So you might want to keep an eye during your travels during Blackwood, the upcoming chapter for Elder Scrolls Online, when it releases this June. The team over at Zenimax Online Studios shared some information on one of the “monstrosities” we’ll face called the Ruinach. And um, yeah.
Leamon Tuttle, the Loremaster for Elder Scrolls Online, described the Ruinach far better than I can,
“Ruinachs are four-armed monstrosities that serve as Dagon’s elite marauders. They don’t possess that ruthless cunning and strategic brilliance of the Dremora, but they make up for it in brute strength and unflinching loyalty to Dagon personally.”
Tuttle continued that no one actually knows the origin of the Ruinach since they appear to be a recent addition to Mehrunes Dagon’s army, the chief antagonist in Blackwood. Apparently, some in lore believe the Ruinachs may have come from Dagon’s own flesh. However, some others think that’s just made up. The Ruinachs themselves claim to be descendants of Mehrunes Dagon, playing into their own mythos narrative.
In the real world, the Ruinach was designed to keep us on our toes. Anthony Oliver, Senior Content Designer on Elder Scrolls Online, explains,
“The Ruinach was imagined as an elite Daedra in Mehrunes Dagon’s own image, so it was important that it feel brutishly strong. Players will find the Ruinach routinely chooses between powerful melee attacks and more tactical magic abilities.”
In short, they wanted a monster which oozed the plane of Oblivion and was truly unique. They noted that simply adding more limbs created challenges with respect to animation. They had to strike a balance between challenge and distraction with the number of limbs moving around.
Blackwood is set to release in June on PC, consoles, and Stadia. The landscape will include some pretty diverse environments. A special ESO Console Enhanced version is set to release alongside the console release of Blackwood and will bring next-gen upgrades for free to the Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
