Elder Scrolls Online's "massive" new event pits whole servers against each other

Today, The Elder Scrolls Online is trying something it's never done before, locking an entire update behind a live event that will pit all of the game's servers against each other. The Writhing Wall is a three-phase event that's expected to take at least a month to complete, with the goal of uniting each server in some "healthy competition." That's according to Mike Finnigan, ESO's associate design director, who tells me that Zenimax Online Studios has "never done anything this massive before" and that the Writhing Wall represents a "shift in mentality."

Now 11 years old and still going strong, it's not unreasonable to talk about ESO in the same breath as some of the longest-running and best MMOs around. But by entering the same echelon as World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14, there's an increased expectation to do ambitious, surprising things to keep players invested. The Writhing Wall certainly meets that brief. With each region and platform-specific server progressing through the event independently, there's an incentive to keep logging and completing quests, plus some friendly tribalism too.

In a nutshell, each server will progress through daily quests and help build a weapon called the Meridian Lens, with the aim of shattering the mysterious Writhing Wall that cuts off the realm of Eastern Solstice and holds back the contents of Update 48. Once a team clears the third and final phase of the event called the Writhing Fortress - which is like a more challenging, juiced-up public dungeon - Update 48's spoils will be released to that individual server.

The current Solstice storyline stems from the base game's original narrative from roughly a decade ago, and it's a story Zenimax has been keen to tell for a while. So I ask Finnigan what dictated what - the desire to tell this story, or wanting to create a living, evolving event.

"This is something that's been kicking around for a while, about how we do this kind of event, so I think it was actually more like an aligning of the stars," he tells me. "As far as the story goes, we're paying off ten years, 11 years of the game, because [this story] is kind of a continuation of the original base game where Molag Bal was trying to Planemeld and bring Nirn into Cold Harbor. And this [ties in with] the Worm Cult resurgence stuff. So we wanted to pay off that, but also a part of it is a shift in mentality and thinking about what we want to do with ESO in the future. We want to keep the game fresh, keep people on their toes, and [make them feel] excited about what's coming in a way where they won't know what's coming."

There will also be some secrets and surprises to uncover throughout the event. Finnigan is understandably reluctant to tease much, but he promises that "long-time players" should find things that put a smile on their face.

"We're bringing a lot of characters back. We've done a lot of cool characters that people really resonate with over the years. So we want to pay off all that stuff too. I'm not [going to get into specifics] but there are long-standing characters that players have really, really liked, so I think that that's going to be where it's going to hit most."

"Our favorite part is seeing when somebody finds those little [secret] things and then posts online, and everybody goes, 'Oh, I want to go see that too,'" Finnigan adds. "That's really awesome. So yeah, there's, there's gonna be some surprises for players, for sure."

The Writhing Wall is certainly a bold idea, but one that's not easy to pull off. To avoid some players feeling "discouraged," Zenimax has had to build bespoke progress targets for each server that it believes will scale consistently, due to each group's difference in population and average play time. It's also developed some evolving visual elements that will help show what phase of the event servers are in - for example, once the Meridian Lens is built, you'll be able to see it "punch a hole" through the Writhing Wall. In short, it's been a mammoth undertaking.

"We [have] never done anything this massive before… and for a large portion of this, as is typical in game development, until everything kind of gets in, you're like: 'Oh, is this all going to work together?'" Finnigan says. "[But when] all the pieces came together, it was like: 'OK, we know we've got something special now.' And it was really a team effort as a studio. So while we're banding together the servers to get the players to meet this common goal, it was also a way for us to do that as a studio as well."

The Elder Scrolls Online's Writhing Wall event is now live. Phase 1 is available to all players, regardless of whether you own the 2025 Content Pass or not. You can learn more about each phase of the event here.

If you're an Elder Scrolls fan looking for a new universe to get lost in, check out our lists of the best fantasy games and best RPGs.

Are you a former or current ESO player, or maybe you're tempted to try the game for the first time? Whatever category you fall into, head to our Discord server and let us know your Writhing Wall thoughts.