The Elder Scrolls Online: Gates of Oblivion expansion is in development at Zenimax Online Studios, with a release date set for June of this year. Elder Scrolls fans who watched the trailer will likely recognize at least one familiar face: Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Destruction.
Mehrunes Dagon was also the main antagonist of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. Naturally, this has some fans worried that The Elder Scrolls Online: Gates of Oblivion might be retreading old territory. However, ESO’s Mehrunes Dagon could show a very different side of the Daedric Prince than the one seen in The Elder Scrolls 4.
The trailer for ESO: Gates of Oblivion showed a wood elf receiving a chilling vision of Mehrunes Dagon, an omen of his return to Tamriel. This has some fans concerned that the MMORPG will be retreading ground, as the Daedric Prince has already been seen opening portals into Tamriel that were eventually stopped by the Hero of Kvatch and the last in the Septim bloodline, Martin Septim, who sacrificed himself to merge with Akatosh and defeat Mehrunes Dagon.
Even the original premise of ESO had fans concerned about similarities to The Elder Scrolls 4. The retail version of the game sees the player facing down Molag Bal, another Daedric Prince trying to invade Tamriel, only with a darker more gothic aesthetic than Mehrunes Dagon’s typical fire and brimstone.
Indeed, when it comes to aesthetics, Mehrunes Dagon is the closest The Elder Scrolls has to an archetypical Satan figure. He’s big, he’s red, he’s got horns on his head, he lives in a land of lakes of fire, and his motivations were never really expanded upon beyond the Daedric Prince embodying a certain kind of evil. However, The Elder Scrolls Online’s new expansion has the opportunity to change that.
Mehrunes Dagon isn’t just the Daedric Prince of Destruction, though that is certainly what he’s been most famous for on his various visits to Tamriel. Mehrunes Dagon is also the Daderic Prince of revolution, change, ambition, and energy. In these ways, he resembles the more complicated picture of Satan presented in works like Paradise Lost, where the character is more of a failed revolutionary than a solely malevolent being.
Unfortunately, Bethesda has rarely explored this side of Mehrunes Dagon, even when presenting the motivations of his mortal worshippers, the Mythic Dawn cult. However, there are plenty of ways which Zenimax Online Studios could make Mehrunes Dagon more interesting.
Since Mehrunes Dagon is the Daedric Prince of revolutions, ESO has a particular opportunity to tie him into another aspect of the new expansion’s story. Gates of Oblivion comes with a new zone for players to explore, Blackwood, a border region in the south of Cyrodiil. It borders the lands inhabited by the beastfolk of the Elder Scrolls, the Khajiit in Elsweyr on its west side and the Argonians in Black Marsh to the east.
The beastfolk of The Elder Scrolls have always been among the Empire’s most oppressed citizens. In some places, they aren’t allowed to enter cities, instead being forced to work in travelling caravans or at the docks. In most places, they face prejudice, and even in their homelands, they feel the pressure of the Imperials’ ambitions.
The beastfolk could add a level of complexity to Gates of Oblivion’s portrayal of Mehrunes Dagon that was lacking in The Elder Scrolls 4. Those who are attempting to aid the Daedric Prince this time around could be doing so because they’re suffering under Imperial rule, and want to bring about the exact kind of revolutionary change that Mehrunes Dagon embodies. Even if it turns out that they are unprepared for the destruction Mehrunes Dagon could also bring, this would at least also highlight a negative aspect of the Empire, which when compared to a being as classically devilish as Dagon could risk presenting a very black and white conflict.
Mehrunes Dagon only appears in-person at the very end of The Elder Scrolls 4, where he appears as a giant attacking the White Gold Tower in the center of the Imperial City. There are very few direct interactions with him in the entire game, with players mostly facing town his minions as they race into Oblivion itself to close his portals to Tamriel.
If players receive the same visions as the elf in the new expansions trailer or get time to interact with Dagon in his plane of Oblivion, players could also get a more complicated idea of Mehrunes Dagon’s motivations and how he sells himself to his cultists. It’s already been revealed that the Longhouse Emperors made a pact with Dagon to rule Tamriel in his image, but the players themselves could also stand to have a far more personal relationship with the Daedric Prince in ESO than they were able to in The Elder Scrolls 4.
Mehrunes Dagon draws influence from some of the most interesting depictions of Satan in literature. While Bethesda hasn’t always realized those influences to their full potential, Zenimax now has the opportunity to explore a far more complicated picture of the prince without compromising his destructive nature. Whether or not that will be enough to help Gates of Oblivion step out of Oblivion’s shadow remains to be seen.
Elder Scrolls Online is out for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in development.
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