As first noticed by MMO Fallout, a bunch of “Dune” content just rolled into the Steam database for The Elder Scrolls Online, including a pre-order pack, a collector’s edition pack, and a pre-purchase mount reward, all of which mention Dune by name. But don’t get too excited: It’s not the classic science fiction book. This is not some genre-busting crossover event in which you get to ride sandworms around, even though that would be kind of awesome.
It’s also not Dune, the city in Elsweyr that’s located in Reaper’s March. We’ve already had an Elsweyr chapter anyhow, and these sorts of pre-order bonuses only show up for new chapters.
So what is going on? Well, it appears Dune is just a codename for the brand-new High Isles chapter that launched this very week. According to forum-sleuths, ZeniMax Online Studios has been using geological landform terms as codenames for its major chapters all the way back to Morrowind (Volcano). Summerset used Glacier, Elsweyr used Mesa, Greymoor used Scarp, and Blackwood used Badlands. Back in November, we learned Dune would be the codename for the 2022 chapter, which at the time was abbreviated just as “SYS/HI” – which turns out to the the Systres Archipelago of High Isle. So all the flurry of activity on Steam just represents the packages available for High Isle, which launched earlier this week.
So there you go. Sorry, Herbert fans.
