The 36-second teaser for The Elder Scrolls 6 didn't give us much to go on. Clouds or maybe fog gives way to mountains, a settlement, a ruined tower, a coastline, and two birds. That's it. But if you think that's not enough to start speculating about this game's location then you don't know us very well.
High Rock
Let's get this out of the way first. It's high, and it features rocks, so maybe that's High Rock in the trailer? The thing is, Cyrodiil was described as being a jungle before Oblivion was set there, so it's not like The Elder Scrolls games can be trusted for consistent geography. Still, we don't have much else to go on.
High Rock is the home of the Bretons, Tamriel's humans who are most adept at magic, but it also includes Orsinium, the Orcish kingdom, so there's potential for interesting conflict there. High Rock was also one of the locations used in The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, and more recently The Elder Scrolls Online's second expansion was devoted to Orsinium, which could have been a sneaky tease for a more thorough exploration in the next mainline Elder Scrolls game.
Hammerfell
Directly across the Iliac Bay from High Rock is Hammerfell. It's much more of a desert than what we saw in the teaser. Hammerfell was also explored in Daggerfall, and the 1998 action game Redguard covered some if it (mainly the island of Stros M'kai). It's basically the Arabia of Tamriel, and would make a nice change of pace.
The Summerset Isles
The significance of the Thalmor in Skyrim has been seen by fans as foreshadowing, suggesting that the next Elder Scrolls game would be set at the heart of their Aldmeri Dominion in The Summerset Isles, home of the High Elves. We only just saw the Summerset Isles in an Elder Scrolls Online expansion, however, and it looked a lot more well-manicured and fancy than this scrap of land.
Elsweyr
There are two good arguments for why the next Elder Scrolls game could be set in Elsweyr. The first is that it's been underused, with only its corners showing up in any other game. The second is that it's the home of the Khajiit, the cat-people who are one of Tamriel's most popular races and the source of so many memes. We could be drinking Skooma, enjoying a sugar fit, and finally getting to visit Ma'iq the Liar in his home.
The coastal southern half of Elsweyr is mostly jungle and rainforest, but that doesn't mean there's no room for mountains. This is mostly wishful thinking though, to be honest.
Black Marsh
As great as it would be to travel to the home of the Argonian lizard people and the living trees called the Hist, that does not look much like Black Marsh. And of all the provinces of Tamriel the one whose geography is right there in its name is least likely to change overnight. Sorry, fans of The Lusty Argonian Maid.
Valenwood
This land is largely uninhabited, but for some Bosmer wood elf settlements on the outskirts. The centre is supposedly made up of difficult swamp land, so it doesn’t match the profile of the mountainous region the trailer shows. The Bosmer hate cutting down trees too so you would expect their homeland to be heavily forested rather than rugged and bare. A lot of exciting stuff has happened in Valenwood, however. A walking city called Falinesti settled down there, and there was a big war with Elsweyr at one point. Valenwood would be a rich setting for a future Elder Scrolls game.
Skyrim, again
Mountains? Check. Snow? Check. Rocky flats? Scattered ruins that look like perfect places for Necromancers to hide? To be honest this trailer could easily be showing Skyrim. The Elder Scrolls series tends to move from one setting to the next between major installments, but let’s not underestimate just how successful Skyrim was. A new Elder Scrolls game could take us to a different point in Skyrim’s history, perhaps a point when dragons weren’t flapping around every single peak. The only counterpoint is that this scene would have to be showing the northern coast of Skyrim, which as we know is extremely cold and largely frozen over.
Where do you think the next Elder Scrolls game will be set? Let us know in the comments. For more info, here's everything we know about The Elder Scrolls VI.
