Todd Howard just made a surprise cameo in Ana Austin's latest video to reveal the biggest Elder Scrolls 6 news we've had in seven years – it's going to have more trees than Skyrim.
Yeah, okay, it's not much, but fans are so desperate that this tiny hint has sent them spiraling down speculative rabbit holes, trying to figure out what area the game will take place in, even analyzing the way Todd Howard answered the question to find out.
It's been a common assumption for years that we'd be going to Hammerfell, especially after a little candle teasing, but this new hint has thrown the community for a loop. Some think the emphasis on trees means The Elder Scrolls 6 will be set in Valenwood, which is known for its dense forests, while others believe Howard's comment actually rules out Hammerfell, noting that the Redguard's homeland is mostly desert. Then there are those who are still all aboard the High Rock train.
Hammerfell has trees too!
But don't be so quick to rule out Hammerfell. As u/EvilRat23 noted: “Todd hesitates at first. If TES6 was in Valenwood, you'd think he'd quickly say yes. If TES6 was a bigger map in Hammerfell [plus] High Rock, his slight hesitation before the certainty of an answer would make sense.”
This is a theory that the community has held onto for a while, as the candles suggest Hammerfell, while the vague mountain range in the trailer looks an awful lot like High Rock, but you wouldn't necessarily need two regions to have more trees than Skyrim, as the idea that Hammerfell is all the desert is a complete myth.
“Hammerfell is a very diverse province,” said u/The-Antarctic-Circle. “Probably the most diverse, not all of them are Alik'r (and even that has palm trees). It has subtropical rainforests and mountain areas of coniferous trees. The border of Cyrodiil should be more Mediterranean in style, similar to Anvil.”
“The south is jungle and forests near Valenwood,” added u/wingedwild. “The mountains are east and [Cyrodiil] and High Rock. North is snowy mountains like Skyrim and west is deserts and ocean so [yeah]very diverse.”
So, Todd Howard he could it's alluding to two regions, or it could just be Hammerfell, since its biomes are more than diverse enough. Skyrim's forests also lacked density significantly due to the engineering limitations of the time, so even though Hammerfell has less forest, it can have more trees in the sparse forests it has.
Alternatively… Todd Howard was joking and we're reading too much into it. Look, we haven't had official news in almost a decade, I'll take 'there's a lot of trees' at this point.
- Released
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2026
- ESRB
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m
- Developers
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Bethesda Game Studios
- Publishers
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Bethesda Softworks
