The Elder Scrolls 6 Sentinel teaser all but confirms the action in Hammerfell and ends the use of the eight-year-old Hills header image

Say hello to the sand-colored scrolling screenshot for the foreseeable future.

Praise Talos and any other Elder Scrolls gods you may worship. We here at RPS and in the wider gaming press finally have new material to draw on when looking for images to symbolize The Elder Scrolls 6. We’re no longer limited to that shot of some hills from the 2018 teaser, as Bethesda has shown an Elder Scroll covered in sand while announcing the new game’s subtitle, rendering the setting almost stationary. As a recent report from The Verge claimed, it’s called The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel and is apparently set in Hammerfell.

These details were revealed in a short teaser at the end of a video presented by Todd Howard for the 40th anniversary of Bethesda Game Studios. The bulk of the video therefore consists of Toddinator summarizing the studio’s history, touching on each of the games released since Gridiron in 1986. He then looks to the future. “You know, everyone keeps asking about Elder Scrolls 6,” the Toddfather said. “And we thought, hey, given the moment, this is a perfect time to tell you what The Elder Scrolls 6 is actually called.”

A shot of an ancient font buried in the sand, followed by The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel logo in an elegant logotype font. Then a quote from a moth priest named Author: “The writing offered only a glimmer, a veil gently lifted to my eyes. A future lost. A victory undone. The sands of time, scattered by fate.” OOH, CRYPTIC. Seriously: Between the subtitle, the sand, and the fact that Author is referred to as a Moth Priest in the service of High Queen Iradne of Hammerfell, the Verge report’s statement that the game is set in Hammerfell is practically set in stone by this teaser, even if his toddlerhood didn’t spell it out himself.

Sentinel is the name of both a kingdom and a city in the Redguard Province. The inclusion of an Elder Scroll in the teaser and Author’s quote also support the Verge report’s claim that the game will play a large role in solving mysteries surrounding the origins of these mysterious scraps of paper. As for the confusion about lost futures and thwarted victories in the quote, I would venture to speculate that it may be referring to the player character’s action to prevent a Thalmor victory, as Skyrim suggested that the elves were on the verge of conquering Tamriel while the Cyrodillian Empire crumbled and fell.

That may or may not be the case, but one thing is for sure: this teaser is likely to result in a massive drop in usage of the header image shown below. It’s eight years old and comes from The Elder Scrolls 6’s infamous teaser from 2018. After all these years, the game is finally on its way to us. You served us well, screen grab from a few hills. May Talos guide you where the less commonly used images belong.

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Elderscrolls hints notwithstanding, it’s worth keeping in mind that Bethesda’s parent company, Microsoft, cut the majority of its workforce this year through mass layoffs and studio closures. In addition, Microsoft is currently still facing a boycott by the BDS movement because of its alleged ties to the Israeli army.