The Case for The Elder Scrolls 6 to Have Multiple Endings

It has now been nearly 6 years since Bethesda made the announcement that The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development, and almost nothing has been divulged about the game since then. Rumors have circulated about The Elder Scrolls 6‘s setting, as well as its gameplay, but nothing official has left Bethesda’s mouth yet. As such, there is plenty of room and time left for speculation, especially regarding one increasingly popular mechanic in RPGs.

As The Elder Scrolls repeatedly offers players stories with only one ending, and in light of how popular multiple endings in a choice-driven RPG have become over the last decade, there remains a strong case for The Elder Scrolls 6 to have more than one ending. It wouldn’t be the first game in the series to do so, but it would break a cycle that has now gone on for almost three decades, along with going all in on one of the franchise’s traditional design principles.

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Why The Elder Scrolls 6’s Story Should Have Multiple Endings

Multiple Endings Would Make the World Feel More Reactive to Player Choice

One of the most defining characteristics of an Elder Scrolls game is its emphasis on player choice. For decades, The Elder Scrolls has placed player freedom and reactive roleplaying at the forefront, but when it comes to the main story, every game but one has ultimately funneled players into one definitive ending. No matter what choices players make throughout an Elder Scrolls game, and no matter whether some side quests even have multiple outcomes, the end result of each main story is pretty much preordained.

Unfortunately, despite how much fun and immersive a design principle like this can be in an Elder Scrolls game, if the main story ends without taking the player’s choices up to that point into consideration, a lot of that agency can feel underutilized. If The Elder Scrolls 6 were to have multiple endings, then, it would allow players to feel as though their choices really do matter in the grand scheme of things, rather than just for momentary events. This would take the series’ emphasis on player agency to the next level, letting players actually have a hand in shaping the overarching narrative.

Daggerfall Proved That Multiple Endings Are Possible in an Elder Scrolls Game

The main challenge The Elder Scrolls 6 would face in having multiple endings is the issue of what is canon and what is not. In other words, at some point, Bethesda would need to choose which of the optional endings to The Elder Scrolls 6 would be considered canon for the series moving forward. However, Daggerfall proved that multiple endings are still possible in an Elder Scrolls game, as Bethesda canonized each one simultaneously with the “Warp in the West,” an event where the laws of time and causality are temporarily suspended.

Of course, it might be difficult to convince longtime Elder Scrolls fans that something like the Warp in the West could happen again, as it might be seen as little more than an excuse for The Elder Scrolls 6 to have more than one ending. Even so, Bethesda could still come up with a different narrative explanation for why The Elder Scrolls 6 has multiple endings when almost every other game in the series doesn’t, and Daggerfall has proven that is entirely possible.

Bethesda has long balanced player freedom with overarching narrative structure, but The Elder Scrolls 6 has the opportunity to push that balance further than ever before. Multiple endings wouldn’t just be a modern RPG trend, as it would be a natural evolution of The Elder Scrolls‘ core design philosophy. While the question of canon would need to be addressed, Daggerfall has already shown that creative solutions exist where the willingness to challenge tradition is present. If Bethesda embraces that challenge, The Elder Scrolls 6 could finally offer players more than just the illusion of choice in a story that truly reacts to their decisions in ways the series has rarely explored.

Game

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Systems

Released

2026

ESRB

m

Developer(s)

Bethesda Game Studios

Publisher(s)

Bethesda Softworks