Despite not living up to expectations at launch, The Elder Scrolls Online has forged on – and over the years and across several expansions – crafted a respectable identity for itself as both an Elder Scrolls title and an online experience. The first Chapter reintroduced the island of Vvardenfell to the players, and ever since, the game was used as the perfect vehicle by the developers to flesh out corners of Tamriel that the mainline games had yet to touch.
From the murky reaches of Black Marsh, to the arid canyons of Elsweyr, variety had never been an issue for The Elder Scrolls Online, and the next location that Zenimax Online Studios has prepared for its players is the Systres Archipelago for the Chapter of High Isle. In terms of size, it looks to be on the larger end of zones introduced through Chapters and DLCs.
A user on Reddit named Vivec_lore made a comparison picture of the actual size of High Isle compared to its neighboring zones in the game world, stating that the world map size was highly misleading. In actuality, and in a gameplay sense, High Isle seems much closer to Summerset or Blackwood in terms of playable space than Western Skyrim.
The actual size of the High Isle zone compared to other areas. The scale of the zone map is a lot larger than what the world map would imply from elderscrollsonline
On the world map and in lore, the entire Systres Archipelago is roughly the size of Hew's Bane, the zone featured in the Thieves Guild DLC. While beloved by the players for adding an important aspect of every Elder Scrolls game, the size of Hew's Bane would hardly be capable of supporting a full-scale Chapter. Bending the proportions of High Isle allows the developers to tell the story they want to tell without needing to worry about how it compares with the rest of the world.
The main city for High Isle will be the port of Gonfalon Bay, and will feature fifteen wayshrines to help players traverse the land which will also include Amenos, the second-largest island of the Systres Archipelago. Players will also be able to purchase and own two new homes in The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle – Ancient Anchor Berth and Highhallow Hold.
The greatest appeal of High Isle is in the fact that it represents not only a piece of Tamriel previously unexplored in the mainline games, but also one that has barely been explored through in-game lore at all. Players will be able to set foot and see the wonders of the Systres Archipelago for themselves in just a bit over a month from now.
The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle will release on June 6 for PC, Mac, and Stadia, and on June 21 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.