So far, fans know next to nothing about The Elder Scrolls 6 apart from a cryptic map tweeted out by Bethesda hinting at the setting, and a cinematic teaser trailer showing a beautiful mountainscape. Calling it a teaser trailer is pretty generous, seeing as nothing was shown except the title and a few mountains. That announcement trailer was revealed in 2018, but three years later, details on The Elder Scrolls 6 are still very few and far between.
To be fair, it is understandable. Bethesda’s primary project right now is Starfield, a huge RPG set in outer space. Starfield will be Bethesda’s first new IP in a decade, and it’ll also be the first game produced with the developer’s brand new in-house engine. Bethesda has been very clear that The Elder Scrolls 6 won’t come out until after Starfield, which still doesn’t have a release date. So…fans are likely going to be waiting to return to Tamriel for a couple more years at least.
Despite only knowing a couple of things about the game, there are a handful of things that seem incredibly likely. One is that The Elder Scrolls 6 will probably be leaving the dragon-centered narrative behind.
Skyrim, or The Elder Scrolls 5, obviously had a huge emphasis on dragons. These legendary creatures were mysteriously coming back to life and terrorizing Tamriel, and saving the world falls on the player, who is Dragonborn. Dragons are the main element of the larger story, and while not everything connects to them, most of the main quests do. It’s also impossible to forget about dragons even while running around doing sidequests because players are constantly being attacked by them in the wild.
In addition to dragons being the main creatures featured in the story, Bethesda released three DLCs to accompany the Skyrim game. “Dawnguard” focused on vampire hunting, “Hearthfire” added more home and family elements, and the third, “Dragonborn,” delves deeper into dragon lore and the dragon priests. In other words, Bethesda has more or less exhausted the dragon topic.
For that reason, fans probably won’t see a whole lot of dragons in The Elder Scrolls 6. Skyrim released in 2012, so by the time fans have the new game in their hands it’ll have been over a decade. Bethesda probably could remake and update Skyrim and be successful with it, and maybe one day it will, but players don’t want more of the same from the new game. The Elder Scrolls 6 is not a Skyrim remake.
The other possible reason dragons probably won’t be a prominent element of The Elder Scrolls 6 is the timeline. Fans have speculated that The Elder Scrolls 6 might take place before the events of Skyrim, and while Bethesda has not confirmed this, it is possible. If The Elder Scrolls 6 does end up being a prequel, it’s almost a guarantee there won’t be any dragons. If it’s a sequel there’s a somewhat greater chance, but even if they are in the game, they won’t be the focus.
There are several games in The Elder Scrolls series and most of them don’t focus on dragons, so not having them present probably isn’t hard to imagine for a lot of gamers. But with Skyrim being one of the most popular RPGs of all time, there are a lot of players who haven’t interacted as much with other installments. For those fans, the absence of dragons could feel very significant.
One of the biggest theories gamers have put together is that The Elder Scrolls 6 will take place in Hammerfell. A lot of fans are convinced this is the setting for a couple of reasons, the first being a map Bethesda tweeted out at the end of 2020. Although cryptic, it seemed to be trying to hint at the setting for The Elder Scrolls 6. Candles were placed strategically around the map, and one of them was in Hammerfell. There were two other candles, but the one in Hammerfell is the one that draws the eye.
Hammerfell is known for being a rocky region, so it would line up with the small teaser trailer from 2018, and more significantly, Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax recently trademarked the world “Redfall.” No one knows yet what that means, but it sure sounds like an Elder Scrolls title and fits in the Hammerfell setting perfectly.
Traditionally, Hammerfell is home to the Redguard, one of the major races in The Elder Scrolls. The Redguard are known for being exceptionally strong warriors, and “Redfall” seems like a direct reference to the Redguard. With the two primary pieces of evidence lining up, it seems very likely that Hammerfell will be the primary setting of The Elder Scrolls 6.
Like most locations in Tamriel, Hammerfell has far too much lore to explain here. But right now, it looks like The Elder Scrolls 6 might be about the Redguard instead of dragons or Dragonborn. Bethesda has already been there, done that, and influenced every future dragon in the gaming industry. There’s a reason that the first thing fans thought of upon seeing the dragon in the recent Forspoken trailer was Skyrim. Bethesda doesn’t need to focus on dragons, and The Elder Scrolls 6 should be able to stand on its own two feet.
Even though not much is known about The Elder Scrolls 6, it is definitely in development and will be coming out at some point. With Microsoft recently purchasing ZeniMax, some fans are worried that they won’t get to play the highly anticipated installment. Dragons or no dragons, The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to be a huge deal and needs to live up to some very high expectations. The wait is looking pretty long, but unfortunately for PlayStation owners, the wait might be even longer.
It doesn’t seem likely that Microsoft will make The Elder Scrolls 6 an Xbox exclusive, and PC owners don’t have anything to worry about. But PlayStation owners are probably looking at a timed Xbox console exclusive, similar to what Sony has done with games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and upcoming titles Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo.
That said, nothing is concrete except that the game exists- and that it’s a long way off. Tom Howard, the director of Skyrim, has said that people will need to be patient for the next Elder Scrolls game. The plot won’t be revealed anytime soon. But there are some good hints and deductions that can be made from what has been revealed, and more “leaks” are sure to come out as time goes on. For better or for worse, however, dragons probably won’t be featured in leaks or official announcements, and that’s a good thing. It’s time to move on from dragons and onto something new.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is currently in development.
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