The Elder Scrolls 6is currently in development, but Bethesda has yet to reveal much about it. The setting, the story, and even the time period its set in is completely up to speculation. It will be years before Bethesda reveals anything aboutThe Elder Scrolls 6, but that hasn’t stopped fans from creating theories.
The announcement trailer that was shown 2 years ago is all anyone has to go off of for speculation. There isn’t much detailed in the trailer other than the working title of the game, TheElder Scrolls 6. Other than that, the setting appears to be somewhere mountainous with sparse vegetation, much like theland of Solstheim in theDragonbornDLC fromSkyrim. This may not show much, but there’s at least one twist that the franchise could pull off: going back instead of moving forward.
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TES 6: The Dwemer
It’s no secret that, afterSkyrim, the Dwemer have been the most featured loose ends inThe Elder Scrolls.The mystery of the Dwemeris rooted in their disappearance and there has been no resolution through any ofThe Elder Scrollsgames. All that remains of them is their highly-efficient technology that no one understands or has been able to replicate since. The knowledge to build robots, steam engines, and even zeppelins have been lost by the Dwemer’s disappearance, dating far back.
Yagrum Bagarn is the only living Dwemer inThe Elder Scrollsseries that the player ever meets. He dedicated his life to uncovering the mystery of his people’s disappearance and was unfortunately sidetracked by his illness. There is a questline inThe Elder Scrolls 3:Morrowindthat allows the player to help him with his illness, but there is never any closure to his work on the mystery.
TES 6: A Possible Story
The current trend between all ofThe Elder Scrollsgames is that so far each game has taken place in chronological order, barringThe Elder Scrolls: Online. As a big shock to fans, it’s not impossible thatThe Elder Scrolls 6could take place a longtime beforeThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. In fact, it could go as far back as the 1st Era. If this was the case then the story ofThe Elder Scrolls 6would precede that of TheElder Scrolls: Onlinewhich takes place in the interim between the 2nd and 3rd era. This would be breaking new ground becauseThe Elder Scrolls: Onlineis in the earliest point of the timeline that has been shown inThe Elder Scrollsfranchise.
TES 6: Why the 1st Era?
There is already a precedent for anElder Scrollsgame to jump around the timeline as proven byThe Elder Scrolls: Online. The question is, why would the story go back to the 1st Era? The answer circles back to the mystery of the Dwemer. The Battle of Red Mountain where the Dwemer activated the Heart of Lorkhan and caused their disappearance occurred in the 1st Era. Nobody knows why activating the Heart of Lorkhan would cause an entire race to vanish from existence and its anyone’s guess as to where they went, but exploring this ripe bit of lore would make a ton of fans happy.
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TES 6: What Can Be done?
There are a couple of ways to incorporate this scenario intoThe Elder Scrolls 6. The first of which is to have the game set directly in the 1st Era, which would not only allow the player to experience or even influence the Battle of Red Mountain, but it would also allow the story to revolve around the aftermath. There could be skirmishes between theraces ofThe Elder Scrollsgames to lay claim to the newly abandoned Dwemer strongholds and to the treasures that lay within, and it should make for a good open ended story with a lot for the player to do.
The other way would be to haveThe Elder Scrolls 6continue the tradition of having the numbered games in chronological order. This could lead to the big twist in the story being that the player must utilize some sort of magic artifact, like an Elder Scroll, to time travel. This has been done before inThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimto see Alduinbrought low by the dragonrend shout, while this would most likely be the avenue for Bethesda to follow as it is in keeping withSkyrimlore and its history of game development.
TES 6: What Would Be the result?
Based on the way time travel is integrated inThe Elder Scrolls 6, there are a couple of outcomes. If the time travel function acts more like a glimpse into the past, then Bethesda should structure the game around using it frequently. Theexplanation for this time travelsight should come from either a magical accident or through the use of an Elder Scroll. Locations where significant events have happened can be utilized to give context clues that further the player’s investigation, and clues would be gathered through thorough inspection of areas using the time travel mechanic which would ultimately lead to a point where the player gives the final verdict. This would make for an interestingElder Scrollsexperience as it would begin to feel more like a detective game, at least for the main story.
The other option would be to have the player step through portals in time to reach the 1st Era. Actions taken in the past would then affect the present, and there could be some notable changes meaning there would beadvantages and disadvantages to time travel. That being said there should also be a feature that incentivizes the player to time travel more frugally, so they don’t alter the timeline too much. Similar detective work could be done, but it wouldn’t be as on-demand as the previous option. This variation on the time travel scenario should probably have fixed locations where time travel is available to make it more easily scalable for the developers. The risk assessment in time traveling coupled with the tangible impact should make for a very interestingElder Scrollsexperience.
Having two simultaneous points in time working themselves out in tandem should be an interesting concept to tackle in a video game. It has been done ingames likeLife is Strange; however, it hasn’t yet been tried on the scale of an open world video game likeThe Elder Scrolls 6. Undoubtedly, it would take a lot of work and effort to produce a system that can allow for two instances of the world to exist in the game’s memory, so developers would have to create certain shortcuts to compensate, but horror gameThe Mediumshows something similar can be done. Thankfully, Bethesda will be working with the next gen consoles whose hardware will give developers more room to work with.
The Elder Scrolls 6is currently in development.
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