And I also think that it's very likely that TES 6 would be set in Hammerfell. Don't know why but I feel my legacy character will be beckoned there. And it won't be from a mod, most likely.

I find this proposal... difficult. Two province games have been a topic of discussion time and again before. I myself defended them, but a two province game simply cannot be pulled off and have the desired effect. Each game should be tailored to its province. Black Marsh in particular would be almost impossible to pull off in a dual-province game because: 1. It's one of the largest provinces in Tamriel, with or without Arnesia and a good chunk of Deshaan. 2. It's bordered by Cyrodiil and Morrowind, the two largest provinces in Tamriel. With what prey tell would you combine Black Marsh with? The only ways to include regions outside of Black Marsh is possibly moving the border north, as the Argonians did conquer southern Morrowind and most likely integrated the Dreslands into their new kingdom/theocracy.

I do agree about the feel of the game. Black Marsh - more inhospitable to most Tamrielics than the Alik'r, a moist land where everything wants you dead. The natives, the wildlife, the plant life, everything. However, I do think there are safe havens from those dangers in some of the major cities. In Gideon for example - a dark and shady city, the most "Imperialised" city, with walls and all. There, I think your in bigger danger of being murdered than being pulled into a murky depths by a Dreugh, or having your head bitten off by a giant sea snail.

It seems likely, that BGS are using Kirkbride's C0DA to create their own version of events. Plus, it's better to take everything Kirkbride says with a grain of salt. Even though the humans have had victories, the general theme for the Fourth Era has been the decline of man. Though, I personally would like to see it done in the games differently. I would like to see Ald-Cyrod in some form or another. The decline of Talos' power could have certain effects on Cyrodiil, such as it regressing back into a jungle. That reminds me, the Sleeping Tree is supposedly a Hist that grew from a spore from Umbriel. If the Infernal City was just dropping spores all over the place, there should be Sleeping Hist popping up all over Black Marsh, a good portion of Morrowind's mainland and northern Nibenay.

I think this is how they could potentially handle Cyrodiilic presence in Black Marsh. As I mentioned before, an Expeditionary Force, the player being aboard one of their ships when it shipwrecks, possibly due to pirates, Argonian magic or just a sea-drake. The Expeditionary Force could easily take Gideon, being a border city after all, and Soulrest could also have been taken rather easily, especially if they had the help of Argonian auxiliaries. As for Stormhold, I'm not sure, there might be something going on with the Dunmer, House Sadras doing something perhaps? I also think Black Marsh could bring back the Red Dome Templars, or "Imperial Templars". A relic of the past, they might be sent to Black Marsh, just to get these religious zealots out of the Imperial City. I'd imagine that after the signing of the concordat, they would have some sort of Talos cult, think the supposed real-life Templar worship of the deity Baphomet.

Kirkbride's quote regarding the Red Templars opens up a lot of possibilities: "The Red Dome Templars were psycho-crusaders who drank the blood of Talos to get short-term martial shouting powers. The rest of the Army hated them (and much of the Elder Council wanted them dispersed), which is mainly why they were shoved off to places like Morrowind."

Now, while the Red Templars may not be around anymore as an order (probably, since the signing of the White-Gold Concordat outlawed Talos worship), they could have somehow survived, becoming some kind of Talos-worshiping cult within the Imperial Legion. Like many in Cyrodiil, even members of the Elder Council, they could resent the Medes for their betrayal of Talos and be plotting something big. The "short-term martial shouting" also sounds promising. Perhaps joining the order would grant the player limited use of the thu'um.

I imagine a cinematic trailer, in which an Imperial collum of fresh-faced Cyrodiils and Saxhleel auxiliaries is attacked by An-Xileel shellbacks in the depths of Black Marsh. Led by a Cyrodiil clad in gold-and-red armor, the Cyrodiils manage to hold the line. We see Saxhleel swamp mages conjuring tall waves from the shallows in an attempt to break their shield wall. The Red Templar, with shout and sword, bringing down shellback after shellback, his thu'um striking fear into the marshdwellers. But then, a deep roar is heard. From the depths, sparks illuminating it, an armored Wamasu rises. It roars, bringing down fire and lighting on the legion. In the fighting, the Red Templar falls into the wet grass, letting out one final breath. And as he passes, rain begins to fall, the tears of Kyne. We zoom out, the battle raging on around the fallen dead. The Elder Scrolls VI: Argonia. It's symbol, maybe something like this: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/060/3/5/the_argonian_account_by_krammermartin3-d78honk.jpg.

And as I said in other posts around here,the change of climate is really important imo. Maybe sounds silly but... Skyrim was a game plenty of ice,released in winter.
Hammerfell could be a game plenty of sun,and released in summer. Maybe a year after the next E3.

Agreed with what Legate said above ( first post btw ) I was really stoked about the possibility of having Black Marsh as the setting of the next game but reading that post and everyone's comments... I dunno made me sad? Argonians are my favorite race and I think swamplands would be a perfect dark fantasy setting for TES games. It sorta reminds me of Catachan and similar death wordls in warhammer 40k where everything is against you, whole flora and fauna is trying to kill you. Toxic plants and vegetation, lots of water that hides predators and other swamp monstrosities ( < name ) not to mention a possibility to play as a Naga since they're afterall a subrace of Argonians. I kinda find it a bit too cliche that every game needs to revolve around Men and Mer and their " epic " struggle. TES: Black Marsh could still involve a lot of other races and still be intengral to the lore and the story.

I'm really not stoked about going from cold plains and snow to hot deserts and alike. No offense to Redguards fans but I think Valenwood and " Argonia " would have much more to offer. Then again maybe it's just my opinion.

I don't really see Hammerfell being the next setting. Bethesda would be making two games set in a desert in a row (FO 4 and TES VI).

Im saying I think it will be Hammerfell since A LOT of time ago. My opinion is not based in Kirkbride words. It is just that If I'd imagine myself being Todd (excuse this,it is just an example) I would feel like killing myself letting the whole Hammerfell (a more easy place to recreate with nowadays tech) and that is bordering my previous glorious province,and that it contains a mix of forests,mountains,incredible cities,desert,dunes,pseudo egiptian aesthetics,coasts,ports,pirates,inner faction conflicts,scorpions,snakes,desert ruins,sandstorms,sword singing,the best sword warriors,etc,etc...
Do you really see another province being that easy and epic to release? For Valenwood they would need better tech,mainly because it is not that clear to release. You just have forests,for black marsh you just have a big marsh...I mean they are more minimalistic provinces,so you would need to do it really well and maybe it is not the moment.

Want it or not, people want epicness,and more after the dragons-vikings awesome combination. I really cant see another province apart of Hammerfell (even the name can sell) being able to do that. Maybe High Rock.

But hey, thats my and others opinion. It doesnt mean Im right and you wrong. We are just speculating. I really hope this will end in June hehe.

I hear you. The 4th era is undoubtedly a tale of the decline of Man. However, one could say the same (more or less) about the 2nd.

Personally, I would expand on Kirkbride's idea. The Man-Mer struggle has been going on since the Merethic. But the results are not only inconclusive regarding supremacy, but also hint at repeated catastrophe. Specifically, each zero sum contest between Man and Mer - Yokuda and Atmora - has always ended with the Mer losing, but the continent upon which the struggle ensued becoming uninhabitable.

Because of this, the series would benefit (for obvious reasons) if somehow such conflicts could come to an end. Once this is achieved, there will be other problems to deal with - the Maormer, the Sload, the Akaviri, and maybe others that we don't yet know about (perhaps sprouting from Oblivion.) But if the series continues along its present path, the Thalmor will indeed deactivate every tower, and then all of Mundus will end, drawing the series to a conclusion.

That would be sad.

Another thought:
I suspect a Black Marsh game would be excellent. However: we just came from a place with flying lizards. Going to another province which has many more lizards? Maybe Bethesda will shy away from that. It wouldn't be a problem for me, but perhaps it would be for them.

Hammerfell would indeed be excellent.

Valenwood worries me only from the perspective that I don't see any mountain ranges there, and I like at least a little bit of high ground.
Elsweyr works for me - there are some ranges there.

Summerset is a great choice too.

They need to say something definitive in June. If they don't, we should all go out and buy a copy of a competitive title just for spite.

It depends on how they do it... If they go with the dense mangroves thing too hard, it could be quite lame. Moonpath to Elswyer has some better representation of the verticality options, but as I've mentioned before, I would take it further and make the interior more based on vertical delineation, with regions (Canopy, Boughs, Surface, Canyons) stacked on top of each other. Imagine something like Ferngully, except everyone's not 3 inches tall.

Doing something like this allows a range of environments (dark, Blackreach like canyons, towns and groves nestled in the branches of massive trees, and abandoned Aldmeri-styled places shaped of living wood in the sunlit treetops) without contradicting known sources (few have made it very deep, so the the Mangroves can he the periphery) and maintaining a sense of scope and epic environments.

All without the need for Mountains.

OK, that'll work for me.

Flatness or near flatness with gently rolling hills is ok for a bit, but gets on my nerves after a while. Just a personal preference thing.

Personally, I'd absolutely love a future TES game to take place on Maser and Secunda. At this point, they could take some inspiration from c0da but use some artistic liberty and make it their own. I know it's a divisive subject, but the theme seems to be following some aspects of Landfall like the deactivating of towers and the fall of man pretty closely. It is still a pipe dream, though.

Ordinarily I agree, but some provinces are - by nature - too monotoned and prohibitive to work on their own. They just can't offer the variety and many of the gameplay features we now expect as standard in a TES game. And tonally, being stuck in that setting 24/7 and surrounded by Argonians would just be a bit oppressive.

What makes beast races great is that they're outsiders; they're exotic and weird, and contrast nicely with the humans and elves. The only good way to get Black Marsh into a game is make it an exotic second location that exists in contrast to another. I don't dislike the place, in fact I'd be very keen to see it, but I'm just recognizing some of the basic artistic limitations in play here. It's possible to have too much of a good thing, or to destroy its charm by using it in the wrong way, and I'd argue that keeping Black Marsh as a standalone province would do just that.

Wait -

The 'fringes' of the province are inhabited by outlanders. They would represent the 'safe areas.' It's the interior which is savage, alien and extremely dangerous.

Furthermore, the entire province is not marsh. There are mountains to the NE and small chain towards the center. Also, the eastern areas appear different on maps.

My bet is that the center of the province is marshy, but the eastern areas are more open, with forests, open grassy areas and lots of wildlife.

There's also lots of different sorts of swamps and marshes and wetlands around the world - these could be reflected in the province landscape, providing wonderful variety.

While Argonians would be the stars of the show, there would still be plenty of dry-skins in Black Marsh. Merchants and mercenaries, as well as outside forces, like an Expeditionary Force sent by the Empire, probably to support the Archeins in their war against the An-Xileel, but also to defend the "Imperialised" city of Gideon, probably the cultural capital of the fringe Nibenese. Furthermore, there could be Dunmer living in the north, either integrated into Argonian society or living the Ashlander Velothi life, fighting in a guerrilla war under Great House Dres to reclaim Tear and the Dreslands. Having the two would add to familiarity.

Then we have the guilds of Black Marsh. A warrior guild, most likely one of the dry-skin mercenary companies hired by the An-Xileel, or perhaps more similar to the Blackwood Company. A potential quest line in which the mercenary company can either support one side or another in the inter-tribal war. Then you have the mages guild of Black Marsh. The Argonians are supposedly "well-versed in magic", perhaps possessing certain secrets that the forces at play - the Empire and the Dominion, could use to better their chances in the Second Great War. Perhaps the Synod setting up some academy to train these swamp mages and learn their secrets, and the Thalmor going for the more direct approach. The resident Thieves Guild in Black Marsh could operate as a guild of treasure hunters, involved with the rampant banditry in the province and exploring the ancient Xantmeer and Ayleid ruins. And as for the Dark Brotherhood, perhaps using the Seth-worshiping cult that controls Gideon as a front for their operations, trying to reclaim their foothold in Black Marsh.

As for potential expansions, after some though, I think I've got something - Mir Corrup. Located near the border, this Cyrodiilic city could appear in Black Marsh, ruined during the Imperial Simlacrum, resettled by refugees from the Accession War. Now once again under the control of the Empire, a lot of interesting things could be done with the city in a faction-oriented DLC. I'd imagine it would appear in the game similar to how Fort Dawnguard appeared, near the border, where the Valus mountains separate northern Black Marsh/southern Morrowind from Nibenay. Some of the new factions in Cyrodiil could appear there, such as the Synod and College of Whispers, competing for control of the city, or perhaps the Penitus Oculatus, dealing with Great House intrigue. Or, again, the Red Dome Templars. Mir Corrup, or, Gideon, in the vanilla game, could serve as their Castle Ebonheart. Another thing I though would work well is perhaps an Ayleid undercity, like Eye-Lid City from Weird Cyrodiil. A shady series of tunnels, some kind of ancient Ayleid-made sewer system, serving as a haven for criminals and extending under most major Ayleid cities. Perhaps the College of Whispers done goofed and released some deadly plague from Peryite's Pits into the sewers, threatning Cyrodiil and the fringe settlements, and indeed all of Tamriel, should it spread further. Perhaps choosing between the College and the Synod and how to stop the plague, could be the DLC expansion's questline.

I can see the blackmarsh live action tv trailer

Explorer similiar to a indiana jones (human ) running blindly in marshland. Followed by several argonians of which one is bigger than others. They are throwing spears ! Allugators or snakes can be seen also following tge explorer Suddenly the explorer runs into a clearing with a ruin and a strange looking tree with glowing lights under the roots. We get a distance shot of the explorer getting closer while some large beasty rises up slowly from the murky water nearby. We then zoom out to a huge jungle

And then zoom back in to the Indiana Jones human and... surprise! It's Mr Kirkbride himself! "Gotcha, fellas, sorry but the beast races are just bystanders, this aint real"

It's such a crock of [censored] what he said. I personally find the beast races more interesting than the other races like the Nords, Orcs, and Imperials.

They'd have to be nuts to not take us to Argonia and Elsweyr eventually. Such huge potential for creativity and contrast. I don't mind that MK has a strong opinion on this, devs like Todd Howard usually give more "diplomatic" answers to let everybody keep hoping for a TES in their favorite province.

You are not alone in this.

With the greatest respect to MK, I don't think we can take his word as final on this issue. Bethesda is running a business with an incredibly successful franchise. A great portion of the success of the franchise stems from the incredible richness of storytelling possible from the game's mythology. MK may think that the mythology should draw to a conclusion and in a particular way, but it's bigger than him now.

If we're being technical, the Dominion has been sending weapons to Black Marsh for reasons, but whether or not that means anything in the long run is essentially nil. But yeah, given Todd's previous statements, I'd say Hammerfell and High Rock are the "safe" bets for the time being. Maybe Valenwood too, but that's stretching it. And yes, Hammerfell and High Rock's setting can be/are in fact exotic, and can rival the cultural depth of Morrowind. Especially High Rock. Technically, so could the Nords (In the cultural depth bit), but...well, ya know.

Personally, the Towers purpose on the whole seems pretty much defunct ever since Martin served as its own replacement. The only one that might be worth something is Adamantine, and that's about it.

Based on MK's intimation that a beast province is not in the cards in the short or medium term, as well as TH's musings on revisiting High Rock and Hammerfell, this makes the likelihood of Hammerfell as a setting rather more than 50% probability.

There are other advantages as well. Hammerfell shares a long border with Skyrim as well as sharing Dragonstar with Nords. For the very large portion of the fan base that adopted the series with ES5, this will likely be considered an attractive or even somewhat essential feature in ES6.

I never played ES2, but am under the impression that it was primarily a High Rock game with only a small role for Hammerfell. I would guess that ES6 would reverse that.

Obviously, none of us actually know, so all is just fan speculation (hence the thread title), but my guess is Hammerfell for TES VI & Alinor (Summerset Isles) for TES VII.

At first, I was unconvinced on Hammerfell as the next location as it is another human nation and it also is the last Dwemer location. But after considering it with game making technology in mind, Hammerfell seems the next easiest landscape to tackle and it would be very different to previous games.

Other than High Rock, which would be far too much like Skyrim to be a likely location, Alinor would be the next easiest landscape. Like a return to Morrowind feel. It would also take us to the heartland of the Thalmor.

Hopefully for TES VIII we can get to see Black Marsh before going back to a human nation (High Rock)

While I do think Hammerfell will be the next setting, nothing is set in stone. If they were going for a Thalmor-oriented game, I'd suggest Valenwood. An unique and breathtaking landscape, as deadly as it is beautiful. Like Black Marsh, a somewhat alien and tribal culture, perhaps more pleasing to the eyes of newcomers, elves and all. And by the time TES VI actually comes out, which I estimate as somewhere around 2018, the technology to make Valenwood look great should be there.

MK's quote regarding Valenwood could be somehow connected to the Precursor - a Bosmeri prophet that preached to the Bosmer around the time of the Oblivion Crisis. We could also see a bit more diluted Thalmor presence that in the Alinor, perhaps similar to Imperial presence on Vvardenfell in Morrowind. As such, I think we will see a Valenwood game before we visit Alinor. In terms of potential content, Valenwood simply offers more, and more has already been established for a game set in Valenwood that in Alinor. Wasn't Skyrim chosen because they believed there was already enough backstory for a game set there?

I'd still like a combined game in Valenwood & Elsweyr once the technology is there to pull off such a game.

I'd love to walk the jungle across territory borders and see the interaction of culture between Bosmer and Khajiit