A world of interlocking gears, steam power, golden metal, and robots might sound like a steampunk paradise envisioned by the wildest visionaries of the Victorian age of sci-fi but I’m actually describing the broad aesthetics of The Elder Scrolls Online‘s next major expansion known as The Clockwork City. Owners of The Elder Scrolls Online willing to install the near 80GB Public Test Region’s in-development client can accept the quest to explore the weirdly wonderful world of the Clockwork God,  Sotha Sil. 

Here is Bethesda’s brief description of this new DLC zone and how players can accept the introductory quest:

Clockwork City.
Venture to the bizarre realm of Sotha Sil, the Clockwork God and the third member of the Dunmer Tribunal! The machine world is rife with frightening and alien dangers lurking beneath its metallic deserts and artificial trees, where only tiny pockets of citizens are able to carve out a quasi-religious society that values enlightenment and experimentation in emulation of its detached benefactor. A dark conspiracy threatens the integrity of the Clockwork City and signs of a powerful Daedric relic manifesting within that realm draw all interested eyes toward Sotha Sil’s domain.

• To visit the Clockwork City, you can acquire the quest to take you there by accepting it from the Collectibles/Stories interface, or by visiting the Mages Guild in Mournhold.
• Additionally, the supplied Character Template will bring you directly to the questline to begin your Clockwork City journey

Clockwork City brings brand new World Bosses and explorable Delves for all adventurers to test their mettle. Sotha Sil’s work on The Imperfect God, a terrifying mechanized weapon of death that is always improving is never ending but players will be able to take it on. Players can choose to venture either into the inner-gears and workings of the Clockwork City in The Shadow Cleft delve or explore an artificial environment that has broken down for an unknown reason in the Halls of Regulation Delve. 

Here are Zenimax Online’s official descriptions:  

The Clockwork City is a treacherous place with dangers both native and invasive.

• World Bosses
  • The Sanctuary of Verification: Sotha Sil is a distant ruler, and his experiments are often left for hundreds of years at a time until a new idea occurs to him. In the case of the frightening war machine known as the Imperfect, the Clockwork God has set the storage facility itself to continually tweak and make improvements to the dangerous construct. For what purpose was it built, and even more chilling to ask, how many of them are there?
  • The Exarchs’ Egress: An unknown Daedric force creeps through the shadows of the Clockwork City, bringing with it a new type of Daedric monster – the Wraith-of-Crows. Through a mysterious, remote gate, you can travel to the Daedric realm that houses these malignant monsters and battle a triumvirate of these creatures.
• Delves
  • The Halls of Regulation: As an artificial environment, the Clockwork City requires breathable air, potable water, and the processing of waste. The Halls of Regulation do all of this, crewed by enigmatic automated machine-people known as Factotums located in the eastern half of Clockwork City. Unfortunately, the facility has broken down for reasons unknown. Have the Factotums malfunctioned, or is this a case of sabotage?
  • The Shadow Cleft: Another dark artery winding its way into Clockwork City can be found in the Shadow Cleft toward the western half of the zone. Nightmare creatures and things that go bump in the night all lurk in this strange place, where several enterprising Clockwork Apostles disappeared attempting to discern its true masters.
• Repeatable Bounties: The Clockwork Facilitator and Novice Holli, both residing in the eastern portion of the Brass Fortress, each offer daily bounties to investigate and overcome dangers at these locations.

Within the heart of The Clockwork City sits a place known as The Brass Fortress. In this center of power priests and zealous inventors dedicate themselves to Sotha Sil and aim to replace the flesh & blood parts of their bodies with machine replacement parts. The Brass Fortress is also home to those not loyal to the whims of Sotha Sil, these outcasts have become known as The Tarnished. 

The Brass FortressGoing to the Clockwork City will eventually lead you to the Brass Fortress, the center of the city itself and the one place that the Clockwork Apostles, dedicated priests, and inventors, work to improve their bodies and minds – sometimes with dubious “replacement” parts! Here, you can find the usual services and commodities. 

The Tarnished: Not everyone in the Clockwork City pledges themselves to Sotha Sil. He is a benevolent god, in his own way, and allows them to remain regardless of their lack of devotion. This sub-society of outcasts, transients, and vagabonds are known collectively as the Tarnished, and have made themselves a valuable part of the city even if the Apostles themselves do not always appreciate it. Razgurug, the “mayor” of these downtrodden folk, offers what recompense he can in exchange for assistance to support the society that the distant Apostles will not. 

More information about other changes that will be introduced in patch 3.2.0 including new collectibles, new item sets, new furniture, new crafting motifs and updates to the base game & ESO: Morrowind are available in the PTR patch notes. We don’t have a solid release date or price point for Clockwork City just yet but given the fact that Zenimax Online is ready for players to test it, it can’t be more than a few weeks out.