In these days of shrinking attention spans, the success of a game is too often determined by its overture: you either capture the audience during those crucial early minutes, or you never get another chance. Developer Bethesda understood this quite some time ago, and since 1992, dramatic openings have been one of the most notable aspects of its hit RPG series, The Elder Scrolls.
Nowadays, the discourse around the series is monopolized by how little we know about its next installment, The Elder Scrolls 6. I can’t wait to get lost in Tamriel again, and I can’t help but imagine what that new opening sequence will look like. There are a few common elements between the openings of the various Elder Scrolls titles, which can help us make an educated guess.
First, the prison. Bethesda cares a lot about the concept of freedom. With the exception of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, you start every game as a prisoner. You’re quickly freed, usually by the intervention of the Emperor himself, but that starting scenario remains a cool trademark of the series, and it usually leads to a starting dungeon where you learn the basics of the game.
Then, the quest. While the Elder Scrolls games pride themselves on giving the player almost absolute freedom, the opening always sets up the main quest of the game. This usually functions as a neat transition: whatever the character has done to run afoul of the law is swept away by some major crisis that requires a hero to step up. It’s a nice way to introduce a sweeping plot while keeping it grounded.
The most dramatic Elder Scrolls opening has to be Skyrim’s. The iconic opening line, “You’re finally awake,” has reached meme status. The sense of dread created by walking to the chopping block, with no control over the commands, is surpassed only by the shock of the sudden dragon attack, which perfectly sets up the game’s overarching story. As confirmed by a former Bethesda developer in a comment under this great video on Skyrim’s intro, the team spent “many, many, many months” on this sequence to get it right. While keeping up with the Elder Scrolls tradition of making the player feel as they’re starting a new life, it also does a great job of setting the tone and introducing the world.
If TES 6 is going to top that, the setting is key.
I was hoping for an Elsewyr game, but according to the only released teaser, the most likely setting will be High Rock, based on the environment shown by the cryptic video. (Keep in mind, it could still be Hammerfell or some other location.) For the uninitiated, this is the province of Tamriel where Bretons hail from. Imagine a high-fantasy, Arthurian land, with questing knights, ancient druidic magic, and kingdoms constantly at odds with each other. Oh, and everyone there is a half-elf, basically.
If done right, this setting can achieve the perfect balance of light fantasy and dark fairytale tones. It would also be a stark contrast with the Viking-inspired Skyrim, and a welcome change after 15 years of trudging into those frozen tundras. There’s no better way to start a new adventure than with something no one’s ever seen before. Imagine an opening sequence that invokes the magic of the mysterious Druids, which has never appeared in a previous Elder Scrolls game.
Magic, in the Elder Scrolls games, is the manipulation of the energy that comes from Aetherius, the otherworldly plane where the gods come from. In contrast, the Druids of High Rock practice the True Way, and their magic comes from Nim, the material world or the Mortal Plane. It’s an interesting contrast that opens the way to further explorations of the myths and lore of the series, which have always been one of the most fascinating aspects in the Elder Scrolls games. It would be great to see druidic magic added in TES 6 as an alternative to the traditional system of the five schools of magic that players are familiar with. In that sense, it could function like the Thu’um shouts in Skyrim, a new power unique to this game.
Knightly orders are also an important feature in Breton society, and they value honor and chivalry above everything else. So it makes sense for our hero to be a disgraced knight, rather than just another nameless criminal wretch, for a change. A lot of things can make a knight fall from grace, however, and pride is useless in a prison cell. How will our character escape? Something big needs to happen for our small concerns (and crimes) to be swept up by a big quest. Enter: the Green.
Essentially, the Green is the life force of the natural world, and it has a deep connection with the creation of Nim, the spirits of nature, and High Rock’s Druids. While mentioned mostly in some quests in The Elder Scrolls Online, the Green has yet to play a role in the mainline games. It’s one of those mystical, world-shaping forces, similar to Alduin or the Daedra Princes, that are the perfect engines for a plot with high stakes.
In High Rock, its wardens are the Wyrd, female-only witch covens who separated from their druid brethren for religious differences, and are often persecuted. They have been featured in The Elder Scrolls Online, but not in the mainline games, until now. As outcasts, they look like the perfect faction that could help the player at the start of the game and guide them to discover a new power system, as the Greybeards do in Skyrim.
With the Druids, the Wyrd, the noble houses of High Rock, and the knightly orders, there are plenty of factions for a player to join, fight, or avoid entirely. I can imagine the player’s character being swept up in a plot that revolves around protecting the Green, in perfect Arthurian fashion, where the spirits of nature often interact with knights. Maybe that’s your last chance at clearing your name and regaining your lost honor. It won’t matter if you actually follow up on that, or run away at the earliest chance to get high on Skooma and join the local thief guild. It’s all about freedom, after all.
