening to what reminded me of Sam, Microsoft's text-to-speech robot. A good chunk of sound effects were also missing. I hope that this early phase of development also accounts for how underwhelming the dragons are, but I can't be sure.

Elsweyr is immediately available to level-one players, so if you've never played before you can jump in and right away get to dragon fighting. Since it had been awhile, I opted to play through the new tutorial for fresh players jumping straight into Elsweyr before playing a max-level necromancer. 

It's mostly the stuff you'd expect from Elder Scrolls Online by now, including a friendly duel where my instructor broke down the necessity of heavy attacks and blocking. Along the way, robo-voiced Khajiit explained a little bit of my new character's backstory (surprise: I was attacked by a dragon and some people rescued and nursed me back to health). After I completed the combat portion of the tutorial, I popped open my menu to take care of some notifications and then this happened (be sure to enable audio so you can laugh at the robot voices). 

That wasn't exactly what I'd imagined my first encounter with a dragon would be like. In fact, I didn't even notice it had flown by at first until after I had reviewed the footage. ESO is an MMO that works because of its writing, immersive audio, and evocative worldbuilding, and with all of those things in various states of incompletion, it's hard to take what's happening seriously. I mean, a dragon just flew overhead and I barely even noticed. That's not a great sign.

Sadly, my opinion of ESO's dragons didn't get much better as the tutorial continued. After spelunking through the ruins of a temple and getting to try out some basic necromancer abilities, I had to ascend a tower and blow a horn that would knock this particular dragon out of the sky so that any Khajiit in the area could safely retreat. Again, it wasn't the most thrilling moment.

With the dragon incapacitated and civilians retreating, it was my job to deal the killing blow. I stormed the building where the dragon crash landed and I got my first taste of direct combat with one… and like everything else it was pretty janky.

To give this dragon a bit of a break, this is a tutorial battle intended for players who might only have just learned which end of a sword to hold onto. Talking with Lambert after my demo, he mentioned that Elsweyr will introduce a new type of world event where a dragon spawns in an area and players must rally to chase it across the map and do battle. It's these fights that'll truly test your mettle, as dragons fought here are supposed to be highly intelligent and deadly.

Like I said, it's obvious that Elsweyr is still a work in progress and I don't want to be unfair since Zenimax Online Studios has a good reputation for quality expansions. But I'm also not convinced that these dragons are ever going to live up to their cousins found in Skyrim. I hope that changes for the final release. 

Poking dead bodies 

Even if Elsweyr's dragons end up being goofy wimps, I think the expansion will get along just fine without them. After completing the tutorial I was able to create a max-level necromancer and try out all its different abilities while exploring a small slice of Elsweyr. Without a proper introduction to the story and in such a brief demo, it was hard to get a sense of the culture or lore of Elsweyr and its people, but I had a hell of a time raising skeletal mages or encasing my body in bone armor and bludgeoning my foes to death.

Like dragons, lots of games try to take a shot at necromancers. And though my necromancer's attire didn't evoke that feeling of being a creepy, corpse-summoning badass, my spells and abilities sure did.

One of the cool twists with the necromancer is that they can empower their spells using corpses of their summoned creatures or freshly slain enemies. For example, casting Blast Bones summons a flaming skeleton that rushes a targeted foe and—surprise, surprise—blows up, leaving behind a corpse. I can then cast Shocking Siphon, which creates a damaging link between that dead skelebomber and me, damaging all enemies between us. Or, if me or my teammates have taken some damage, I could cast Life Amid Death to consume that corpse and heal us. Keep in mind, these abilities don't require a corpse, but they're significantly more powerful if players make clever use of what I'm branding the "corpse economy"—something that'll undoubtedly be necessary in ESO's most challenging dungeons. 

The necromancer's ultimate abilities are also pretty wicked. Bone Goliath turned me into a hulking skeletal monster, making both my light and heavy attacks heal me while I tore into groups of enemies in reckless rage. If I'd rather not jump into the middle of a fight, I could summon a Frozen Colossus to do all that for me, or I can be a nice person and pick the Reanimate ultimate ability, which lets me revive up to three party members. Like all of ESO's classes, there's an excellent degree of freedom in each of the 18 abilities I can mix or match to create my perfect necromancer kit (not to mention all the other active skills I can learn outside of my class).

But the best thing about being a necromancer is that I'm also committing to a life of crime. Back in 2015, ESO added a crime system that gave players the freedom to steal and murder certain innocents just like they could in proper Elder Scrolls RPGs. And any new necromancers will have to be careful about where they cast their spells because locals and city guards certainly won't appreciate a mad wizard summoning skeleton bombs in the middle of a city square.

It's a cool touch that I've never really seen from other necromancer classes and one of the many reasons I'm excited to check out Elsweyr when it launches in June. The dragons invading its  dusty deserts and arid steppes may or may not be a whiff, but I'm not sure I'll care all that much as long as there's corpses to explode.

From now until February 12, ZeniMax Online Studios is offering a free trial of ESO Plus, the optional program that replaced conventional Elder Scrolls Online subscriptions in 2015. Players who opt in will have full access to all the zones, quests, dungeons, and other content offered in the DLC releases, double capacity at the Bank, a ten percent boost to experience and gold, and more. 

The Elder Scrolls Online isn't full-on free-to-play, but once you've purchased the base game you can play it as much as you want with no extra fees. DLC packs must be purchased separately, however, and there are various bonuses offered in the ESO Plus program, including a monthly stipend of the Crowns currency, that free players don't get. 

Here's the full list of what's included in the trial:

• Full access to DLC game packs – new zones, quests, dungeons, and more from The Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Shadows of the Hist, Horns of the Reach, Clockwork City, Dragon Bones, Morrowind (zone and story), Wolfhunter, and Murkmire
• A Craft Bag offering you unlimited storage for all of your crafting materials
• Double Bank space for all the characters on your account
• 10% increase to Experience and Gold acquisition, Crafting Inspiration, and Trait Research rates
• Double Furnishings and Collectibles space in player housing
• Exclusive ability to dye costumes
• Double Transmute Crystal storage

The free trial also means that all players will be able to participate in the Morrowind Celebration Event, even if they don't normally have access to that zone. Trial players will not get the monthly allotment of Crowns, however, or any of the "exclusive deals" that are offered to ESO Plus subscribers.

ESO Plus normally goes for $15 per month, with discounts for signing up for multiple months at a time. To take advantage of the trial offer, log into the game, head to the Crown Store, select the ESO Plus tab, and then select "Free Trial." Details are up at elderscrollsonline.com.

ZeniMax Online Studios has confirmed that dragons are coming to The Elder Scrolls: Online in Elsweyr, a new expansion that's set to go live in June. Elsweyr, the home of the cat-like Khajiit, will be "similar in size and scope" to the Summerset chapter that launched last year, with a new main story quest line, a new 12-player Trial called Sunspire, "Dragon Attack" world events, and the powerful new Necromancer class, which will have three unique, powerful Skill Lines to develop. 

"The Necromancer Class brings a new kind of tactical play to The Elder Scrolls Online, allowing you to summon the undead and make use of corpses in order to overwhelm your enemies and empower your attacks," Bethesda said. "When playing as a Necromancer, you must carefully position yourself and your Abilities for maximum effect, giving this new Class an especially tactical-but-deadly playstyle." 

The realm of Elsweyr will feature grasslands, canyons, warm sands, and the capital city of Rimmen, currently occupied by Imperial forces, who aren't making life particularly pleasant for its occupants. Beyond its borders, you'll encounter wandering nomads and explore ruins "that are not as abandoned as they might seem." 

Elsweyr will be the centerpiece of the Season of the Dragon, a "yearlong interconnected adventure" that will tie together four Elder Scrolls Online updates spread across 2019. Part one will be the Wrathstone game pack that's set to arrive in February, followed by Elsweyr in June. Part 3 will come in a DLC dungeon pack slated for the third quarter (sometime between July 1 and September 30) of this year, and it will end in the fourth quarter with a new story DLC. 

The Elsweyr expansion is available for pre-purchase now, which will get you immediate access to a unique in-game mount and bonus in-game content when it goes live. The new chapter will be open to both newcomers and veterans when it goes live, with no previous content completion required. Full details are up at elderscrollsonline.com.