Summerset Wrecked Me
This post is (13/31) of the Blaugust 2019 event! You can find out more about Blaugust over at Belghast’s blog. I (Chestnut) created a Twitter list of all participants. UltrViolet created an OPML file of all the bloggers to import into your feed reader.
Last week I finally had the opportunity to finish the Summerset Zone Story, even though I was rushing a bit to make it to WoW raid on time. I didn’t know when I first started playing ESO that Morrowind wasn’t the starting area. Once I found out, I decided that I wanted to complete the Morrowind > Clockwork City > Summerset arch before going back to the “base game” and doing Khenarthi’s Roost > Auridon > Grahtwood > Greenshade > Malabal Tor > Reaper’s March. While I love the One Tamriel initiative, it does make things a bit confusing on what to do when. Luckily, the forums have been a godsend.
Anyway, I finally finished Summerset. And I didn’t think that the story would wreck me the way it did. I enjoyed Morrowind once I got about halfway through the zone story. And while I was all, ‘SAVE THE CITY DO IT NOW’, it didn’t hit me super hard. Clockwork City was much the same way. I enjoyed the zone story sooner, but it was a very zen ending, and learning more about Sotha Sil was relaxing. Summerset, however. Summerset is where everything comes to a head. The bits of story you get in Morrowind and Clockwork City all convene for the end of Summerset.
Characters that I’d just met (and consequently didn’t know very well) met their endings, and it absolutely wrecked me. It destroyed me. I ended up sobbing on stream. But it says something about the writing in ESO. It helped cement that ESO has become my new main game of choice. Story is one of the most important things to me in a game, and when something hits me hard like that, I become more invested in the game.
8 Comments
Krikket
I haven’t done the Summerset zone story myself yet, but there are SO many good storylines in the base game as well. I am usually a “do all the sidequests” person, and I zoomed through the last three AD zones because I wanted more of the main storyline.
You have so many lovely, dreamy, sob-worthy storylines ahead of you. <3
Chestnut
I’m looking forward to all of them! 😀
Thyanel
Oh my god yes. Summerset legitimately broke me when I was streaming it. I was trying so hard not to cry because I was live at the time and I think it backfired on me since crying happened anyway. It was such a good storyline, though, and I’m looking forward to replaying it on an alt eventually.
Chestnut
I tried not to cry and it failed miserably. Luckily I didn’t ugly cry too hard (because I am a legit ugly cryer). I look forward to being able to meet certain characters again. I likened it to the Doctor and River. I meet person at the end and they meet me towards the middle sort of thing. I’m very much hoping we see them again, however. The book that appeared foreshadows that we’ll see them again.
Thyanel
If I’m thinking about the same character as the one you’re talking about (who I will avoid naming so as to prevent spoiling anybody reading the comments), then yes, it’s very much like the Doctor and River, especially given the One Tamriel update. And I want to say more than that, but I’m going to be good and not do so because of potential spoilers.
That said, though, sometimes the One Tamriel update kind of backfires a bit. I remember when I went through Orsinium and I ran into a couple of NPCs who acted like they knew my Vestige and I had no idea who they actually were. It was a tiny bit awkward.
Chestnut
I do feel it backfires a little, too. I’m doing the base stuff right now, starting in Dominion territory, and did a Mages Guild quest that was essentially a precursor/foreshadow to Summerset. So it felt a bit lost on me for importance.
Saltycleric
Well hell. I thought I was close to finishing this zone but maybe not. Sounds like I’ve missed a bit of the emotional windup. Going to restart with another character so I can get the gist of the story from start to finish.
Chestnut
I try to save ZSQ for streaming, and do side missions while I putz about on my own. I always pay much more attention during streaming, so I always seem to remember the story better. Which is possibly why it tore me up so much. 🙂