Racial and Alliance Options

You may be wondering why so many of these posts focus on character creation. That is because Zenimax created an amazing character creation set-up. While the choices are far from unlimited, still there are enough options that I doubt anyone will run into an identical twin in the game unless they were made that way on purpose.

One issue I’ve run into while creating a character is that you can’t put a name in as the first step and claim it. You have to complete the creation before the game saves it as yours, so if you have a name you really want, you’ll probably be rushing through Character Creation to make sure you get the name before anyone else wants it. As time goes on, this likely won’t be such a big issue, but right now, it’s definitely something to consider.

Because of this, if you already know or have an idea of how you want the settings, that makes it much easier to just run through the creation and make sure you get the name you want on a character that looks as much as possible the way you want it to look.

With that in mind, today we’re going to explore the racial and alliance options when creating a new character.

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Racial and Alliance Starting screen
Racial and Alliance starting screen

When you first click on “Create Character,” this is the first screen that opens up. The game has randomly chosen a female Orc from the Daggerfall Covenant for me, but today we’ll look at all the other options.

One thing to keep in mind, if you purchased the Imperial Edition before the official start date (today), then you have the option to play any race with any alliance. As of today though, the only character advertised to be able to play in any dominion is the Imperial – and that’s only if you purchase the Imperial edition.

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Bonuses for purchasing the Imperial Edition
The bonuses from purchasing the Imperial Edition

So What Are The Different Alliances?

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Which alliance will you choose?
The Three Alliances in Elder Scrolls Online – which will you play?

There are three alliances in ESO – Daggerfall Covenant, Aldmeri Dominion, and Ebonheart Pact. Each has its own unique storyline and location. DC has desserts and netches (they look like giant jellyfish), plus two starting areas to explore, combined into one storyline; AD has wild monkeys, southern climes, and my favorite starting island, Khenarthi’s Roost; EP has snow, Bleakrock Isle, Davon’s Watch, and more snow. LOL EP has a good storyline too, I just get enough snow living in upstate NY, I’m ready for spring instead of more snow. 🙂

What about Races?

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Race Options
Which race do you want to play?

Races in the Elder Scrolls Online are the same races you’ve known and loved in the other TES games: Breton, Orc, Redguard, High Elf, Wood Elf, Khajiit, Argonian, Dark Elf, Nord, and Imperial.

One thing that I think ESO does well, perhaps better than any other Elder Scrolls game, is to make choosing a race an important part of your character selection. Since there are only 4 classes to choose from (we’ll look at those in another post), the racial benefits are what makes your character truly unique.

Use the racial benefits to help create exactly the character you want. Do you want a sorcerer who can also be sneaky? Look at the skills that a Khajiit would add and see if that’s what you’re looking for (She Who Explores – my character named for my blog, is a Khajiit Sorceress, by the way). No race has to be a certain class, so create a character that you’ll enjoy playing. As a hint, any class can wear any armor or use any weapon, so don’t worry about an ability never being used, even if you create an orc healer.

Which Races go with which Alliances?

Daggerfall Covenant –

Home of the Bretons

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Daggerfall Covenant
Daggerfall Covenant
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female Breton
Female Breton
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Male Breton
Male Breton

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Description of the Breton Race
Home of the Orcs

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Male Orc
Male Orc
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female Orc
Female Orc

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Orc Description

Home of the Redguard

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female Redguard
Female Redguard
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Male Redguard
Male Redguard

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Redguard Description
Aldmeri Dominion –

Home of the High Elf

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Aldmeri Dominion
Aldmeri Dominion
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female High Elf
Female High Elf
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Male High Elf
Male High Elf

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - High Elf Description
Home of the Wood Elf

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female Wood Elf
Female Wood Elf
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Male Wood Elf
Male Wood Elf

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Wood Elf Description

Home of the Khajiit

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female Khajiit
Female Khajiit
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Male Khajiit
Male Khajiit

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Khajiit Description

Ebonheart Pact

Home of the Argonians

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Ebonheart Pact
Ebonheart Pact
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female Argonian
Female Argonian
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Argonian Male
Male Argonian

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Argonian Description

Home of the Dark Elf

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female Dark Elf
Female Dark Elf
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Male Dark Elf
Male Dark Elf

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Dark Elf Description

Home of the Nords

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Female Nord
Female Nord
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Male Nord
Male Nord

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Nord Description

And last, but not least, the Imperial

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Imperial female
Imperial Female
Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Imperial Male
Imperial Male

Exploring the Elder Scrolls Online - Imperial Description

4 thoughts on “Racial and Alliance Options”

  1. Jack, you go to the other areas after you complete your own alliance’s area playing through the game. Over time, you will complete all three, and then once you’ve played an area, you can go back and visit any point on your map.

  2. Bosmer only available in dominion, that’s dumb, i when i start to play, i don’t want dominion, but i do want Bosmer, race faction restriction is dumb, don’t u thing some Bosmer & high elves live in for example daggerfall(some may even serve the faction)? also even if high elf would be restricted Bosmer is free folk, their origin is Forrest so they live almost awry where, Bosmer i would want as second char cause that will be archer, & best archer is Bosmer in my opinion paste on my experience in oblivion & skyrim, faction restrictions need to be removed!!!!

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