Elder Scrolls Online PvP Campaigns Announced As ZeniMax Prepares For Launch

Next week Elder Scrolls Online will launch and kick off a war between the three player alliances. Today developer ZeniMax revealed the various campaigns that players can choose from for this war.

The alliance-versus-alliance-versus-alliance battles of ESO take place in Cyrodiil, a province at the center of the map. While the game's population is concentrated in North American and European megaservers, you won't see everyone on your megaserver in Cyrodiil. Instead, you'll only interact with players from your own campaign. The game will launch with ten campaigns for North America and ten for Europe. Both groups share the same names:

• Bloodthorn
• Scourge
• Chrysamere
• Auriel's Bow
• Wabbajack
• Volendrung
• Skull Crusher
• Dawnbreaker
• Goldbrand
• Hopesfire

Campaigns run for about three months. The performance of each alliance in Cyrodiil will be tracked over this period and determine what bonuses alliance members receive throughout the game. The better your faction performs, the better your bonuses will be.

When a campaign ends, the Alliance scores will determine who comes in first, second and third. After the winner's been crowned, the scoreboard will be reset and a new campaign will start. However, keep ownership won't be reset so an Alliance's advantages from one campaign will carry over to the next.

If you're not happy with your current campaign, ZeniMax gives you options for finding a new home. You can assign yourself to a second campaign to play with friends or scope out a potential move. You won't get any bonuses based on how your Alliance performs in this guest phase, though. If you decide to switch over permanently to another campaign, you'll have to pay a hefty amount of gold or Alliance Points.

ESO's player-versus-player battles can be accessed as soon as you hit level 10. Your level will then be scaled up to that of a level 50 character while you're in Cyrodiil so you can contribute effectively to the battle. ZeniMax says that they're going to give players the ability to turn off this "battle leveling", though.

The developers believe that the large-scale PvP will be able to hold players' attention long after they hit level cap. It's one of the game's major end-game activities, along with adventure zones and veteran dungeons. The game doesn't have separate PvE and PvP gear so players should be able to switch between competitive and cooperative gameplay easily.

A select group of players will be able to access Elder Scrolls Online starting this week. Check out the full launch schedule for additional details.