Anyone who's played Skyrim knows that there is a ton of lore scattered across the vast landscape. In fact, The Elder Scrolls series on the whole is huge, with a lot of stories covering that ground. It might not be the biggest video game in terms of map size – that titles goes to No Man's Sky – but Bethesda's open-world epic is chock full of things to see, locations to discover, histories to unfold, and an in-depth political structure that form part of the universe. To better illustrate this, someone has drawn up a map of the whole of Tamriel which shows the political divide across the nations.
Uploading the image to the Skyrim subreddit recently, user StoutCriw has created a colorful map of the entire landscape that houses the Elder Scrolls games, including some areas that have yet to be dedicated to a full entry in the series. As can be seen in the map, there are numerous divisions across the whole of Tamriel, with the creator indicating that this all refers to the 4E 201 timeline, in accordance with the lore.
Most likely, the section that many will be most familiar with is in relation to the civil war that rages in Skyrim between the Empire and the Stormcloaks. Fans know that this forms the crux of this installment's main story, but what's interesting is how StoutCriw has indicated that the city of Whiterun, which is usually the first major settlement that players come across after Riverwood, has been marked down as being decidedly neutral or contested with regard to the warring factions.
With its somewhat simplistic color scheme, the map paints a vivid picture of the political landscape that existed at the time mentioned. For those interested in the overarching story that takes place within the series, as well as the sheer size of the Elder Scrolls Tamriel map, StoutCriw's image may prove quite interesting. It's also intriguing to note how some of the "Mede Empire" sections bleed into areas not featured in Skyrim, such as the region in which The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall takes place.
It's likely that such long-running politics will continue into The Elder Scrolls 6, whenever it finally emerges. There's still a lot of lore to uncover and a lot of the land to visit. However, the main theory so far seems to suggest that the next installment of the series will take place in Hammerfell or High Rock, which means there's a chance fans will get to see a reimagining of the areas that Daggerfall took place in.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - Anniversary Edition is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.