Wizened Bethesda 'loremaster' had wild plans for Elder Scrolls 6

If Bethesda kept Kurt Kuhlmann in charge of The Elder Scrolls 6, gamers could have eventually gotten one of the darkest games in the fantasy series.

Wizened Bethesda 'loremaster' had wild plans for Elder Scrolls 6
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Senior Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Former Bethesda veteran Kurt Kuhlmann, involved with Elder Scrolls since 1996, left in 2023 after being denied the promised lead designer role for Elder Scrolls 6. His vision featured a Skyrim sequel with the Thalmor causing chaos, contrasting Bethesda's current focus on online models, microtransactions, and subscription services.

Old-school Bethesda veteran Kurt Kuhlmann was in line to be lead designer of Elder Scrolls 6, and if that happened, the game would have been wildly different.

Wizened Bethesda 'loremaster' had wild plans for Elder Scrolls 6 6
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Bethesda has changed. The company that had everything riding in singleplayer games is long gone. Selling tens of millions of games let the studio expand its gates and push their singleplayer fantasy series into the online realm, complete with microtransactions. Add a $7.5 billion buyout from Microsoft, a bunch of layoffs, coupled with products directly launching into a subscription service, and we have a formula for Bethesda's current composition.

The studio's growth also led a number of high-profile creatives to leave the group. One of these was Kurt Kuhlmann, who had been working at Bethesda since 1996 and had been involved in every Elder Scrolls since Daggerfall. Kuhlmann was designated the franchise's loremaster at the time. A new interview with PC Gamer gives a rare look at the going-ons at Bethesda, with Kuhlmann finally revealing why he left Bethesda in 2023. In short, he was promised the lead designer position for The Elder Scrolls 6...and that promise wasn't honored.

The interview also reveals Kuhlmann's ideas for Elder Scrolls 6.

His vision would continue the events of Skyrim, but the Thalmor would have taken over, unleashing chaos and havoc throughout the world.

"I had in my mind that TES6 was going to be like The Empire Strikes Back," Kuhlmann said.

The view certainly clashes with Bethesda's current business model, which sees its RPGs being adapted, re-mastered, and re-released for a number of years. Typically, the games that exploit this model the best are those that have self-contained experiences. Although Fallout games are sequelized, the games do not have to be played in order to be enjoyed.