The Alliance War gets even more tumultuous with the introduction of Artifact Weapons, coming with the free Update 22 base-game patch!

Sheogorath’s Gift

The Mad God Sheogorath wants to bring a little bit more volatility to the open-world PvP zone of Cyrodiil, by summoning powerful Artifact Weapons to the field of battle in the Alliance War. However, the Daedric Prince of Madness is fickle, and what he can give, he can also take away.

With this new Alliance War PvP system, the development team’s goal was straightforward.

“Chaos! We wanted to add chaos beyond what is already available in Cyrodiil,” explains Brian Wheeler, ESO’s Combat Lead. “At this point in the game, a lot of the Alliance War’s play patterns are fairly well ingrained. There isn’t a real mobile element that exists beyond capturing Elder Scrolls, and so we wanted another way to get more people moving around.”

With Update 22, between four and five times a day, the powerful Artifact Weapon known as Volendrung spawns into a random location in Cyrodiil. Should you locate this weapon (the game warns you when it has arrived, but doesn’t immediately tell you where it is), the power of the legendary “Hammer of Might” imbues you. Anybody can pick up an Artifact Weapon, so if you see it—go get it! The weapon can and will spawn almost anywhere on the map, including behind Scroll gates, so keep your eyes peeled.

After you’ve picked up the weapon, your base attributes are normalized and you gain access to a brand-new suite of abilities that can strike down large groups of people and allow you to do massive damage to fortifications–leave all of Cyrodiil crumbling in your wake!