Madness and mayhem has been unleashed upon The Elder Scrolls Online’s Alliance War with the arrival of the relic weapon Volendrung, whose immensely destructive power will add a new dynamic to the faction war in Cyrodiil. As an artifact weapon of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness, Volendrung will bring an element of chaos to Cyrodiil, which is exactly what the developers intended.
“At this point in the game, a lot of the Alliance War’s play patterns are fairly well ingrained,” says ESO Combat Lead Brian Wheeler. “There isn’t a real mobile element that exists beyond capturing Elder Scrolls, so we wanted another way to get more people moving around.”
Volendrung is intended to spawn “between four and five times a day” at a random location throughout Cyrodiil, and although players will be notified when it spawns, they won’t immediately be told where. The lucky player who manages to locate it first will get to wield its mighty power, which will normalize his or her base attributes and grant access to “a brand-new suite of abilities that can strike down large groups of people and allow [the wielder] to do massive damage to fortifications.”
But this is a gift from Sheogorath we’re talking about, and that means its power comes at a price: “Volendrung requires you to keep it fed by acquiring Alliance Points via capturing, defending, or killing your opponents,” and should its wielder go too long without sating Volendrung’s rapacious appetite, he or she will be struck dead and dropped on the spot for another player to claim.
Although that may seem a high price to pay, the devs promise that it’s worth the risk: “It’s OP,” Wheeler says, adding that “while it’s lethal to players, its true purpose is to be a destroyer of keeps. It’s going to have a major impact on the state of your campaign in how quickly and effortlessly it rips down walls.”
Players will be able to witness the power of Volendrung for themselves when it arrives with Update 22, which is currently available in early access on PC thanks to the launch last week and will formally launch there as well as on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on June 4th.
