General:Imperial City Guide: Tel Var Stones

Originally published July 31, 2015. The original article can be found here.

500px|thumb|center|With the Imperial City DLC game pack, we introduce Tel Var Stones. You can find, spend, and possibly even lose this alternative currency while exploring the Imperial City.

What are Tel Var Stones?
The Tel Var Stones are small magically-imbued fragments of the White-Gold Tower splintered from the structure by the stresses of Molag Bal's attempt to pull it into Coldharbour. Tel Var Stones possess magicka and mystical varliance in a previously-unknown combination of arcane power, and are therefore of value to anyone experimenting with enchantments. The Imperial City seems to be the only place they can be found, so a booming trade has sprung up around them. No one knows how many Tel Var Stones exist, or how long they'll retain their magical valence, so trade in them is brisk. 

The Tel Var Stones System
There are several ways to get your hands on these prized stones. Every monster in the Imperial Sewers and the six Imperial Districts has a chance to drop Tel Var Stones. Monsters in the PvE components of the Imperial City (in the Imperial Prison and the White-Gold Tower dungeons) do not drop these stones.

The more challenging a monster is, the greater the reward. Normal monsters usually carry only eight Tel Var Stones, while boss monsters carry 500 of them. Also, you will occasionally see Cunning Scamps running around in the Imperial Sewers, trying to reach a portal. If you manage to kill one of these slippery little Daedra before they escape, they carry a generous amount of Tel Var Stones, too. But be careful pursuing them!

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You can also find Tel Var Stones by killing player characters of an opposing alliance. Assuming that a player character you defeat is carrying stones, you'll gain most of the stones that he or she was carrying! (More about that below.)

Any Tel Var Stones you might get are distributed evenly among all who took part in the battle. For example, if your group of four manages to kill a boss monster in the sewers that had 500 stones, each of you will get 125 Tel Var Stones—an even split of the spoils. If you kill the same boss with six players, four of you will receive 83 stones and two will get 84 stones. It's completely random who will get the smaller share.

Tel Var Stones can also be found in treasure chests within the Imperial City. Of course, if you open and loot a chest all the stones inside will become yours – although you might want to thank friends who had your back while you were busy opening a chest in a PvP zone!

Whenever you earn Tel Var Stones, they are automatically credited to a separate UI element in the lower right corner of your screen. This UI becomes visible as soon as you enter the Imperial City, and disappears when you leave it. You don't have to worry about looting Tel Var Stones, you automatically loot them. Because of this, Tel Var Stones can't be traded, sent via mail, or destroyed. They don't take up any of your precious inventory space, either! They're magical like that. 

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The UI will show you the amount of Tel Var Stones you carry, as well as your current Tel Var Stone gain multiplier. The multiplier rewards you for taking a risk and carrying all those stones with you. The multiplier increases the amount of stones you get from monsters (but not player characters.) It's based on the amount of Tel Var Stones you carry. Here's a rough break-down of how it works:
When you carry more than 100 Tel Var Stones but less than 1,000, the amount of stones you get from monsters in the Imperial City is doubled.
When you carry more than 1,000 Tel Var Stones but less than 10,000, the amount of stones you get from monsters in the Imperial City is tripled.
When you carry more than 10,000 Tel Var Stones, you will get four stones instead of one for every stone you loot from a dead monster! You crazy risk-taker, you.
Going back to the example above: If you kill a boss monster worth 500 Tel Var Stones with a group of four friends, and you are already carrying 4,000 stones, while your friends have 600, 100, and 10 respectively, you will earn 375 stones, while your friends will get 250, 250, and 125.

Risk Versus Reward
Since Tel Var Stones are so sought after and valuable, there is also a chance that you could lose yours. If a monster within the Imperial City manages to kill your character, you will lose 10% of the stones you were carrying. If an enemy player kills your character within the Imperial City, you will lose 80% of the Tel Var Stones you were carrying—and that enemy player will get all of them (split among anyone who helped to subdue you.) You will be able to see the amount of stones you lost in your death recap window. You can't lose Tel Var Stones outside the Imperial City (Districts and Sewers.)

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In order to prevent high loses, you can deposit your Tel Var Stones in your personal bank; any banker in Tamriel is more than happy to accept them. All the Tel Var Stones in your bank are safe and can't be lost if your player character dies in the Imperial City. Of course, after you deposited your stones and carry no more on you, your multiplier will reset, too.

For those who want to avoid any risk, we've added quests, including repeatable ones, in the Imperial City that will reward you with a Tel Var Stone box. Unlike with Tel Var Stones you get by killing monsters and enemy-alliance player characters, you won't lose these boxes if your character is slain. You can take these boxes to your home base, open them in safety, and deposit all the Tel Var Stones inside straight into your bank. Doing so will prevent these stones from increasing your multiplier, but it keeps them safe. Or you just open them right where you got them … deciding if the risk is worth it is up to you! 

All Those Riches!

Each alliance's home base in the Imperial Sewers contains a Tel Var Stone Exchange room in which different types of merchants are more than willing to take your hard-earned stones in exchange for other riches. 

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Tel Var Armorer and Greater Armorer sell armor for six new sets. These sets are Black Rose, Meritorious Service, Phoenix Armor, Powerful Assault, Reactive Armor, and Shieldbreaker. The Tel Var Armorer merchants sells superior-quality items while the Tel Var Greater Armorer merchants sells epic-quality Items.
Tel Var Lockbox and Greater Lockbox merchants sell lockboxes which contain an unidentified item that is part of the new sets mentioned above. You can pick the set you want an item from, but you won't know exactly which piece you will get! The Lockbox merchant sells fine-quality lockboxes and the Greater Lockbox merchant sells superior-quality ones. In addition, you can also purchase Unknown and Superior Imperial Reward lockboxes. These boxes include items from all the item sets sold from the Tel Var vendor; the set, trait, slot and weight are completely random. However, these boxes also occasionally contain rare rewards that cannot be obtained anywhere else!
The Tel Var General Merchants focus their business on the needs of crafters. They sell VR15 and VR16 crafting materials for most professions, as well as the Charcoal of Remorse you need to create armor and weapons in the new Xivkyn style. As a special (and expensive) treat, he also sells the Sigil of Imperial Retreat in exchange for Alliance Points, a magical stone which will teleport you straight back to your alliance's home base from anywhere in the Imperial City. This sigil will take some time to do its magic and it will be depleted after one use, but it allows you to bring your Tel Var Stones back to safety quicker than traveling on foot! In addition, you can also purchase filled Grand Soul Gems for Alliance Points.

It's also worth noting that most of the items you can buy with Tel Var Stones can be sold and traded with other players (this excludes lockboxes).

Happy Tel Var Stone Hunting!

The Tel Var Stones system adds another layer of excitement and risk to the engaging fights against monsters and enemy-alliance players in the Imperial City. Will you play it safe and deposit every 50, saving up for the items you want? Or will you risk it all to max out your gains modifier for a massive boost? Both are viable approaches!

Discuss this on the official ESOTU forums.