Bethesda fans have long-suspected that Hammerfell or High Rock could be the setting of The Elder Scrolls 6, and eagle-eyed gamers finally got another possible hint at the setting of the highly anticipated game at E3 2021. Although the speculation goes all the way back to the landscape seen in the next Elder Scrolls game's 2018 reveal trailer, a tiny detail in the new Starfield gameplay trailer seemed to back up that suspicion with a marking resembling a map of High Rock and Hammerfell.
Assuming The Elder Scrolls 6 does take place across High Rock and Hammerfell, it will be returning to the same general area as The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, which featured both provinces. Like all four of the first Elder Scrolls games, however, Daggerfall takes place at the end of the Third Era. It's likely that The Elder Scrolls 6 will take place after the events of Skyrim, during the Fourth Era. Here's everything fans need to know about High Rock and Hammerfell's history into the Fourth Era, and what they might be able to expect from the setting in The Elder Scrolls 6.
The History Of High Rock And Hammerfell
The provinces of Hammerfell and High Rock are the homes of the Redguards and the Bretons respectively. Separated by the Iliac Bay, the two locations have histories united by conflict. Hammerfell was settled by the Redguards when they left their homeland of Yokuda, a large continent to the west of Tamriel that supposedly sank into the ocean during the First Era. The Redguard conquest of Hammerfell was swift and brutal, and Tamriel's new arrivals initially refused to trade with neighboring nations, instead retaining the language and gods of Yokuda.
It was only the threat of a common enemy in the Orcs of Tamriel that eventually saw Hammerfell enter into an alliance with High Rock, culminating in the 1E 950 Siege of Orsinium. The Bretons of High Rock are humans with strains of Elven ancestry, the result of Aldmer settlement in the First Era. Since then the province has been known for its internal divisions, split up into many different smaller kingdoms to varying degrees throughout its history.
Set in the Third Era, Daggerfall took place at a time in Tamriel's history when all of the provinces of Tamriel were united under the Empire founded by Tiber Septim, AKA Talos. The different possible endings of Daggerfall are explained by a Dragon Break known as the Warp in the West, or sometimes the Miracle of Peace. A Dragon Break is a temporal phenomena in the Elder Scrolls universe that reconciles multiple timelines.
Before the Warp in the West the Iliac Bay was known for its many petty kingdoms, with the phrase "find a new hill, become a new king" becoming common. The Warp in the West caused the forty-four kingdoms in the region to reform into the four kingdoms of Daggerfall, Hammerfell, Sentinel, and Wayrest. Each of these kingdoms gained huge amounts of land, as did Orsinium, though it was still considered a part of High Rock. Even a temporal phenomenon, however, couldn't bring permanent peace to the provinces.
New Era, Old Divisions
Oblivion saw the end of the Third Era and the Third Empire of Tamriel with the death of Martin Septim. Skyrim takes place over 200 years later, and in the first two centuries of the Fourth Era huge changes came to all of Tamriel. The Summerset Isles, Valenwood, and Elsweyr seceded from the Empire of Tamriel and became the Third Aldmeri Dominion. After the ensuing war with the Empire's new Mede Dynasty, the Empire was forced to grant huge concessions to the Dominion in the White-Gold Concordat, the treaty that ended the Great War.
In Hammerfell, however, many of the Redguards continued to fight against the Aldmeri Dominion, who had taken control of most of southern Hammerfell by 4E 172. The White-Gold Concordat would have allowed the Dominion to keep its gains in the province, and when the Redguards refused to accept the treaty's terms Hammerfell was renounced as an Imperial province. The Redguards continued to fight the Dominion until the 4E 180 Second Treaty of Stros M'Kai. This saw the Dominion's total withdrawal thanks to the combined efforts of Hammerfell's two major rival factions, the forward-thinking Forebearers and the more conservative Crowns.
The Fourth Era saw High Rock's shaky peace give way to war once again. Despite attempts by Orsinium to maintain peaceful relations with both High Rock and Hammerfell, the two human provinces came together once again to destroy the city just as its application to become a province was under consideration in the Imperial City. In 4E 188 the High Rock kingdom of Wayrest fell when its king opened its ports to the corsairs and pirates of the Iliac Bay, who then invaded the city.
Unlike Hammerfell, however, High Rock remained a part of the Empire after the Great War, and a relatively prosperous member at that. This could have big implications for an Elder Scrolls game set across Hammerfell and High Rock in the Fourth Era. It seems likely that players will feel the influence of both the Empire and Dominion in High Rock, while Hammerfell tries to keep the influence of both at bay.
It also seems likely that the Orcs of Tamriel will get their own storyline and faction, with their uncomfortable position between High Rock and Hammerfell a defining part of their history. Already one of Tamriel's most tumultuous regions, The Elder Scrolls 6 could see players return to a version of High Rock and Hammerfell that is slowly becoming as divided as it was before the Warp in the West as old alliances crumble and new factions arise.
With the Dominion officially driven out of Hammerfell, it's also possible that the old divisions between the Crowns and Forebearers will begin to arise once again. Amid the chaos and change taking place in the region by the Fourth Era, players could have a greater impact on the future of Tamriel than ever before in The Elder Scrolls 6.
The Elder Scrolls 6Â is in development.