A former Bethesda designer has said The Elder Scrolls VI was once planned as a darker, cliffhanger-driven entry where the villains would effectively win, before shifting priorities and leadership changes steered the long-awaited RPG in a different direction.
A former Bethesda Game Studios designer has claimed The Elder Scrolls VI was once envisioned as a darker, cliffhanger-heavy chapter inspired by Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.
Kurt Kuhlmann – who spent more than two decades at Bethesda Game Studios and was widely regarded as the Elder Scrolls series’ “loremaster” – said his original pitch for the next mainline entry would have subverted the RPG franchise’s familiar power fantasy.
Rather than ending with the player decisively saving the world, Kuhlmann imagined a story in which the Thalmor – the elven supremacist antagonists – would effectively win.
He explained to PC Gamer: “I had in my mind that TES6 was going to be like The Empire Strikes Back,” Kuhlmann explained, describing a scenario where evil gains ground and the victory is deliberately incomplete.
The player might preserve hope by saving a key figure or lineage, but the wider world would be left under threat, setting up a direct continuation in a future sequel.
Kuhlmann said the idea was tied to an expectation that he would take on the lead designer role after serving as co-lead on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
However, Bethesda’s long detour into other projects – including Fallout 76 and later Starfield – meant that The Elder Scrolls VI remained in limbo for more than a decade.
When development finally began in earnest, Kuhlmann said he was offered a different position, rather than the leadership role he believed had been promised.
That disappointment, combined with what he described as growing communication breakdowns at the increasingly large studio, contributed to his decision to leave Bethesda in 2023.
Despite standing by his creative vision, Kuhlmann – who now works at Lightspeed LA – acknowledged that ending a massive open-world RPG on a loss may never have been realistic.
He admitted: “That’s not a good way to end a game and say, ‘We’ll see you in 10 or 15 years.’”
Bethesda boss Todd Howard has since said The Elder Scrolls VI is still “a long way off,” but is now firmly in production – even if it won’t be the bleak middle chapter Kuhlmann once imagined.
The Elder Scrolls VI ‘was going to be like The Empire Strikes Back’, former Bethesda designer says
