After eight years, Bethesda reveals The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel

Bethesda’s next role-playing game is called The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. The company revealed the name in a video marking 40 years of Bethesda, eight years after the game’s original announcement, and published the name reveal video below. The name may sound familiar to longtime players: Sentinel is a city and a kingdom in Hammerfell, a region of the series’ fictional world that has appeared in earlier games. The new teaser mentions Hammerfell too, but the announcement goes no further.

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A reference to Hammerfell

At the end of the teaser, a passage is attributed to Yazar, a Moth Priest serving High Queen Iradne of Hammerfell, in the fictional year 4E 206. According to Gematsu, Bethesda Game Studios said development continues and that it was glad to reveal the name and location, while adding that it will be some time before it is ready to share more.

The teaser dates the passage to year 206 of the Fourth Era, five years after The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim opens in year 201 of the same era. Bethesda has yet to say whether the new game itself takes place in that year or whether players will be able to visit the city.

A city with a history

Hammerfell is one of the lands of Tamriel and the traditional home of the Redguard people. In the official manual for the series’ second game, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Sentinel is also a kingdom in Hammerfell. High Rock lies across the Iliac Bay. The earlier game’s own title, Daggerfall, refers to a city and kingdom on the other side of that water.

The Daggerfall manual describes a war between the two kingdoms over the island of Betony. Both kings died in battle; afterward, Daggerfall’s new king married a princess of Sentinel to seal a peace. That is background to the earlier game, not an outline of the new one’s story.

Players can also visit Sentinel in The Elder Scrolls Online’s Alik’r Desert. A book found there, “Sentinel, the Jewel of Alik’r,” tells of Yaghoub and his followers reaching the coast from Yokuda. In that account, a lookout spotted a harbor. Yaghoub called the place Sentinel in honor of the watchman. It also describes how the people already living there were forced to work for the new ruler and build his palace. It is an account from a character within the fictional world. Read a transcription of the book.

The subtitle appeared in a rumor we covered on October 30. The reveal confirms the name. The other details reported in October remain unconfirmed. Bethesda did not provide a release date or platforms in the name announcement.