The murmurs of an Oblivion remake brewing bring more questions regarding The Elder Scrolls 6 and the direction that Bethesda will take the series in the future. With Skyrim being fifteen years old in November, it has been a while since Bethesda has made a new Elder Scrolls game, and it isn't clear whether the studio will make the games more streamlined or will return the series to its roots and make them more role-play heavy again. These questions remain unanswered since Bethesda has only worked on FPS titles in the last decade (Fallout 4, 76, and Starfield).

How the game will feel will largely depend on where The Elder Scrolls 6 is set, with the deserts and jungles of Hammerfell looking like the most probable next location. Hammerfell would also be one of the safest bets, considering that the area has distinct inspiration from the Middle East and North Africa, unlike regions like Black Marsh and Valenwood, which can be very alien to many fantasy fans. Being safe might not help Bethesda with Elder Scrolls 6, and with players more likely to embrace the niche, it is the perfect time to lean on the strange lore.

Elder Scrolls 6 Should Embrace Its Weird Lore

It Will Help The Game Stand Out In A Sea Of Fantasy RPGs

One of Starfield's main criticisms is how bland the game is, especially compared to the unique worlds of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. With the streamlining of The Elder Scrolls series from Morrowind to Oblivion and Skyrim, it feels like Bethesda will make ES6 more generic to appeal to a wider audience, but this might be a mistake considering how unique the source material is.

The Elder Scrolls lore is strange, and this strangeness is an advantage that Bethesda should use in ES6 to help make the game stand out, keeping it from suffering from one of Starfield's biggest criticisms.

Blandness and playing it safe aren't only a Bethesda issue, since many recent RPGs have been criticized for it too.

Blandness and playing it safe aren't only a Bethesda issue, since many recent RPGs have been criticized for it too. Controversy aside, one of Avowed's problems is how safe and generic it felt, a title that had many comparisons to the Elder Scrolls series, which is a shame given how interesting the world lore is (as shown in the two Pillars of Eternity titles). Although they sell well, this is also a criticism of the RPG Assassin's Creed games, which ES6 can easily avoid by embracing its strange lore.

The Elder Scrolls began in 1994 with Arena, allowing players to explore all of Tamriel.

An example of how strange the lore can get comes with Pelinal Whitestrake, possibly the greatest elf-hater ever created, who many theorize is a cyborg from the future. In lore, many consider him a relative of the divine, but he essentially comes out of nowhere with armor from the future, starts killing elves in ludicrous numbers, and allies himself with the Slave Queen Alessia, who falls in love with a Minotaur. His unassuming, generic paladin design and appearance in Oblivion's Knights of the Nine don't really show how strange a character Pelinal really is.

Skyrim Obscures A Lot Of The Elder Scrolls' Stranger Aspects

Wood Elves Are Meant To Be Cannibals, And There Are Supposed To Be Flying Whales

While Morrowind thrives on its alien aesthetic, Skyrim plays it a lot safer, leaning into its Nordic design, which was rarer at the time the game was released. Still, that doesn't mean that Skyrim as a country doesn't have weird aspects, many of which are obscured by the game and ironically added by many popular mods. One example is the Snow Whales, which have symbols in many ancient ruins. These whales fly above the clouds of Skyrim, although they were excluded from the game, possibly due to being too strange for what the average player expects from a fantasy world.

Then again, there are reasons to exclude the Snow Whales. The arrival of the dragons could cause them to flee to Atmora, but Skyrim doesn't include the most interesting aspects of Bosmer (wood elves) and the Khajiit. The religious Bosmer from Valenwood are cannibals and cannot harm plant life because of the Green Pact; however, Skyrim's wood elves don't reference this at all, with Faendal working as a wood cutter. Auri is a follower mod with 4.5 million s on Nexus Mods, showing what Bosmer in Elder Scrolls should be like, and Bosmer already in Skyrim should have referenced the Green Pact.

Part of the Green Pact that includes cannibalism is the Meat Mandate, in which a Bosmer must consume the flesh of any enemy they have felled.

Khajiits have many forms, from little house cats to massive, fierce tiger-like humanoids, yet Skyrim only shows one type. Some Khajiit are built like chimpanzees with cat-like faces and fur, while others look almost human. Others look like caracals, and some are just talking sabercats. These forms depend on the phases of Nirn's moons when a Khajiit is born, yet the caravans traveling to Skyrim don't show this variety. A mod with almost 1.5 million s called Project ja-Kha'jay on Nexus Mods shows Khajiit variety in all its glory, which Elder Scrolls Online also does.

Players Are Embracing The Niche

Baldur's Gate 3 And Elden Ring Are Evidence Of This

Players are more receptive to strange games now, especially with RPGs. Two massively successful RPGs that have won GOTY in the last four years are Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3, but it should not be underestimated how weird those games are. Both are in relatively niche genres, at least compared to the action RPG genre, and have some bizarre aspects for the average person. BG3's main villains are squid people that eat brains, while Elden Ring has jar people from a village called Jarburg and a talking turtle pope that oversaw the marriage of a god.

Although niche in its historically accurate setting, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sold five times more than the original in its first month, showing an appetite for the niche and strange.

These strange aspects helped these games stand out, and The Elder Scrolls has benefited from this before with Morrowind and Oblivion, particularly with its most loved expansion, Shivering Isles. Even Skyrim has benefited from its strangeness, namely with Apocrypha in the Dragonborn expansion, and Elder Scrolls 6 should embrace this to keep the game memorable. ES6 needs to leave an impression to deserve a place next to its predecessors, and becoming more generic won't help it do that. A strong art design and embracing The Elder Scrolls' weirdness will be especially relevant in the current gaming landscape.

Bethesda is already leaning into the modding scene, and looking at what mods are popular could help decide the direction The Elder Scrolls 6 has taken. With mods like Auri being famous for their lore accuracy and having more s than most games, it should be clear that the loyal players want more Elder Scrolls lore in the next title. Recent gaming trends show that this will appeal to a large audience too, and it is time for Bethesda to embrace the lore of its IPs to get it back to its prime.

Source: Song of the Green (Auri Follower)/Nexus Mods, Project ja-Kha'jay/Nexus Mods