The Elder Scrolls 6 Hammerfell ‘will have dragons and naval battles’ or will it?

Rumours about the setting and features for The Elder Scrolls 6 are doing the rounds online but the information may not necessarily be what it seems.

Of all the mostly keenly speculated secrets in gaming today, the name and setting of The Elder Scrolls 6 is one of the most hotly debated. Each new entry is always named after a fictional realm in the world of Tamriel and, assuming creator Bethesda don’t make any new ones up, there’s relatively few of those left that haven’t been done before.

Skyrim was equivalent to Scandinavia, and before that Oblivion (which is rumoured to be getting a remaster this summer) was essentially the game’s version of Hell. It’s long been rumoured that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be set in Hammerfell, which is Bethesda’s analogue for Africa, and a new rumour has surfaced which seems to confirm that.

Except there’s confusion as to whether it is a new rumour or if it’s just recycling earlier ones that didn’t get as much traction the first time round.

This week’s excitement began with leaker eXtas1s, whose track record is patchy but not something that can be dismissed immediately. He certainly seems to have contacts within Microsoft, as he’s got a lot right in the past with news related to Game Pass, but in this case the information doesn’t come directly from him.

It’s been difficult to determine exactly what’s going on, as his original video is in Spanish, but it seems that not only is he merely repeating rumours from fellow leaker ColtEastwood but that information comes from an unverified source on 4chan.

Normally, that would be the end of it right there, except the supposedly leaked information is so obvious it’s probably going to end up fairly accurate anyway, simply because elements of the game are easy to predict and/or Bethesda has already hinted at it.

For the record eXtas1s says that dragons will return in the game, that it will have 12 to 13 ‘big’ cities, and that there will be no pre-set class types. So, very similar to Skyrim.

High Rock will also be location, which has also been previously rumoured, and there will be the ability to build your own villages and fortresses to lord over, which seems a logical extension of things Bethesda has been doing for years now.

The only unexpected element is the promise of naval battles, ship customisation, and underwater exploration. Although even that was hinted at by a previous leak involving an artist studying images of fish and underwater environments.

There’ll also apparently be procedurally generated islands and dungeons, which seems like it would probably be using similar tech to Starfield.

Like we said, it’s all very believable, and predictable, but that’s the problem. The original source is unknown and there’s no reason to think it’s not just a knowledgeable fan making educated guesses.

The only time they go out on a limb is the idea that the game will be shown this July, which seems far too early considering it’s not expected to launch until 2028 at the very earliest.

It’s probably the hope that that element of the leak is accurate that’s propelled the rumour around the internet so quickly, but unfortunately it’s probably the only part that definitely isn’t true.

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