I Want Elder Scrolls Pirates!
I’ve been playing Starfield for the past week and have been enjoying it but it got me thinking about Elder Scrolls 6. We know nothing on where or when it takes place nor do we have any concepts of a story if it has one at all. What we do know is that past games have taken place in Morrowind, Cyrodil, and Skyrim. My assumption is that we won’t be returning to these specific places. As for ESO, I’m not ruling out the locations found in that mmo.
Which brings me to my thought. There’s a large area of water between Summerset and Hammerfell and, from what we know of those locations in Skyrim, those two hate each other. Like a lot! Which reminds me of what went down between nations who hated each other between 1650s-1730s.
PIRATES!
After browsing through space ship customization in Starfield I was gripped by the thought of “they should do this for sail boats in the next Elder Scrolls game” and my mind blew off with that. It’s my belief that Bethesda takes a look at their previous game and implement what they liked best and what they want to improve on in the next game. Fallout 4 had settlements which moved on to become bases in Starfield. Skyrim had skills with perk level up system and Fallout 4 made an entire chart of perks to replace it. Which then followed into Starfield under specific scenario groups. It’s likely everything in Starfield will be brought over to ES6 with mild changes to fit the fantasy mood.
One of my hopes is the story starts out with you on your way to the hangman noose because that’s what they did with Pirates back then… mostly, other executions were available but hanging was the most known. Anyway, player character sets up creation at the noose, the rope gets tied around them and something happens to save your life. After that you flee your captors and get options on who to become a privateer for. Because that’s how old piracy went down. I would have the choices be Aldmeri Dominion, Hammerfell Alliance, and Breton Kingdom be the prime choices for privateering. There could also be an option to be independent pirate if you want to go full criminal scum paying fees in blood.
Now with this being a pirate game, would guns play a major role here? Personally I’d say no. We have wizards throwing fireballs and crossbows. Guns would just be unnecessary. Besides, the Elder Scrolls could benefit from having something that separates it from every other fantasy out there. Pirates wielding magic and crossbows sounds like something that should be common fantasy yet we don’t see it often. Pirates always have guns. Always. Let’s not do it this time.
Remember how Oblivion had underwater combat and they took it out in Skyrim? Yes, I’m bitter about that, I’m an argonian player GIVE ME MY DEEP SEA FIGHTING! It’ll be awesome to battle ocean monsters in the water… how deep do you think we can go? Would we be going subnautica on this and set up deep sea bases or find sunken treasure ships protected by weresharks? There’s a whole new can of terror and intrigue on that train to ponder… maybe as dlc.
Speaking of trains to ponder, what side quests would go well with this? Mage guild? Nah, a research society trying to gather clues from ancient sunken civilizations like Atlantis would work better! Dark brotherhood might be active as would the thieves guild. However I think they’ll have a complete overhaul on methods in their quests. Thieves guild could become the independent pirate quest line. Ah and we always have a fighters guild type of quest line but I’m drawing a blank. Can’t have ideas for everything all the time.
Then you have daedra and (potentially) aedra quest. Aedra quests were few in Skyrim and Oblivion had an entire Knights of the Nine dlc. I personally wish they bring back aedra based side quests that can rival the daedra quests everyone is familiar with.
That's all I have to say. In summary, I hope Bethesda considers doing an elder scrolls game about pirates and allow you to play as a pirate. If not elder scrolls 6 at least elder scrolls 7. Of course, I'd probably be dead by ES7 if they take 25 years to develop the game.
















