Now that two years have passed since The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced, it's clear Bethesda really did mean it when it said there wouldn't be any news about the game for years. As exciting as it was to know there's another game coming, it looks like players will have to settle for a few more years of Skyrim replays before Elder Scrolls 6 is anything close to available. Nothing is confirmed—no setting, no plot, no release date. The game is a complete mystery.
However, on a certain level, that's a good thing. Knowing so little about the game means that, for now, the possibilities are endless. The Elder Scrolls franchise is an incredibly rich fantasy setting with a lot of storytelling opportunities that Bethesda hasn't tapped into yet. The possibilities there are multiplied when one considers that Elder Scrolls 6 is certainly a next-gen game at this point, sure to be designed for PS5 and Xbox Series X. Major performance improvements and a brand new story in the world of Elder Scrolls mean that players could end up on adventures in strange places that were hardly possible before.
There's one particular factor of the setting and the franchise's history that ought to return in new form. What isn't always readily apparent is that the planet where the majority of Elder Scrolls adventures take place is only one small part of a vast collection of planes of existence. The Elder Scrolls game that explored this the best was Oblivion, which tasked the player with venturing into and closing Oblivion Gates. If Oblivion Gates -- or at least something like them -- were to appear in Elder Scrolls 6, they would open the door for journeys of epic proportions.
Oblivion Gates
For those players who have only experienced The Elder Scrolls though the long-lived Skyrim, Oblivion was the game that came before, releasing in 2006. Much of the games events revolved around a mysterious cult and a Daedric prince working to open Oblivion Gates, portals to countless pocket dimensions in the greater realm of Oblivion. Dozens of these orange portals were scattered throughout Cyrodiil as part of a plan to let Daedra wreak havoc on the mortal realm.
What's important about these portals for the rest of the franchise is how they established that every story in The Elder Scrolls takes place in a sprawling and complicated multiverse. There are thousands of pocket dimensions scattered throughout Oblivion, and that's only one region of the multiverse that's unexplored. There's also several other planes that share a dimension with Nirn, the planet that all Elder Scrolls games take place on. Clearly, it's possible for player character to experience interdimensional adventures, and just maybe Elder Scrolls 6 will be bold enough to let the player travel to all kinds of new dimensions.
Possibilities of the Multiverse, Elder Scroll's Oblivion and Beyond
There's a ton of places in The Elder Scrolls lore that players could get a new chance to visit in Elder Scrolls 6. For starters, a return to the depths of Oblivion might be in order. It's said that there's more than thirty thousand individual pocket dimensions scattered throughout Oblivion, created by the Daedric princes for all sorts of purposes. It goes without saying that not all of these places were explicitly depicted in Oblivion, so it stands to reason that there's room for Bethesda to work on some places in the realm of Oblivion for players to visit or revisit. That would cater both to well established fans of the franchise and newer players interested in learning some lore.
While a return to Oblivion and specifically the realms of the Daedric princes seems like an obvious choice for an Elder Scrolls game that explores the planes of existence, Oblivion isn't the only region worth revisiting. There's also the many aspects of Aetherius, the plane associated both with magic's original source and the afterlife for many Elder Scrolls cultures. Skyrim players might remember a journey to Sovngarde, the Nords' portion of the afterlife and only one part of Aetherius.
There's plenty beyond these major planes that's worth exploring too. Something similar could be done for interdimensional places like the traveling island of Artaeum or the mysterious Clockwork City, both of which have already featured in Elder Scrolls Online. There's also a ton of planets nearby Nirn that could be described in more detail by brief visits with the help of magic portals, and a game on a next-gen console would have a much easier time rendering such a robust planar system.
Empowering the Next Adventure in TES 6
All of these different dimensions seem like plausible candidates for a revisit in a new Elder Scrolls game, seeing as they've had such significant impacts on the plot and lore thus far. Elder Scrolls Online featuring locations far beyond the familiar corners of Nirn particularly seems to highlight Bethesda's interest in exploring the far-reaching corners of the multiverse in this setting. If that game is anything to go by, Bethesda is aware of the possibilities at hand and willing to put them to good use.
Even just focusing on one area of the planes in particular would be fascinating. Maybe players will intentionally sojourn into Oblivion once again, rather than meeting Oblivion when it intrudes on familiar territory. Maybe Elder Scrolls 6 will weave a story diving deep into the setting's magic by exploring Aetherius, or journeying through the many afterlives in the same plane. There's a lot to be said for any of these possibilities, putting players face to face once again with supernatural beings of epic proportions like the Daedric princes.
Of course, until Bethesda is ready to start talking about the game, it's just as likely that it will have Elder Scrolls 6 focus on a more approachable and mundane location like Hammerfell. It's impossible to know what to expect when all the community has to go off of is a very brief trailer and cryptic comments about the state of development. All that can really be said for sure is that the game is probably still years away, even though it's already been years since Elder Scrolls 6 was announced. Elder Scrolls fans are going to have to keep their chins up for a while. Maybe another mod or two will make Skyrim good for another go while everyone's waiting.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.