Elder Scrolls 6 Can Learn a Big Lesson From Oblivion…

Summary

Oblivion Remastered has rekindled appreciation for uniqueness of The Elder Scrolls, setting the stage for TES 6.
Oblivion and Skyrim watered down the weirdness of the Elder Scrolls universe, but Bethesda could take notes from Dune to restore it.
Hammerfell's setting presents an opportunity for TES 6 to embrace strangeness and draw inspiration from Dune.

Oblivion Remastered has been an enormous hit for Bethesda and Virtuos, getting many traditional Skyrim fans to go back to an older title as they eagerly await The Elder Scrolls 6. It’s given many players a new appreciation for what makes a TES game, with so many unique quests, memorable NPCs, and the gorgeous forested landscape of Cyrodiil to roam through. The Elder Scrolls 6 has a lot to learn from the remaster, and Bethesda should take notes, as the cultural landscape has changed significantly since 2006, with many people more willing to dive into weirder IPs like Dune.

The next game is still some time away, with the earliest estimates saying The Elder Scrolls 6 could release in 2026, although this is not based on anything concrete. With the last mainline TES game being so long ago, there are a lot of expectations to live up to, but there is one aspect of the series’ identity in particular that The Elder Scrolls 6 should not shy away from.

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The Elder Scrolls 6 Needs Story NPCs Like Oblivion's, Not Skyrim's

The Elder Scrolls 6 is still likely years away and still has time to take certain lessons from its predecessors, Oblivion and Skyrim, to heart.

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By Shayna Josi

Oblivion Remastered Makes the Case for the Elder Scrolls 6 Needs to Be Weirder

Way back in the early 2000s, Morrowind was a make-or-break project for the struggling Bethesda Game Studios. Had it failed, there may not have been any future TES games, or even a Fallout continuation. Thankfully for everyone, it was a success, and fans all over the world fell in love with its rich world and beautifully diverse cast of characters. One thing that many players of Morrowind loved was how unafraid it was to be strange. Set among a backdrop of ash plains and mushroom trees, warriors wearing chitin and bone armor rode giant flea-like mounts, while the almighty Tribunal gods and their esoteric wisdom protected the population from Dagoth Ur and his enlightened Ash Zombies.

When The Elder Scrolls 4 was released, though, something was different. The bizarre vistas were gone, replaced with a European fantasy aesthetic. Characters now all wore leather or metal armor, riding horses around tranquil forests, fighting goblins and skeletons. Upon release, Oblivion was lauded for its incredible size and detail, but it was hard not to think back to the sheer uniqueness of Morrowind’s bold themes and feel like something had been lost.

Though many missed out on the older Elder Scrolls titles, some have since gone back to play games like Morrowind, or at least read into its deep lore. The tales of jungle Cyrodiil, the overt elf influences in the half-breed Bretons, and the old pantheon of Nordic gods are just some of the many details that were lost over a decade. Even though a lot of present-day Elder Scrolls fans did not play the older games when they were contemporary, there is good reason to be intrigued by the stranger version of The Elder Scroll s, and it would be incredibly interesting to see it come back.

The Elder Scrolls 6 Can't Cut Any Corners With This Key Feature

Skyrim set the bar for player immersion, and The Elder Scrolls 6 needs to go all out with this core feature if it hopes to set a new standard.

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By Emma Neeson

The Elder Scrolls 6’s Hammerfell Setting Would Be the Perfect Strange Setting to Explore

While many may see a Hammerfell setting as a typical Middle-Eastern-looking place, its influences are far more Japanese, creating this fascinating blend of cultural touchstones. The Redguards themselves, the people of Hammerfell, are not native to it. Their home is the sunken continent of Yokuda, lost long ago, and rumors conflict about whether it is even still around, or if it is even in the same kalpa as Tamriel. Their aesthetic is more than just a homogenous Arabian allegory, as it blends elements of Moorish, Japanese, Egyptian, Eastern Roman, and pre-Islamic Arabian themes.

Hammerfell’s recent history creates the perfect tense political narrative. Sold out to the Aldmeri Dominion in the Great War, Hammerfell is a nation divided similarly to Skyrim. The vast deserts, mountain ranges and coastal cities play host to two major factions, the Crowns and the Forebears. These ancient factions have been warring for millenia over how cosmopolitan the region should be, and only the strife of a full elven invasion managed to unite them for a moment. There are many ways a complex story of alliances and betrayals could be told that would make the main quest of the game uniquely memorable in the way Morrowind’s is.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is not confirmed to be in Hammerfell, but it is the most popular community theory.

In the current timeline, the province is no longer under Imperial control, and because of this, the stranger elements of Redguard culture should flourish. Skyrim’s portrayal in older TES games made the land seem utterly frozen over, with elemental people who did not need dwellings to survive. It painted this vivid picture of a mythical people, which was ultimately lost when TES 5 showed a far more Imperialized, civilized Skyrim society that didn’t even recognize its old gods, appearing much closer to a snowy Cyrodiil.

The Elder Scrolls 6 should strive to avoid this cultural homogenization to create a breathtaking and one-of-a-kind look. Fans have had a long time to read the old lore and appreciate the stranger things that have been forgotten in more recent games, and while Oblivion Remastered looks beautiful in its own right, it is a far cry from the jungle description Cyrodiil had in Morrowind. Thankfully, there is one very unlikely cultural influence in modern cinema that might give some fans what they want.

A Hammerfell Setting Should Take Big Inspiration From Dune

It’s been said that Todd Howard pivoted Oblivion’s direction after watching The Lord of the Rings, seeking to emulate Peter Jackson’s vision of Tolkien’s masterpiece. The film trilogy has had a massive influence on fantasy ever since the first one came out, but some have argued that its depiction of medieval fantasy worlds has forced other fantasy IPs to copy it. Whether this is true or not, there are undoubtedly many other games, TV, and films that closely resemble LOTR, making it hard to distinguish some of them.

On the other hand, when Dune Part One released in 2021, it was incredibly well-received as a fresh, strange take on some very odd source material. The sand-blasted deserts of Arrakis combined with Villeneuve’s directorial style made many people who had not read the books fall in love, wanting more of this obtuse approach to fiction. As the second film was arguably an even bigger success, there is clearly a market for weird sci-fi and fantasy.

Naturally, Hammerfell’s desert setting and cultural inspirations make it very similar to Dune, and if Bethesda is as inspired by Dune as it was by LOTR, then Hammerfell could be a return to form similar to Morrowind. It’s been a long time since Skyrim, and TES 6 has a huge hurdle to clear to have the same cultural impact, so this is not the time for Bethesda to pull punches. The Elder Scrolls’ strange lore has kept fans excited during the long wait, and it’s time they were rewarded.