Tel Var Stones are new “currency” in ESO that can be earned within the Imperial City location only and spent for cool pieces of gear or crafting resources at special trading posts. It’s a new mechanics that makes gameplay much more interesting.

Let’s start from the lore. The lore of Elder Scrolls Online tells that these stones are small pieces of the White-Gold Tower splintered from the structure during Molag Bal's attempt to pull the tower into Coldharbour. They contain some sort of unknown arcane power and therefore are valuable. Different enchanters and mages are looking for these stones in order to use their power. But for us they are valuable because we can receive some cool stuff exchanging them at special store.

Reasons to Collect Tel Var Stones
There are 4 major reasons to collect Tel Var Stones:
1.You can exchange them for different pieces of 6 new gear sets: Shieldbreaker, Meritorious Service, Black Rose, Phoenix Armor, Powerful Assault and Reactive Armor.

2.You can exchange them for special lockboxes of green and blue quality. These lockboxes contain random item that belongs to one of the sets listed above.

3.You can exchange the stones for VR15 and VR16 crafting materials for all professions. You can also receive Charcoal of Remorse that is required for crafting in Xivkyn style.

4.You can spend them to get a special teleporting stone called Sigil of Imperial Retreat. This item teleports you to your alliance’s home base from any place in the Imperial City. This item is magical and it takes time to cast. It can be used only once but it allows to bring your Tel Var Stones back to the safe place.

The great thing about these rewards is that you can sell all the items except Sigil of Imperial Retreat to other players. This can be a very good source of income.

Where to exchange?
very alliance has its base in the Imperial City. This base is a safe place. There is a special room inside every base where special Tel Var merchants are standing and waiting for you.
Tel Var Armorer - sells superior-quality pieces of item sets.
Great Armorer - sells epic-quality pieces of item sets.
Lockbox merchant – sells green-quality lockboxes
Greater Lockbox merchant – sells blue-quality lockboxes.
General merchants – sell crafting resources and Sigil of Imperial Retreat.

How to Collect?
You can receive Tel Var Stones within the Imperial City only! When you enter this location you will see a new counter in your User Interface. This counter appears in the bottom-right part of the screen. It shows the amount of the stones you currently have and the multiplier (the role of multiplier is described below). Note, that you can see this UI when you are in the Imperial City only! It will disappear after you exit this location.

You don’t need to loot the currency. It will be automatically added when you receive it. There are several ways to receive the stones:
Killing Other Players
Imperial City is a PvP location and you will meet a lot of enemy players. When you kill representative of other faction you receive ALL the stones he is carrying with him. If you like to PvP this is another great reward for your success.

If the enemy you killed didn’t have stones you will get nothing.

Killing Monsters
You receive different amount of Tel Var Stones when you kill different monsters. The amount you receive depends on the strength of the monster, on the number of players and on your current multiplier. The multiplier rewards you for carrying the stones with you. The more arcane currency you have with you, the more you receive from killing monsters.

The amount of stones you receive also depends on the number of players who took part in battle and is spitted between all of them in relatively equal shares. For example if 6 players are fighting against a boss with 600 pieces of arcane currency and kill him, 4 players will receive 67 stones and 2 players will get 66. It's completely random who will get the smaller share.

Loosing Tel Var Stones
You can lose or gain Tel Var Stones within the Imperial City only! If you are in other locations you can’t gain or lose them.

If other player kills you, he will take all the stones you were carrying with you. That’s the most important rule you need to know. On the one hand carrying a lot of arcane currency is great because you have increased multiplier and thus receive much more from killing monsters. But on the other hand you can lose all Tel Var currency if you are killed by player.

If you are killed by a monster within the Imperial City you lose 10% of the stones you have with you.

Saving Arcane Currency
As you see saving Tel Var currency is very important because it’s easy to lose it. There are several ways to save your stones:
1.You can deposit them in your personal bank. They will be safe there and you will not be able to lose them. But there is a limit: you need to deposit at least 50 pieces at once. Of course if you deposit all the currency you multiplier will decrease.

2.You can place the stones inside a special box in your inventory. This box can be received as a reward for special quest in the Imperial City. Tel Var Stone box allows you to place certain amount of your currency inside and save it from losing. Your multiplier scale will also decrease.
The box can be opened at any place if you think that the risk is worth it. For example you can do this to increase multiplier before fighting with a big Boss.

Always keep in mind that the amount of the stones you are carrying unsafe affects the multiplier! Every player has to choose if he wants to keep his multiplier high with a risk of losing all the aracne currency, or to deposit the currency and lower the multiplier. High risk = high gains.