The PGE 3rd edition mentions the horror of the siege, Where were you when the Dragon Broke directly references what happens when you turn the Numidium on, the Warp in the West describes the distortion and fracturing caused by the Nimidium's Dragonbreaks, the Mysterium Xerxes alludes to the existence of parallel places (such as Lyg).

Admittedly, it's only one of Kirkbride's quotes which outright says it's ongoing, but the argument is supported by everything else we know of Dragon Breaks.

Isn't that what's done on a daily basis? Western powers are still paying reparations for the actions of ancestors centuries dead, to the descendants of victims who are entirely removed from the crime. Time does not absolve a nation of it's crimes in modern ethics (though i personally think it should).

Yes, but we haven't SEEN that threat. There's been no ramp up to justify suddenly turning the Thalmor into the 'big bad'. That's the problem here. Things like Mehrunes Dagon, Dagoth Ur (sort of) and Alduin have been alluded to and built on over multiple iterations. They don't just jump from being political oriented, racist jackasses to cosmic dangers at the drop of the hat (though admittedly, Dagoth Ur went from being a dangerous volcano to a demon-god living under said volcano).

The Thalmor ARE a serious threat. Yes. They are probably the biggest threat around (especially since the Nimidium is elsewhere, and mostly broken). But a threat like that needs build up, it needs development and scope. You don't just introduce it, not explain any of the threat, offer no build up, and then suddenly 'Bam! They;re super bad guys, kill them!'.

And that's the issue here. It's not whether or not the Thalmor are ultimately bad (they are. They're lunatics who know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to succeed) its whether or not they've had enough development and significance to justify rushing to the end of their story.

They haven't. Not without some absurdly ham-fisted exposition delivery in the next game. Their story is set up so that it can't be told in one quick go, it's going to take time, and any attempt to rush that for the sake of getting it done is going to cheapen it.

Looking at the more recent given racial stats, it would seem that Redguards are now quite the opposite and are now very all rounded. Back before Skyrim, Redguards were very much just Nords with dark skin. Now they are very unique and seem more adaptable. Looking at the racial stats on Skyrim and also the Alik'r, Redguards now seem to blend a lightweight warrior and archer with supportive magic. This also makes them ideal for stealth. Kinda makes more sense for them to adapt this way considering their homeland terrain and climate.

I agree. It's because of this and their diverse culture that I believe a game set in Hammerfell could be really good. Given the Redguards' reputation as sea-farers, explorers, mercenaries, and more, I can think of plenty of interesting factions to encounter, locations to explore, and enemies to fight.

Damn phone. It deleted everything I had previously typed out. It apparently doesn't save what I typed either.


Anyway, in a nutshell, what I typed before is that I'd hope that in a Hammerfell game, we'd have more factions than ever before in a TES game, with many different roleplay avenues to explore, of different political and cultural views, different archetypes, different moralities, etc. I'd prefer not every faction be purely gray, but for the range of moral choices to make sense and fit within the ideology of the particular faction.


Similarly, I'd like for each daedric prince to have a small faction of sorts, which could consist of 2 - 5 or so quests, maybe even one of those randomly generated quests, although I hope the next iteration won't focus as much on random quests as Skyrim did.


An example of the kind of daedric faction I'd enjoy would be a town of Namira-worshippong cannibals that feast on outsiders unless they are carrying specific ingredients/items necessary to summon the prince. If you weren't carrying the items, they could attack you, thus triggering you to destroy the faction and take any related artifacts by force. If you do have the summoning item, however, I think it would be cool to be able to join the faction as a fellow cannibal.


Just that kind of factional stuff would be nice. Different sizes of factions, with some being major, others being minor or consisting of a particular sub-plot, like maybe a Dragonstar rebellion.

I have a question regarding the rumor the game is going to be set in Hammerfell. Where did this rumor originate?

Most of it comes from bits of logic gathered from Kirkbride, as well as the presence of the Alik'r warriors/rumors about stuff in Hammerfell. It's all to be taken with a grain of salt though (especially the stuff I have posted below, since I don't have any sources currently, although a few others here might be able to find it).



I can't find all of the sources currently, but I believe Kirkbride made a few comments about how the current Thalmor arc will continue for the next 2 - 3 games, that the next game will have minimal Thalmor presence (less than Skyrim, I think was said), and afterwards, progressively more presence, followed by the conclusion of the Thalmor story arc with max presence.


Furthermore, the theme seems to be "the decline of man" and going from the declining human provinces to the rising elven provinces seems like a natural/logical flow.


So, of we conclude that Kirkbride is reputable (and that I'm accurately citing what he said), the logical flow of the current arc, and the abundance of Hammerfell references, as well as the copyright thing with "Redguard," which may or may not be just unrelated copyright stuff (Skyrim was copyrighted in 2010, iirc, and people thought it was irrelvant then as well), then it seems like Hammerfell is a safe bet.


The only areas I can see that would have minimal Thalmor presence would be Argonia, Hammerfell, or mainland Morrowind, and I feel that Hammerfell would currently make more sense due to the story of the current arc being sort of a man vs. mer thing. Plus, Hammerfell would have similar stuff for those introduced into the series with Skyrim, and wouldn't have the lore of being an inhospitable region for humans.

oh ok thanks for the info. This Kirkbride is a dev then?

Former writer. Many people discredit him entirely due to the fact that he is no longer considered a full employee. He does however still write things for TES and I believe much of what he writes is still often adopted into the games. I've seen people say before that much of the lore is moving away from Kirkbride's stuff, but I don't personally see the merit of that claim (quite the opposite, IMO ). I'm far from an expert on the lore, though.

Former dev. He worked on Redguard and Morrowind, and did some writing for Knights of the Nine with Oblivion. He is still in semi-regular contact with some of the developers, though the actual extent of his knowledge about what Bethesda is up to has never been clear since his departure from the company.


He and his partner in crime (Lady Nerevar, the well deserved Queen of the Lore Forums) do tend to have some early insight into some things that go on, such as some of the lore inclusions from ESO. Testament to their extremely high regard amongst the TES lore community.

Ok cool. Just to be clear, I wasn't doubting I was just hoping for some info I could read for myself!

Not a problem. Neither Kirkbride nor Lady N's word is law, of course, but both have more contacts than we do, so they are generally taken with less salt than some others. I for one have the utmost respect for both of them, even if I disagree about some ideas (I'm not a fan of the Canon-free-for-all intent of C0DA, even if I like the overal story and it's implications).


Most of Kirkbride's work can be found over on The Imperial Library, along with virtualpy everything TES related. http://www.imperial-library.info

Awesome, thanks!

Be warned. He's weird. He's the mind behind the 36 Sermons of Vivec, Mankar Cameron's speech in Oblivion, and Hiemsker's rant in Skyrim.


Some choice things to check out...

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/seven-fights-aldudagga

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/loveletter-fifth-era-true-purpose-tamriel

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/forum-archives-michael-kirkbride


They're all older than the Hammerfell speculation, but it will give you a feel for Kirkbride's perspective on things.

Gotcha. I'm half a lunatic myself, so I'm sure I will be fine with it, lol!

He also said that there will never be a main series game set in Black Marsh or Elsweyr (for the "next decade", anyway), so we know the beast race provinces are out of the question for VI and VII, and probably VIII and XI as well. He does seem to think those two provinces may get their own games sometime after all the provinces of Men and Mer are exhausted and the main story is concluded, though, as implied in the "at least for the next decade" remark. He cited that a beast race land setting could upset the "Man vs. Mer" concept of TES, and he's probably thinking about Todd Howard's apparent disinterest in the Argonians and the Khajiit (BGS has never really seemed to care much for those two races at any point in TES' history, actually) along with the general perception from a business standpoint that a land not mostly populated with humans or "reasonably human-looking characters" won't do as well in sales.

I'm not saying I necessarily agree that some provinces generally should never get their own games, but I'm pointing out that ESO might be the only game that covers certain provinces with more modern graphics for a very long time, and for that matter, it's possible that one of the reasons ESO was made in the first place was so that certain provinces could be featured without risking the loss of focus, identity and/or profitability of the main series.

Anyway, if the next game is actually called Redguard, I wonder if that means it'll focus on the mythological origin of the name Redguard or if it means the protagonist of the next game will have a fixed race. The former might be a possibility as the fate of Emperor Hira isn't exactly clear (and could even refer to a different threat altogether that the early Redguards dealt with), while the latter is certainly a possibility as well if TES VI is going to have a voiced protagonist. Limiting the player to a single race would be the simplest way for BGS to implement a voiced protagonist in TES, and obviously the most controversial way as well if your favorite race isn't available in character creation. It seems like that if the title is Redguard, then it's likely it will refer to the title of the protagonist or something rather than simply the race of the province or the race of the protagonist.

That's a bummer (not so much about Black Marsh, it's a swamp, lol). I really believe that Elsweyr has a lot of potential, given the culture, varied environments, and on going trouble with the Thalmor.

I don't think they'd risk marginalizing their fans by cutting race selection from the game.

Yeah I absolutely would not buy it if even one race was removed. I can't stand removal of races (I'm looking at you Dragon Age 2).

I'm probably playing Sharmat's advocate here, but while I like his older work, and stuff he did for Bethesda like the Sermons, Commentaries, Song of Pelinal, and especially the Nu-Mantia Intercept (the piece that explained the towers and stones), I'm conflicted on his later, more surreal and ridiculous stuff- on one hand I love the prospect of Spelljammer-esque voidfaring vessels, on the other hand, Dunmer watching TV on the moon and Cyrus using a Sload to blast a Battlespire out of orbit, I could definitely do without.

I dunno. Blasting a Battlespire out of orbit is actually one of the more recent things he did that I can actually see happening. Not in one of the main series, but any other kind of spin-off.