Fans have been waiting for news about The Elder Scrolls 6 ever since Bethesda first announced the game back at E3 2018. That news, however, has been few and far between, and very little of it has been confirmed by official Bethesda sources.
A new leak has suggested that The Elder Scrolls 6 will contain survival mechanics in its base game, as well as a new system which will allow players to craft their own spells. Though this has yet to be confirmed, considering the history of the franchise and the way it has dealt with magic and crafting mechanics, there are some great reasons that this leak would make a lot of sense.
The Elder Scrolls 6 Leaks
On March 20, historically credible leaker Tiffany Treadmore was reported to have claimed that The Elder Scrolls 6 would include survival mechanics. Treadmore has previously been correct about some big leaks, correctly calling the cancellation of a Nintendo Direct and last year's E3.
This post about Tiffany Treadmore's new leaks was followed up with a tweet regarding more features which could be making it into The Elder Scrolls 6 — a "Rune Drawing" system, and a system for crafting spells.
According to the source, Rune Drawing itself has yet to be confirmed, but The Elder Scrolls 6 will have a new feature which will allow players to craft spells in a way which deviates from both Skyrim and older Elder Scrolls games. Although the new system may be different from previous games it is certainly supported by the franchise's history.
Many Elder Scrolls fans got their introduction to the franchise through Skyrim, which remains the best-selling addition to the series. However, Bethesda massively simplified the spell system in Skyrim compared to the one found in previous Elder Scrolls games. In Skyrim there are a set number of spells - a handful of which all players know by default, and many more which can be learned by reading spell books which can be found throughout the world.
The History Of Spellmaking
The simplification of spells in Skyrim has been criticized in the past, with some fans of older Elder Scrolls games claiming it removed a lot of the fun of playing a spellcaster by omitting the player's ability to make their own spells. In Oblivion, players who joined the Mages Guild could learn how to make their own spells using the Altar of Spellmaking.
The Alter of Spellmaking allowed Oblivion players huge amounts of control over the specifics of their custom spells. Spellcasters in the Mages Guild could define four main parts of each spell. The first was its range — whether or not it would be cast on Self, on Touch, or on Target. The second was the spell's area of effect. The third was the spell's magnitude, and its duration. Oblivion would then use a formula to determine the necessary skill level to cast the spell, how much Magicka it would cost, and how much gold would be needed to create the spell in the first place.
Spellmaking also appeared in a slightly different form in Morrowind. In The Elder Scrolls 3, players could create custom spells which combined up to eight different magical effects from across all the schools of magic, and unlike Oblivion, this did not require enrollment in the Mages Guild. Morrowind used similar factors like magnitude and duration to determine the price of creating the spell. Unlike Oblivion, however, these factors were not a part of the customization of the spellmaking process itself. To add an effect to a custom spell, players just needed to know a spell which already had that effect.
Instead of using the Alter of Spellmaking, the Nerevarine could visit many different Spellmakers across Vvardenfell in order to procure their services. All in all, it should not come as a surprise that spellmaking is returning in some form in The Elder Scrolls 6. If true, spellmaking will likely undergo some changes from previous iterations, just as the system did between previous games in the series.
The Future Of The Elder Scrolls
Many fans of the earlier Elder Scrolls games will be delighted if custom spells make a return in some form. It was a feature Zenimax promised for The Elder Scrolls Online which never came to fruition. In Oblivion and Morrowind, without the balancing considerations of an online game, spellmaking was one of the most fun aspects of using magic. Players were allowed to come up with their own creative combat solutions.
Although unconfirmed, that rumored The Elder Scrolls 6 "Rune Drawing" feature could be some form of compromise between the spellmaking systems found in earlier Elder Scrolls games and the simplified spell system in Skyrim. Although many fans will be glad to see the return of custom spells, there's no doubt that the simplicity and accessibility of Skyrim was part of what helped it become such a huge success, with Skyrim already selling 20 million copies in three years.
It is reported that Bethesda's engine will be undergoing a massive overhaul before the release of the studio's upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield. Considering the fact that Starfield will be set in space, this could include significant upgrades to the engine's ability to emulate physics. This in turn could make a custom spell feature in The Elder Scrolls 6 all the more exciting. Bethesda could set some far-reaching but consistent rules for magic, which could allow players to make creative new spells without worrying that they would break the game.
The removal of spellmaking in Skyrim came as part of a double-punch for more traditional RPG fans, with Skyrim also removing the series' class system. In Skyrim the player already essentially starts off as a Jack-of-All-Trades, and there are far fewer incentives to specialize. Though it seems unlikely that the class system will be making a return as well, The Elder Scrolls 6's rumored spellmaking system could prove to be a good compromise between Skyrim's simplicity and the customization found in previous Elder Scrolls games. Whether or not the feature ends up making it to the game's retail release, and just what Rune Drawing may entail, remains to be revealed.
The Elder Scrolls 6Â is in development.