History TearJerker / TheElderScrollsOnline

* One of the first quest-givers one might encounter after the tutorial in ''Elsweyr'' is Elianna Pevengius, an Imperial looking for her late husband's belongings. Their story is one of tragedy. The husband had to follow Euraxia Tharn to take over Rimmen, and when dragons appeared, he died protecting the Khajiit that Tharn mistreated, the Khajiit still hating him for his role within the Usurper Queen's army. Then, Euraxia refuses to send his remains back to his wife, possibly to use his body through necromancy. The wife had to travel all the way to Elsweyr, barely avoiding the Three-Banner War, just to get her husband's belongings. And now a brutal band of thieves stole them. She has been waiting day and night for an opportunity to get them back when the player encounters her, and she is at wits end. She will give the player all the money she has, she only wants her husband's belongings. Even after getting them back, she still is not sure when she can return to her home, considering the battle between Khajiit and Euraxia Tharn, and the Three-Banner War. So she is stuck in a foreign country whose people are not fond of Imperials because of Euraxia, and probably not that willing to help the widow of a soldier who helped usurp the throne. For a simple quest to fetch an item, the backstory for the couple involved is sad to listen to.

* One of the possible lines Molag Bal might tell you when you destroy a dark anchor, is that he will make sure nobody remembers you or your deeds when you're gone. It is not a significant threat compared to the others, but then you save the world, or a town, or just a person, and they promise you that your deeds shall be remembered for generations. Come the main series of ''The Elder Scrolls'', and nothing is mentioned about you. It could be that your stories faded through time, but the possibility that Molag Bal did something to remove people's memories of you when you died is also possible. People who simply want to celebrate a savior will forget, and you will disappear with no one to remember you. All out of spite.

* In Cyrodiil, northwest of Camala Outpost, there is a picnic with zombies. After killing them, you can read the note laying there: "Dearest, meet me in our usual spot. I have a bottle of your favorite wine and a very special question to ask you. Yours truly, M" It is not difficult to imagine what that important question was, and what happened to them after.

* The Murkmire DLC gives us Haxara, the Bright-Throat egg-minder. [[spoiler: She desperately wants to be a mother. Ree-Nakal, a member of the Ghost People tribe, takes advantage of this vulnerability by promising her children of her own, thus convincing her to steal non-viable eggs from the tribe's nesting beds. Thanks to a powerful performance by the voice actress, Haxara's lines are eloquent with grief and pain as she discovers what Ree-Nakal has *really* been doing with those eggs and helps the player resolve the situation.]]

* The fact that Nocturnal herself is [[spoiler: the main antagonist for the Clockwork City DLC and the Summerset expansion here may be a tearjerker for Skyrim's Thieves Guild fans who were fond of her. Here, she is a far cry from how she was in Skyrim, being much more power-hungry, cruel, and even sadistic.]]

* [[spoiler: The fact that Nocturnal herself is the main antagonist for the Clockwork City DLC and the Summerset expansion here may be a tearjerker for Skyrim's Thieves Guild fans who were fond of her. Here, she is a far cry from how she was in Skyrim, being much more power-hungry, cruel, and even sadistic.]]

* The tragic tale of Aera Earth-Turner. Originally a simple farmer on Bleakrock Isle with her husband, son and daughter, she ends up losing her best friend and idol when the Daggerfall Covenant invade and take over the island. Then, in Bal Foyen, depending whether the player chooses to help Fort Zeren or the Docks, she either loses her daughter or her husband and son. Despite her surviving family member(s) best efforts, Aera only sinks further and further into depression, ultimately finding no joy in anything other than slaughtering the Covenant forces who destroyed her life. [[spoiler:Finally, she is approached by Thallik Wormfather and manipulated into acting as their mole in the Rift with the promise of being able to see her dead family member(s) one last time. Depending on the player's choice, she is ultimately either executed as a traitor, or exiled from Pact lands for the rest of her life.]]

* In Summerset, [[spoiler: Darien Gautier's sacrifice. After being thought to be dead, he finally returns to the spotlight as the Golden Knight of Meridia and you two catch up on old times during the main questline. During the final push against Nocturnal, he figures out who he is and sacrifices himself to reforge the Dawnbreaker to enable you to get past the last barrier before Nocturnal herself. Ultimately, it turns out he isn't dead, but he will be soon. At the very least, he will lose his memories of the player and his friends Skordo and Gabrielle, as stated in his final words to you that you may find after the Council meeting.]]

* The tragic tale of Aera Earth-Turner. Originally a simple farmer on Bleakrock Isle with her husband, son and daughter, she ends up losing her best friend and idol when the Daggerfall Covenant invade and take over the island. Then, in Bal Foyen, depending whether the player chooses to help Fort Zeren or the Docks, she either loses her daughter or her husband and son. Despite her surviving family member(s) best efforts, Aera only sinks further and further into depression, ultimately finding no joy in anything other than slaughtering the Covenant forces who destroyed her life. [[spoiler:Finally, she is approached by Thallik Wormfather and manipulated into acting as their mole in the Rift with the promise of being able to see her dead family member(s) one last time. Depending on the player's choice, she is ultimately either executed as a traitor, or exiled from Pact lands for the rest of her life.]]

* The Memory Stone quest in the Morrowind expansion. [[spoiler:An elderly Dunmer, Gilan Lerano, requires your help in placing memory stones throughout nearby locations just outside of town. As you do, you see the day he proposed to his wife, the day she announced her pregnancy and the day that she died. He thanks you for your aid when you are done and asks that you speak with Mils and Neria, his children. After sending them your way, you go back only for all of you to find him dead. On his corpse is one last memory stone, with him saying how proud he is of his children and that he loves them and asks for their forgiveness.]]

* The Memory Stone quest in the Morrowind expansion. [[spoiler:An elderly Dunmer, Gilan Lerano, requires your help in placing memory stones throughout nearby locations just outside of town. As you do, you see the day he proposed to his wife, the day she announced her pregnancy and the day that she died. He thanks you for your aid when you are done and asks that you speak with Mils and Neria, his children. After sending them your way, you go back only for all of you to find him dead. On his corpse is one last memory stone, with him saying how proud he is of his children and that he loves them and asks for their forgiveness.'']]

* The Soul-Meld Mage quest in Coldharbour. Two mages - the Dunmer Gadris and the Khajiit Zur - are in a state where both of their souls occupy one body, but they need your help to split them apart because it is killing them. In the end, you learn that [[spoiler:the process will save only one of them, and you must decide. If you choose Gadris, he says that he feels empty now and grieves over the Khajiit he was once so annoyed by: ''"I'm not sure if I will ever be all right, but I live. I'm ashamed that I thought Zur was silly and scatterbrained. My time melded to him taught me so much. Zur had... a good soul."'']]

* In Greenshade, there's a pair of simple quests, completely unrelated other than being available in close proximity to one another, and the fact that both have zero combat involved.
** One is navigating the Labyrinth to learn the origin of the quest giver. [[spoiler: While in context, it just seems like he was the Wilderking's friend when he was mortal, if you've helped a certain other NPC become the Wilderqueen, you realize that the role you played for her was the same the quest giver played for the first Wilderking.]]
*** [[spoiler:The Wilderqueen's quest itself is sad. When growing up, Aranias didn't have friends - only her emotionally abusive parents and her power to control the land, which she [[PowerIncontinence couldn't entirely control]] - so it's no surprise that she clung to the Veiled Heritance, who valued her for her power. You help create false memories in her mind in which you were a friend there to support her through the rough times and convince her that the Heritance has darker motives. She then decides on her own to turn against them, and learns that she must take up the mantle of the Wilderqueen. She's terrified, partly because she'll lose her memories - even if the only good ones are with you. It's heartbreaking to see, once she makes the transformation and gains acceptance of her new role, that her personality is draining away and her voice is becoming more mechanical. The still-lingering part is thankful for all that you have done for her, though.]]

** The second is even simpler: A Bosmer and his husband have come to this place at the end of their lives, only desiring to see the beautiful flowers before they pass on. Sadly, the flowers they remember aren't in the area, so you're tasked with retrieving the seeds so at least they can plant them. When you go to retrieve the seeds, you are treated to flashbacks of their life and love, and what the flowers mean to them. When you finally return to the couple, the ailing one has passed on, and the quest giver will soon follow due to how Bosmer marriages work. When you finish the quest and hear the few sweet words from the quest giver, the illusory flowers you saw during the quest appear, and remain for some time...

* A quest in the Orsinium DLC features you going to rescue an Orc hunting party, only to find that one of them is a Khajit, Zhasim, who was adopted by Orcs after being found out in the cold, and he joins you through the rest of the cave you're in to find his cat. While traveling with him, he mentions that as much as he feels at home in his Orc clan, he does sometimes long to know more about his Khajit heritage, occasionally mimicking the [[ThirdPersonPerson quirks of]] [[BriefAccentImitation Khajiti dialect]]. [[spoiler: Along the way, however, he finds shreds of paper with games and riddles on them from his mother, a travelling merchant who, along with Zhasim's father, perished in the cave you're exploring. Through these notes and games, Zhasim discovers his real name (Elzhar), learns of his heritage, and eventually decides that, while he's still an Orc, he'd still like to embrace his heritage, and decides to become an apprentice to a merchant before he hopefully heads to Khenarthi's Roost to learn more about his parents and their clan]].

* An early quest in the Daggerfall Covenant region of Glenumbra has the scion of a wealthy family trying to take back his ancestral estate. His father lived there, but apparently never mentioned it. A spirit is preventing him from entering the ruins of the estate, and he wants you to get rid of it. [[spoiler: as you advance in the quest, you learn that the spirit was a servant at the estate, and that she fell in love with the father. He loved her too (apparently) and gave her an amulet his mother had given to him with instructions to give it to the woman he was going to marry. When his mother found the amulet in the girls possession, she assumed it was stolen and was ready to hack the girl to death with what appears to be a battleaxe. The girl begged her lover to tell his mother how she felt, but he didn't. The girl was locked in a tower and then we find the saddest part. She was pregnant. She gave her child to a Daedric lord to protect him and get revenge on the family.]]

* An early quest in the Daggerfall Covenant region of Glenumbra has the scion of a wealthy family trying to take back his ancestral estate. His father lived there, but apparently never mentioned it. A spirit is preventing him from entering the ruins of the estate, and he wants you to get rid of it. [[spoiler: as you advance in the quest, you learn that the spirit was a servant at the estate, and that she fell in love with the father. He loved her to (apparently) and gave her an amulet his mother had given to him with instructions to give it to the woman he was going to marry. When his mother found the amulet in the girls possession, she assumed it was stolen and was ready to hack the girl to death with what appears to be a battleaxe. The girl begged her lover to tell his mother how she felt, but he didn't. The girl was locked in a tower and then we find the saddest part. She was pregnant. She gave her child to a Daedric lord to protect him and get revenge on the family.]]

--->'''The Wilderqueen:''' ''"Aranias is slipping away. You are my friend, though, whoever I become."''

* [[spoiler: King Dynar's death]] at the end of the Coldharbor questline.

* The entirety of The Two Moons path, from start to finish it rips your heart out and stomps it into little pieces.

* There are quite a few during the Mage's Guild quest line. Most involve looking into Valaste's past and seeing the very lonely childhood she suffered and how she considered books to be her only friends. [[spoiler: Then at the end of the quest, her state of mind when Sheogorath has driven her mad through the books she translated is just heartrending.]]

* There are quite a few during the Mage's Guild quest line. Most involve looking into Valaste's past and seeing the very lonely childhood she suffered and how she considered books to be her only friends. [[spoiler: Then at the end of the quest her state of mind when Sheogarth has driven her mad through the books she translated is just heartrending.]]

** The second is even simpler: A Bosmer and his husband have come to this place at the end of their lives, only desiring to see the beautiful flowers before they pass on. Sadly, the flowers they remember aren't in the area, so you're tasked with retrieving the seeds so at least they can plant them. When you go to retrieve the seeds, you are treated to flashbacks of their life and love, and what the flowers mean to them. When you finally return to the couple, the ailing one has passed on, and the quest giver will soon follow due to how Bosmer marriages work. When you finish the quest and hear the few sweet words from the quest giver, the illusory flowers you saw during the quest appear, and remain for some time...

** One is navigating the Labyrinth to learn the origin of the quest giver. [[spoiler]]While in context, it just seems like he was the Wilderking's friend when he was mortal, if you've helped a certain other NPC become the Wilderqueen, you realize that the role you played for her was the same the quest giver played for the first Wilderking.[[/spoiler]]

** One is navigating the Labyrinth to learn the origin of the quest giver. [spoiler]While in context, it just seems like he was the Wilderking's friend when he was mortal, if you've helped a certain other NPC become the Wilderqueen, you realize that the role you played for her was the same the quest giver played for the first Wilderking.[/spoiler]

* There's a quest in one of the Ebonheart areas where a young Dunmer woman asks you to find the tomb of the man she loved. When you do, you speak to his ghost - and his wife's ghost - and he reveals that he never really loved her; he was just having fun leading her on, and his wife found it amusing too. You have the option to tell her about it, and upon learning it, she'll run off, upset. She appears in the area shortly afterward as a ghost - just to see her there, not part of any quest or anything - which implies that she committed suicide.

* There's a quest in one of the Ebonheart areas where a young Dunmer woman asks you to find the tomb of the man she loved. When you do, you speak to his ghost - and his wife's ghost - and he reveals that he never really loved her; he was just having fun leading her on, and his wife found it amusing too. You have the option to tell her about it, and upon learning it, she'll run off, upset. She appears in the area shortly afterward as a ghost - just to see her there, not part of any quest or anything - which implies that she committed suicide.
** This sounds eerily similar to a ''FableII'' quest.

* There's a quest in one of the Ebonheart areas where a young Dunmer woman asks you to find the tomb of the man she loved. When you do, you speak to his ghost - and his wife's ghost - and he reveals that he never really loved her; he was just having fun leading her on, and his wife found it amusing too. You have the option to tell her about it, and upon learning it, she'll run off, upset. She appears in the area shortly afterward as a ghost - just to see her there, not part of any quest or anything - which implies that she committed suicide.