The future of Elder Scrolls: Elsweyr or Elsewhere?

 Further to my recent review of the remastered Skyrim, I thought I would take a moment to think about the future and reflect on the past of Elder Scrolls.
So where to begin, I don’t think I could really have a huge amount to say about the start of the series. Both “The Elder Scrolls: Arena” and “The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall” were a little before my time and while I have had a little go on each, they are both quite dated.

Daggerfall is a lot more like the Elder Scrolls of today and quite playable for those without graphics snobbery. As this is set in the Breton homeland High Rock, it’s probably reasonably safe to assume that this won’t be the base for the next Elder Scrolls game. 

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is where things start to get really interesting for me. This was one of the first 1st person RPG’s that I played and so began m

y obsession. For its time, Morrowind looked amazing, and I don’t think it looks awful by today’s standards. Bethesda really doesn’t scrimp on effort and that’s why their games look so good, because you can see how much care went into their creation and design. 

As Morrowind has already been the setting of a whole game, it’s also likely this won’t be where we end up in Elder Scrolls 6.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, this is my favourite game of all time. There is something about coming out of the cave for the first time and the beginning and seeing the world unfold in front of you that fills me with this feeling I have only experienced with one other game, Fallout 3 (when you first escape the Vault).

Oblivion had everything for me and its main strength was its fantastic and gripping story. No game has ever had me so invested in my character and I’m not entirely sure another ever will.

My thoughts on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are very similar to Oblivion. It’s a fantastic game and a bloody good entry to the series, but the story is not quite as strong so that’s why I have to say Oblivion is the best Elder Scrolls game.

So, bearing in mind we have already investigated High Rock, Cyrodiil, Morrowind, Skyrim for a full game, we are left with Hammerfell (Red Guard), Valenwood (Wood Elves), Black Marsh (Argonians), Summerset Isles (High Elves) and Elsweyr (Khajitt).

The two popular theories of the next games setting seem to be Black Marsh and Elsweyr. While I think it Bethesda will make a good go of whichever province they decide, I’m not sure that it can be limited to just one.

I’ll explain, we already know a reasonable amount about these provinces now thanks to Elder Scrolls Online and while interesting they are both characterised by one type of landscape Desert and Marsh. I think in order to keep it “fresh” they really need to include more that one of these places so that don’t just get the same repeated scene for an entire game.

An important question that appears to me is when Elder Scrolls 6 will be set. We know that time travel (of sorts) is possible thanks to the Elder Scroll in Skyrim so does it even need to be set in one time? Maybe we will finally meet the mysterious Dwemer and find out why they disappeared or if they even have… who knows.

There are plenty of opportunities for Elder Scroll’s 6 and I would be encouraged to think that maybe the next game won’t just be in one other province sometime after the events of Skyrim.