I feel that continuing the story by picking up the loose threads is more likely. I think the next game might well occur in several southern provinces, and involve a war to defeat the Thalmor. I don't think that the Psijic Order's appearance in the College of Winterhold quest line was just a one-shot cameo. We met the Synod as well.

Skyrim is a melee-heavy game. I have a feeling that the pendulum will swing the other way, into heavy magic, with the next game in the series.

And (on topic) I doubt that any of this will happen in a Skyrim DLC.

Big difference though between having a few rumors in the game that could potentially foreshadow the plot line in your next game and doing an outright sequel with the same enemies as a prior game. Bethesda has always drawn from the history of prior games, both from NPC dialog and old books. There are references to the voice and Talos and lots of stuff we see in Skyrim in Oblivion and Morrowind books, and I think there were vague references to the Aldmeri Dominion as well, but I cannot find them at the moment. Beth has been doing stuff like that for the past several games, although they often reinvent stuff when they do it changing their own lore on a whim.

If they do bring back the Thalmor for a sequel, I hope for Talos sake they make them more nuanced. I'm not keen on the mustache twirling villains we got in Skyrim. I thought the Empire/Stormcloak dichotomy was well done, as evidenced by the passionate debates. If they do bring them back in a future game, I'd rather see the Thalmor fleshed out a bit more with a more even handed treatment that sparked some lively debates about which side to choose.

why isn't it? several reasons


first, the Thalmor have NOTHING to do with the Civil War, they are not supporting either side.. the Belligerents of the Civil War are the coup forces loyal to Ulfric Stormcloak, and the Imperial Loyalists under command of general Tullius, the Thalmor are not involved other than having an embassy in the province its taking place in..


saying "go to summerset to finish the Civil War" would be like our real world governments going "hey, you know the issue with Syria? lets invade North Korea! that will end the conflict in Syria!".. it would just be bad and nonsensical writing


not to mention the logistics of it.. Summerset Isle is a natural fortress, near unconquerable.. Tiber Septim with his army (which was larger than any united force 4th era) was only able to take them by dropping the Numidium (the time breaking god killing megazord) ontop of them until they surrendered.. only other time it was so much as close to falling was that one Maormer invasion IIRC..


as things stand, there isn't a force on Tamriel (except possibly the Argonians.. but even thats a stretch considering how little we know about them 4th era) with the resources and Logistics to successfully attack Summerset.. Skyrim Cyrodiil and Hammerfell are still heavily weakened from the great war and the following Civil war (we don't really know how much Highrock has been weakened) so they wouldn't have the resources or man power, Morrowind and Blackmarsh have taken up isolationism, and the rest of the Conitnent is under Dominion Rule.. no one currently has the united strength to successfully take on the dominion, let alone their capital which is the single hardest to invade location on the entirety of Tamriel..


unless the Maormer decide to strike again, or Akavir sends an invasion party to circumnavigate the world, Summerset just can't be taken as things currently stand





second, you can't have a province as a DLC location.. you can have off shore locations in disputed territory (Solstheim), but not entire provinces, provinces are reserved for base games



third, Paarth never said anything about forming a Dragon Army.. in fact, he said the exact opposite because an army would go against his core philosophy, he said he wanted to teach his ideologies to other dragons, that they don't have to fight and dominate..



"another Alduin"? there is and can only be one Alduin, he is an aspect of Akatosh (the aspect representing the end of time to be exact), and the only reason we were able to defeat him is he wasn't serving his appointed role, he wasn't trying to devour the world he was trying to rule it.. all we did was send him home for a time out, when he decides to serve his actual role i doubt even Almisivi at their full power would have been able to stop him

putting aside the fact you just made it sound like the Thalmor are the empires allies (which is false, talk to Tullius for the empires view of the dominion, and notice we don't see a single Thalmor aiding Imperial soldiers in the game), thats sort of the way TES works



in any questline where there are two opposite routes the character can take, they literally leave the outcome as vague as possible so they don't have to "pick a canon" and alienate the fans that took the opposite route.. just like how we will never really know if the Nerevarine killed Vivec or not..


they purposely leave the ending of the Civil War vague (if you side with the Empire, after Windhelm you just hear that the Stormcloaks have switched the Guerrilla tactics which is being marginally successful.. if you side with the Stormcloaks, you hear another Legion is preparing a new staging area south of pale pass), because if they made the end of the questline more absolute they would have to pick one route as the canon one which will piss off fans who took the other one..

In Skyrim, I sent Alduin back to Akatoshland, kept the Empire together and became the most powerful Dragonborn in existence.

That's enough closure for me. I don't really need another throne to "personally" come out on top of. I'd rather wait for TES VI to find out whether I "breathed in royalty and reshaped Summerset Isle" or not

*mic drop*

ahhaa yeah to be fair that's a 10/10 answer.

The emperor just gave up on the war with the Thalmor I don't think I said the Thalmor are allies the Imperials allied with the Thalmor because if they didn't the Thalmor would win the war and defeat the emperor.

General Tullius doesn't like them. Ulfrik Stormcloak calls General Tullius the Thalmor's "puppet".

Hammerfell from what I read about them and the war they can hold out and fight the Thalmor.

The Nords or the Storkmcloaks getting help from Hammerfell can go to the Summerset Isles to defeat the Thalmor and maybe have the Imperials join in to help.

Of course we can't have a province as a expansion pack, but the way Bethesda Game Studios has set up the writing for the main quests storylines for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim makes the Summerset Isles the more to be explored.

I'd still like to see Paarthurnax actually be doing something for his raising of dragon army or "teachings"

I don't think any of this would piss people off on their decisions.

It certainly wouldn't piss me off and there are other people here who want to fight the Thalmor as well.

They have never had a whole province as an expansion pack before, but they have not done a remaster before either. With the 64 bit engine and TES VI "a very long ways off," whatever that means, there is no reason you "can't" have a province as an expansion. If they did that, I would expect it would cost as much or nearly as much as the original game and could be quite a money generator.

Yeah and I'm willing to pay $50 dollars (USD) or $60 dollars (USD) for this Summerset Isles expansion pack or whatever Bethesda Game Studios wants to name the expansion pack.

Even if they could deliver in a year or so (which doesn't seem possible) why should they burn Summerset Isles on an "expansion" that won't fully realized, as it would've been, if they worked on it for 4-5 years?

Why would they do that, instead of focusing on TES VI, which will take place in another province and will be fully realized?

Hmm I just realised something I probably did a mistake on.

If Bethesda Game Studios developed this Summerset Isles expansion pack it wouldn't be a year they developed it they could of worked on it for like two years. I mean Bethesda Game Studios Montreal developed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition after Bethesda Game Studios Maryland ported it to the Xbox One to test it for Fallout 4. Which is to say that that had to of also taken more than one year to develop.

Or Bethesda Game Studios can start developing it after they release The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and release it in the next two years or three years, since The Elder Scrolls VI is a long ways off.

I'm sure that by 2018 with Starfield getting released for sale or whatever new video game Bethesda Game Studios will release for sale. One last expansion pack to sell for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition will sell and earn them the money they spent to develop it back.

Has Howard or Hines explicitly stated that they're not working on The Elder Scrolls? Or have they just said they're not working on VI? I can't remember what was said a few months back with the 'three big projects' statement. Since its two now, we can assume one is Skyrim Special Edition and isn't as big as the others. But who's to say that Montreal isn't working on an adventure game or Maryland isn't working on a huge expansion in another province, as said above? Not getting my hopes up at all, but there's a huge difference between saying "We're not working on The Elder Scrolls VI" over and over again and saying "We're not working on The Elder Scrolls". It's a good marketing strategy if that's the case, but I could be wrong and Hines could well have said The Elder Scrolls.

I don't think that should have stopped making DLC's in the first place, they can be making waay more money than they are.


It seems like some kind of psychological block on the part of the decision makers at Beth., I mean consider how many people would be buying them.


Or possibly some twisted sadistic thing where they are like "we know how many people love Skyrim.... heh, heh ,heh screw them".

Yes Todd Howard said The Elder Scrolls VI is a long ways off and Pete Hines said they are not working on development yet.

They probably only have it conceptualized.

Todd Howard said we will hear about two new AAA video games in size of The Elder Scrolls video games and Fallout video games from Bethesda Game Studios before we hear anything about The Elder Scrolls VI.

I didn't say they "would". I said they "could." Also, remember when they create a new game, they start over from scratch, rebuilding everything, including the skills/perks/spells/enchantments/combat/races, all the meshes and textures for everything in the world, etc. etc. They may develop some new assets and spells for a DLC, but can reuse many of the base game assets and the basic set up for how skills, races, attributes, combat, etc. etc. work. so it would be a lot less work to create a province sized DLC than it would to create a whole new game.

This doesn't answer my question. I'm asking if they ever referred to it as The Elder Scrolls as opposed to The Elder Scrolls VI. Because there's a huge difference.

a peace treaty does not make nations allies.. IRL as an example, the Hundred Year War had several Peace Treaties that lasted a few months to a couple years, but the royalty and Nobility of each side still knew one another as their enemies.. peace treaties aren't "hey, lets be friends now!", its "hey, we have both taken such heavy losses we really can't be fighting anymore.. doesn't mean we like you, but neither of us can keep this up much longer"


if the empire and the Dominion were allies, why would Tullius specifically tell you the majority of the Legion is stationed at the Dominion border "because of the continuing threat"?

doesn't make it true.. without going into specifics (to avoid breaking forum rules), within the last year (I imagine people will know what incident i am referring to) a certain politician called another politician a terrorist sympathizer, doesn't make it true


its called "Propaganda", you make absurd statements to the public in an attempt to demonize your opponent, in order to get people to side with you rather than them

all we know is that they pulled out of Hammerfell.. it was never said its because the Redguards beat them or pushed them out, its more likely they had supply and logistic issues due to not being prepared for the climate of the Alik'r (similar to the Germans issues while invading the soviets in WWII).. and even than, if "In My Time of Need" is anything to go by, Hammerfell is filled with internal strife at the moment because of the Thalmor

even if the 3 allied with each other (which wouldn't realistically happen in a Stormcloak victory, Skyrim would have declared themselves enemies of Cyrodiil because of the way they went to achieve independence, killing a top general and the emperor dying within the province, that won't be easily forgiven.. then we also have the issues that historically the Nords and Redguards have never been friends), the three wouldn't have the manpower..


it takes supplies, logistics and manpower to invade somewhere, and as things stand thats in short supply among the human provinces...


Ballowers, I highly suggest you do some research on the Summerset Isles and its history.. you will quickly realize they can't be taken by an alliance of the heavily weakened human nations, and any attempt would make D-Day look like a picnic in the park..



Tiber Septim had one of the largest armies in Nirns History, and he wasn't even able to mount a successful attack because the Alinor's natural defenses, the only ever successful attack on the province was by dropping Walk-Brass on them.. you really think a small coalition of the declined human provinces could take the island that not even Tiber Septim's army was able?



they don't have the man power at the moment.. 5-10 years from the time Skyrim takes place maybe, maybe.. but as of now, it would be like getting a small Dutchy with only a little over a hundred troops to invade England (I use England as an example because like Summerset they are an Island Nation and had the worlds strongest Navy to defend it, and was the capital of an empire) alone during 1581, the nation is just to powerful and to defensible



only real way the isles could be taken atm is pretty much the same way Tiber did, drop a Dwemer pseudo-god on them.. sadly Numidium is destroyed at this point (or at least MIA), and I highly doubt anyone currently living would be able to figure out how to get the remains of Akulakhan in working condition to fill the role..

and it will be explored, just not in an expansion.. we will see Summerset whenever they make a game focused on it (Alinor would be a great title for a game i gotta admit.. sounds so mysterious).. shifting the focus of a DLC to another Nation just because it was mentioned a fair bit would just be a poor idea.. we heard plenty about Summerset and Valenwood in Oblivion was well, but thats because we hear bits and pieces from every province in each game, in an attempt to make it all feel like the same world

Ballowers, when was the last time you played Skyrim? you seem to have forgotten just what Paarths character was about.. he was dragon gandhi basically, his entire character is based off of believing Dragons shouldn't use their powers for fighting.. him forming any Army would be going against everything his character stands for (it would be like if after Return of the Jedi, Luke had gone "okay now that thats done, I am going to go aimlessly slaughter that planet for no good reasons, sounds like it might be fun")



all Paath said was he wanted to explain his views to other Dragons.. thats it, not one thing about forming an army or any other type of following, he just wants to explain his views to them, thats all

every time I have seen an RPG with alternating paths and they canonize one, people always get upset, every time and become quite vocal and aggressive about it..


heck, even before a path becomes canonized people get pissed that the other option even exists, just look at the civil war flame-fest threads

and there will likely be a game where they can, but the Thalmor are not the big baddies in Skyrim's story.. Skyrim is about the return of Dragons and a bloody Civil War, not the Thalmor and their goals.. yes they are there, but simply as a means of showing us how the status quo have changed since the 3rd era..


we will likely face them in the game where they are the primary antagonists, but thats not what they are in Skyrim.. they are just another Nation with an Embassy in the capital, thats it.. maybe after a 5-10 year time jump between games the human nations will unite with the resources to attempt an attack, or some kind of secret weapon, but as of now they just don't have what it would take to realistically attack Alinor



for a comparison of what I am saying, lets look at the Original Mass Effect.. Cerberus, sure they are shown to be an evil organization doing dark deeds that we run into somewhat often, but they are not the focus of the game and it isn't about squashing them.. the game is about Saren and his Geth and finding a way to defeat them.. however, in later games Cerberus becomes the focus and you get to destroy their organisation at the point they become a central focus in the games narrative..



same thing with the Thalmor in Skyrim.. we are shown they exist and they do bad things, but that doesn't mean they need to be brought down right now.. in the next (or the next few) games, we will likely learn more about and learn more about the true threat they impose..


this is called building suspense and believable worlds.. we had a fair share of hints in Morrowind that the Oblivion Crisis would likely happen, but it was just seeding hints for a later execution..




going "ohh, these guys seem bad, so we gotta take them out this game" is just bad writing, you need major threats that the hero just can't take care of, because if a single hero can take care of every wrong in the world, it make future events and threats less exciting and interesting for the reader (or in this case, gamer)..

2011. Nearly 5 years ago. A new generation of consoles have been released.

I understand people's love for Skyrim and wanting "new stuff" all of the time, but 5 years? I'd rather see what they're doing with TES VI. So for me, I voted "No."

Ok lets see if I can describe this.

I said the Imperials are allies to the Thalmor, but the Imperials still hate the Thalmor or at least General Tullius doesn't like them. I can't find the word to describe it. you can say they are at a cease fire with the Thalmor I guess.

Now onto Hammerfell. Whose to say that there won't be a timeline where Hammerfell and the Nords and the Imperials acquired the resources and manpower to invade the Summerset Isles? I heard many stories of the lore that Bethesda Game Studios can change it up when they want.

Skipping the Paarthurnax raising a dragon story because I don't want to debate what's been said like 1,000 times.

I read your whole entire comment. I just don't want to get to off topic.

see, what bothers me isn't people asking for some new content, as new content could potentially be interesting..



but if they were to add new content, I would want it to at least make sense with the setting as its been presented thus far.. which an attack on the Dominion Capital wouldn't, we know that the human provinces are basically in shambles at the moment, Morrowind and Argonia are now isolationists, and the rest is Dominion Territory.. we also know how defensible Alinor is and that the only time it was successfully invaded was due to Walk-Brass (although the Maormer did come close once.. but the non-tamriel races are always a wild card)..


DLC that could make sense within the setting? possibly a hidden extension to Blackreach is discovered and you join an expedition through it to find a lost Dwemer city

there might be a time they will, but it wouldn't realistically be anywhere near the time of Skyrim so it being DLC wouldn't make sense.. it would take several years before they could even prepare it



Military Logistics pre-flight-era take a hell of a lot of prepare (had to study it in a University European history course.. it could take years just to plot the route you were going to take).. but before the three factions could even begin preparing for such an excursion they would need to settle their bad blood which is as deep as a river..


in the case of a Stormcloak Victory, one of the Empires top generals were killed by the rebellion, as was their acting regent for the area (the high king), and the Emperors corpse was found dead in the province where all this is going on.. anyone of those would be an open act of war.. Stormcloak Skyrim declared it is just as much Cyrodiil's enemy (if not more so) as the Dominion via the method they chose to use in their search for independence (it would be like if Alaska killed their Governor, killed the top Military Officials, the President as they visited, and declared themselves a sovereign nation, you think the US would just say "okay you can be by yourself if you want.. hey, wanna ally with us?").. we have the bad blood between Cyrodiil and Hammerfell from the WGC, and the historical bad blood between Skyrim and Hammerfell..


in all honesty, none of those provinces would be in a state where they would realistically ally with one another anytime soon (and once again, we have no idea whats going on in highrock, other than they ignored Ulfrics request for help)




and even if after many years (i'd say 10 at least if lucky) they managed to put all that aside to come to some kind of coalition agreement, their army would still be far less than half of what Tiber had at his disposable, while the Dominion would actually have far more military assets than they did in Tibers time.. you realistically think they could win in such a scenario when Tiber couldn't without Walk-Brass?




an invasion pre-flight take months to years to prepare.. its not "we don't like them, to the boats!".. in the time Skyrim takes place, it isn't viable by any of the Tamriel forces (and the outside forces like the Maormer or Sload seem to mostly act only in self interest)..






once again, I am not opposed to new DLC, it just has to make sense within the setting, and from what we know of the setting and military procedures an invasion on Alinor isn't realistically viable by any military force in Tamriel, and as such it wouldn't make sense in the setting and would just seem forced and nonsensical..



you'll get your chance to down to dominion I am sure of it, it just wouldn't make any sense in TESV

Eh, I will reserve my judgment to see if Bethesda Game Studios will ever develop a expansion pack to sell for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition.

I will give it three years time?

And all the military preparations taking years like 10 years or so don't matter because it's a video game the timeline can be there.

it does matter if you want believable writing..



doing something "just cause its cool" is a sign of bad writing.. good writing is done by making the world and characters be believable, and suddenly going "hey, now we have what it takes, even though every thing we know about the setting the current political situation says its impossible!" is just not good writing..



maybe you have different views or tastes Ballowers, but usually when I see someone complaining about a games story or writing the "it makes absolutely no sense in the setting, but they did it anyways because *GAME*" is among the most common..


in RPGs specifically, people love to become immersed in both their world and storys.. but suddenly pulling something from left field that makes no sense from how everything has been presented to date kills that for a vast number of people

No. I'd rather they work on an entirely new game, hopefully TES VI. Enough with Skyrim. We got mods, and even the console players will have mods soon, I believe.

Time to move on.

on the topic of more DLC though, I can think of a few interesting things..



perhaps visiting a Northern Island chain, full of coastal fishing and hunting villages, and old ruins (unique in design when compared to what we see in the base game) built by people stopping when first coming from Atmora. or entire caverns built into icebergs or glaciers




even then though, I would prefer they focus on making new games rather than continuing to milk skyrim indefinitely

I'd much rather see beth just get cracking on VI - because I'd really like not to be dead before it releases.