Wait - if the elves built the towers to control and/or escape Mundus, why would they not want to rebuild them?

My head hurts.

Agreed - if the Thalmor actually pulled such a trick to mess with the entire khajiit race and the khajiit discover this, it's instant war, and a genocidal one at that.

For a Thalmor centric game, Elsweyr would be a setting ripe with tension.

My gut tells me it would be the single most exotic locale to set a game. I bet it would make morrowind look bland by comparison.

The khajiit predate pretty much everyone on Tamriel (except maybe the Argonians, and where they came from is still very unclear.) There must be stuff in Elsweyr and on the twin moons that makes the Merethic era look recent.

The problem with Elsweyr and Valenwood is how to handle the jungle terrain so that it actually feels like a real rainforest rather than just a few scattered trees with little around them. I'd rather this terrain be handled later as technology develops rather than to do them first and then go back to easier to handle nations.

Please, NOT Anequina/Pelletine/Rimmen (there's no Elsweyr anymore). It is bad enough with all the posting in Khajiit-speech on the ESO forums if we're not gonna get swamped with it here too...

An attack on Skyrim could happen, but they would probably have to deal with a number of other countries before making it into Skyrim, but it seems obvious that it is coming. May be sooner, may be later, but it may take a while.

The stormcloaks in culture and outlook seem to be the most Nedic and militant. It would be cool if a future game did show a Skyrim kingdom or a Skyrim dominated re-made empire go and the Dominion go crusading at each other while everyone else chooses sides or looks on in horror.

I've seen it theorised(I don't fully believe it) that sometimes fanaticism can only be beaten by fanaticism, or at least fanaticism is often met with fanaticism in war, and in this sense the Skyrim response to the great war and the dominion is actually very authentic and believable.

With next generation technology, we probably won't need to be restricted to one province. I could see it covering a few or maybe a well placed cross section. perhaps something spanning the waters that touch west valenwood. summerset isles, west cyrodiil and southern hammerfell.

Personally though, part of me wants to see an Arthurian inspired game set in highrock with some of western Skyrim and a quite a bit of northern Hammerfell including, dealing with the Direnni tower, and invading forces from the Empire of Skyrim, the Redguard Empire and the Dominion, with the Cyrodiil empire mostly fending for itself at this point, abandoning Highrock to its own fate.

I could see it not happening because high rock and the Bretons are still pretty skyrim/nordy.

/rant.

Because the towers were built using ancient dawn-era magics that even the Elves had begun to forget by the time of Saarthal. It's unlikely anyone remembers HOW to make one anymore.

There is also the fact that the vast majority of the Elven people didn't care enough about being "trapped" on Mundus to give two flips about the towers in the first place, being more focused on day to day activities, such as farming, of the new world they lived on. It was really only a few very die-hard extremists who cared about the towers.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/nu-mantia-intercept

"Gypsy Moth dustmemore insert - it should be noted here that it is always foolish to think of whole races sharing like minds. "Ayleid" is as much a metaphysical designation as it is a cultural one. Just like the earliest Chimer who orphaned themselves from the Velothi Exodites, but remain Chimer today, large numbers of Ayleids showed more interest in the immediate earthly needs of agriculture rather than the magical needs of concept-farming. This distinction becomes important later, when "Ayleid" begins to designate other, and ofttimes foreign, agencies."

The dominion conflict and hammefell location could work too. It is possible that Hammerfell could side with the Thalmor on religious and ideological grounds.

Unlikely. While the Redguards sort of share the merrish view of Lorkhan, or Sep in their case, they are still men, not mer. They face Sep's challenge head on, eager to reclaim their divinity through other means. And let us not forget they hate elves of a myriad of reasons. The Left-Handed Elves and their war, the Camoran Usurper and his army of abominations, and of course, the Thalmor for the Great War.

Hammerfell is a great setting for a Redguard-oriented game, with a total war/shadow war against the Aldmeri Dominion. Really, it depends on what you are looking for. Mythically speaking, High Rock has great potential, Valenwood as well, a very creepy province, with the perpetual darkness due to thick canopy, the cannibalism, the spider infestation and so forth. Black Marsh is also a great example of such a province.

Black Marsh would feel like a dark souls/bloodborne game, which would be awesome in it's own way. Horror/Dark Fantasy.

I disagree, I feel the beast races need at least one game in their province.They're a part of the lore as much as any other. Elder Scrolls is about all the races, not just the ones you like.
It'd be nice change from the usual human/elven stuff.

Isn't Valenwood in ESO? How did they handle their forests?

I think Bethesda will be plenty experienced by the time they get to TES VI. Fallout will be their cannon fodder for the next gen, after all.

+1! I think it's time to see how Bethesda can pull off a beast province with a beast centric story.

I'd love to see Bethesda try this too, honestly.

Probably green grass with a few scattered trees like a sceen from Zelda or Fable

I wonder, what degree of political power should the PC be able to attain? In Morrowind you were given the title of Hortator, in the scrapped Elder Council questline, you could become the Duke of Colovia. While the PC shouldn't really become King or something along those lines, I wonder, where would someone draw the line? Let's take Elsweyr for example: Become the head of some powerful merchant family that runs a city-state of Pelletine? Become a high-ranking agent of the priesthood of the Lunar Lattice? Become a powerful skooma lord in Elsweyr's inevitable drug-trade questline?

Or Valenwood for example, a Treethane? Running one of the minor or major settlements of Valenwood? Perhaps more something along the lines of Clan Hunter? Or even a high-ranking member of the Dominion Army, being given command of some Altmer enclave on the coasts? Really, I think High Rock is probably the best example of difficult titles. High Rock is a land of squabbling nobles. There are more dukes and counts in High Rock than there are competent leaders. Duke I think would probably be appropriate, though every major city of High Rock has its own monarch. Then there are titles like Lord-Commander or Knight-Commander for the various Knighty Orders that would probably take the place of a mercenary guild in High Rock (the orders could be quite mercenary in operation really). Order of the Raven, Knights of the Dragon, Knights of the Rose and so forth, lots of 'em.

Valenwood in ESO is .... a mixed bag. It's not as bad as it could be, but it's also nowhere near as 'rainforesty' as I would have liked. Mind you, the first time I went to Elden Root I remember just wandering around a bit bored then looking up and going 'oh holy ****, this is a [censored] tree!' ... so yeah, not as bad as it could be.

As to the political power we should be able to attain, I kind of liked Morrowinds way. Become a high ranking House Member, build a stronghold etc. I don't think we should be 'in charge' of anything so to speak. As adventurers, the PCs are usually not the kind of people to be micromanaging settlements and what have you.

Being "in charge" of a covert organization like the Blades certainly works, since they operate outside the normal power structures and generally act in secrecy.

Wait - doing jungle well is doable, if one puts in the effort.

Far Cry 2 - a stone age game by today's standards - had very cool jungle.

You know what my greatest worry is with the beast provinces?

That Bethesda won't have the nerve to go full [censored] in weirdness for them.

The opportunity for far out storytelling is tremendous. Like I said, they could make Morrowind appear bland and lame - IF they have the guts to go all out.

Agreed.

Having a fortress/keep of some sort and having a 'position of high honor' in the province should be enough. You should also be able to get some level of support from the province - a stipend, the right to call on city guards, road patrols and such for help, or something of that sort. Your income from the province should be enough to either pay outright or at least support in a significant way your expenses in maintaining and staffing the keep.

I'm wondering what the implications would be if one were indeed in charge of such organizations. There would be duties and responsibilities, no doubt, but also one should have the authority to command and direct certain resources.

Just though I'd drop this off here: the complete overhaul mod Enderal - The Shards of Order:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQog9lkyH8k

This looks really good. Could give us an idea of what to expect for TES VI, hopefully as epic.

Yeah, that is specifically what I'm thinking could bring them together. It would be quite interesting if the dominion could pull that off but the Altmer aren't exactly... diplomatic and subtle.

Enderal's Undercity seems very interesting, built in a freshwater cave. I wonder how BGS could apply something like that to one of Tamriel's eixsitng cities. I suppose it could be built under a landlocked city. Most large cities grew near a water source like a sea or river, though there are exceptions of course. One of Elsweyr's inland cities like Corinthe or Orcrest for example, probably wouldn't thrive if not for such a water source. Hammerfell's cities also would benefit, and I'm sure there are structures and settlements built by the Dwemer or the Yokudans that are still in use, even if mostly buried beneath the sands.

I suppose it could also work for a city like Shornehlm or Evermor. Shornhelm is not just landlocked, it's a mountain city, located in a particulary barren and inhospitable part of High Rock, unlike say its northern nighbour Northpoint, a supposedly thriving trade center of the north. Wouldn't it be interesting, if say, Shornhelm had a fortified above-ground section, but most of the strucutres are located undergound in some cave, safe from the elements and near freshwater. Evermor, while close to te Bjoulsae River, could potentially have some sort of undercity, supposedly being built by the Direnni as one of their citadels.

Perhaps such a city should be oiriginal, not to shoe horn the concept into an already existing city. Sewers should surely be under every major city or town however, a sort of dungeon and method of entering the city undetected, a secret enterance.

There are underground cities in turkey - some up to 5000 years old - that could hold up to 20,000 people, along with livestock. They also had ventilation systems that kept the air fresh.

Any place that has a tragic history of invasion could easily have such cities as well. My guess is that High Rock is indeed a good candidate for such cities and towns.