We've all been waiting longer than this, of course, but it was two years ago when Todd Howard said The Elder Scrolls VI was still "a very long way off." Well, Sunday night at the E3 2018 Bethesda showcase, we finally caught a glimpse of that game, the long-awaited sequel to Skyrim. And while The Elder Scrolls VI isn't coming out this year—and possibly not even next year—it's, well, let's just say that it's closer than it was two years ago.
Unironically, the view of this new Elder Scrolls is from a long ways off. But I have a few theories. I'm just spitballing here, so get your grain of salt ready. (Also, I don't play The Elder Scrolls Online, so pardon me if any of this sounds like idiocy that TESO has already covered.)
My first theory is to look at this landscape and to say, this must be High Rock. I mean, it's high in elevation and it's rocky, what do you want me to say? But I doubt Bethesda Game Studios is going to retread any territory already walked all over by The Elder Scrolls Online—which is developed not by Bethesda Game Studios, but its parent company, ZeniMax Online Studios. So, with that in mind, ignore this first theory. I don't think this is High Rock.
Basically, my second theory is this: The Elder Scrolls Online has run single-player Elder Scrolls right off the continent of Tamriel. But Tamriel isn't the only landmass on the planet of Nirn (or is the planet called Mundus? I'm not sure.) This video emphasizes that we're on an eastern shore. It doesn't look like the eastern shore of Summerset, which, again, is completely under the authorship of TESO at this point. It doesn't look like the eastern shore of Morrowind, but the opening mist looks mighty ashy. Perhaps it's the eastern shore of the now-buried land of Yokuda, located west of Tamriel? Yokuda is the ancient homeland of the Redguard that later fled for Tamriel's mainland. Not much is known of Yokuda, but it was described as a land of "rocky, barren hills," according to the Elder Scrolls' Wikia, which would certainly describe this landscape. We could be seeing the far-east continent of Akavir. But nothing about this has the look, feel, or sound of anything like the Akaviri, which has a Japanese samurai aesthetic. Could be Atmorra to the north of Skyrim, the ancient homeland of the Nords? But nah, there'd be no good reason to do "Skyrim but even colder" as a design concept. That'd be director suicide considering how much Skyrim we've already gotten over the past seven years.
One last theory emerges, but only once the logo fades into view. The Elder Scrolls VI appears to be beaten from copper, a color I'd primarily associate with the long-lost race of Dwemer, or dwarves. The Dwemer were technologically advanced, and, of I remember correctly, were prominent thousands of years before the common Elder Scrolls games even take place. Sure, it'd be neat to see a slightly shorter, stockier breed of folks running around, but we've seen enough of the Dwemer's ruins that it'd take a lot of work to make that exciting as an entire premise for a sequel.
In the end, now that I'm done typing whatever comes to mind, I think Bethesda Game Studios will just have to place The Elder Scrolls VI in a whole new time period. Possibly much later than any time we've yet explored. And/Or that the huge body of water we see on the right isn't a mistake, and that we're taking to the high seas in one way or the other.
Hey, if they'd given this Elder Scrolls a subtitle like every other Elder Scrolls (e.g. Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, anything) then I'd have more of a clue. The fact that they didn't reveal a subtitle makes me speculate as to whether we're dealing with wholly unfamiliar locations on the map of Tamriel, or wholly different time periods, or we're spanning too many countries to name behind a colon.
It's late. I should get some sleep. I'm not closer to a workable theory than when I started. But hey: The Elder Scrolls VI exists, which is something everyone expected, but also didn't know what to expect. We still don't. But again, we're closer than we've ever been.
