Next month (September 20th, to be exact) marks the 30th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall's release.

If TESVI really does take place, at least partially, in the Iliac Bay, do you think it's plausible that we get some sort of information drop for the 30th anniversary? Maybe the confirmation of the subtitle.

Sload, Maormer and Snow Elves in TES VI?

What do you guys think are the chances of the Sload having a major role in TES VI? With Thras being relatively close to Hammerfell and their whole history with necromancy and plagues, I feel like they could make really interesting villains.

Also, if the game has a big focus on the Abecean Sea, what are the chances of seeing the Maormer? Maybe as pirates, enemies, or even part of the main story?

And what about the Snow Elves? The surviving Snow Elves we meet in Skyrim are hidden in the Forgotten Vale, right near the border with High Rock. If TES VI really includes High Rock, I wonder if Bethesda could use that connection to bring them back somehow, or even reveal other survivors.

Out of these three — Sload, Maormer and Snow Elves — which do you think is most likely to show up in TES VI?

I’ve been thinking ever since the ramp in hype about TES6. I’m incredibly excited for the new title and can’t wait for what’s in store but it’s got me thinking… We’ve been playing Skyrim for years, it’s a second home to a lot of people. It’s definitely a little sad to see Skyrim no longer be the reigning champion of this franchise. Once the next title is out, I’m sure majority of modders will move over (except those working on longstanding projects), content creators will be focusing on the new title, player base will be focused on ES6, etc etc. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure ES5 would be saying “I’m tired boss” if it could but it’s definitely a little saddening to turn our gaze away to look at the new game. I personally was first introduced to this franchise through Skyrim and it’s one of my happy places.

Before anyone says anything though… I know it’s not going anywhere and we can all come back whenever just like we do with Morrowind and Oblivion. But, how likely will we get another Skyrim rerelease??? Just some thoughts I had and curious if anyone else felt the same way.

In my opinion, if Sentinel is the main focus of TESVI, it should be as big as Novigrad and very explorable with much mysteries unveil. It would make the game more fun IMO.

Personally my gut is late 2027.

Hello,

The community recently came to the consensus that TESVI will most likely be called "Sentinel" based on what has been found during this and the last week. However, I am remaining sceptical of this, taking it all with a grain of salt because, to me, it doesn't sit right. Not the name itself, I think it is a cool title, but the recent "proofs" just don't feel....right.

8 Asterisks

We all seen the tweet from Asha, and then replied by BGS, "The Elder Scrolls: ********", 8 asterisks = 8 symbols? It is likely, especially seeing how both Asha and BGS did use 8 asterisks. But is it 8 symbols? we don't really know, we are guessing that it is.

There are many 8 symbol words that can be used here, Sentinel, Dominion, High Isle, High Rock, Remnants, Skyshard, Evermore, Redguard... so this tweet alone, if true doesn't really narrow it down for us as much.

Project Guardian

The next "proof" we are using is that Sentinel is a synonym of Guardian. I do not think this is a good thinking process that we should use, project codenames are thought of to hide the game and title you are working on.

While yes, you can find examples of Project Codenames that were pretty obvious like RDR3 being used for Red Dead Redemption 2, you also have examples like Sunrise, Woodstock and Forte, could you guess from these that they are codenames for Forza Horizon 4, 5 and 6? What about Cardinal? This was the codename for Age of Empire 4.

While I will agree that Bethesda, historically wasn't always secretive with some of their games, like Skyrim was just Skyrim, Fallout 76 was Project 76... but Fallout 4 was Angelina and Starfield was Genesis, which aren't that obvious, we know that Genesis made sense after Starfield released.

Microsoft also expects a level of security, and we see this with their own studios and the codenames they use, looking at Xbox Studios codenames like Athena, Olympus, Xenon, Foundry, Mara, Badger, Alabama... we should start assuming that Project Codenames aren't hinting at potential future titles, so the fact that Sentinel is the synonym of Guardian, I would take it with a spoonful of salt, because most of the times, project codenames have little to do with the actual game being created.

Michael Kirkbride confirmation

Kirkbride has been seen recently sending a "yep" reply under a comment stating that the title will be "Sentinel". We all know that Kirkbride's involvement in The Elder Scrolls has been monumental as he has helped shape a lot of lore we have today, and has continued to contribute to the in-game lore via the Imperial Library but also with out-of-game texts, a famous one being C0DA.

While Kirkbride has a big positive reputation within the franchise community, there is still the fact that Kirkbride hasn't worked for The Elder Scrolls in a while and even confirmed having no involvement with The Elder Scrolls 6. But some also argue that this doesn't matter and that he may still have contacts at the studio, which true, I am guessing that he has a good relation with Kurt for example with whom he has worked previously while at Bethesda.

That said, I would not use him as proof, I would keep it in mind that Kirkbride believes the title to be Sentinel, but the assumption that he has some insider knowledge is just fuelling our confirmation bias.

4Chan Leaks

The entire idea that it may be called "Sentinel" started out with one 4Chan 'leak' funnily enough. I don't think I need to go deep into why we shouldn't trust 4Chan, and tell you that 98% of the time any "leak" posted there isn't true and that it is just some anons taking a piss out of the community.

Jez Corden

Yesterday, we have heard Jez Corden confirming that he has heard some chatter about the name potentially being called 'Sentinel', but he himself has said that his sources are not even sure about it lol.

While Jez Corden is reliable, it is only when he writes posts for WindowsCentral, that is where Jez puts his actual insider confirmed information that he was able to dig out, while on platforms like social media or podcasts, we know that Jez talks about more of the unconfirmed rumours and his own speculations.

We should also take what Jez has said with a grain of salt, especially when he said that his source isn't even sure that they heard it right.

Starfield

In Starfield, within the character creation window, you as the Player are given an Employee-ID, we have found out a while ago, not long after release that this is a cryptograph which translates to S E N T I N E L.

We claim that this is too much of a coincidence and that it must be TESVI because nothing else makes sense.... Is it? Sentinel is a common word used in various of sci-fi games and games in general, we see it in Fallout 4, we see it in Indiana Jones, we see it in Starfield in multiple places.. but we don't use those games as "teases" despite also coming from Bethesda, we only use it when it was a cipher.

Starfield uses Sentinel as an armour trait, for ship parts and as a separate ship-class. Indiana Jones uses it as surnames for journalists, Fallout 4 mentions this is one of the quests.

Could it be a hint for TESVI setting? Yeah, it is possible.
Could it be a hint for something in Starfield? Even more possible.

Bethesda never did cross-franchise teases for future projects, we have had Fallout 3 tease Fallout 4 just like we had Oblivion tease Skyrim, but these were location teases and general setting teases, we never have gotten title teases like this.

To assume that the Starfield cipher refers to TESVI also assumes that Bethesda is doing something completely new after the 40 years of being in business within the gaming industry, and this is something that is bold to assume. We as humans love patterns, we like order, so for Todd Howard and their marketing team to suddenly switch up their tactic would be something odd.

Legal complications - Trademarks

Here is where I think that the theory of the subtitle falls apart the most. Trademarks.

Teasing the subtitle 3 years ago within Starfield opens Bethesda up to the dangers of Trademark trolls, these are people that would go and file a trademark for the word "Sentinel" as a game title, and we know that Zenimax does trademark both the full game titles as well as the subtitle only. So they are opening themselves up to the risk of someone stealing the trademark from under their noses.

The reason why we don't see any trademark being filed yet is exactly because they want to minimize that risk, and them staying silent protects them from any trademark trolls or trademark squatters. What is interesting is that they haven't even filed an Intent to Use Trademark, which is a trademark that basically says "We want to release a product with this name and are calling dibs".

Shadow Filing also gives them so much protection, 6 months, but we knew about the Starfield cipher for about 3 years now.

Would Zenimax and Xbox really risk this? Would they go out of their way to include teases of the upcoming title of TESVI 3+ years before announcement? This is something that I find hard to believe that they would open themselves up so much.

Conclusion

All this, to me, counts as "To good to be true", where we believe that everything aligns and think we figured it out because so many potential hints point to 'Sentinel' being the title. But it also opens them up for potential legal difficulties of someone potentially stealing the trademark.

It may be that Sentinel was one of the potential titles they could go for, and it's up to their Legal team to figure out if it's viable alongside couple other proposals.

It very well may end up being the title, I don't disagree with this, but I do believe that we don't have enough evidence to outright say that it's going to be the title, we have to take the grain of salt because we do not want another RedFall situation. For all we know, they have a Project Sentinel in the works which is Fallout 3 remake, and insiders just thought it was TESVI.

I think it does, for one main reason.

If the setting is High Rock or Hammerfell individually, it was open to them to use the name of the region as a title, the same as Skyrim and Morrowind did.

High Rock and Hammerfell don’t face the same issue using Cyrodill for Oblivion would have, namely pronunciation for new players.

Additionally, I am struggling to think of a plot that could justify the title Sentinel instead of the region’s name? In Oblivion’s case, I imagine, to those of you who were anticipating that games release, it would have been clear from established lore that the main story would concern the Daedra? I am however, not aware of the circumstances of Oblivion’s release and whether the title was known before the game was officially revealed etc.

The only other justification I could think of, that warrants the title Sentinel, would be if the main story mainly took place in the city of Sentinel. I do find this quite unlikely however, in what world would the main story be severely limited to one city? It’d be like calling Skyrim: ESV: Whiterun

Now the major caveat to this is of course Sentinel is not confirmed yet.

I do accept that I am likely falling victim to confirmation bias, as I would very much like TESVI to encompass both High Rock and Hammerfell, but I am wondering whether anyone else has had this thought and considered its potential implications?

Please feel free to speculate on any other inferences you think can be made into the title Sentinel.

I want to be able to ask NPCs for directions, and they have certain standard responses just to give a rough indication.

"A bit east from here", "You're already here", "That's in Taneth", "That's way out west". "not been there, but I think it might be...", "Ask X, he'll know", "get lost", "I don't know, and I don't care to know", "It's very close, follow me", etc

Might make finding amenities more engaging, and brings back a little bit of daggerfall/morrowind. By keeping it to a formula, it shouldn't add too much to the voice acting

I love pointy Breton ears. I really want the ability to make my ears slightly pointy as a Breton in TES VI. But things like this are often overlooked in all of the discussions that go on. So make this your place to talk about what small features you want that would go overlooked in other threads.

https://preview.redd.it/codjlflll8kh1.png?width=565&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f1a49f981678e22c5fd9eefe4284e64f812fb48

Purely because of the Creation Club, and the concept of microtransactions in singleplayer games. I don't want Bethesda to produce VI with the idea that Creation Club will be available with it's microDLCs. I really hope they build the full game, expansions and all. And introduce Creation Club after the fact. Creation Club should be a part of it. But as the final thought, and never a parallel development. Do you understand what I mean? I don't think I'm wording my concerns well.