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Race & Alliance

3 Alliances, 10 Races

There are 3 Alliances (Factions) and 10 Races in Elder Scrolls Online.

Alliances in ESO are a combination of 3 Races and their associated lands with each Alliance consisting of 6 “zones” or regions. Your choice of Race will decide your Alliance unless you have purchased the Explorer’s Pack which allows you to choose any Race on any Alliance. This can also be purchased on the Crown Store in the game.

You can only choose the Imperial Race if you purchase the Imperial Edition. You can also upgrade to the Imperial Edition through the Crown Store.

Races in ESO each have three Racial Passives which can be unlocked with Skill Points to provide small bonuses to your stats.

Your choice of Race is important, however any Race can perform well in both solo and group content and any Race can perform the three typical roles of damage, tank and healer. Your choice of Race will primarily impact the look of your character and the three bonus Racial Passives.

 

Aldmeri Dominion

Aldmeri Dominion

Altmer (High Elf)

Bosmer (Wood Elf)

Khajiit


Daggerfall Covenant

Daggerfall Covenant

Breton

Orismer (Orc)

Redguard


Ebonheart Pact

Ebonheart Pact

Argonian

Dunmer (Dark Elf)

Nord


Any Alliance

Imperial

Imperial Requires Imperial Edition

 

Explorer’s Pack (Pre-Order Bonus and Crown Store): Any Race, Any Alliance

Imperial Edition: Imperial Race On Any Alliance

 

Racial Passives

  • Racial Passives Have 3 Ranks: I,II,III.
  • Each Rank Requires 1 Skill Point.
Race PASSIVE 1 PASSIVE 2 PASSIVE 3
Race Passives ESO Argonian Resourceful
Increases your Max Magicka by 1%/2%/3%. Whenever you drink a potion you restore 4%/8%/12% of your Max Health, Magicka, and Stamina.
Argonian Resistance
Increases your Max Health by 3%/6%/9% and Poison and Disease Resistance by 495/990/1485.
Quick to Mend
Increases your healing done and healing received by 1%/3%/5%.
Race Passives ESO Altmer (High Elf) Spellcharge
Increases your Magicka Recovery by 3%/6%/9%.
Gift of Magnus
Increases your Max Magicka by 4%/7%/10%.
Elemental Talent
Increases your Flame, Frost, and Shock Damage by 2%/3%/4%.
Race Passives ESO Bosmer (Wood Elf) Y'ffre's Endurance
Increases your Stamina Recovery by 7%/14%/21%.
Resist Affliction
Increases your Max Stamina by 2%/4%/6% and Poison and Disease Resistance by 495/990/1485.
Stealthy
Reduces your detection radius in stealth by 1/2/3 meters. Increases your damage done while in stealth by 3%/6%/10%.
Race Passives ESO Breton Gift of Magnus
Increases your Max Magicka by 4%/7%/10%.
Spell Resistance
Increases your Spell Resistance by 1320/2640/3960.
Magicka Mastery
Reduces the Magicka cost of your abilities by 1%/2%/3%.
Race Passives ESO Dunmer (Dark Elf) Dynamic
Increases your Max Magicka and Max Stamina by 2%/4%/6%.
Resist Flame
Increases your Max Magicka by 1%/2%/3% and Flame Resistance by 693/1386/2080.
Destructive Ancestry
Increases your Flame Damage by 3%/5%/7%. Increases your Frost and Shock Damage by 0%/1%/2%.
Race Passives ESO Imperial Tough
Increases your Max Health by 4%/8%/12%.
Conditioning
Increases your Max Stamina by 4%/7%/10%.
Red Diamond
Your melee attacks have a 10% chance to restore 2%/4%/6% of your Max Health.
Race Passives ESO Khajiit Nimble
Increases your Health Recovery by 6%/13%/20% and Stamina Recovery by 3%/6%/10%.
Stealthy
Reduces your detection radius in stealth by 1/2/3 meters. Increases your damage done while in stealth by 3%/6%/10%.
Carnage
Increases your Weapon Critical by 2%/5%/8%.
Race Passives ESO Nord Stalwart
Increases your Max Stamina by 2%/4%/6% and Health Recovery by 6%/13%/20%.
Resist Frost
Increases your Max Health by 3%/6%/9% and Cold Resistance by 693/1386/2080.
Rugged
Reduces your damage taken by 2%/4%/6%.
Race Passives ESO Orc Brawny
Increases your Max Health and Max Stamina by 2%/4%/6%.
Unflinching
Increases your healing received by 1%/3%/5% and Health Recovery by 6%/13%/20%.
Swift Warrior
Increases your damage done with melee attacks by 2%/3%/4%. Reduces the cost of Sprint by 4%/8%/12% and increases the Movement Speed bonus of Sprint by 3%/6%/10%.
Race Passives ESO Redguard Exhilaration
Increases your Stamina Recovery by 3%/6%/9%.
Conditioning
Increases your Max Stamina by 4%/7%/10%.
Adrenaline Rush
Your melee attacks restore 1%/2%/3% of your Max Stamina. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.

 

Zones

Sort Zone Alliance
1 Khenarthi's Roost Aldmeri Dominion
2 Auridon Aldmeri Dominion
3 Grahtwood Aldmeri Dominion
4 Greenshade Aldmeri Dominion
5 Malabal Tor Aldmeri Dominion
6 Reaper's March Aldmeri Dominion
7 Stros M'Kai / Betnikh Daggerfall Covenant
8 Glenumbra Daggerfall Covenant
9 Stormhaven Daggerfall Covenant
10 Rivenspire Daggerfall Covenant
11 Alik'r Desert Daggerfall Covenant
12 Bangkorai Daggerfall Covenant
13 Bleakrock / Bal Foyen Ebonheart Pact
14 Stonefalls Ebonheart Pact
15 Deshaan Ebonheart Pact
16 Shadowfen Ebonheart Pact
17 Eastmarch Ebonheart Pact
18 The Rift Ebonheart Pact
19 Coldharbor Neutral
20 Craglorn Neutral
21 Cyrodiil (PVP) Neutral
22 Imperial City (PVP) Neutral
23 Wrothgar (Orsinium) Neutral
24 Hew's Bane (Thieves Guild) Neutral
25 Gold Coast (Dark Brotherhood) Neutral

 

Three Alliances in ESO: Aldmeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant, Ebonheart Pact

12 Comments

  • Mike P
    Jul 14, 2015

    Racials are up to date? I’m new to game and have been making and deleting characters because I keep seeing diff passives. I want to be Stamina based, with ability to DPS or Tank in future. How important are Max Stam pools vs Stam Regen. Orc Swift looks fun as hell combined with Medium Armor for DPS. Werewolf passive of Regen to help. I’d think with charge, sprint and Dragon Leap, I could get around battlefield faster than anyone would know what’s happening? Am I basing this wrong? Would love to open a dialogue with some questions.

    Reply
    • ESO Academy
      Jul 14, 2015

      Yeah they are up to date but in Update 7 there might be a couple of slight changes.

      Both Max Stamina and Stamina Regen are important but I tend to go to the Max Stamina / Magicka most of the time. Orc could be a good choice. Racial Passives are not really that important, however, and the difference they make isn’t huge. For example the Orc sprint speed increase is quite small in reality. In the higher levels the passives are slightly more important but you can still always make up stats with gear, etc. 🙂

      Reply
      • Mike P
        Jul 14, 2015

        If I have access to Imperial, would it be smarter to go that direction? I was taking Orc more for bonus to charge. I haven’t gotten into pvp yet but I know that’s where I’m going to want to do that. I was told people use a lot of bows so I figured the speed could help close distance / kite with bow and charge would be a good way to do that.

        Reply
        • ESO Academy
          Jul 15, 2015

          Yeah charges and gap closers are really handy and I use them a lot as well. Orc is a good choice and so is Imperial. The Imperial does give more Stamina which in turn also increase your damage a bit too (for abilities that use Stamina that is). Also note that Orc is changing in Update 7 from charge damage to a 4% increase to all melee damage.

          Reply
  • Niels G
    Sep 3, 2015

    For a DPS Dragonknight Two Handing should I chose a Nord or Imperial?

    Reply
  • Cam
    Jan 9, 2017

    What do the different zones mean exactly? I’m part of the Daggerfall Covenant and I’m in Stonefalls completing quests and doing dungeons.

    Reply
    • ESO Academy
      Jan 10, 2017

      The zones meant a lot more before the One Tamriel update. Now you can go anywhere and do any content regardless of your Alliance. The zones now only really designate the storyline quests. So there is a main storyline which runs through the Daggerfall Covenant zones, and another story which runs through the AD and EP zones. You can do all of them though.

      Reply
  • AmIScrewed
    Apr 14, 2017

    I have the Imperial addition and choose an Imperial and a sorcerer for coolness. The character sucks in PVE as a DPS magika sorcerer.

    Is there any way to salvage the character besides forking over crowns for a race change?

    Some of the sorcerer/One hand shield builds look interesting. I never fine Imperial based builds anywhere, ever.

    Reply
  • Jaim
    Sep 18, 2018

    “Orismer”?
    I believe that should be “Orsimer”

    Reply
  • Roger
    Oct 22, 2019

    Can players from different alliances we on the same team in Cyrodiil?

    Reply
  • Gho
    Apr 8, 2020

    Absolutely out-dated race passives

    Reply

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