The story
A fallen star, eight seals, an order that was forgotten and a cult that remembers. 30 quests tell it - each one done once, by each character.
Long before Dillei had a name, a burning star fell into the north of the island. The land split and rose into the Ashen Reach, and the heart of the star - the Emberheart - sank deep under the world, still burning. Its heat woke what should have slept: dragons hatched in the lava, stone began to walk, and the deep places of the world began to whisper.
The first settlers were few. A circle of fighters, hunters and mages, led by Veyra of the Dawn, bound the Emberheart with eight seals and gave each seal to a keeper far from the others, so that nobody could ever break them all: the dwarves of the Anvil, the minotaur clans, a desert king entombed on the Eastern Isle, the mother of the mire, the mother of the spiders under the Ashen mountains, the spirit of the Elderwood, the jarl of the Greyspine snows, and the flame in the deepest forge. Peace came. Dillei grew round its temple, the Wardens grew old, and their isle, Dawnwatch, fell silent.
Centuries of slow fire have turned the keepers into the very beasts the seals were meant to hold. And now a cult that worships the Emberheart as a god about to wake - the Cinder Choir - is breaking the seals one by one. Its mark is a flame with an eye in it. It has been seen in the sewers of Dillei.
Where a seal has cracked, the dreams of the Emberheart leak into the living. Now and then a creature of the island comes back from its death wrong: a Nightmare, pale and cold, a white skull over its name - or, far more rarely, a Hell creature burning red. Not even the keepers in their sanctums are safe from it. They are stronger, faster and hungrier than their kin, and the Wardens pay their marks to anyone who puts one back in the ground.
You arrive on Dillei as a newcomer, with a sword, a bow or a staff and nothing else. The story starts with Elder Maelis in the temple. It ends under the Wardens' own isle - and with a new Warden of the Dawn.
Talk to people: a gold option in their words means they have a quest for you. The QUESTS window in the game shows what you are doing and where to go next. Two of the seals lie across the sea - the boats to the far islands are for supporters - and the story can be finished without them.
Levels 1 to 20 - Dillei and its island. The Choir's mark turns up where it should not.
Meet the people who keep the city going.
Rats are eating the farms bare.
Something keeps wrecking the fisherman lobster pots.
Strange marks in the sewers under the city.
The healer needs night flowers from the hills north-west of the city.
Three parcels, three people, one tired runner.
The goblins drum all night and raid all day.
The dead walk round the old chapel, and the lighthouse lamp keeps dying.
Read the oldest graves under the city.
Somebody arms the trolls east of the city.
Levels 20 to 55 - Hammerhold, the Ashen Reach, the Eastern Isle. The Wardens' story, and the first friends.
Find what the dwarves remember of the Wardens.
Four manifests for four captains. A friend of the fleet sails cheaper.
A friend of the fleet: every captain sails you for a fifth less, for good.
A patrol went into the amazon caves and never came out.
Scout the Ashen Reach for the Choir.
The tomb of the desert king is waking.
The bog sings, and the swamp trolls listen.
Earn the trust of Brokk, who buys everything.
Brokk trades with you now: he buys everything, the strongest things too.
The trees of the Elderwood are sick.
Levels 40 to 100 - the beacon of Dawnwatch, then each seal taken back from its keeper.
Relight the beacon of the Wardens isle.
The Warden Hall of Dawnwatch is open to you.
Take the sand seal back from the desert king.
The horned king holds a seal in the minotaur city.
End the mire mother and her song.
The old widow holds the web seal under the Ashen mountains.
The iron lord guards the iron seal in the halls under the Eastern Isle.
The deep flame is the oldest keeper of all.
The frost jarl holds a seal on the Greyspine summit.
Set the heartwood free.
Levels 80 to 100 and beyond - the Choir's camp, its sanctum under Dawnwatch, and the Emberheart.
The Cinder Choir has a camp in the south.
The stairs into the Cinder Sanctum, under Dawnwatch, open for you.
Learn what the Choir sings.
End the choirmaster and seal the Emberheart again.
The Wardens pay in marks, not in gold. You earn them by finishing quests, by finishing the hunting tasks of the task masters, by defeating the seal keepers - each keeper pays its marks once a day - and by bringing down a Nightmare creature (1 mark) or a Hell one (2). Quartermaster Ilda, in the Warden Hall of Dawnwatch, trades them for the Warden gear: bound to whoever earns it - it never leaves its owner, not even at death. The best of it takes months.
| Reward | For | Marks | Earned in all, first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warden Ring | Everyone | 1,000 | - |
| Warden Amulet | Everyone | 1,500 | - |
| Warden Boots | Everyone | 2,000 | - |
| Dawnguard Helm | Warriors | 2,500 | 1,500 |
| Dawnguard Greaves | Warriors | 2,500 | 1,500 |
| Dawnguard Plate | Warriors | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Dawnguard Blade | Warriors | 6,000 | 8,000 |
| Dawnhunter Hood | Rangers | 2,500 | 1,500 |
| Dawnhunter Leggings | Rangers | 2,500 | 1,500 |
| Dawnhunter Vest | Rangers | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Dawnhunter Bow | Rangers | 6,000 | 8,000 |
| Dawnweave Hood | Mages | 2,500 | 1,500 |
| Dawnweave Leggings | Mages | 2,500 | 1,500 |
| Dawnweave Robe | Mages | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Dawnweave Sceptre | Mages | 6,000 | 8,000 |
| One more hunting task | Everyone | 500 | - |
