Though Elder Scrolls Online takes place hundreds of years before the events of 2002's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, there are a lot of things that tie the two games together. In addition to taking place in the same location of Vvardenfell, the Morrowind Chapter for ESO houses plenty of iconic buildings, cities, and references to the third game of the series.
Because The Elder Scrolls Online is a sort of prequel to the series as a whole, Morrowind takes on a different appearance in the second era. There are a lot of changes that fans of TES III will notice, like the whole island being much more lush and the power of the Living Gods, but not all of these changes are good - for example, retconning Morrowind's lore.
Vvardenfell Is Far More Lush And Lively Than In TES III
In the third Elder Scrolls game, the landscape of Vvardenfell is relatively desolate and undetailed. This is mostly because of its age, as it was made when limitations on graphical fidelity really restricted how complex games could be. Elder Scrolls Online is a much more recent entry in the franchise, and the Morrowind Chapter takes full advantage of more modern graphics to bring Vvardenfell to life.
Though Red Mountain doesn't erupt until just before the events of Skyrim, Vvardenfell still shows signs of environmental decline over time. The reasons for this are numerous, but in Elder Scrolls Online players can see it all practically at its height of magnificence. Though some lore conflicts, it also gives a visual to the descriptions of the past from books in the third Elder Scrolls game.
The Tribunal Are At Their Height Of Power, Or Close To It
In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, the Living Gods Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec are far from their strongest. Dagoth Ur prevents the Tribunal from being able to visit the Heart of Lorkhan to re-up their power, so to speak, so each begins to notice a rapid decline in their godlike abilities. Almalexia is the first to go mad, killing Sotha Sil in his sealed-off Clockwork City before being slain by the Nerevarine.
However, in ESO, the Tribunal are practically at the height of their power. Vivec's strength is threatened in the main storyline, sure, but by the end of it things are back to normal for all three. Seeing Sotha Sil at the height of his power in the follow-up Clockwork City DLC is particularly cool because the only other time he appears in an Elder Scrolls game is as a particularly disturbing corpse. Sotha Sil is one of the more mysterious characters in the Elder Scrolls series, and this Chapter and its DLC clear some of the fog around this character.
Several Quests Are Callbacks To Iconic TES III Quests
Morrowind had a number of instantly-memorable quests, especially in the first areas players explore. One quest every TES III fan knows by heart is the Egg Poachers quest, one of the first tasks given by the Fighter's Guild of Balmora. Another is the quest where a Nord claims that a witch stole their prized Axe and clothes, though it turns out she hired the Nord for protection and he turned "too friendly".
The Shulk Egg Mine can still be found in the Morrowind chapter, though it is called the Shulk Ore Mine. The crew chief inside talks about how bad things are and how it will eventually turn into an egg mine - he's not wrong, as it turns out. Additionally, the quest "If The Spell Fits" is a spiritual successor to the naked Nord and the Witch, matching it almost beat-for-beat.
Two Major Differences In Vivec City
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In Vivec City players will see the familiar pyramid-like cantons jutting out from the canals below. However, the skyline might seem a little bit different: that's because one of the cantons, the Foreign Quarter, is still under construction. As part of one of the first quests in the Morrowind Chapter, players must go to the construction site to retrieve an item for Vivec.
Another thing fervent Morrowind fans will notice is that Baar Dau, the meteor-like object kept in suspension over the city by Vivec, is a plain piece of rock. In the third game, Baar Dau is turned into the Ministry of Truth for Vivec City, while in Elder Scrolls Online it's not much more than leverage for Vivec over his subjects.
Seyda Neen Shouldn't Exist In The Second Era
One major lore issue with the Morrowind ESO Chapter is the existence of Seyda Neen itself. In Morrowind, Seyda Neen was described as having been built relatively recently, certainly not as far back as the second era. ESO changes this lore, though, to instead explain that it was originally built by the Gold Coast Trading Company before the events of ESO.
This doesn't really make sense, as the buildings and locale remained practically the same whereas almost every other place in Vvardenfell went through some major changes between ESO and TES III. ESO lore supersedes Morrowind's lore as the more recent addition in the series, but generally, it fits in pretty well to other Elder Scrolls game lore and doesn't deviate from that established mythos very often.
The Elder Scrolls Online is available for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Stadia, and Xbox One and Series X|S