If you look at a map of Tamriel, you'll notice that Skyrim is surrounded by a fair few countries: High Rock, Hammerfell, Cyrodiil and Morrowind. Hammerfell and Morrowind are traditionally considered to have vastly different landscape from Skyrim. As much as some people want to avoid real world locations in this thread, take a look at a map of Russia. It's surrounded not only by cold looking regions such as the Baltic states and Scandinavia, you also countries with very Asian feels such as Azerbaijan, all of Central Asia, Mongolia and, very notably, China. No need for just icy Himalayan looking mountains and bare tundras, you can also have dry grassy steppes and coniferous forests thrown into the mix.

Geography aside, the culture alone could be extremely varied due to border influences. Russia's not ethnically homogenous Slavs, there is a significant Turkic minority, some of them totally indigenous (I'm thinking Tatars in particular). Why not have indigenous tribes of Dunmeri or Yoku decent, as well as immigrants? A lot of the ethnic tension and nationalism could lead to some unique factions and quests, as well as some great atmosphere such as unique dress and cuisine. That's not even going into delving into the typically fantasy additions of bestiary, magic and whatnot. The sky's the limit for Bethseda if they look at it the right way, should they choose Skyrim as it's next location.

TES 5 is gona sell A LOT, because people eagerly awaits for the game and we like the franchise...
But I'm gona wait t'ill the DLC gets out, and the price goes down... I can wait.

I wonder what will be the landscape... something is for shure, there will be Pines... and hopefully Maples (with a possibility of doing Maple Sugar!!!!)

http://www.skyrim.co.uk/Screenshots.html Like our TES3 mod? though the sceens are a bit lacking there, the bsgf threads are full of screens. so thats how i'd imagine it seeing as i'm making a nine cell portion of it atm

I would consider Bethesda fail if Solstheim doesn't become part of the official game [if it is Skyrim] at some part, whether it is included from the start or through an add on. It would be a major oversight. Solstheim is the elephant in the room called Skyrim .

This may have been said already but isnt Cyrodill slanted upwards all the way to the Jerrall Mountains? Couldnt this mean that Skyrim is in fact not necessarily in the Arctic Circle of Nirn? It could just be that Skyrim is just reeaally high up in the altitude sense, eh? Couldn't this mean that instead of being snowy and cold everywhere its just snowy and cold in the large number of mountains? I'm sure its been said before but it is worth throwing out there I suppose...

That is exactly why Bruma is snowy.

The northern and western end of skyrim aren't mountainous and have crops/forests/etc.

If there was some snow around, I really wouldn't be too worried about Skyrim looking like that!

Maybe the Jerralls and Southern Skyrim are like the alps in Europe, not near the arctic, but high altitude and cold.
I imagine Skyrim will be like the South Island of New Zealand, green pastures, high mountains, loads of snow in the winter and rocky wet, terrain.
Or Switzerland and Scandinavia.