Make of that what you will.

As a continuation to my previous post analysing the situation in Hammerfell, I thought I'd take a crack at analysing the situation in High Rock. However, compared to Hammerfell, there is something of a draught of more recent information.

Following the events of TES II: Daggerfall, the Iliac Bay region was swept-up in the Warp in the West, which saw the Bretic kingdoms of Daggerfall and Wayrest divide the northern half of the bay between themselves, the Redguard Forebear kingdom of Sentinel conquer the Crown Redguard states surrounding it and Gortwog gro-Nagrom's fledgeling Orcish state assert its independence. Northpoint and Evermore also took advantage of the oppurtunity to swallow-up their lesser neighbours, leaving High Rock, once the land of a hundred kingdoms, with only five: Daggerfall, Wayrest, Orsinium, Northpoint and Evermore.

In the wake of these events, King Gothryd of Daggerfall had his son wed with Duke Senhyn of Camlorn's daughter, suggesting the formation of a unifited kingdom along the western coast of Glenumbera. Meanwhile, Queen Elysana of Wayrest, a member of the Septim dynasty, had outmaneuvered her stepbrother Helseth and claimed the throne, and would go on to become known as the most feared ruler in all of High Rock, with her even forming an unlkely alliance with Orsinium.

Here is where we veer into questionable canonity, namely Ted Peterson's forum posts from Loranna's RP, a series of roleplays on the now defunct official forums, with many concepts from these roleplays later being intergrated into official lore. As part of these posts, Queen Elysana attended the engagement ball of Geldall Septim, where he and his brothers were assassinated by the Mythic Dawn, with her, as a member of the Septim dynasty, possibly being targeted as well. With Orsinium being sacked by Breton and Redguard forces shortly after the Oblivion Crisis, it would certainly appear that Queen Elysana is no longer in charge.

Almost two centuries later, Wayrest would be ruled by the Barynia family, with an unnamed king orchestrating a corsair attack on his capital in order to rid himself of his conspring vassals, with his daughter assuming the throne after he goes missing during the attack. The corsair's attack also resulted in the destruction of the Dark Brotherhood's sanctuary in Wayrest and the end of their presence in High Rock.

Following the rise of the Thalmor, the isle of Balfiera, the last scrap of Clan Direnni's territory, became a sanctuary for political dissidentts fleeing persecution by the Thalmor. The Thalmor's agents however managed to infiltrate Balfiera and assassinated several individuals of mixed-blood. It is here where the questionable canonity of Loranna's RP rears its head once more. Goranthir and Rinnala were characters created for Loranna's RP, the children of Morgiah and Reman Karoodil, who'd later on be mentioned in Pocket Guide to the Empire, 3rd Edition. With the Thalmor's rise to power, Morgiah and her half-Altmer, half-Dunmer children would find themselves unwelcome and could make their way to Balfiera.

Finally, there is the Spell Knight Armor Creation, which features the lore book Crypt of the Heart - Draft, which seems to contradict the idea of Northpoint swallowing-up Shornhelm, with Shornhelm being referred to as a kingdom. Perhaps it could be that Northpoint and Shornhelm united, essentially reforming the old kingdom of Rivenspire, with Northpoint originally serving as the seat of the kingdom, but it later transferring to Shornhelm. If this is the case, then that would also allow House Lariat, the rulers of Shornhelm and supposed descendants of the Septim dynasty, in actuality descendants of the Dunmer Clan Ra'athim by way of Katariah, becoming major players in events going forward, taking advantage of the Mede dynasty's weakness to try and retake their stolen birthright - the Ruby Throne.

With Wayrest's sacking being the most prominent event to take place in High Rock in recent history, I could see it serving as the foundation for a political questline, with the surrounding kingdoms of Daggerfall, Shornhelm and Evermore all trying to exploit Wayrest's weakness to pursue their own goals. Perhaps players could decide to back one of the three kingdoms, Evermore hoping to protect it's ally and with it their own business interests, Daggerfall hoping to seize border territory and Shornhelm hoping to seize the throne of Wayrest itself.

Tomorrow

Word on the street is that something will be shown in 2027 instead, believe me if you want.

Not because it is the Xth anniversary of some game or jubilee or Todd Howard's cousin's cat's birthday.

15 years on from Skyrim and all we have is \\\\****

Next November will mark a touch over 4 years since Starfield released which is within expectations for a BGS release. Will we get anything? I've been on the patient side of this waiting time but I'm starting to wear thin. The only copium I have left is Todd toying w/ the idea of a shadowdrop and that's a bit of a stretch.

GTA 6 will hold me over for a little bit. Fable a little longer. Not sure what little remains of my childlike eagerness toward a video game, but I hope it comes soon.

Tomorrow?

Here's some I came up with myself

"M'aiq is glad to see new lands. He has spent many summers wandering the same few places."

(Obvious)

"M'aiq has heard that the Khajiit have stopped telling fables. This is a great loss."

(Lamenting the closure of Lionhead. A bit of a callback to his old line about never finding a good fable.)

"M'aiq once saw a Nord try to climb a mountain with a horse in tow. It did not end well for either of them."

(Horse climb glitch, duh.)

"M'aiq has heard the giants of Skyrim aspire to walk on the stars some day. He has visited, they are not very interesting."

(Referencing the giant space program and a jab at Starfield.)

"M'aiq misses the time when he first saw the north. Many of the children there are now seasoned kings."

(Referencing how now a lot of the devs are people who grew up playing Skyrim, and of course relating to nostalgia.)

"M'aiq once tried to sing to his sword. It did not do very much. I do not know why Redguards get so invested in the art."

(Referencing sword-singing, duh.)

"M'aiq's feet are tired. He will rest soon at his father's home."

(On the offchance Todd decides to retire a year or two after the release.)

"M'aiq is glad to see new practitioners of the old ways. Those arts of combat and magic were nearly lost."

(Alternatively)

"M'aiq does not know why everyone is so obsessed with the old ways. They are gone for a reason."

(Referencing the return/continued absence of systems like unarmed combat, spellcrafting, weapons like spears, or the school of mysticism)

"M'aiq saw dragons in Skyrim. Now everyone says they are gone, but M'aiq knows they are all around, just very sneaky."

(Continuing a running gag.)

"M'aiq hopes you live to see his next adventure. He has lost many friends in his time."

(It's been a while. People have lived and died without seeing this next entry.)

"M'aiq is glad that business in Skyrim is finally dealt with. It was getting repetitive."

(ANOTHER RERELEASE OF SKYRIM!!!)

"M'aiq once spent many years in the snow. He has many good memories there."

(Another obvious one.)

"M'aiq has traveled alongside many in his age. Though the people these days are so much more interesting."

(Say what you will about the direction of Bethesda, but one thing they're pretty much always improving on is the companion system.)

"M'aiq had a horse stolen twice in Skyrim!"

(Two GTAs released between Skyrim and TESVI.)

"The world feels so much bigger these days. Or maybe it is smaller. M'aiq is not sure."

(TESVI is 100% going to have a bigger map than Skyrim. But it's also 100% going to have a smaller map than Daggerfall.)

"M'aiq's father once told him that everything in this world works as it should. M'aiq has his doubts about that."

(Obvious.)

"Adventurers are so lazy now. They never walk anywhere themselves."

(Referencing the pervasiveness of fast travel in modern games.)

That is all.

Just curious to discuss this TBH.

Personally I think it would be fun to have an encounter with a dragon, but only once, maybe as the conclusion to a questline or as an easter egg like Karstaaag in Skyrim. It should be really hard to bring down, not as easy as the average Skyrim dragon was.

As for lore, it could easily be a dragon that escaped from Skyrim after being resurrected by Miraak, having seen the writing on the wall that was the Last Dragonborn's presence, or maybe one thay had been in hiding all this time like Vulthuryol, the one dragon in Blackreach.

There is also lore precedent for dragons outside of Skyrim, such as in Elswyr, although I'm not sure if there were many in Hammerfell/High Rock aside from the one we see in Redguard (which presumably dies and doesn't seem in a good spot to be recovered).

What do you think?

I know it’s still very early to be discussing this, but after creating some mods for BG3, I’ve become really excited about the prospect of making mods for TES6, whenever it eventually releases. My focus is primarily on the 3d art, so I’d be interested in creating things like weapons, armor, and objects for base building. Some of the things I’d like to create for TES6 include:

- Furniture and decorative items for base building. I had a lot of fun with base building in Fallout 4.

- Weapons. I made quite a few for BG3, and it would be cool to port some of those over to TES6, as well as create new ones.

- Armor. I also made some armor for BG3, but for personal reasons, I never ended up posting most of what I created anywhere.

I’ve even started modeling some medieval-style furniture, just because I’m so enthusiastic about the idea of ​​modding TES6. I realize that, by getting a head start on these models, I might eventually need to tweak or even remake them to ensure they fit the game’s art style and don’t look out of place. Even so, I’m still very keen to get a head start so I can begin modding TES6 as soon as possible. I’d love to hear what kind of weapons, armor, or base-building objects you’d like to see, and if you happen to have any reference photos or similar, please share them! It’ll help me get warmed up for when the game finally launches.

Probably nothin. But hey. Would love to hear your theories :-)

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DendPJ7iLbv/?rpxt=MXdhZ3hndWI4d3Axeg==

Fallout may be his most popular work but a lot of people don't really seem to realize that he's done way more than that. He has a lot of range and while i can understand not everyone likes his work i feel like we should atleast take his entire career into account while discussing instead of simply looking at one thing and believing TES6 will be the same

I've put easily 6,000 hours into Skyrim, playing it since I was four years old. Like many of you, I'm incredibly anxious about The Elder Scrolls VI. We don't need hyper-realistic physics like arrow wind drag or lighting tracking that bloat development times into decades. We want that nostalgic, comforting Bethesda sandbox magic.

But if there is one mechanic from Skyrim that absolutely needs to return, it's the Thu'um.

The lore explicitly states that the Graybeards and Ulfric Stormcloak weren't born with dragon blood—they learned the Voice through years of intense study. Skyrim shouldn't gatekeep this power just because the Dragonborn's story is over. Mastering the Voice should be open to any mortal willing to pay the price.

If Bethesda implements the Thu'um for a non-Dragonborn protagonist, it should be a massive, rewarding gameplay mechanic split into two distinct paths:

The Path of the Scholar (The Lore-Accurate Slow Burn)
Instead of just absorbing a soul in a menu, you spend 30+ hours of gameplay tracking down ancient warrior-monks or hidden hermits in Hammerfell/High Rock. You earn every syllable through trials, meditation, and translating ancient walls. The payoff? A raw, devastating Unrelenting Force that doesn't just slap enemies like a wet napkin, but actually shatters structures and disintegrates low-level foes on impact.

The Path of the Daedric Artifact (The Corrupted Shortcut)
For players who want instant gratification, you make a dangerous deal with a Daedric Prince like Hermaeus Mora. You bypass the training, but your Thu'um becomes corrupted with dark, oily energy and tentacles. The catch? It comes with steep narrative costs, physical mutations (like glowing eyes or shadow hands), and potential health degradation.

Giving us the choice between the honorable grind of a scholar or the corrupting shortcut of a Daedric Prince provides the exact kind of deep, roleplaying freedom the franchise needs to get back to.

Maybe Tesla should help the studio developing faster 😂

There are three types of factions

Main Factions (main quest - Blades, Institute, NCR)

Side Factions (Big quest line - Dark Brotherhood, Mages Guild, Morag Tong)

Minor Factions (small quest line, even just one - Riley's Rangers, Atom Cats, Imperial Cult, Bard's College)

Minor Factions help make the world feel more alive. Not every group is doing big things, sometimes it's fun to just join a group of nobodies.

In FNV I always use my one favor to join the kings. It's just a cool, mostly RP thing to do.

It could be a way to have a larger catalog of religious orders. Assuming for Sentinel, maybe each Imperial and Yokuden god could get one or two quests and a little marker saying your part of the faction.

Also bring back the faction menu.

All other jobs (posting same questions every week and creating sanity-preserving sheoposts) were taken, so I opened MS-PAINT and tried to be funny.

As I'm sure most are aware at this point, Skyrim gave us some insights as to what the situation is in Hammerfell, probably moreso than any other province. At the time of Skyrim's release, I actually took that as a sign that we may get a future DLC set in Hammerfell. And while ultimately nothing came of that, my speculation about that hypothetical DLC did eventually shift to speculating about a hypothetical sequel.

These insights of course are mainly about the Great War. Hammerfell was invaded, with Gilane, Taneth, Rihad and Skaven (renamed to Ska'vyn in ESO) falling under Aldmeri control. The Empire handed-over the territory to the Aldmeri Dominion as part of the White-Gold Concordat, leading to Hammefell seceding from the Empire to continue the fight. After a further five years, the reconciled Forebears and Crowns drove the Aldmeri from the mainland and concluded a seperate, more favorable peace treaty with them, but as a result southern Hammerfell was left utterly devastated.

The Forebears and the Crowns, longtime enemies, have reconciled in the face of the common threat of the Aldmeri, though, whether their alliance will hold or they'll revert to in-fighting by the time of TES VI is anyone's guess. TES: Blades also shows us that Imperial sympathisers among the formerly pro-Imperial Forebears, such as Prince Dinahan al-Rihad, were ousted, so it could be they're setting-up a kind of schism within the Forebear faction.

We also don't have a clear idea as to whether Hammerfell exists as a state, as it had prior to the Hammerfell civil war, or if it remains a patchwork of minor kingdoms, as it was under the Empire. Assuming the latter, the reunification of Hammerfell as a state could very well serve as the basis for Hammerfell's political questline. Though seeminly only a historical footnote, King Lhotun's Lhotunic faction could re-emerge as the driving force behind Hammerfell's reunification, navigating the Forebear schism in the wartorn south and the situation north of the Dragontail Mountains.

Which brings us to Hammerfell's big lingering plot thread, set-up in TES Travels: Shadowkey and expanded upon in Pocket Guide to the Empire: 3rd Edition. In the War of the Bend'r-mahk, Skyrim invaded High Rock and Hammerfell, with the eastern half of the city of Dragonstar falling under their control. That situation persisted well after the war had concluded, with violence between the Redguard and Nord communities being common. It's possible that the situation had persisted up to present day, with Dragonstar East nominally being part of Hammerfell, but the Nords there anwsering to nobody but themselves.

We were also told in a Skyrim loading screen that following its destruction in the early Fourth Era, the kingdom of Orsinium relocated to the mountains between Hammerfell and Skyrim, those being the Druadach Mountains. Between one of the region's major cities being split down the middle between rival factions and an Orc state, possibly with allegience to the Empire, being set-up in the nearby mountains, the northern Crowns would probably be in a very tough spot.

I'll conclude with a question: what would you guys like to see as Hammerfell's big political questline? A reunification story, with the player's choice determining whether its the favorite Sentinel or the underdog Hegathe that unites the kingdoms? A rehash of Skyrim's civil war plot, with the two factions reverting to in-fighting and duking it out? Perhaps another Aldmeri invasion, or even something in between?

1. Oblivion Remastered added origins which allowed us to pick the region in the province we came from, this seems like an odd feature to add when other added features were to modernise the gameplay experience such as adding sprint and level rebalancing.

2. Fans have requested the feature for many years so they can play some of the different varieties of Khajiit fur stocks or types of Argonians.

3. Bethesda and more importantly Microsoft will want this game to have a broad appeal to be more successful, when data has been released by other RPG's like BG3, Human has been shown to be the most picked race followed by half elf and elf, this is because many players like to make a character that looks like them however this doesn't for work TES as the 4 playable human races only represent some real racial groups, Nord=Northern Europe, Breton=Western Europe, Imperial=Mediterranean, Redguard=Sub Saharan African and the Elven races look fairly alien. While there are other human groups that could be added like the akaviri this require large lore changes.

4. With the previous points in mind I think it's likely Bethesda could add several subraces which would require minimal lore changes to allow more players to create a character that looks like them. I imagine this would look something like Redguard getting an option to make more Middle Eastern looking character as they already borrow from several middle eastern cultures aesthetically, East Asian looking characters could be Rimmen a subgrouping of Imperial who are already stated to have akaviri ancestry in the lore.