Cyrodiil (Online)

For other uses, see Cyrodiil.

"The Imperial province of Cyrodiil dominates central Tamriel. With the Empire's collapse, armies of the Dominion, Covenant, and Pact have all invaded Cyrodiil, vying for the Imperial throne and control of the greatest prize in the land."

―Cyrodiil loading screen^[src]

Cyrodiil is the capital province and central battleground of the Three Banners War in Tamriel.^[1]

The Aldmeri Dominion, the Daggerfall Covenant, and the Ebonheart Pact fight for control of the Imperial City, the Ruby Throne, and the province of Cyrodiil itself.^[2]

The Alliance War in Cyrodiil involves seizing, holding, and controlling of massive strongholds and their resources, utilizing siege weapons, taking powerful Elder Scrolls, and crowning an Emperor for the respective Alliance.^[2]

Cyrodiil also offers PvE content, such as repeatable quests found in towns, exploring caves, crumbling towers, Ayleid ruins and more, as well as finding valuable crafting materials that can only be obtained in Cyrodiil.^[3]

Players may enter the province and engage in combat once they reach level 10,^[2] where they will be assigned to a Campaign^[3] and access to Cyrodiil from a safe location that enemies cannot enter. Players are boosted to the stats of a typical Level 50 (they are not boosted in the case of the player being Level 50 or above) so all players are given an equal chance, however, higher level players will still have more of an advantage as they will have more skills and passive skills than lower levels, as well as better armor and weapons.^[4]

Getting aroundEdit

Cyrodiil is a notoriously large area, and traversing it in a reasonable amount of time while avoiding enemies can be challenging. As Cyrodiil contains a great deal of explorable areas, skyshards, lorebooks, PvP opportunities, and quests, it can be worthwhile to take advantage of various movement and mount benefits before trying to explore Cyrodiil in depth. Having various Keeps under one's own faction's control will help one travel using the Transitus Network, but there are limits. Keeps under attack cannot be fast traveled to. If one is communicating with other players, they may be able to fast travel to Keeps before they "tick" and are considered under attack. Also, some areas deep in the territory of other Alliances cannot be fast traveled to even if one's faction has captured them.

Queuing for the Imperial City will allow players in Cyrodiil (including delves) to easily teleport to the Imperial City Sewers. One can either then quickly exit using the door (returning the player to the last area they have naturally traveled to), or take advantage of the various entrances into the Imperial City and its sewers.

The following makes it easier to travel around Cyrodiil:

• Wearing medium armor (increased speed and stamina recovery, as well as better sneaking)
  • If medium armor not available, light is a good alternative (Grace passive gives up to 21% reduction in sprint cost)
• Rapid Maneuver (Retreating Maneuver morph preferred)
• Maxed Mount (especially with maxed Speed, and to a lesser extent, Stamina)
• The Steed Mundus Stone^{confirmation needed}
• Windrunning Champion Point passive (2% speed boost)
• War Mount Champion Point passive (unlimited stamina while mounted & not in combat)
• Item sets like Coward's Gear, Skooma Smuggler, Jailbreaker
• Speed potions/poisons
• Swift Warrior (Orc racial passive)

The following can also be useful in combat, whether personally engaged or a group member is (thus preventing mounting):

• Accelerate (Psijic)
• Lightning Form (Sorcerer)
• Mist Form (ultimate)
• Falcon's Swiftness (Warden)
• Quick Cloak (Dual Wield)

It may be advisable to sneak around at various points – such as bridges and other chokepoints, when expecting a large group (such as near White Fall Mountain or a Keep, or when trying to grab skyshards from within enemy gates. Other players may also sneak as well, making sneak detection something to consider. Things that buff sneak include:

• Improved Sneak (Medium Armor passive)
• Dark Stalker (Vampire passive)
• Improved Hiding (Legerdermain passive)
• Improved Sneak (Medium Armor passive)
• Concealed Weapon slotted (25% speed while sneaking)
• Feline Ambush (Khajiit racial passive)
• Shade (Champion Point passive)
• Various item sets – see Sneak for more info

Alliance WarEdit

CampaignsEdit

A Campaign consists of a group of players battling for control of Cyrodiil for a set period of time. Campaigns can last from a week to a month, and multiple campaigns in Cyrodiil can occur at the same time but players can only see other players from their own campaign. Players can assign themselves to 2 campaigns at a time: a home campaign, in which players receive the full bonuses of being in a campaign, or a guest campaign in which players can assign to if they just want to do PvP. Players are be able to visit other Campaigns at a cost of 15,000 Alliance Points. During a Campaign, an Alliance's performance will affect bonuses players can receive across the game (not just in Cyrodiil). For example, having an Emperor on the throne who is in your alliance, will give all players assigned to that campaign +5 extra health per level, so at Level 50 players will have +250 health.^[3]

At the end of a campaign, players receive rewards depending on whether an Alliance came in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd for that campaign duration, with 1st obviously being the highest reward tier. Cyrodiil will always remain open, even at the end of a campaign, and Alliances do not lose any ownership of their fortifications. The only thing that changes at the end of a campaign is the Alliances scores, which get reset to 0.^[5] Individual rewards are also based on the contribution made. Coming in the top 50 of any alliance will always award a random epic-quality item, and top 10 involves a significantly boosted set.

At launch, each campaign could have up to 2000 players in Cyrodiil at once, with the client being optimized for 200 players on-screen at one time (this does not mean more players cannot appear).^[6] However, this was lowered in December 2014 to improve server performance.^[7] The current maximum number of players is unknown.

There are currently four Cyrodiil campaigns and 2 Imperial City campaigns on PC, each with their own durations.

• Bahlokdaan: 30 Days, No CP, & Alliance Locked
• Kaalgrontiid: 30 Day, CP Enabled, & Alliance Locked
• Yolnahkriin: 7 Day, CP Enabled
• Mulaamnir: Levels 10-49
• Imperial City: No CP
• Imperial City: CP Enabled

Fortifications and their resourcesEdit

Alliance wide bonuses in PvP and PvE are awarded for taking and maintaining fortifications, their resources, and smaller fortifications called outposts.^[8] There are 18 in total, with 6 fortifications owned by default (but can still be taken by other alliances) in each of the 3 alliance territories, known as Home Keeps.^[9] fortifications are linked together in a transit line. If an Alliance holds several linked fortifications, its members can fast travel from one to another using a Transitus Shrine, unless that fortification is under attack, the Transitus link is broken or enemies control all 3 of the fortification's resources.^[10]

Every wall, gate and, in certain fortifications, the roof, in a fortification is destructible. However, once it is taken it stays in the condition in which it was after an attack, meaning that any walls and gates that were destroyed or damaged will need to be rebuilt or repaired.^[11] On Guilds, Being Emperor, and Much More Masonry and woodworking kits can be purchased from the fortification quartermasters to help repair them more quickly. There are two flags in a fortification which must both be held by the same Alliance to officially capture it.^[4]

The three resources around a fortification are lumber mills, farms, and mines, which fuel its upgrade process. Lumber mills help make fortification doors stronger and allow them to repair themselves automatically. Farms make fortification guards tougher and stronger, and mines help reinforce the walls, making them harder to destroy and allowing them to repair themselves over time as well. Taking control of resources around fortifications also shuts off various patrols in the vicinity.^[12] There are capture banners at each resource, and resources are captured independently of fortifications. If all three resources are controlled by an enemy alliance to that which controls the fortification, the Transitus link will be broken and teleporting to the fortification is disabled.

Towns and villagesEdit

The citizens of towns in Cyrodiil are neutral towards player characters, but guards from the Alliance that holds nearby fortifications will patrol the streets.^[3] Each town offers different repeatable quests that reward players with gold and experience.^[3] However, players must be wary of enemy players and guards.

EmperorEdit

The title of Emperor is given to the player highest on the Alliance leaderboards while their Alliance controls all of the 6 fortifications surrounding the Imperial City (Chalman, Aleswell, Ash, Roebeck, Alessia and Blue Road). Once crowned, the Emperor will receive a skill line which can only be gained through achieving Emperor status. Powers include being able to make siege more effective, being able to knock down walls quicker, doubling their health, magicka, and stamina, and having reduced Ultimate Ability costs.^[8] An Emperor is dethroned when their alliance loses all the fortifications necessary to crown an emperor (Losing one or five fortifications will not dethrone the Emperor, all 6 are required.).^[4] The dethroned Emperor will still fortification their skill line and given the title of "Former Emperor," although the abilities in it become much less powerful.^[8]

Alliance PointsEdit

Alliance Points can be used to purchase armor, weapons, siege weapons and to join a new campaign.^[12] The highest amount of Alliance points are awarded for participating in fortification battles and contributing to the fortification's capture, but can be earned through any combat activity.

Siege WeaponsEdit

Siege Weapons are used by players to break down walls, smash open the doors of fortifications, collapse the fortification's roof and obliterate the armies of their opponents. Trebuchets (Firepot and Iceball), catapults (Meatbag, Oil and Scattershot), ballistae (Fire Ballista, Ice Ballista, Lightning Ballista), flaming oil, forward camps and battering rams are available to use,^[2] and they can be obtained and constructed by anyone that has the Alliance Points to purchase them.^[12] Rams are mobile, and ballistae, catapults, flaming oil and trebuchets can be packed up after they are deployed so that they can be repositioned for further uses.^[12] If an enemy siege operator is killed, players can set the weapon on fire and it will get destroyed very quickly, however players of the alliance owning the weapon can douse the flames and take over the role of operator.^[4]

Elder ScrollsEdit

Elder Scrolls are artifacts of immense power which give Alliance wide bonuses. Each Alliance has two Elder Scrolls by default and may only receive their bonuses while they are kept in special strongholds or fortifications held by that alliance in Cyrodiil. Enemies from the opposing Alliances can break into these strongholds and take the Elder Scrolls back to their own strongholds and fortifications.^[2][8]

Province locationsEdit

Alliance War locationsEdit

GalleryEdit

LocationsEdit

Culotte Ayleid Ruin

Burning settlement in Cyrodiil

An Ebonheart Pact keep view

Panoramic screenshot of the landscape

A Cyrodiilic milegate

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MapsEdit

The Gold Coast

Cyrodiil with all the cave locations for "Cyrodiil Cave Delver" Achievement

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AppearancesEdit

• The Elder Scrolls: Arena
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (mentioned only)
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (mentioned only)
• The Elder Scrolls Online
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Imperial City
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Dark Brotherhood
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Wolfhunter
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Wrathstone

References