The 2018 announcement teaser — what it showed

A short aerial teaser and a logo — for eight years, that was all we had. Here's what the 2018 teaser showed and what the Sentinel reveal finally settled.

Updated 2026-11-03

What it showed

At the end of Bethesda’s E3 2018 showcase on June 10, 2018, the studio closed with a short title teaser: sweeping aerial shots of a rugged, sunlit coastal landscape, ending on “The Elder Scrolls VI” logo. No location, story or gameplay was named — the landscape was the entire statement.

Todd Howard said at the time that the game was in pre-production and would follow Starfield, which launched in September 2023.

The Hammerfell vs High Rock debate

With no official answer, fans spent years parsing the terrain. The arid, rocky coastline read to many as Hammerfell — the desert province on Tamriel’s west — while others argued the terrain fit High Rock, the Breton homeland across the Iliac Bay. The debate ran for eight years on a few seconds of footage.

What the 2026 reveal settled

The Sentinel teaser named Hammerfell directly: its narrator is a Moth Priest to High Queen Iradne of Hammerfell, writing in 4E 206. The Verge had reported Hammerfell as the game’s setting days before the reveal. Bethesda hasn’t said where the 2018 footage was filmed in-world, but the setting the new teaser names is Hammerfell. See the Sentinel teaser breakdown for what the new teaser adds.