The Elder Scrolls Online announced two new companions it is adding to the game with one of them being a gender confused High Elf named Tanlorin, who is voiced by the drag king Vico Ortiz.

A screenshot from The Elder Scrolls Online (2014), ZeniMax Online Studios

The official The Elder Scrolls Online account on X shared, “Meet ESO’s two newest Companions, ready to aid you across Tamriel: Tanlorin and Zerith-Var! Both will be available when Update 44 launches, either in the Crown Store or included with an ESO Plus membership.”

In a subsequent post, the company provided a profile on Tanlorin and referred to the character using “themselves.” It posted, “Tanlorin Profile: Brash and energetic, Tanlorin finds themselves in a plot that could change the course of the Aldmeri Dominion.”

It then revealed that Tanlorin is a High Elf, wears medium armor, and wields daggers. The characters perk provides various lockpicking advantage. Finally, it shared that the character is voiced by Vico Ortiz.

 

As for the second character, the company shared that “Zerith-Var is a member of an ancient order of Khajiit priests, harnessing necromancy to redeem fallen souls.”

Furthermore, it revealed that he’s a Khajiit, wears heavy armor, and wields a two-handed greatsword. His perk assists in finding heavy sacks. He’s voiced by Darin De Paul.

Gamers are none too pleased about the inclusion of Tanlorin and are letting developer Zenimax Online Studios know. One wrote, “pointless virtue signaling. these companies never learn.”

 

Another posted, “‘Themselves’ FOR F**K SAKE HAVE YOU IDIOTS LEARNED NOTHING FROM CONCORDS FAILIURE?! people don’t want s**t like this.”

 

Still another corrected the company simply writing, “*Herself”

Another wrote, “And to no one’s surprise, she has blue hair. I’m so glad I quit this game.”

 

“Get this bulls**t out of the game,” wrote one user.

 

Another posted, “Gender: Mental illness. Got it.”

Games journalists such as James Troughton at TheGamer are already attempting to defend the inclusion of the character and its promotion of a disordered lifestyle. His main defense is that queer characters have been in the game for a long time and he points to the Daedric Princes specifically Molag Bal. Troughton also points to Emperor Antiochus Septim as well as Vivec the Living God of Morrowind.

However, Molag Bal is literally the main antagonist of The Elder Scrolls Online and he wants to devour and enslave the souls of mortals and attempts to sow chaos, strife, and discord throughout mortal lands,

A screenshot from The Elder Scrolls Online (2014), ZeniMax Online Studios

As for Septim, The Brief History of the Empire, Book I, states, “Antiochus was certainly of the more flamboyant members of the usually austere Septim Family. He had numerous mistresses and nearly as many wives, and was renowned for the grandeur of his dress and his high good humor. Unfortunately, his reign was rife with civil war, surpassing even that of his grandfather Uriel II.

He is clearly depicted as a degenerate and seemingly a terrible ruler. He is not depicted as someone to emulate or a role model by any means.

Finally, Vivec is no hero either despite being worshipped by the Dunmer. He had a “marriage” to Molag Bal, unleashed monstrous children into the world, and even rewrote his own history in order to portray himself in a good light.

And as noted by YouTuber FudgeMuppet, “It is important to remember that Vivec is also known to the Dunmer as the transcendent evolution of the Daedra that anticipated him, Black Hands Mepahala, a foundation figure for the earliest Chimer.”

Having these characters that are disordered depicted as evil or at the very least having a darker side and not at all heroic is extremely important. Arkwright Cycle novelist Brian Niemeier noted back in 2023 that Hollywood was able to propagandize disordered and degenerate lifestyles by having audiences identify with protagonists living those lifestyles.

He explained, “Hollywood learned through long trial and error to make the protagonist as likeable and relatable to audiences as possible. The idea is to make audiences identify with the hero.”

“And the way it happened was by Hollywood churning out decades of movies wherein heroes whom audiences identified with achieved their goals by acting according to the Death Cult’s morals,” he elaborated.

Niemeier reiterated, “To bring movie audiences around to your way of thinking, show characters they like being successful by acting in line with your moral standard.”

A screenshot from The Elder Scrolls Online (2014), ZeniMax Online Studios

This is exactly what The Elder Scrolls Online is now doing. The company is attempting to normalize disordered lifestyles by introducing this companion to the player character have the character aid the player on their adventures and quests.

Instead of these disordered and degenerate lifestyles being depicted as objectively evil and only lived by utterly demonic entities such as Molag Bal or practiced by degenerate kings that almost destroyed their kingdoms such as Antiochus Septim, there are now “heroic” characters such as Tanlorin aiding the player character.

A screenshot from The Elder Scrolls Online (2014), ZeniMax Online Studios

What do you make of the introduction of this gender confused character?