Broken Joysticks: Can you describe the types of activities that happen in the Brass Fortress?
Eso Devs: Here in the Clockwork Basilica is where the Clockwork Apostles hold their lectures and this is where they worship Sotha Sil. They are primarily concerned with their own studies, they are not necessarily imposing the will of Sotha Sil. He’s not like the other Tribunal Gods in that respect. They are trying to make others better through Sotha Sil’s knowledge but they can be aloof, which can cause some societal differential between the Clockwork Apostles and the group of people who live outside [the Brass Fortress].
Broken Joysticks: Who are these others that you mentioned living outside of the Brass Fortress?
ESO Devs: [The Tarnished] may not have the skills to be of use to the Clockwork Apostles or may not worship Sotha Sil at all. They are allowed to be here but they don’t really have a function in the day to day society and they tend to live down in this area of the Brass Fortress that is unofficially called Slagtown. Some of them are vagrants, some of them run basic services that aren’t strictly necessary to the Clockwork Apostles and this is where the Outlaw’s Refuge for Clockwork City is as well.
Broken Joysticks: With a stratified society being so prevalent in Clockwork City is helping the Tarnished possible to bring the disparity between the two factions closer?
ESO Devs: You do touch upon it at a number of points in some of the quests. Obviously, change is slow, especially in a place as rule heavy as this but you do get a chance to make their lives a little bit easier and ask some of those questions. The Tarnished have a scrappy personality in that they’re able to come up with solutions to problems that the Clockwork Apostles simply won’t think of.
For example, there’s a gentleman in the Outlaw’s Refuge that is trying to make food palatable. One of the few things that people in the Clockwork City have is the opportunity to eat bland but nutritious food paste. People generally don’t ask questions because they need food to survive. Imagine eating flavorless food paste for the rest of your life. It’d get depressing after a while.
Broken Joysticks: I’d like to touch on the World Bosses. Previously you mentioned that this DLC would bring two of them. What can you tell us about them, without spoiling them? Are we going to get new Delves in Clockwork City?
ESO Devs: There are two new Delves, but there is not a public dungeon in this zone. We do have two full quest locations that are set apart from the main story – each zone has its own plot and resolution. The DLC has two delves, two quest locations, the full main story of everything that happens in the Clockwork City and a whole mess of repeatable content.
One of the two World Bosses is “The Imperfect”. Players may remember from The Tribunal expansion from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Imperfect was a giant Fabricant that you fought in the Clockwork City dungeon towards the end of that expansion. That Clockwork City dungeon was a series of interconnected rooms that didn’t really have much to it. Getting a chance to build this whole zone to kind of show what is beyond that was a challenge.
Our Imperfect is an earlier version of the same creature from Tribunal. We want to make little callbacks like that where we can without retreading old stuff. Players who are familiar [with TES III] will recognize the content and see the prototype that our Imperfect is.
The area that housed The Imperfect has been set aside by Sotha Sil as a testing ground for his creation. Any martially minded Apostles can come and test their skills here and Sotha Sil has automated the test chamber to automatically collect data. He’s always trying to perfect things and he’s never really been satisfied with this particular project, so it’s always going to be imperfect no matter how strong it gets.
Broken Joysticks: Challenging The Imperfect was quite the experience, I met the floor more than a few times. Could you give us some more background on one of the two Delves that were mentioned earlier?
ESO Devs: The Shadow Cleft exists as a pocket dimension of the Nocturne’s Daedric Realm, her realm is designed to look a lot like some familiar Tamriel sights but the entire realm is in a perpetual state of twilight. There are her Daedric servants, as well as a new form of Daedra that is exclusive to this DLC, as well as a shadow version of creatures that live in Tamriel.
One of the creatures in The Shadow Cleft, Shrikes, are Nocturne’s answer to the creature that is sort of humanoid forms of the Daedric Princes. Shrikes are big into Shadow Magic [such as] calling in ravens to attack the player or commanding weaker foes to act as their minions. There is one other way creepier Daedra that we won’t be discussing today but you’ll get a chance to see it when you get the DLC. It is also the other World Boss featured in the Clockwork City DLC.
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I’d like to personally thank both Rich Lambert and Greg Roth for taking the time to play parts of The Clockwork City with me. Putting this feature together was an absolute treat and if I wasn’t so busy for the past week farming Plundered Skulls during my time in ESO, perhaps I would have Clockwork City beaten by now.
I’ll have more coverage of The Elder Scrolls Online in the future. If you enjoyed this multi-page interview, please a comment. Transcribing and editing long features like this does take a lot of time but it is worth it when I knew the game’s community enjoy reading them.