Lore-Obssessed Fans Think The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel Is Connected To Skyrim

Bethesda confirmed the title of the next Elder Scrolls game as Sentinel via a short non-gameplay teaser that, to many viewers, revealed the title and nothing else. But for lore-loving fans of the long-running RPG series, this small teaser has seemingly offered up some tantalizing hints about what to expect from the game and how it might connect to Skyrim and an ancient, mysterious order of magic users. On Tuesday, Bethesda shared a small teaser for The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel. It was the first new teaser for the game since it was first announced back at E3 2018. The teaser features a quote from an in-universe character and also shows an Elder Scroll buried in sand being revealed by the winds. There’s some spiral imagery, too. And all of this is being analyzed by fans as they look to past Elder Scrolls games, like Skyrim, for possible answers. First, let’s start with the quote. As pointed out by Reddit user HowdyHangman77, there’s actually quite a bit to pull from this snippet of text. For starters, the quote is dated 4E 206. This is just five years after the events of Skyrim. And considering Skyrim—the province, that is—shares a large border with Hammerfell, it’s very likely that the events of Bethesda’s previous Elder Scrolls RPG, such as the return of dragons to Tamriel and the civil war between the Empire and the Stormcloaks, will be referenced or even directly seen in TES6. Another interesting aspect of this quote is that it seems to reference alternate timelines or time travel, both concepts that have been established in Elder Scrolls lore. With previous reports that Sentinel will be about the origin of the Elder Scrolls themselves, perhaps some time travel shenanigans will be involved to let us see so far into the past. Meanwhile, Reddit user Yiunko91 connected some of the circular rune patterns seen in the teaser with the Eye of Magnus, a very powerful magic item that first appeared in TESV: Skyrim. The Eye’s true purpose, origins, and power are never really explained in that game. And by the end of the Mage’s Guild questline, a mysterious, ancient group of magic users known as the Psijic Order shows up to take the Eye of Magnus away for safekeeping. These folks, according to past games and lore, love studying the ancient past and “Elder Ways.” Many fans have theorized that they’re interested in the Elder Scrolls, and hey, what do you know, there are lore connections between Magnus and the Scrolls. Oh, and in Skyrim it’s hinted that the Psijic Order might have time-traveled a unicorn to the future to save it from extinction. Hmmm… Some are suggesting that the story of TES6 will be about a group trying to go back in time, possibly using the Eye of Magnus, to either stop the Scrolls from being created or to take them for themselves to use in some large-scale war. Of course, we still don’t know how all these pieces connect. And it should be noted that this is all just speculation and theorycrafting by fans. So until Bethesda shares more, we’ll just have to wait. And that wait might be a while, as The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel is reportedly still two years or more away from launch. Plenty of time to come up with even more theories.