The Elder Scrolls 6 has huge expectations to live up to. Skyrim remains one of the most critically and commercially successful games of all time, and with the mixed reception of recent Bethesda outings like Fallout 76 the studio needs to show that it can still provide the kind of groundbreaking RPG experiences it built its name on.
The Elder Scrolls 6's biggest challenge may be stepping out of Skyrim's shadow, but that doesn't mean Skyrim should be the only reference point used in the development of next game in Bethesda's flagship fantasy series. ZeniMax Online Studios' The Elder Scrolls Online may be a very different game to Skyrim, but there's a lot it enormous world has to teach The Elder Scrolls 6.
Equipment
As an MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online introduced a huge number of new armor designs from across the cultures of Tamriel. Not only that, but each armor type had several different distinct versions. In contrast, all of Skyrim's iron armor is identical, all of its leather armor identical, and so on.
The Elder Scrolls Online's Style system leaves The Elder Scrolls 6 with almost one hundred different unique armor concepts to draw upon. Skyrim's armor and weapons may have been interesting, but it doesn't take long before players have seen most of what the game has to offer, leading to the popularity of Skyrim mods like Immersive Armors that diversify the game's designs.
Environments
When it comes to visual diversity, The Elder Scrolls 6 could also learn from ESO's wide range of environments. The MMO takes place across parts of all of Tamriel, albeit segmented into distinct zones. It's very unlikely that The Elder Scrolls 6 will follow suit and take on the entire continent, but there is evidence that the next Elder Scrolls game could be taking place in a particularly environmentally diverse part of Nirn.
Starfield's E3 2021 trailer contained a small symbol etched on the wall of the player's ship which many fans noticed was similar to a map of High Rock and Hammerfell, leading some to believe it was an Easter egg hinting at the next Elder Scrolls' setting. Between the two provinces Bethesda has the opportunity to create dense jungles, sprawling deserts, snowy mountain ranges, temperate plains, and more.
Skyrim may have had a diverse world with landscapes ranging from tundras to autumnal forests and frozen wastelands, but The Elder Scrolls 6 has the potential for more environmental diversity than the last game's northern province allowed for. As the most environmentally diverse rendering of Tamriel yet, The Elder Scrolls Online could provide some useful influences when fleshing out The Elder Scrolls 6's setting.
Cultures
That environmental diversity could also extend to the in-universe cultural influences on the game's world. Skyrim explored some interesting fringe groups like the Forsworn, but if The Elder Scrolls 6 really is set around the Iliac Bay it has the potential to explore one of the most cosmopolitan parts of Tamriel outside of Cyrodiil itself.
The region is home to the Orcs of Nova Orsinium, rebuilt in the Dragontail Mountains by the Fourth Era. There's the potential for the lingering influence of the Aldmeri Dominion occupation of southern Hammerfell, as well as the remnants of the Elven civilization wiped out when the Redguard arrived from the lost continent of Yokuda. With the Iliac Bay region particularly prone to war and factionalism even after the Miracle of Peace at the end of Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls 6's setting could draw upon the architectural styles The Elder Scrolls 6 took the time to fully flesh out across Tamriel.
These influences could work particularly well in cities. During Brighton Digital 2020 Todd Howard suggested that Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 would both make greater use of procedural generation than previous Bethesda games to create larger worlds. He almost mentioned that this could allow The Elder Scrolls to create larger, more immersive cities than the series has been able to pull off in the past.
Some of Skyrim's cities did have distinct districts with their own cultural influences, like Windhelm's Grey Quarter. With The Elder Scrolls Online having developed unique visual styles for of all of Tamriel's major races for the first time, however, The Elder Scrolls 6's cities could draw on those designs to feel like they really are urban hubs attracting settlers from across the continent.
An area of Stros M'kai with a larger Argonian population could see them bringing some of the Argonian architectural and clothing styles developed for Black Marsh in The Elder Scrolls Online, for example. An Altmer merchant might wear clothes that makes them stand out among the Bretons and Redguards of the region as well. In a series that relies on the breadth of its world rather than the depth of its stories, learning from The Elder Scrolls Online's diverse visual styles could be key to one-upping Skyrim while still playing into the Elder Scrolls breadth-over-depth formula.
Races
This also extends to some of the weirder non-playable races which make their appearance in The Elder Scrolls Online. The Sloads got to rear their ugly heads again in The Elder Scrolls Online, and already had a presence in Hammerfell in The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. The Maomer of Pyandonea finally made their in-person debut in ESO's Summerset Isles DLC, while players finally got to see a diverse range of Khajiit subspecies in the Elsweyr expansion. Finding opportunities for at least a handful of these unique races to make their appearances in The Elder Scrolls 6 could help create some seriously memorable characters, especially if the next game has a larger world than Skyrim's as Todd Howard's comments implied.
The Elder Scrolls Online may not have many unique mechanics which would serve a single-player game, but it did a huge amount of world-building that until its release was largely confined to the series' in-game books, which only hinted at what Tamriel truly had to offer. If The Elder Scrolls 6 can integrate just some of the MMO's equipment, architectural, and cultural diversity into the game, its corner of Tamriel could feel more alive than any Elder Scrolls game yet.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.