Just when you thought Tamriel’s worst necromantic fan club had finally packed it in and gone home, The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) drags them out of their sarcophagus and drops them centre stage—again. That’s right, the Worm Cult, the original bad guys from ESO’s main quest, are back with a vengeance in 2025’s latest year-long epic: Seasons of the Worm Cult.

Celebrating a decade of adventuring, the next big content arc doesn’t just revisit old lore—it digs it up, slaps on a fresh coat of soul magic, and plonks it down on the sunny new island of Solstice, where nothing screams “vacation” like cultists, skeletal monstrosities, and arcane forcefields.

Part 1: Welcome to Solstice, Now Turn Back

You land in Western Solstice expecting sandy beaches and get greeted by a magical wall of tortured souls instead. Classic MMO bait-and-switch. For the lore-heads reading, Solstice is an isolated island located South of Black Marsh. This shimmering monstrosity you see behind the skyline is called the Writhing Wall—a literal magical barrier belched into existence by the Worm Cult to stop nosy adventurers from poking around Eastern Solstice (which, naturally, is where all the juicy stuff is).

Still, Western Solstice isn’t just locked-off filler. There’s plenty to chew through:

• A brand-new Trial called The Ossein Cage (because of course the Worm Cult names everything like a death metal album),
• World Bosses, Delves, and Public Dungeons aplenty,
• 16 new Antiquities (including three shiny new Mythics),
• Four Trial item sets, with “Perfected” versions for the tryhards,
• Loads of cosmetic collectables, crafting bits, and adorable yet likely cursed pets.

Update 46

The real game-changer, though, is Update 46—a base game freebie launching this June that introduces subclassing. In simple terms: you can now cherry-pick skill lines from other classes and stitch them into your own build like a magical Frankenstein.

Here’s how it works:

• Every class in ESO has three skill lines. With subclassing, you can swap out two of them for skill lines from any other class.
• You only need to reach level 50 once—just once—on any character in your account to unlock the Hero Level 50 Achievement. Once done, subclassing is available account-wide.
• There’s a short questline to unlock subclassing, and it’s very accessible. You can pick it up from the in-game Crown Store, directly from the subclassing UI, or by finding an NPC in Riften, Dune, or Evermore, depending on your faction (though you’re not locked to it). Look for Bathra at Hunding, your trusty guide through subclassing nirvana.

This system is perfect for veterans who’ve been playing the same character since Obama was in office and want to breathe new life into their old Dragonknight without deleting their meticulously tailored cheekbone sliders. Respeccing is made easy too—you’ll get a free respec scroll just for completing the quest, so you’re free to tinker without fear of regret.

World Event: The Wall Must Fall

Part 2 isn’t just sitting on a USB drive waiting to unlock—it’s going to be the payoff for ESO’s first-ever server-wide event. Sometime later this year, players across Tamriel will band together to tear down the Writhing Wall like it’s the final act of a fantasy Cold War.

This one-time, world-changing event isn’t just for whales with all the expansions—even base game plebs can help. Chop wood, gather resources, do dailies—whatever it takes to fuel the war effort and breach the magical meat-wall.

Part 2: East of the Wall

Once the wall comes down, it’s time to go full Game of Thrones and head into Eastern Solstice, the part of the island we weren’t allowed into because “reasons”. Expect fresh quests, new villains, and probably some sort of undead centipede wearing a crown.

It’s all heading towards the grand finale of Seasons of the Worm Cult, and if ESO sticks the landing, it might just be the most satisfying end to a villain arc since they dropped the first Death Star.

ESO is finally pulling off something that feels genuinely epic—a years-in-the-making comeback for one of its OG threats, wrapped in a community-driven narrative arc. It’s part Lord of the Rings, part HGTV: Cult Edition, and all kinds of ambitious.

And if that doesn’t bring back lapsed players, nothing will—except maybe playable Dwemer. But we’ll die before that happens.