Ahhhhh! Khenarthi’s Roost my old friend…
If there’s one starting zone in Elder Scrolls Online that I could claim total familiarity with, it’s this one for the Aldmeri Dominion. Why?
Because of my ADHD fueled on and off relationship with ESO as a whole. For every time I’ve tried getting back into the game and quitting again, I always tell myself, “This time I’ll finish the Aldmeri Dominion campaign” over and over again to ad infinitum only for my brain to one day switch focus completely into the new fixation. Now every time I do this, I always start a new character, dreaming to finally take everything in from start to finish. It never happens, but in the process, I’ve become intimately familiar with the first region for the AD, Khenarthi’s Roost.
Now, onto Khenarthi’s Roost. How do I feel about Khenarthi’s Roost?
The New Player Experience
For a new player, Khenarthi’s Roost is the perfect place to experience a swashbuckling mix of tropical life, shipwrecks, pirates, the undead, and dead-end diplomacy, alongside a touch of Khajiiti hospitality. It is essentially a sampler to the wider world of Tamriel, allowing players to ease into their role in the world, learn the systems, decide what they want out of combat, and began following the story.
So what of the story? How is it?
(Spoilers Ahead)
Well, Khenarthi’s Roost keeps the scope small and localized at first. The dominion is attempting to establish an alliance with the populace of Khenarthi’s Roost but there is friction between the Dominion, the native Khajiit and the Maormer sea elves. While the native Khajiit are somewhat receptive to working with the Dominion, the Maormer are much less inclined, which results in Maormer assassinating the Dominion diplomat, the Silvenar Edhelorn. Alongside this, they began wrecking Dominion ships off the coast by summoning storms which also harms the native population of the island. The player’s goal is to uncover the Maormer plot, stop the storms, and along the way, help the Dominion secure the alliance with the island and stop them from doing anything stupid, like reviving ancient undead beings. Classic.
Overall, the story is fairly self-contained, with the player getting to meet their first memorable re-occurring NPCs like Razum-dar and acclimate to traversing around the island, finding story bits and side quests. I personally felt this was a great introduction as it wasn’t too overwhelming, while also easing us into the idea of being an agent for the Dominion. I like that as the player, we are exposed to the natural proclivities of the island’s inhabitants, with the Khajiit’s tendency for a little thievery here and there, as well a taste of the high elves’ views on racial superiority (way more to come in Auridon here). The island’s questline ends by offering the player the opportunity to travel to the next area, Auridon, a much larger area, with much more content, a more complex storyline, and more difficult challenges.
Easing into the Gameplay
Khenarthi’s Roost is a place that almost has it all. There are skyshards to collect. There is crafting opportunities in and around Mistral. There is a trainee armor set to collect. There’s fishing opportunities. Should the player choose to go off-script and learn scrying early, there are even ample scrying opportunities. All this is to say, Khenarthi’s Roost offers almost everything a player needs to get started. None of the content is particularly difficult and the region purposefully lacks dungeons or world bosses. This is not a place for the player to die in. It’s a place for them to experiment with different weapons and abilities, and find what works for them. Now, with Update 50, there are difficulty settings and from Challenge difficulty up, it is possible to die, especially when facing the Maormer pirates. However, this also allows the player to experiment with their weapon and abilities of choice and test the limits of their class early on (I wouldn’t say build here as it’s far too early for build testing here). For my current run, this was the place I decided I wanted to try building a Breath Dragonknight just due to how much fun I was having with the Dragonfire ability. I also learned to fish, catching the only rare fish on the island. Here was also where I figured out the basics of crafting through blacksmithing. Nothing complicated yet, but it’s a start. Khenarthi’s Roost was also where my collector’s brain kicked in, looting endless chests just for more trainee armor. Did I get it all? Nah, I can save that for other starting areas, but I like that there are chests scattered about for the option of collecting the full set.
Conclusion
So, Khenarthi’s Roost is just the first leg of my journey. My character, Mr. FlamingShrimp now heads to Auridon to deal with greater conspiracies and harder mobs. Once that leg of the journey is finished, another update will be posted as we journey through Elder Scrolls Online.
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