In celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda rereleased Arena as a free download, though modern systems require DOSBox in order for the game to run. Wilderness areas, small towns, dungeons and other points of interest outside of larger cities are all randomly generated. The player can explore the majority of the continent of Tamriel, except for the Imperial province of Cyrodiil, choosing to pursue the main story or take on sidequests.
The player character is leveled up by defeating enemies for experience points, while future games in the series would become known for a skill-based leveling system wherein the player increases a skill the more he uses it. Gameplay in Arena is very similar to future Elder Scrolls games, though much less refined. Only when the staff is complete can the player confront Tharn himself in the dungeon beneath the Imperial City and free the emperor. Arena tasks the player with finding and assembling the eight pieces of the Staff of Chaos, a powerful artifact whose pieces have been scattered throughout Tamriel, one in each province.
The finished mod will include many new cities. The traitorous battlemage Jagar Tharn has trapped Emperor Uriel Septim VII (the introduction of the game erroneously refers to him as Septim IV) in the realm of Oblivion and is impersonating his presence on the throne. Our aim is to recreate a region which no player has explored in the Elder Scrolls series since Arena. This sequel, Daggerfall, would go on to introduce many of the gameplay features and lore elements that continue to define the series today. Despite a harsh reception by critics for its bugginess, and the high system requirements for the time, the game was successful enough to justify an even more ambitious sequel. Though the game missed its initial holiday release date, and its initial distribution was only 3,000 units, it managed to become a cult success based on word-of-mouth excitement by players.
The Khajiit homeland would likely be considered a hard sell. The fourth game in the series, Oblivion, contains an homage to this idea, as the posters seen in the Imperial City arena closely resemble the box art of the deluxe edition of Arena. Tamriel comprises nine provinces, each of which is dominated by a distinct race: Black Marsh is home to the Argonians Cyrodiil is home to the Imperials. Although Elsweyr finally got a chance to shine in The Elder Scrolls Online expansion of the same name, the Khajiit province is unlikely to appear in The Elder Scrolls 6.In fact, the focus on the province in the Elder Scrolls Online expansion is unlikely to have been approved if Elsweyr was planned as the setting for the next game. A trace of the game that might have been still exists in the final version, as a text file containing names of each cities' fighting teams, along with a brief description of each. It was explained, in-game, by the idea that since the world of Tamriel was defined by brutal wars and conflict, both mortal and immortal, it was often called "The Arena" by its inhabitants. Since packaging and other marketing materials had already been printed with the original name, it was retained. As more and more RPG elements crept into the game, it was decided to abandon the arena-fighting idea completely. The game would have the player's team of fighters competing against those of other cities, culminating in him becoming grand champion in the Imperial City. The name "Arena" comes from the original conception of the game, when it was to be a gladiatorial action game.
The game was developed and published by Bethesda Softworks for the PC and released in 1994. Like the other games in the series, Arena is an open-ended first person RPG. The Elder Scrolls: Arena is the first game in the long running and award-winning Elder Scrolls series. Despite this, is possible to individually view the 14 random quest dungeon icons (which actually don't lead to existing dungeons) intended for the Imperial Province earlier in development and one single unused dungeon icon set apart from these as seemingly an unused Main Quest Dungeon Icon.Overview A map of Tamriel and its provinces. Quite unlike other provinces, the Imperial Province has only one city and thus only one Palace, The Imperial Palace, which serves as the last Main Quest Dungeon rather than as a quest hub and becomes inaccessible after it's completion, rendering Palace Quests and thus access to unlockable dungeons impossible.
Below are all Province Maps with all dungeons unlocked. These dungeons receive their names and contents during the quest that unlocks them and thus have not fixed names or layout, only icon and location. Through Palace quests is possible to unlock a total of fourteen additional dungeon and dungeon icons per province besides random wilderness dungeons and Main Quest Dungeons.