Bethesda Reveals The Name of The Sixth Elder Scrolls Game: Sentinel
Sentinel is of course the name of the capital city of the Kingdom of Sentinel, last represented in The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall in 1996. Sentinel lies within the province of Hammerfell, along the Iliac Bay far to the west of both the Imperial Province of Cyrodiil (depicted in TES4: Oblivion) as well as the northern lands of Skyrim (depicted in TES5, obviously.) Of course, it's fairly unlikely that TES 6: Sentinel will resemble the representation of the landscape from TES2 Daggerfall in any way besides thematically.
In the very brief teaser, we see sands blown away by wind to reveal one of the titular Elder Scrolls, in a rich golden casing that is almost, but not completely unlike the one from TES5 Skyrim. The same ring pattern you can observe in Skyrim when you try to read one flashes on the outside of the canister, and then also makes the cuts seen in the text of the Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel logotype that pops up afterward.
By far the most interesting part of the teaser is this text at the end. Now, I won't claim to be an expert on TES lore. Still, I know a fair bit. Here's the thing: the quote is given a year of 4E 206. That is 26 years after the end of Hammerfell's war against the Aldmeri Dominion, and five years after the events of TES5: Skyrim. That doesn't tell us anything about where the game is set, necessarily, but it does sort of imply that the game will take place after this point. The Great War and its aftermath are particularly important as Hammerfell's history during the Fourth Era is not peaceful, and its relationship with both the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion are complicated.
See, when the Empire signed the White-Gold Concordat with the Aldmeri Dominion, Hammerfell refused to accept the deal, and not only fought back but managed to repel the High Elves. Hammerfell won its independence from both the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion, but at great cost. Enormous swathes of southern Hammerfell were destroyed, and obviously, relations with the Empire were badly damaged. Most Redguards viewed the Concordat as a betrayal.
With that context, if we consider the text in the teaser—"A future lost. A victory undone."—then there's almost only one 'victory' that this Yazar can be talking about, which would be the Great War during which the Aldmeri Dominion fought the Empire to armistice with the White-Gold Concordat. Only 26 years have passed since the second Treaty of Stros M'Kai; that's not enough time for grudges from the Great War to have fallen to memory.
This High Queen Iradne and her Moth Priest, Yazar, appear to be new characters; I don't recall them, and a cursory search of UESP didn't pull up their names. Here's the thing, though; Hammerfell has traditionally been characterized by multiple kingdoms, individual monarchs, and the competing political traditions of the Crowns and Forebears. A "high queen" explicitly identified as the ruler of Hammerfell suggests a big change in the political structure of the region.
Is this an intentional change? Is Bethesda establishing that the Crowns and the Forebears achieved full reconciliation and that Hammerfell is unified under one monarchy? Or is this a case of Bethesda forgetting its own lore and writing a new story that throws out established history? Because it wouldn't be the second, third, or even fourth time that the developer has done that.
I could go on for a long time about the lore implications in this trailer (why is an Imperial Moth Priest advising a Hammerfell queen?) but this post is already long enough. The information that you're probably looking for simply doesn't exist yet. We don't really know anything about platforms, system requirements, release dates, the game's capacity or accommodations for modding, or any of that. Sorry to disappoint if you clicked on this post looking for that. Given Bethesda's usual development timelines, I wouldn't expect the game before 2028.
