Everything We Know About The Elder Scrolls VI

The Elder Scrolls VI – Going Beyond Skyrim

Now that we have official confirmation that The Elder Scrolls VI isn’t going to become the new Half-Life 3 thanks to the brief teaser shown at Bethesda’s E3 2018 conference, all Elder Scroll fans want is more information. How far into pre-production is Elder Scrolls VI? Where and when will it take place? What might we expect to see in it? Needless to say, we’ll eventually get definitive answers from Bethesda as production continues. But some of us just aren’t that patient. So while it looks like we’ll have to satiate our hunger for the next main Elder Scrolls game with new The Elder Scrolls Online and The Elder Scrolls: Legends content plus the release of The Elder Scrolls: Blades in the fall, I don’t see any harm in starting up the fan theories for Elder Scrolls VI immediately! Here is a potentially-overkill-in-length account of my thoughts on what we might expect from The Elder Scrolls VI and why.

Please note that while I will do my best to make this article easy to understand without a detailed knowledge of Elder Scrolls lore, etc., some of the things I’ll be looking at to give you the most inclusive look at what we might see does involve discussing some pretty esoteric lore.

Draw What You See, Not What You Know

Before getting into any predictions based on what I know about the Elder Scrolls universe and its lore, let’s first unpack what we see in the teaser trailer. And while we’re at it, let’s assume the teaser shows us where the game occurs and not, say, someone’s dream about to be ravaged by Vaermina the Daedric Prince of Nightmares or some Todd Howard BS like that.

Set to an increasingly intense and uniquely brassy rendition of the Elder Scrolls theme is a sweeping shot of a misty landscape. As the mist clears, we see mountainous terrain surrounding a lower-lying valley along some coastline. On the left there appears to be the ruins of some type of structure on the rim of some type of crater. It looks like the vegetation begins to get less sparse closer to the valley and crater area, as if the camera shows us moving from a more arid environment towards a rocky, semi-forested coastal location.

So, do any locations we’ve seen in the other Elder Scrolls games look like this? As it turns out, many places we’ve seen could fit this description, but so could some that we haven’t. For all we know, this game might not be on the continent of Tamriel like all previous games. It could be somewhere on Akavir or Atmora, for example. But because we’ve never seen a game set on a different continent, let’s focus on places in Tamriel for now.

A Totally Skippable Aside for Lore

Personally, I’m not going to factor in the sun’s angle to figure out which direction the camera faces nor am I going to look at the shape of the coastline in the teaser to find similarly shaped pieces of coastlines on other maps. It would be great to have this information to find matching locations in Tamriel, but I really don’t see either of these factors providing accurate information. Maybe The Game Theorists over on YouTube can do some calculations with the non-Earth physics of a fictional sun and planet or the many inconsistencies between in-game maps, but I am certainly not going to be focusing on whether or not I think Nirn has a tilted axis like Earth that will mess with the angle of sunlight we see in the teaser to find out where in Tamriel we might be looking at.

If you want to get technical with Elder Scrolls lore, the sun isn’t actually a celestial body of any kind. It’s basically a gaping hole in the universe that lets in the light emanating from Aetherius after this guy/god Magnus decided last minute to bail during the creation of the mortal realm of Mundus. Listen, I didn’t come up with it. I just know that it’ll make things kinda hazy if you use Earth physics on a fictitious, magical planet to try to pinpoint a location in Tamriel that matches the teaser. I’m leaving this nonsense for MatPat and co to deal with.

Back on Track

Guessing distance or camera direction aside, let’s look at the terrain and landmarks. Assuming the body of water is an ocean since we can see the horizon in the distance uninterrupted by land, we can’t immediately cross off any provinces because none of them are entirely landlocked. But based on the types of vegetation and terrain we see, I think we can reasonably discount all but the continental North-West coastal provinces of High Rock and Hammerfell. Skyrim would look snowier, Cyrodiil wouldn’t be quite that mountainous, Morrowind would look ashier, Black Marsh would look marshier, Elsweyr would look more flat or desert-like, Valenwood would look much more full of vegetation, the Summerset Isles would look more tropical or less rocky, and I’m counting Orsinium as an autonomous city-state within the province of High Rock, not as its own province.

It’s hard to say which of the two provinces we more likely see based on looks alone, but if I had to guess, I say we’re looking at High Rock. If there’s one outstanding feature about a place called High Rock, you better believe it has to do with the massive, but separated mountains that look like tall boulders. The high rocks, if you will.

Intentional Holes in the Story

Now about the giant crater I brought up earlier. If I wasn’t as familiar with the Elder Scrolls as I think I am, I might assume that this crater is just part of the landscape. And in fact, we might see a naturally formed crater or a red herring. However, I know that craters like what we see in the teaser are not exactly typical of any location we’ve seen. It’s possible this crater was included as a clue to Elder Scrolls VI‘s location.

A Crater-Based Case for Hammerfell

It’s possible that the crater and the crumbling structure are part of the ruined Dwarven city of Volenfell in Hammerfell as seen in ESO. Legend has it that when the Dwarves that established Volenfell were chased from their homeland, their leader threw his warhammer Volendrung and promised his people he would create a new home city wherever his hammer landed. Apparently the hammer’s impact upon landing was so great that it created a massive crater, just like the one in the teaser.

The problem I have with this theory is that in ESO, this city is a playable dungeon and it’s explorable because it had recently been uncovered by desert sands. There is no way the landscape we see in the teaser is in a desert. Not only do we not see any sand, but the first thing we see in the teaser is mist. Mist is a type of precipitation and a desert environment is not defined by the presence of sand, but rather by a lack of precipitation. It seems extremely unlikely to me that the crater is from the ruined city of Volenfell, although I admit this doesn’t disqualify the game from taking place in Hammerfell as a whole.

A Crater-Based Case for High Rock

As for High Rock and the crater, things could be a little more promising. But the reasons why are also a lot more obscure. In Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC, a wizard named Neloth will eventually give you radiant quests to retrieve staffs (staves?) that belonged to a mage called Azra Nightwielder. If Neloth’s dialog about Azra intrigues you enough to look up more about him, you’ll find that he appeared in The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey. Shadowkey is part of the spin-off series The Elder Scrolls Travels and was released in 2004 for the Nokia N-Gage. The more you know, amiright?

Apparently, Azra was the first person to discover that shadows in the Elder Scrolls world aren’t just a lack of light, they’re also the reflection of all possible worlds. So, shadows can effectively function as interdimensional portal guns from Rick and Morty if you know what you’re doing with shadow magic in the Elder Scrolls universe. But our friend Azra here didn’t want to use his shadow magic to explore other realities or create his own Citadel of Ricks. Oh no. Azra wanted to use his shadow to merge himself with every other version of himself from all possible realities. Yeah… he blew himself up when his shadow magic failed and made a giant crater around which people built a small town they named Azra’s Crossing. Fun fact — that’s exactly how my hometown was established. Pesky shadow magic.

The crater of Azra’s Crossing just so happens to be located right on the border of Hammerfell and High Rock, somewhat overlooking the Iliac Bay. It’s possible that the misty arid land at the beginning of the teaser is Hammerfell and the main focus of the teaser — the valley beyond the crater and the distant mountains — is High Rock. However, it’s unclear to me whether Azra’s Crossing is definitely located in High Rock or Hammerfell due to a number of conflicting maps. Surprise, surprise — maps from a 2004 Elder Scrolls spinoff made exclusively for the freaking Nokia N-Gage aren’t super clear and easy to read in comparison to newer, wider area maps. Either way, if the crater we see is Azra’s Crossing, it appears as though the area we see in the teaser would be High Rock and might indicate High Rock is the next setting.

I’ve also seen arguments that the crater is part of the North Kambrian Plateau in High Rock. The area used to have a number of hilltop forts until Tiber Septim destroyed them, so it’s possible the ruined structure we see gives proof of these forts. If this is the case, the teaser opens with misty shots of the Wrothgarian Mountains, but I’m unsure about the body of water we see. The Iliac Bay would not be visible on the left from the plateau if the camera came from the mountains. Which would mean that the body of water is the Eltheric Ocean, and I don’t think the plateau is as close to this ocean on a map as we see in the teaser. More importantly, a crater is the exact opposite of a plateau. I’m siding with the shadow magic on this front.

You Might Just Believe Your Eyes

Besides what we see in the teaser, from what we typically see in Elder Scrolls games, setting the next installment of the series in High Rock or Hammerfell does make sense. ESO has released or will release DLC or chapters focusing in Orsinium, Morrowind, the Summerset Isles, and Black Marsh, so Bethesda probably wouldn’t set a new main title in any of these locations at this time. They also probably wouldn’t set it in Skyrim or Cyrodiil, the location of the previous game and what I can only assume is the location of Blades (Blades features the Arena with a capital A, which is located in Cyrodiil). But why would High Rock or Hammerfell fit instead of a province like Elsweyr or a different continent? Wasn’t The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall already set in both High Rock and Hammerfell?

As a matter of fact, Daggerfall was set in both High Rock and Hammerfell, but I don’t think this is the strongest reason to rule out either province. The Elder Scrolls: Arena and ESO allow you to visit every province, plus DLC from Skyrim and Morrowind both take place on the island of Solstheim. It really depends on what the main plot will be about and the main plot of any core Elder Scrolls game isn’t generally going to be at all easy to predict. Usually, we see an extraordinary event arise in the midst of a constantly developing and often turbulent geopolitical climate. Later, I will bring up some possible main plot theories, although I don’t think this is something easily predicted based on the events of the previous game. For now, though, I’ll take a stab at making a case for High Rock based on where the geopolitical climate might be at in Tamriel for Elder Scrolls VI.

About the Elder Scrolls Timeline

Chronologically speaking, the main Elder Scrolls games typically release in order. Meaning Arena came out first and it’s the earliest main title in the timeline, while the more recent Skyrim is also the most recent game in the Elder Scrolls timeline. My money is on Elder Scrolls VI occuring after the events of Skyrim.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the defeat of Alduin in Skyrim causes the beginning of the 5th Era, seeing as how a dragon will no longer consume the world. But 5th Era or not, I don’t think VI will be set very far apart from Skyrim. Oblivion and Skyrim occur about 200 years apart, whereas the events of Elder Scrolls I-IV take place within about 50 years of each other. If I were Bethesda, I would use Blades to sort of fill in the gap of what happened between Oblivion and Skyrim. This way, longtime fans know more about what happened, but also people who’ve only played Skyrim get some context for what we might see in the next game.

Right now, I’m thinking Blades helps set up some context for the Great War that happened 30 years before Skyrim and that Elder Scrolls VI follows the ramifications of the outcome of the Stormcloak Rebellion, the assassination of Emperor Titus Mede II, and the development of the Thalmor Embassy/Aldmeri Dominion. Depending on how the Stormcloak Rebellion plays out, we could see Empire-controlled provinces start to loosen their ties with the Empire, or even cut them off entirely.

Other High Rock Theories

We could also see the Thalmor increase their grasp over provinces that wish to leave the Empire. In ESO, the Bretons of High Rock are the leading group of an alliance against the Aldmeri Dominion fighting for control of Cyrodiil. Eventually, High Rock and its allies become part of the Empire. It wouldn’t surprise me if High Rock leaves the Empire in favor of the Aldmeri Dominion because the Bretons lose confidence in the Empire and want to ally themselves with the most powerful faction. Having fought against the Dominion long ago, the Bretons might remember just how strong the Dominion can be. But it also wouldn’t surprise me if the people of High Rock want independence from the Empire as parts of Skyrim did and that’s what we see as part of the next game. They might simply desire to exist as an unaligned province free from alliance wars and see the tension between the Empire and the Dominion as their best chance to cut their ties.

There’s the Adamantine Tower. Supposedly the oldest structure in Tamriel,  this tower also goes by the Direnni Tower, Adamantia, or Ur-Tower. The circumstances of its construction are unclear. Some lore books in Skyrim say the divines built it as a meeting place for discussing the creation of the mortal plane of Mundus. People have altered it over time, but the core of the tower remains unchanged and apparently the tunnels under the tower need a full exploration. Even though it’s only fictional, as an aspiring architect with a special interest in historic preservation work and as an Elder Scrolls dork, I am extremely biased towards wanting to see the oldest structure in Tamriel. But I can’t be the only one who thinks a mysterious, ancient tower of potentially divine origin with unexplored secret tunnels sprawling out underneath it would be awesome to see in the next game. It has main plot written all over it.

Dominion Domination?

Another High Rock based theory proposes that Blades will go into why the Thalmor hate the Blades so much because VI will be about the Thalmor’s growing plans for world domination. This theory is based on slightly less than canon materials written by Michael Kirkbride, who is responsible for a great deal of Elder Scrolls lore. Some people have theorized the elite members of the Thalmor are trying to destabilize the theoretical towers that keep Oblivion separate from Mundus so they can give up their mortal forms and return to Aetherius like their probable god-like ancestors, the Aldmer. Essentially, they want to destroy the world so the elite members of their group can become gods.

According to this theory, the Thalmor in Skyrim were gathering information about the dragons to deliberately hide information about the one guy who knew Alduin was behind everything. The Thalmor could’ve been hoping that Alduin would destroy the world for them, so they wanted to make sure no one could stop him. So now that the world won’t end as a snack for the world’s angriest lizard, the Thalmor will continue secretly working towards the end of the world by trying to destroy the Adamantine Tower in High Rock, or use the tower to end the world in some way. I honestly don’t have any solid rebuttals for this theory as of now beyond the fact that it does originate in just slightly less than canon materials.

Some Points About Akavir

Although I would adore an Elder Scrolls game not set on Tamriel, I don’t think this is a likely setting for the next core game because of how totally unfamiliar it is to fans. Nevertheless, I would be remiss to neglect mentioning some possible indications that VI could take place on Akavir.

Possible reason for Akavir: Oblivion has IV in it and Akavir has VI in it.
My thoughts: Akavir is the name of a larger continent than Tamriel, and I don’t think the next game will happen or be named after an entire, gigantic continent.

Possible reason for Akavir: There aren’t many signs of civilization visible in the teaser and this might better reflect some parts of Akavir.
My thoughts: I do think the apparent lack of visible signs of habitation is strange, but I also don’t think we can assume nowhere in Tamriel looks like what we see in the teaser. Plus, we don’t really know what Akavir looks like at all seeing as the few descriptions of it come from often intentionally biased or incorrect in-game books.

Possible reason for Akavir: Tamriel and Akavir have had a past of aggression and it might be time to show us one of these spats.
My thoughts: Actually, a random invasion from Akavir if it were led by some crazy magical entity or something might be a great main plot conflict. Maybe the teaser and that serious, rallying music were meant to show where invading Akaviri forces will appear from over the horizon and get us ready to band together to defend Tamriel or invade Akavir. On the other hand, Akavir is to the East of Tamriel. So if either Western province, High Rock or Hammerfell, is indeed part of the next setting, an Akaviri invasion wouldn’t make tactical sense from their side of things. Also, it would make more sense for Akavir to invade Tamriel and have the action based in Tamriel. If set in Akavir, the playable races would have to be Akaviri like the Tsaesci (snake people/sneople), Kamal (snow demons), Tang Mo (monkey people), Ka Po’ Tun (non-Khajiit cat people) and I feel like the main series games just aren’t ready for that kind of change right now. You’d be dead wrong if you think I don’t want to play as a monkey person fighting the people of Tamriel from my home on The Thousand Monkey Isles, but something tells me that’s just not in the cards at the moment.

Possible reason for Akavir: Blades is getting us more familiar with the modern Blades because we’ll see them return to Akavir in VI.
My thoughts: It’s true the Blades originally came over from Akavir after a defeat in battle. They swore loyalty to the Emperor in the First Era. It’s also true the Blades have a big role in the main plot of Oblivion and Skyrim,. And also true that you can start to rebuild them as an organization at Sky Haven Temple in Skyrim, and Blades is for sure going to cover the modern Blades and hopefully what caused them to have such a decline. The thing is, most any plot I can think of in which the next game mostly features Akavir would have to begin somewhere in Tamriel. I just don’t think it’s likely, but I guess we won’t know until we know. But if you’re dying for more information on the Blades, maybe check out The Rise and Fall of the Blades, a book found in Skyrim.

That’s All for Now

If you actually read all of this, go do something nice for yourself because this article has a lot to unpack and I’m glad you made it through. If you did not actually read all of this, I feel you. Here’s a little summary:

• The teaser looks like it’s showing High Rock or Hammerfell
• I lean High Rock based on terrain appearance and a crater
• High Rock makes sense from a theoretical geopolitical standpoint
• I lean High Rock from this angle too, but I’m not overly confident about it
• The mysterious Adamantine Tower in High Rock might be the center of the main plot?
  • It’s a generally cool thing we don’t know much about
  • Also Elven supremacists might want to use it to destroy the world
• There are some cases to be made for an Akavir setting, but I just don’t see it happening right now

So what do you think, did I miss anything? Do you agree or disagree with anything? Is it too early to even start guessing what we might see? Feel free to leave a reply below to let me know!

If you want to hear more about E3 2018 from some of the writers here at The Punished Backlog, check out our Entrance and Exit Surveys! Did you enjoy Skyrim, or was it not so much for you? Read why one of our writers thinks that Skyrim is the World’s Okayest Game.