Let me simplify this for you. Those fiery gates start showing up once you get going with the main story, and the first one youll see is right outside kvatch. Things really kick into gear after you bring that amulet to jauffre and from there youll start seeing them pop up all over cyrodiil. There are some gates that always appear in specific spots which is good to know for quests, but most just show up randomly across the map. Something interesting - while there are about 100 possible spots where they can appear, youll only ever see 60 gates max in one playthrough.

The whole system is pretty neat especially with the updated visuals and smarter enemies. You can spot them from pretty far away thanks to those burning rings in the sky, and the whole area gets this creepy red glow when youre close. Maybe worth mentioning that if you want to be done with them completely, finishing the main quest will shut them all down for good. And hey if youre planning to close some gates, the sigil stones you get are actually better when youre at a higher level so keep that in mind