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
Daggerfall Covenant
Ebonheart Pact
Any Alliance
Imperial Requires Imperial Edition
Explorer’s Pack (Pre-Order Bonus and Crown Store):Â Any Race, Any Alliance
Imperial Edition:Â 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 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%. |
 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%. |
 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%. |
 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%. |
 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%. |
 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. |
 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%. |
 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%. |
 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%. |
 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 |
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.
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. 🙂
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.
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.
For a DPS Dragonknight Two Handing should I chose a Nord or Imperial?
What do the different zones mean exactly? I’m part of the Daggerfall Covenant and I’m in Stonefalls completing quests and doing dungeons.
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.
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.
“Orismer”?
I believe that should be “Orsimer”
Can players from different alliances we on the same team in Cyrodiil?
Absolutely out-dated race passives