The Elder Scrolls 6is one of the most hotly anticipated titles of the coming decade. However, with almost no news released by Bethesda since the initial teaser trailer dropped in 2018, many fans are becoming increasingly impatient to return to Tamriel.
It has been almost ten years since the release ofSkyrim, and since then manyElder Scrollsfans have been enjoyingThe Elder Scrolls Onlinefrom Zenimax Online Studios, set in the same world. However,The Elder Scrolls Onlinemay give Bethesda some big problems forThe Elder Scrolls 6.
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The Implications of ESO
There are a few key things implied byESOthat could cause issues for Bethesda when developing the next main game in the series. First,ESOis set around a millennium before theevents ofSkyrim. This shows that over that time Tamriel has remained relatively static, similar to the timeline in games likeStar Wars: The Old Republic.
Technology and magic appear to have hovered around the same level of advancement for the past thousand years. This could make it difficult for Bethesda to keep the games feeling fresh. There was a 200 year jump betweenOblivionandSkyrimthat was the largest time gap by far between games in the franchise untilThe Elder Scrolls Onlinecame along.
In that 200 years, the Empire was brought to its knees and theThird Aldmeri Dominionrose to power. However, there is also a different iteration of the Dominion inESO, making one of the few big changes inThe Elder Scrollsworld since players arrived feel a little more precedented than previously thought.
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Elder Scrolls Exploration
The fact thatThe Elder Scrolls Onlinegives players access to parts of the provinces across all of Tamriel poses a big problem for Bethesda. Areas likeElsweyr, Blackmarsh and the Summerset Islesthat were once shrouded in mystery have now already been visited by players. This softens some of their effects even as distant locales in the main games.
Information gleamed aboutElsweyr, for example, makes it seem almost unimaginably surreal to aSkyrimplayer, with mentions of cat-men resembling everything from house pets to Bosmer roaming the sands in service of the moons. This helps the player immerse themselves in the world, feeling small in comparison to its scale and many mysteries.
Areas like High Rock and Hammerfell are now clearly mapped in the canon, with Zenimax establishing thatESOis canon despite not being made by Bethesda. This could cause a problem if rumors thatThe Elder Scrolls 6is set in Hammerfelland some of High Rock prove to be true. Bethesda could change up the landscape for its next game to make it feel fresh. However, due to things being relatively static in the Elder Scrolls timeline excluding time-warping events like the Warp of the West, it could be difficult for Bethesda to show players something fresh.
Areas like Stros M’Kai in Hammerfell, for example, have already been explored inESO, and are referred to in the main games in a way that implies that the locations have remained similar in the past thousand years. When players beganSkyrim, the fact that the province felt completely unknown and ripe for exploration was one of the games’ greatest strengths. ThroughThe Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda may have accidentally played its hand far too early when it came to some of the most interesting places players hope to explore inThe Elder Scrolls 6.
The Elder Scrolls 6is in development.
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