The Elder Scrolls 6 is one of the most anticipated games of the coming decade. However, since the teaser trailer was released in 2018, Bethesda has been slow to release more details about the next installment in its flagship fantasy franchise.
With the last three games focusing on a single province, it seems likely that The Elder Scrolls 6 will follow suit. It is the time period in which the game is set, however, which could have some of the biggest implications for the game and which could determine if it will be able to step out from under Skyrim’s shadow.
The Long-Term Impact of Skyrim's Events
The first four Elder Scrolls games all took place relatively close in time to one another, with the Oblivion Crisis taking place just over three decades after the events of the first game, The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Skyrim, however, took place 200 years after Oblivion, the biggest time leap between games in the main series.
There are a few reasons that this time skip was a good choice on Bethesda’s part. For a start, it allowed players to witness the long-term effects of the events of Oblivion and the end of the Septim Empire. Within that 200 years, the fledgling Mede Dynasty under Titus Mede II was unable to hold the Empire together, causing the Altmer to split off and form the Third Aldmeri Dominion, triggering The Great War.
By the time of Skyrim, the Aldmeri Dominion has forced humiliating concessions from the Empire, including banning the worship of Talos in the White-Gold Concordat. This in turn partially triggered Skyrim’s Civil War. As The Elder Scrolls games tend to lean more towards a sandbox RPG experience than a single developing narrative, the decision to set Skyrim 200 years after Oblivion allowed fans to see the connections to the previous game play out naturally in the world while still making that world feel fresh and mysterious.
The fact that The Elder Scrolls Online is set around 1000 years before Skyrim makes it likely that Bethesda wants to keep the future open for its main games. This makes it unlikely that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be set before Skyrim but will instead explore some of the longer term impacts of the events of Skyrim on the political landscape of Tamriel.
Whether the Empire or the Stormcloaks won Skyrim’s Civil War, the Aldmeri Dominion will likely have extended its influence, either by forcing further concessions from the Empire or taking advantage of its now increasingly fractured state. It is also likely, however, that Bethesda will not want to commit to one version of Skyrim’s events, as doing so would erase the experiences of many of its players. It would seem very convenient if no mention of Skyrim’s High King or government could be found in the next game considering that it is one of the most important provinces in Tamriel.
Even if the Empire is able to put down the Stormcloak Rebellion, Skyrim heavily implies that it is still on the decline. Furthermore, whether done by the Dragonborn or not, the Emperor will likely still have been canonically assassinated by the Dark Brotherhood. This makes it likely that The Elder Scrolls 6 will take place far enough after Skyrim that, regardless of the events of the Civil War, the Empire will still have fractured further and Skyrim will have at some point gained its independence.
Furthermore, the games will likely be far enough in the future that Bethesda will not have to commit to saying whether Skyrim’s current King is a descendant of Ulfric Stormcloak, or if he is descended from someone who later helped Skyrim gain its independence. The king may also still be a member of the Stormcloak family even if Ulfric was defeated, rising to power on the back of Ulfric's martyrdom.
Bethesda will likely avoid establishing certain Skyrim events as canon using a fairly significant time jump. It seems probable that The Elder Scrolls 6 will take place in the Western part of Tamriel, around Hammerfell or High Rock, both bordering the northern province. This can be reasonably assumed based on the landscape shown in the Elder Scrolls 6 teaser trailer. Other provinces like Blackmarsh or Elsweyr might be alienating to some players as a sole setting, and centering the beast-folk rather than human kingdoms might be deemed too far a shift from the previous games.
Ultimately, it seems likely that The Elder Scrolls 6 will take another 100 to 300 year jump forward into the 4th Era – if it’s still called the 4th Era by then. It could take place after the implosion of the Empire entirely. With The Elder Scrolls' High Elves particularly long-lived, players would likely see an expanded Aldmeri Dominion with a very similar character to the one it had in Skyrim, while the Empire could have changed greatly in this time.
Other Possibilities and The Future of The Elder Scrolls
It’s also possible, however, that the game could take place well before the events of The Elder Scrolls Online, perhaps in the First Era. This seems somewhat less likely for a few reasons. While it would avoid the problem of defining Skyrim’s canon, this choice would deny players the opportunity to see some of the biggest events of Skyrim like Titus Mede II's assassination by the Dark Brotherhood play out in the long-term.
Furthermore, unless the scope of the plot is significantly reduced from previous games' world-shattering events like the Oblivion Crisis, the outcome of the events of the game would already likely be established in The Elder Scrolls lore. That said, The Elder Scrolls Online has established new events in the Second Era, so setting the game in the past remains a possibility.
If the The Elder Scrolls 6 is set in Hammerfell, then seeing the long-term effects of the Empire’s dissolution and the increasing power of the Dominion could be particularly interesting. Not only would the game still center a human province, but the White-Gold Concordat forced the Empire to give up Hammerfell, while also declaring its soldiers stationed there “invalid” so that they could continue to fight.
If set a century or two after Skyrim, Hammerfell could provide an interesting counterpart to the previous game's province, in that it has been abandoned by the Empire, while lingering resistances to the Thalmor could remain. A large part of southern Hammerfell was also handed over to the Aldmeri Dominion, and seeing the long-term developments of that new divide could be particularly interesting, with one area becoming more culturally aligned with the Altmer while the other keeps a more Redguardian flavor.
For now, however, that remains speculation. While there are good reasons to consider these possibilities, Bethesda has yet to confirm much about the next game beyond the Elder Scrolls 6 teaser trailer. However, if The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to satisfy players by allowing them to see the longer term impacts of Skyrim’s events, then the prospect of another 100 to 300 year time jump could be both likely and advisable.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.