ESO's Molag Bal feels like a completely different Daedric Prince than Skyrim's

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

The more I replay Skyrim's Daedric quests, the more I notice how wrong Molag Bal feels in ESO compared to what we get in the base game. In Skyrim, he's this deeply personal, violating force - the quest is about corrupting a priest, about domination and violation of the soul. It's uncomfortable in a way that actually matters. You're not just fighting a big demon, you're dealing with something that preys on faith and breaks people from the inside.

But in ESO he's just... a standard evil Daedric Prince running a standard invasion plot. There's no real sense of that violation or corruption that makes Molag Bal Molag Bal. He feels like they took the name and slapped it on a generic dark lord.

And I get it, ESO has to be more mainstream-friendly, but it makes me wonder if the later Elder Scrolls games are gonna keep watering down what makes the Daedric Princes actually disturbing. Like, why even call him Molag Bal if you're not gonna lean into what makes him uniquely horrifying?

Does anyone else feel like ESO's Daedric storylines in general just miss the mark compared to what Skyrim does in like 15 minutes with a single quest?

 

[NordOfSolitude]

I think you're hitting on something real about how Skyrim's Daedric quests punch way above their weight. That quest - the one where you corrupt the priest - is genuinely unsettling in a way that sticks with you. It's not flashy, it's just this slow corruption of faith and trust, and yeah, Molag Bal as this force that violates and dominates on a spiritual level comes through hard.

But I'd push back a bit on ESO missing the mark entirely. MMOs have different constraints - you need broader appeal, you need to service a bunch of different playstyles and storylines at once, you can't rely on that single-player intimate horror vibe. ESO's got to make Molag Bal work as a raid boss, as a world threat, across multiple zones. That's a different beast than a 15-minute quest that's specifically designed to make you uncomfortable.

That said, you're right that something gets lost. The Daedric quests in Skyrim work because they're small and focused. Boethiah's Calling, The House of Horrors, Ill Met by Moonlight - they all have this personal, nasty edge because they're not trying to be epic. They're trying to be wrong. ESO kind of has to be epic by design, and that's not really Molag Bal's speed.

I don't think it means TES is gonna keep watering things down though. Single-player games and MMOs just operate on totally different logic. The real test will be what Bethesda does with the next mainline Elder Scrolls game - that's where we'd see if they're genuinely backing away from the uncomfortable stuff or if it was just an ESO thing.