Skyrim was released all the way back in 2011, which means there will have been over a decade between The Elder Scrolls 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6 when it releases. However, Skyrim was not the last installment in the console and PC Elder Scrolls games – that honor goes to The Elder Scrolls Online.
The Elder Scrolls Online made some significant design choices that The Elder Scrolls 6 will need to choose to continue with or leave behind. One of these choices in particular has big implications for the unique aesthetic of The Elder Scrolls series, and could have a marked impact on the world of The Elder Scrolls 6.
The Elder Scrolls’ Elves
The elves of The Elder Scrolls series have always been fascinatingly alien. While The Lord of the Rings movies and video games from Warcraft to Dragon Age have generally portrayed elves as slighter, point-eared versions of humans, the Elder Scrolls games are packed full of some of the most wrinkled, pointy-faced, and bug-eyed elves to ever grace a fantasy setting.
The Elder Scrolls’ elves go a long way towards making the setting feel unique. Many players who began the series with Skyrim will remember seeing their first elf close up during the Skyrim character creation screen and being genuinely surprised at how deeply inhuman elves are in Bethesda’s world of Nirn.
This is immersive for a few reasons. For a start, the alien presence of the elves, particularly in Skyrim, helps make the prejudice against them more immersive. It’s hard to imagine that elves like Faendal in Riverwood would have received such an icy reception if they looked like beautiful pointy-eared humans as in many realizations of the race. Instead of inspiring awe, they inspire distrust and disgust.
Indeed, the ugliness of The Elder Scrolls elves harkens back to the design of other fantasy staples before Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Not only doe the elves and beastfolk of The Elder Scrolls have a more pulpy Conan the Barbarian-esque aesthetic, but the elves also resemble the goblin-like creatures seen in the Rankin/Bass 1977 version of The Hobbit, which portrayed the elves with palid skin, long spindly limbs, stubbed noses, and saucer eyes.
The true extent of the elves’ weirdness in The Elder Scrolls was perhaps realized in Morrowind, set in the home of the Dark Elves. From complex religions to strange architecture, creatures, and giant mushrooms, Morrowind set the tone for just how surreal the elves of Bethesda’s setting could get.
Why the Weirdness Works
Many people don’t like the way the main Elder Scrolls games have approached the design of their elves, but the design goes a long way to making the world of The Elder Scrolls feel unique. It forces a reinterpretation of some of the key themes which surround elves in many kinds of fantasy media.
Without actual good looks, for example, their “fairness” is recontextualized as a form of elven supremacy with groups like the Thalmor. While some fantasy settings have elves living such normal lives in close contact with humans that they lose all their mystique, the looks of the elves are a constant reminder of their other-worldliness.
The stark differences between humans also gives players a greater sense of the perspective of the elves. In Lord of the Rings and similar media, elves are often essentially more inherently magical versions of humans, whether that magic is still with them or not. In any case, elves only make sense relative to humans, especially characters like Elrond who had to choose between being an elf or a human.
In The Elder Scrolls games - aside from Oblivion, where the elves, like human characters, looked like potatoes - the alien appearance of the elves not only makes them appear more intimidating but also helps disconnect them from a dependent relationship with humanity in the story. The elves have their own faith denominations, their own kingdoms, and their own imperial ambitions. The intense difference between human and elven aesthetics and concepts of beauty forces the player to reckon with the elves’ perspectives, while in other media the perspective of the elves is often only seen in direct relation to humanity.
The Elves of ESO
In The Elder Scrolls Online the elves of Tamriel became far more human looking. Players are able to create elves which more closely resemble those in Morrowind or Skyrim, but they can also create elves who fulfill a far more generic idea of the race both in terms of their faces and their available skin tones. Indeed, one such human-looking elf featured heavily in the first cinematic trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online as well as its most recent trailer for The Gates of Oblivion.
The Elder Scrolls 6 needs to stick to its guns and the wonderful weirdness of its elves. Few designs have captured the simultaneous mystique and abhorrence that has characterized elves in folklore since long before Tolkien picked up a pen. The vast differences between the beastfolk, humans, and elves of The Elder Scrolls helps bring some of the tension in that world to the surface. The Elder Scrolls has a relatively generic fantasy setting, but its strange mix of occasionally realist aesthetics, especially in Skyrim, and its bizarre and outlandish inhabitants creates a contrast that helps it stand out.
If anything, The Elder Scrolls series could expand upon the difference between its different species. Though it’s rarely touched upon in-game, elves in The Elder Scrolls do live for centuries like their cousins in other media – it would be interesting to see more of how being so long-lived has affected elven politics, war, and even personal mindsets. The more players get of the elves’ weirdness in games, the easier for players to roleplay as an elf and explore the full replay value of the next game.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.
