In 2019 we had this idea on how we could give back to the community of Elder Scrolls. With the season, everyone being busy, a way to sit back, relax, and maybe envelope a little Christmas Spirit. Since then, we have grabbed the attention of many, bestowed some laughs, excitement, and yes, captured hearts with tales from Dickens in an ESO fashion.
This year we brought forth an entirely new production surrounding a character everyone knows as Investigator Vale. The dashing investigator with raven black hair that solves mysteries and has 8 books from her exploits.
In 2021, Vanquish was recognized by Zenimax with a full website blog article and launcher preview which can still be viewed HERE. In 2022, ZOS reached out to us wanting to do a Christmas Bethesda stream shown below.
This year, we are once again blessed by ZOS with a blog article, launcher preview, and a new stream to reach out to the millions of ESO players, no matter what platform you’re on, to join in for a little Christmas Spirit. That will take place on the 20th of December at 8:30pm EST at the Bethesda Twitch stream.
Over the past few weeks, we have talked to Jessica, Gina, Dominic, and Dan going over the details and finalizing. It was difficult when people would ask “Is this being streamed?” and not being able to answer directly. In our log of emails, we went over Q&A’s and images with a goal date of December 12th of being published. But, on the 11th, as we all are aware, the power of the database center went down sending ZOS scrambling. With all the chaos, overworked hours, I really wasn’t sure if it would happen or not and shocked, delighted, spirited when it did. The Q&A’s didn’t make the article which I would like to share with all of you. These are just ‘some’ of the questions which I will include here.
But before I do, this years performance has gone incredible well, has received several incredible reviews, and we are just ecstatic that the community as a whole has loved this. Though 2 shows have already been complete, we have 4 more to go including a sold-out show tonight at 9pm EST. We do have just a couple seats remaining for Sunday, December 15th at 1pm EST, Tuesday December 17th at 8pm EST, and 1 more seat for the Bethesda Stream date of December 20th at 8:30pm EST at the time of this writing. At the bottom of this article, I will include some of the reviews we have received this year.
Onto the Q&A’s.
How long has Vanquish been putting on ESO holiday productions?
Vanquish has been putting the holiday productions together since 2019. At the end of October that of year, we wanted to find some way to thank the community, content creators, and the staff of Zenimax in a way that they could just take a break from the norm, sit down, have a break and maybe receive a little Christmas joy in the process. In 2019 and 2020, the production was called “An ESO Christmas Carol” based on the story by Charles Dickens. Using dialog from characters such as Lyris, Sai, Naryu, Riggurt, and Darien, we found creative ways to place them in the story. We also added a few ‘Easter Eggs’, like the relationship between Nayru and Darien. For the three ghosts that haunt Scrooge in the Dickens tale, we incorporated the timeline of Elder Scrolls Online. The Hero, first starting off in the Harborage and a few stories beyond represented the Past. The current DLC’s at the time, represented the Present. And a possible ending to the Three Banners War rounded up the ghosts with Christmas Future.
In 2021 and 2022, we added to the production with “The Trial of the Ages.” One year after Scrooge’s miraculous recovery, he in turn takes the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future to court in a hilarious courtroom examination. This Trial was added to the original script that almost doubled the performance in size. Every show was filled, streamed by the community several times, had its own blog on the Elder Scrolls website and then streamed by Jessica and Gina of Zenimax in 2022 for the community giving everyone, no matter what platform, an opportunity.
In 2023, because of real life complications, we had to put the show on hold. Most of the cast were either moving or with military.
Now in 2024, we are back with a whole new production named “Investigator Vale: An Entangled Carol”. Most of our talented cast is back, have put in many, many hours of practice, to give it all, once again, for the community. “An Entangled Carol” adds a little twist to the idea of who Investigator Vale really is, brings forth some of the characters used in her books, and takes place in the lands of Glenumbra, Summerset, and High Isle. The best way to sum it up is by the summary we have posted on social outlooks:
“Locked in combat with her mortal enemy Terenus, the voice of the Brotherhood, plunged to his death over the Anvil Lighthouse. Absent for two years, Tamriel mourned the loss of their foremost consulting investigator. Vale, however, was still alive.
With no sense of purpose, she is encouraged by Dr. Timothy Cratchit to explore Ebenezer Scrooge’s unusual death. It is a dark and treacherous Christmas Eve, and Investigator Vale is a tormented woman. And now, the brilliant investigator must utilize her deductive skills to solve the crime.
The game has begun.”
How many cast + crew members?
Our cast and crew consist of only eight (8) members including myself and our host. Due to the limited seating in housing, we do our best to keep the counts down to allow more seating for the community. Each cast member plays a variety of roles, using different costumes and dialect.
Smithsylvian plays the roles of Dr. Timothy Cratchitt, Grand Maestro Forte, Jakarn, and Axel Plourde.
Morrigain415 plays the roles of Elannie, Fan Gardner, Urview Peyron, and Martha Cratchit.
DeSyreni plays the roles of Lady Arabelle Davaux, Mildred Dilber, Abby Plourde, and Diane Guissant.
Fripplethron plays the roles of Lieutenant Dubois, Count Tamsin, Kareem Winvale, and Christoph Lamont
TricksterToons is Investigator Vale
And Cyfrinair is Scrooge along with the role of Barjot Benoit.
Myself, Duck17, is the producer/writer of the production.
Savina.09 is our host and the bard on the opening scenes.
Regarding our cast, we are so blessed by them. Each has given so much to this production and the years past. The countless hours of practice, the hours spent on their own free time going over the script, their specific lines, their emotes, costumes and putting forth their ideas. How they go into each character with a different dialect to present themselves to the audience is amazing. And what’s also amazing is that none of them are Role players. NONE. In fact, 80% do PVP with the remaining 20% PVE and Trials. Yet we all get together once a year to do this, to give to the community with a goal of Christmas, joy, and laughs.
What has gone into the production? Set design, music, etc?
Time. LOL. I recently added it up and we have over 400 hours into the show and script. Of this, the most challenging is putting your vision on the stage while keeping the housing count at, or below, 700 items.
In our previous play productions, we had used the idea of 2 stages with curtain drops to change scenes around and allow actors/actresses to get into position. This year, we tore down the stages to bring a different atmosphere. When you go to a theatre show, the stage changes before your eyes. With that in mind, I wanted to create more of a “living stage” where the sets develop around the actors and actresses. We wanted to bring the audience right to the stage. To bring them “in”, in a sense. Personally, I think I could have done better with the “living stage” feel, but I think we did accomplish some of those goals.
With limited item count, many of the scenes borrow this, or that, from other scenes. For example, Leyawiin walls are used often to distinguish Glenumbra and High Isle. And adding little details like Colovian windows to one set, sets it in Daggerfall. While using High Isle windows, take it to High Isle.
The idea of the script came when I stumbled upon some of the Investigator Vale books. The mention of her arch enemy. The interviews of Lady Davaux claiming she is Investigator Vale. The community either accepting or denying. And then a thought came, “Her arch enemy that she calls the “Shadow Fellowship” sounds much like the Dark Brotherhood. The speaker, the organizer of every death, indeed… indeed… “
The music within the play is done by our very own, and talented cast member, Fripplethorn. He has done the music on every production, worked with me on some of the sound effects, and for the 5th year in a row, has written our very own Vanquish Christmas songs which are incredible, hilarious, and just down, right good.
For sound effects and the music, we use the software VoiceMod to stream through discord along with the cast.
Running time of production?
With a script of 88 pages long, the running time is approximately 2 hours long with the addition of a 10-minute intermission.
When are your performances scheduled, and how can people attend?
We had Opening Night this past Saturday at 4pm EST. This year we have planned 6 shows. The remaining shows are:
Tuesday, December 10th at 8pm EST
Saturday, December 14th at 9pm EST
Sunday, December 15th at 1pm EST
Tuesday, December 17th at 8pm EST
And Friday, December 20th at 8:30pm EST
To personally attend one of these shows, you do need to be on the North American server and have discord available. Simply contact me through the posts on the ESO Forums, Reddit post, or in game mail/message to @duck17. As of this writing, only a few seats remain for each of the shows.
Thank you for reading all this! From Vanquish to all of you, a Very Merry Christmas!
This year’s reviews in short. We did leaves the names off for privacy.
It was so well done! I enjoyed it so much! Thank you for the work you put into bringing us this wonderful play!
I can only imagine the amount of work you all put into this! Good job, cast and support! (And especially for keeping cool whilst being devoured by set changes)
Gosh I don’t have enough words to shower y’all in constant praise without sounding like a broken record The moment the show started and the lights came on I was lowkey screaming at how cool that was. Then when the set pieces started to change???? OH MY GOOOSH! IT WAS SO FREAKING COOL!!!! I loved this so so much My husband and I aren’t able to really go out and enjoy shows and stuff like this cause we have two Littles so this was so so convenient for us. It was also great watching them dance when songs went off during the show You all did such an amazing spectacular job!!!! My husband and I will definitely be coming back next year!!!
I absolutely love the new play!! Everyone did a marvelous job acting.. The sets and set changes were phenomenal! Well built and very smooth in the changes! I appreciate all the hard work everyone has put into the play!