Elder scrolls main staple is its true open world nature. High hrothgar is located 7000 steps above throat of the world so I'm thinking its not somewhere we can go to whenever we want. How would they block this off and more importantly wouldn't this go against the open world nature of the elder scrolls?

I hope it's naturally blocked off somehow, like you have to have a certain quest item to pass a certain point to access it.

None of this "you can't go that way, turn back".

I don't understand what you are saying. Why do they have to block it off?

Indeed, it's already been confirmed that all 7000 steps have been put in game.

Wow, got any evidence to back that claim up?

It was in the Game Informer article.

Sounds as open as it can get to me. The only thing to stop you from going there would be simply the time it would take to go up all 7000 steps. If they closed it off, wouldn't that make the world thus not open world like you want it to be?

If there's a need to block it off (like MQ block off) they'll probably set up a door or gate or bunch of boulders there that you can't open/remove until close to endgame, with sheer cliffs all around it.

Or they don't, and the PC enters and gets his/her rear handed to them in a matter of seconds like they did with Morrowind. You *could* kill Dagoth Ur and enter the last room, but without Keening, Sunder, and Wraithguard, you're dead since you have a 2nd, Immortal Dagoth Ur who wants to kill you, and no way back out without destroying the Heart of Lorkhan.

No it doesn't. There are bound to be locked rooms, and areas that we can't get to until a particular quest has been accepted/completed. That doesn't mean the world is not open. If there is a barrier to High Hrothgar, it will be something that makes sense, not an invisible barrier. I have a feeling though, that if you want to go there from the beginning, you can do it.

Yep and I'm sure I will not be able to resist base jumping to my death either.

You are doing it wrong.

There are a lot of "blocked ay first" places in the game, a lot of places that become only accessible after a specific stage of a quest, or with a hard lock behind them, or like the ghost fence in Morrowind, and the like.

In the other hand, it would give me a great sense of accomplishment and triumph to be able to reach places that I could not reach initially.

IMHO, the whole point of an RPG is development, advancement and accomplishment, and it goes against the notion of every thing available at the start.

Edit: :toughninja:

Let me try to refrase what I said. I feel you should be able to get there when ever you want, but you'll need something specific to do it. Like it would have some serious dragon guarding it or something, and you'd need to be either sneeky or strong enough to take it out to get past. You could still get there, but there would be something real infront of you and you'd need to be good enough to get past it. Not some random rocks that magically clear themselves once you get to a part of a quest.

WRONG! The Ghostgate could easily be opened by pressing a button, no need to complete any quest. And you could levitate over the Ghost Fence. Side question, do you want levitation back in Elder Scrolls?

I wonder if it will be written similarly to when Loranna's Lore RP featured it around 2005. We wrote that the cold is so severe and the air thin enough that non-Nords have a difficult time even getting to the top of the mountain. There was a monastery at the summit, Nords only, but I don't remember if they were all Tongues or not. The dev Ted Peterson contributed to the RP; its Skyrim setting seems prophetic to me now, because at the time "Skyrim" wasn't even a rumor and "Oblivion" was still new.

Well.. " Pilgrims travel from across Skyrim to climb the Seven Thousand Steps to High Hrothgar, where the most ancient and honored Greybeards dwell in absolute silence in their quest to become ever more attuned to the voice of the sky."
If pilgrims can do it I'm sure the Dovahkiin will be able too.

-http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-skyrim

OK, you caught me off balance, but Morrowind had another type of barrier that we had to break to pass, places that newbie character could not survive in, like inside the ghost fence.

I would guess they have some people there to speak for them and maybe do other tasks.

Indeed, and that is why I still play Morrowind and threw out Oblivion to never be seen again. The enemies in Morrowind were a type of barrier, because you knew not to go to Red Mountain unless you felt like being $%^&*# by loads of Cliff Racers and Ash slaves. In oblivion they replaced this natural system with areas where you just couldn't go, i.e. the closed cities, and borders. If they brought back a natural selection type system from Morrowind......*dreams*

I can picture it going like this: you head straight to the mountain as a level 1 beginner, climb all 7000 steps, barely survive because of your level 1 beginner stamina, only to find a big locked door and a Nord that says "none shall enter without the password. And it's not 'password', 'Dovahkiin', 'Umm...', or '12345', wise guy". Then you check your map and see that there's no fast travel marker because it's on the other side.

You could get into all the "closed cities" and there would be no way for them NOT to have borders... Cyrodiil is surrounded by other provinces. I am sure there will be invisible borders for Skyrim too.