Bethesda fans waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6 haven't received an official update from Bethesda since the game's announcement at E3 2018. The game's setting, the basic outline of its story, and even the full title have yet to be revealed. For years, fans have had nothing to go on but the landscape seen in the reveal trailer — until Bethesda seemed to hint at a setting at E3 2021.
Starfield was Bethesda's big play at E3 2021, but a small engraving on part of the ship in the Starfield trailer was quickly noted to strongly resemble the coastline of High Rock and Hammerfell, two provinces long speculated to be the setting of The Elder Scrolls 6, based on the 2018 reveal trailer. Not only does this make the case for High Rock and Hammerfell stronger, but there are some great reasons the two provinces could be the perfect setting for The Elder Scrolls 6.
The Settings Of The Elder Scrolls
Between Morrowind and Skyrim, the Elder Scrolls series has explored a great variety of settings. Although Oblivion was criticized for its far more standard fantasy fare, Morrowind explored an alien landscape of giant insects, strange pantheons, and towering mushrooms. Skyrim found a decent middle ground, exploring a relatively generic Viking-esque setting, but still playing with some of the series' stranger lore from Dwemer ruins to Apocrypha, the realm of Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora.
Morrowind shows, however, that a great Elder Scrolls setting can be alien instead of the more easily understandable settings of Oblivion and Skyrim. If The Elder Scrolls 6 spans both High Rock and Hammerfell, it will be able to explore all the weird, wonderful, and sometimes Lovecraftian lore of The Elder Scrolls, while still giving players a steady footing in clear real-life counterpart cultures.
Both High Rock and Hammerfell are primarily human-populated provinces, with the Iliac Bay providing a rough stand-in for the Mediterranean in Tamriel. This will make the setting accessible in a way that Bethesda has clearly been angling for since Morrowind, but the two provinces also provide an opportunity for an accessible setting that isn't generic.
Alienation Versus Accessibility In The Elder Scrolls
For a start, Hammerfell offers an opportunity to explore a fantasy culture based on North Africa, which is far less commonly explored in fantasy than the Roman and Viking counterpart cultures in the last two games. Hammerfell's pantheon of gods is also unique, with the Redguards having brought many of their own gods from the continent of Yokuda before it sank in the First Era. Not only is Hammerfell an opportunity to focus on a cultural center generally left behind in fantasy, but in-universe the province provides a great opportunity to explore cultures within Tamriel that break free of the hegemony of the Empire and the Divines.
There's good reason the main Elder Scrolls games have yet to take players to Black Marsh or Elsweyr. Both Beast Folk provinces have lore which could prove just too alien for most players to dive into. Morrowind's Vvardenfell may have been strange, but Dark Elves are still a fantasy mainstay. Dealing with the different Khajiiti subraces or the strange relationship the Argonians have with the Hist, a sentient race of trees, could make setting the game in either place too alienating for most players to fully immerse themselves.
The Hammerfell-High Rock region has its own fair share of strange cultures that players can explore, which are still grounded in the accessibility of the largely human populations of the provinces. Between the two provinces lies the fourth incarnation of Orsinium, the city of the Orcs, rebuilt in the Dragontail Mountains in the Fourth Era after an unsanctioned sacking by the forces of High Rock and Hammerfell. Exploring the city - or at least the tension its presence causes in the human provinces - could help The Elder Scrolls 6 strike a great balance between the familiar and the alien while raising interesting moral questions.
Opportunities In High Rock And Hammerfell
High Rock may risk being more in-line with other more generic Europe-based fantasy settings, but it could provide some interesting opportunities. The province has a history of petty kingdoms. Despite the Miracle of Peace at the end of Daggerfall, also known as the Warp in the West, lore between Oblivion and Skyrim hints that the Breton homeland may slowly be fracturing again. This could offer some great opportunities for new mechanics, with the Breton saying "find a new hill, become a king" being realized in full with the settlement-building mechanics built over Bethesda's recent RPGs.
In terms of lore, High Rock and Hammerfell offer some great opportunities to continue storylines from Skyrim. High Rock is still in the Empire and remains a prosperous member. Hammerfell was renounced as a province for refusing to accept the terms of the White-Gold Concordat, and the province's two major factions united to drive the Aldmeri Dominion out of southern Hammerfell. As a setting, the provinces combined would allow for an exploration of the waning Empire seen in Skyrim and some of the post-Empire nations beginning to forge their own fates. The return of the Thalmor and Altmer ambitions would also be likely.
The range of environments in the region from deserts to grasslands and snowy mountains wouldn't just provide great visual diversity, but could make The Elder Scrolls 6's rumored survival mechanics more interesting. Skyrim mods like Frostfall factored in cold, but The Elder Scrolls 6 could face players with a far greater range of weather and environments. Hammerfell was also once heavily populated with Dwarves, opening the door for Dwemer ruins and even an exploration of the disappearance of the Dwemer.
High Rock and Hammerfell have the range, the accessibility, and the healthy dose of weirdness that could make the pair of provinces a great bet for The Elder Scrolls 6. Fans would have a chance to explore some of the less generic human cultures of Tamriel, while also diving into some of the weirder forces surrounding the area from the Orcs to the Dominion. Whether Bethesda takes full advantage of the setting has yet to be seen, but if the two provinces do end up being confirmed they would have a lot of potential.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.