The latest installment of The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom, now into it’s ninth year seeks to expand on the Morrowind story arc with the release of the Necrom expansion, taking the set pieces of Morrowind and combining it with some Lovecraftian worldbuilding. The resulting expansion is a fantastical dive into the dual regions of the Telvanni Peninsula; which surrounds the isle of Vvardenfell from Morrowind,  and Apocrypha; the Eldrich-eqsue realm of the Daedric prince Hermaeus Mora. Players are thrown into a struggle for the very existence of reality between two Daedic lords who’s motivations are as twisted as the realms they exist within.

Hermaeus Mora himself. Daedric prince of knowing uh… almost everything.

The main story centers around the Daedric lord of Hermaeus Mora, the lord of (Forbidden) Knowledge, who contracts the player to seek out forces in the Telvanni Peninsula who are hunting for knowledge so dangerous that it could unravel Tamriel, and reality itself. The story is an interesting, weird and twisted take on some familiar elements fans of the series would’ve experienced in the Morrowind expansion, the writing continues to be top-notch and characters ranging from intimidating and mysterious, to cheeky and downright charming. Special shout out to Scruut who players will need to work with, and talk to …in a patronizingly nihilistic sort of manner.

The overland content itself is typical of a new Elder Scrolls Online locale, a few public dungeons, half a dozen Delves, plenty of side questing, world bosses and lore books to experiences. There’s a new Trials of Tribute deck, inspired by the Morrowind god-king Almalexia, continuing and building on the new deck-building game introduced in High Isle. Finally, there are two new companions, Sharp As Night; an Argonian Warden, and Azandar Al-Cybiades, a Regard Arcanist (more on the Arcanist class below).

The region’s content is split between the Telvanni Peninsula itself and Apocrypha, in a manner that’s reasonably accessible to players, with plenty of portals made available throughout the main quest-line, and in the overland itself. There’s a good degree of variability here too, between the peninsula itself heavily inspired by Morrowind but very much still set in the lands of Tamriel, and Apocrypha being best described as a realm of Morrowind, pushed through the gates of Oblivion, as explained by Lovecraft himself, it’s delightfully strange place to poke around in.

There are a lot of books featured in Apocrypha…Like, A LOT

Along with the regular story content, questing, new dungeons and overland to explore, Necrom also introduces a new playable class for characters, known as the Arcanist. The Arcanist class can be best set up by players to either work as a magic-based tank, or damage character,  with a solid ability tree in both and great-looking spell abilities to boot. Like other possible tank classes in Elders Scrolls Online, there’s a dedicated taunt ability for the tank which can be a little hit-or-miss in some of the game’s later dungeons.
As a class it’s reasonably fun to play, however the focus on timing abilities correctly makes it more of a mid-difficulty class and the choices between each possible role can be a little counter-intuitive for folks unfamiliar to the game.

Interestingly this release marks the first in a subtle shift away from year-long content, with Necrom being part multi-year content release under the Shadow of Morrowind chapter that follows on from last year’s Legacy of the Bretons. With content launching through multiple releases throughout this year and into next.

I don’t think we’re in Kan- Morrowind anymore…

The Elder Scrolls Online Necrom keeps up the string of solid story chapters released by the series, set in a world this time that is really unique and fun to go through and complete all the collectables for, the writing continues to be top-notch and the questing is reasonably varied. The new Arcanist class is genuinely fun to play, reasonably well balanced and visually great to boot. Looking forward to seeing how the rest of Necrom’s content as it releases throughout 2023 and into 2024.