Every year, The Elder Scrolls Online community rallies to host in-game Pride marches, offering gamers who can’t go out in person a chance to be included in the celebrations. In video games, being LGBTQ+ often means painting a rainbow target on your back, so the defiance of the crowd as they show everyone that they’re here and aren’t going anywhere is every bit as uplifting as taking to the streets in the real world. And despite the challenges that the LGBTQ+ community faces in 2025, the community remains steadfast in celebrating its diversity and queerness.
I spoke to Apollonia666 from the Alphabet Mafia guild, the organisers of the PC-NA march this year; RadagastTheRainbow from Amaranthine Vanguard, one of the event’s top donors, donating over 52 million gold to the prize pool; Lyris, a Twitch partner, member of the ESO Stream Team, and professional violinist (part of the Indigo Girls band), who has been overseeing the Chimera Syndicate guild since 2019; as well as Prismatic guild founder Argyro to discuss the challenges they’re facing and what they hope to see from the celebrations.
“Alphabet Mafia was started in January 2021,” Apollonia666 tells me. “We strive to be Tamriel’s friendliest LGBTQIA+ guild and provide a safe space for our members to be themselves.”
As one of the guild’s seven fittingly titled Consiglieres, Apollonia666 has all the right experience to make the Alphabet Mafia a welcoming space for queer gamers. She has been an out and proud bisexual, even working for an LGBTQIA+ non-profit organisation in New York City, for over 30 years, and it’s that expertise and rich history that are at the heart of Tamriel Pride this year.
I was so proud of my guildies for showing support to Alphabet Mafia’s efforts. It’s so important to have community right now, and seeing how much they rallied around Pride made my heart soar! — RadagastTheRainbow.
Apollonia666 stressed to me that it’s a group effort, but she has quickly become the face of the march, sharing announcements, hosting the FAQ, updating everyone on each of the themed contests, and making the whole event a friendly, inviting affair. It’s hardly surprising that Alphabet Mafia has managed to pool over 120 million gold in donations, pulling the community together for a variety of events beyond the march to make Pride a truly collaborative environment.
“We Haven’t Heard From Zenimax At All”
Unfortunately, however, the community has been going it alone. Prior marches were openly supported by Zenimax, with blogs spotlighting streamers and hosting official contests, while server changes were made to accommodate the parades. This year is a little different.
“We haven’t heard from ZOS [Zenimax Online Studios] at all,” Apollonia666 says. “We’ve tried to reach out, but haven’t had any luck getting responses. I hope they’re at least planning on merging instances for us because we expect a big crowd! It would be nice if they had some mods keeping an eye out for harassment during the events, too.”
ZOS did reach out to Rose Guilds about supporting the PC-EU event with a blog post, but as of writing, the Alphabet Mafia hasn’t heard anything.
It’s a sentiment echoed across guilds, with many on the NA side disappointed in the lack of communication this year. “I’ll say that ZOS have always done a great job of including LGBT+ stories, but I do wish they would play a more active role in tampering the bigotry that is growing,” RadagastTheRainbow says. “It’s sad to see out and proud streamers having to walk away due to harassment.”
“I have my own theories, which I won’t speculate on beyond saying that I don’t think it’s entirely the devs’ decision, as to why ZOS’ public support of LGBTQ+ initiatives has been drastically reduced as of late,” Argyro adds. “People are very upset, and I think reasonably so, given current events. Having built my community to address this type of exclusion, it’s disappointing, and it does hurt a bit that they have been largely silent on these matters.
Argyro founded Prismatic in 2019 to address the lack of dedicated social spaces for marginalised players, allowing its members to be their authentic selves.
“That being said, I do see and appreciate the work the ESO devs are putting into the game to make sure we are seen and included, and considering how supportive they have been in the past, I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt. I believe, or at the very least I hope, that this absence is only temporary, that they are still with us, and it’s just that this is the most direct way they are able to address it right now.”
Even with a lack of support this year, it’s hard to overstate just how forward-thinking The Elder Scrolls Online and the series as a whole have been.
Daedric Princes are genderless, gods are indifferent or even supportitive of same-sex marriage (just look at Mara and the ceremonies in Skyrim), while recurring fan-favourite characters like Naryu and Jakarn are queer, without that ever being treated as abnormal in this world. Just last year, Zenimax introduced a non-binary companion, and when the backlash inevitably came and gamers cried that they don’t belong, narrative director Bill Slavicsek told them that “They’re wrong.” Acceptance and being yourself are at the heart of ESO to this day.
“In a world with magic, dragons who alter the fabric of space and time, entire legitimate pantheons of gods, an infinite number of realms and planes of Oblivion, and people whose physiology can vary in extreme ways depending on the phases of the moons, in a world which is literally a dream, the fact that some players want to draw the line at queer people existing in a way that is visible is downright absurd,” Argyro tells me.
Diminished support or no, queerness continues to be ever-present in ESO, and it’s exactly why the game has fostered such an accepting and diverse community, making it one of the most welcoming MMOs in the space. It’s why Apollonia666 is passionate enough to put herself out there and host a Pride march, and why so many are willing to walk the streets with her.
The Elder Scrolls franchise and The Elder Scrolls Online have always included us quite extensively. Our existence is continually reinforced in the lore. It is a normal, natural part of the setting — Argyro.
“I played World of Warcraft years ago, and the player base there was often cartoonishly toxic and homophobic, so much so that I didn’t play another MMO for about ten years until I decided to try ESO,” Apollonia666 explains. “I’ve gotten to know so many hilarious, witty, beautiful souls through our guild, and they make the game super fun. I do wish ZOS would do better by the LGBTQIA+ community, but it’s no surprise that a lot of corporations have become cowardly about Pride.”
Lyris is likewise far more committed to her guild, championing other queer people whether Zenimax is involved or not; “I play ESO for the community,” she tells me. “[Chimera Syndicate] has been a huge part of why I play. For me, maintaining this safe space for queer folks, organizing events, hosting raids, and teaching new players are the most rewarding and fun parts of the game.”
“If We Leave, The Haters Win”
Unfortunately, it’s not just a lack of Zenimax support that Alphabet Mafia has had to contend with. The dedicated Discord doesn’t allow replies, due to the outpouring of “hateful speech” that caused an earlier Tamriel Pride server to be shut down. Likewise, the initial Reddit thread announcing the march was locked due to an outpouring of negative comments, and over on Facebook…well, you can take a guess. Admins weren’t much help. But that hasn’t dissuaded Apollonia666.
“[The Reddit thread got] 101,000 views, so I think it still accomplished the goal of helping to get the word out,” she says. “We know we’re reaching a lot of people who are happy to learn there’s a Pride event and want to participate, and that’s whose opinions we care about.”
It doesn’t surprise me, really, if anything, it just shows how sorely events like this are needed. We can’t let it deter us… Even though others may try to bring us down, we will continue to support and celebrate one another. — Argyro.
Thankfully, in-game, things are much more positive. “I have noticed an uptick in overall bigoted views and interactions all over social media,” RadagastTheRainbow adds, “But I will say that the majority of ESO in-game players have been nothing but supportive. I made a Pride outfit, and folks are always wishing me ‘happy Pride’ when they see me.”
Even without the support of ZOS, Tamriel Pride 2025 is a significant step up from 2024. As most of the major streamers who had historically hosted the event stepped away from the game, the celebrations were more disjointed. Without a community-wide effort, many were concerned that parades at the scale we’d seen in past years would never happen again.
As Argyro explains, “[2024’s] Pride was only in the beginning stages of planning before it fell through, leaving many guilds scrambling to organise their own events for the community. The future of Tamriel Pride was pretty uncertain. This year, Alphabet Mafia took the initiative to organise a large event themselves”.
They hope to see the foundations laid by Alphabet Mafia built upon in future years, and that “Tamriel Pride can be a more community-organised event going forward”, avoiding a repeat of 2024. We’re already seeing this unfold with the plans for tomorrow’s march, as Apollonia666 tells me that they will “have a team of volunteers screenshotting and reporting haters” while various guild leaders coordinate their responses to ensure that nobody gets in the way.
The community is ready to march across Auridon tomorrow in a proud, expressive display: the barriers have done little to knock anyone down. In fact, the sentiment from so many leading the charge is one of hope and, fittingly, pride.
Apollonia666 shared with me a touching message from a donor, which encapsulates that communal feeling perfectly: “Thank you for hosting this event. Being chronically ill, I haven’t been able to go to an IRL Pride in about 20 years,” the in-game mail reads. It’s a warming moment of connection between two strangers, and it’s this bond that Alphabet Mafia, and everyone else involved in the march — both on PC-NA and across other regions and consoles — hopes to see taken even further in the coming years.
“Pride is important every year, but this year, it has added urgency to it as queer folks are feeling the extreme bigotry and hatred fueled by so many in positions of power,” Lyris tells me. “At its heart, though, Pride is a shared bond that represents love, acceptance, and empowerment, and it has been vital for me to connect with people in this celebratory and joyful way. I hope that people are able to find connection and community through Pride. And I especially hope that the folks who need it the most find ways to celebrate and love each other and themselves.”
For some, Pride is a party, and while it can be, it’s also a protest. There are people who can’t go to a Pride march in real life, or folks who may not feel safe enough because of where they live, and this lets them join and express who they are. We as people need to be vocal and visible more now than ever, and that includes online spaces like ESO — RadagastTheRainbow.
“My hope is that, with Tamriel Pride 2025, we grow more united as a playerbase,” Argyro says. “Maybe that means newer or returning players, or longtime players still searching for a community, are able to find a guild where they don’t feel like they have to hide who they are to be accepted, where they will be appreciated instead of ridiculed.
“Maybe it means a solo-player will see that, even though they choose to not participate much on the social side of things, there are people in game who see and support them, and will be there if they ever do choose to become more socially engaged. Maybe it even means that someone will see the outpouring of community support and love, and have a change of heart.”
You can find out more about tomorrow’s Pride march, as well as the other region and platform events, on the Discord here.