A jungle-y place, either Valenwood or Elsweyr.

I'm torn between Hammerfell and Elsweyr.

Elder scroll VI Akavir !

Valenwood. Always love stealth games and when I picture Valenwood I picture (nerd moment) Endor in Star Wars VI with the little munchkins (like the Bosmer) runnin around.

Valenwood and Elswyre together.........

Two years ago, Summerset Isle was automatically the most popular choice on these forums. Now, it's Black Marsh. What happened there?

Anyway, I'm not too picky. As long as it's not Black Marsh (that included the remains of Morrowind), High Rock, Cyrodiil, or Skyrim, I'm fine. I can just imagine how great it would be to trek across the deserts of Hammerfell on my camel and see the minarets of Sentinel rise in the background, to see the beautiful, vibrant forests of Valenwood, to explore the isolated and alien land of Summerset Isle and the glass insect wing architecture, or to see the exotic Elsweyr. I'd be fine with any of those 4 provinces. Black Marsh, on the other hand, just seems, in my mind, like it would be too depressing.. dark, swamplike, and disease-riddled and High Rock too mundane. Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and the remnants of Morrowind are too soon, obviously.

Voted for the Summerset Isles. We need a proper episode, that deals with magic properly and focuses on mainly the magic.

Vvardenfell was an island in the middle of the Inner Sea (a large bay) within Morrowind, and considered a part of the province. Only a small portion of the one province was featured in the game. We never got to set foot on the larger portions of the province (except in the quarantined inner courtyard of the city of Mournhold, and on the small, remote island of Solstheim), although the Tamriel Rebuilt team is modding that in as we speak. So far, two of the expected 6-7 installments are available as very playable betas (if you're playing on PC), and are surprisingly close to the original game in concept, art styles, and lore, while still providing fresh sights and challenges.

I believe that Daggerfall only touched on the edge of Hammerfell (although I have yet to get DF working properly, via DOS emulator on my computer, so I'm not positive), so it appears we only got a poorly rendered glimpse of a narrow sliver of it.

Like Morrowind, with its swamps along the Bitter Coast, fertile Ascadian Isles plantations, rocky West Gash highlands, lush Grazelands, dreary Ashlands, and odd mushroom-tree Azura's Coast areas, both Elsweyr and Hammerfell have diverse ecologies. Elsweyr includes sandy and stony deserts, as well as tropical jungles. Hammerfell includes both sandy and stony deserts and fertile or irrigated plains with cornfields. The criticisms are just as bad and inaccurate as "Skyrim is just snowy mountains".

The swamps of Black Marsh could be far more varied than one can imagine, with swamps, jungles, rivers, sudden rocky ridges or volcanic mounds rising abruptly from the marshy soil, and occasional patches of firm, dry ground suitable for the scattered inhabitants to build isolated villages on, all infested with an abundance of varied plants and animals the likes of which we have yet to see. The game could be "naturally levelled" by having the character starting in the thin habitable coastal strips and a few well-patrolled trails between them, and gradually be able to venture farther and farther into the harsh and wild interior as they progress, so it can be tackled according to when you feel "ready", instead of having the difficulty imposed on you by the levelling/scaling system. I HATE the excessive levelling and scaling in the newer games.

My first choice for the next installment would be Black Marsh (Argonia), but Elsweyr comes fairly close behind that. Hammerfell, Valenwood, or Summerset Isles would be fine with me as well. I don't really want to go back to another "generic" province like High Rock, and there's too much unexplored area on Tamriel to venture to Akavir or Atmora yet.

Akavir.

While I'm not voting for High Rock, I actually think you could make the place look very unique, and that it wouldn't be "generic" fantasy at all...

As I read the lore, I think of terribly small, cloistered villages huddled together inside of pallisades surrounded by covens of witches and all manner of creature from Irish and Welsh myth and lore.

Doing Norse/Viking stuff is common, doing Celtic Druids and Irish mound peoples would be much more unique.

Plus it's also the homeland of the Orcs as well as the Bretons. Orcs certainly aren't "generic fantasy"... well, OK, the version of orcs that are in TES aren't generic fantasy, in any event.

I don't see Bethesda going to the beast races' homelands. I get the impression they're trying to distance themselves from Khajiit and Argonians, and are going for a more generic and traditional Tolkienesque fantasy world, since it more appealing to a wider audience, and is therefore more profitable. Oblivion was as vanilla a setting as TES can get. Now Skyrim, which looks even more akin to a "Middle-Earth" setting, has a serious lack of beast races, but includes dragons and werewolves (traditional fantasy creatures).

This is all baseless speculation, of course. But I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in future iterations of TES.


I'm guessing Summerset Isles, since that seems to be where the next major story arc is heading.

I chose other, because I think Akavir would make the best location. The fantasy genre as a whole is entirely too focused on medieval Europe-inspired settings, so getting to explore a region with entirely different culture, architecture and creatures would be great. It would also clear up a lot of questions people have about the place. Maybe the story could start with an Imperial expedition to establish diplomatic relations with Akavir, and deal with issues of xenophobia and culture shock.

I don't think that's really likely though, as most Western fantasy writers are afraid to step outside their Eurocentric comfort zone. Bethesda did with Morrowind, but they seem to have used up most of their creativity on that one game.

Black Marsh, really guys? Why would you want a whole ES game to be located in a swamp... :glare:

anything but sumerset isles, preferably black marsh (anyone read the argonian report? game would be sick if it stays true to the lore). elsweyr and valenwood would be cool too.

Valenwood for the win!

Also Elsweyr would be cool, but i don't see Bethesda being able to do it, with all the Khajiit sub-species and all.

Great minds think alike.

Akavir.

TES IV was supposed to happen in the Summerset Isles, as TES III. Now, it's been 200 years since the Oblivion crisis and more since the Nerevarine prophecies, but I guess Bethesda have some ideas for the Summerset Isles. Since the aldemri are more important in Skyrim, maybe it is the necessary introduction for TES VI happening in the Summerset Isles?

Otherwise, I agree that we don't need to be limited to an entire province, although I think the whole Empire is just too much, even two complete provinces would be too much. But I like the Morrowind/Blackmarsh thing. Give us the whole Blackmarsh province with the Morrowind mainland we never got (that means no Vvardenfell). And it would have something I'd like from a new ES game, the possibility to get through a province's border. An expansion I'd love for Skyrim is getting a small chunk of Morrowind land, so we can get through the Dunmer pass to the province.

Great post, great ideas.

Really. Swamps can be beautiful. And I guess we want more than a swamp, we want a swamp plus the Argonians tribes plus the hist plus a darker alien place filled with strange plants, animals and mystery. That's more than 'a swamp', like Skyrim is more than 'a mountain and some ice' and Morrowind was more than 'a pile of ash and lava'.

High Rock is what I believe will be the next and its what I want.

Arena: Most of the world appears medieval European
Daggerfall: Set mostly in High Rock with medieval European style
Morrowind: Set in an interesting alien environment with some European influence
Oblivion: Medieval European traditional fantasy
Skyrim: Medieval Northern European

Why would someone want ANOTHER European environment, one we've already visited no less, over something more interesting and new?

Bethesda should hire some better concept artists.It's pretty much the artists that SHAPE the world,not Todd.Even if he were to say Cyrodiil should resemble medieval European cities,the artists can interprete it to create some -respectively- original stuff.



As for the topic,I'd love to see Akavir,and I have hopes for that.There's this VI in Akavir thing,and I was saying it around as joke,but I had my hopes high with the frequent mention of Akavir in the game.
If not,than I'd like to go to Aldmeri territory,hoping for some compensation for the biased image of Altmer up until now.

But,I have also this conspiracy theory:
Since the streamlining and fantasy lowering began,the game has been dealing with Humans.A world mainlt filled with non-human characters may not appeal to every gamer out there.For that,I suspect we'll be getting Bretons,and I REALLY hope I will be wrong,for I'm literally fed up with men and mundane stuff.

I don't have any real preference. I hated it when I learned TES3 would take place in MW because I don't like dark elves (and because I didn't get much of Daggerfall's lore), but Vivardenfell became instantly and still remain my favorite TES setting. Well, as long as it's not Valenwood because I now know enough of the lore to honestly say I can't stand Bosmers.


I haven't read the whole thread, but I am pretty sure Bethesda decided on the Summerset Isles

In MW you had rumors of something happening to the Emperor in Cyrodiil (Caius Cosades being called back to Imperial City and warning that when the emperor dies, hell will break loose, which indeed happened in Oblivion). In Oblivion, you had rumors something was happening in the North and hinted at Skyrim. (although, in the end, something happened, but 200 years later).
In Skyrim, the only hints I found relate to the Thalmor, hence the Summerset Isles, I think.

EDIT : well, just saw there was a whole thread on this SI being already decided. I hadn't seen it before posting my message

Black Marsh. Besides unveiling the mysterious Argonian population (unusual settlements, more sub-races, means of travel, their bonding with the trees), the land itself provides a great premise for an exploration/survival gameplay. The poisonous atmosphere and deadly thick vegetation could play an active role in the story, maybe a disease (like Corprus, but with actual impact on gameplay) and finding its cure is a part of the main story.

You tell me why they made Skyrim after Oblivion then? I still believe it will be High rock and I want it to be High Rock. Also we have already visited all of Tamriel so your theory about High Rock already being made fails.