Skyrim’s final DLC “Dragonborn” has a very unique feel compared to the rest of the game, taking players to the isolated island of Solstheim first seen inThe Elder Scrolls 3: Bloodmoon. The Dark Elf and Nord-dominated island sits at the very edge of the series’ known world, with small towns like Raven Rock etching out a living on what used to the the frontier of the contracting Empire. As well as being one ofSkyrim’s most interesting settings, Solstheim also has a lot in common with the Living Lands, the setting for Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming first-person RPGAvowed.
Solstheim has some fantastic lessons to teachAvowed. The setting has a unique relationship with some of the key tenets of theElder Scrollsformula, and is able to come to life even more convincingly that most ofSkyrim’s holds. Here’s what the Dragonborn DLC can teachAvowed, as Obsidian develops what some fantasy fans are hoping will beSkyrim’s sort-of spiritual successor.
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Avowed: Frontiers And The Fantasy Formula
As a frontier, Solstheim inadvertently overcomes some ofSkyrim’s most common criticisms. While hold capitals like Whiterun in the main game feel suspiciously small for cities, the tiny settlements of Solstheim feel more realistically sized considering how isolated their populations are. It’s immersion-breaking when Nazeem assumes the Dragonborn has never been to Whiterun’s Cloud District, which consists of one building usually no less than a hundred feet away.
In contrast, the townsfolk of Solstheim frequently reference their isolation and the small size of their settlement, despite Raven Rock being bigger than some ofSkyrim’s other settlements likeRiverwoodand Rorisktead.Avowedcould create towns which are the same size asSkyrim’s cities, but seem far more convincing as hastily constructed frontier towns than ancient seats of power no bigger than a fort.
While Solstheim is just a small part ofSkyrim’s overall world, the fact that the open-world RPG formula’s immersion fits so well into the frontier bodes well for Obsidian’s choice of setting. It’s unlikely thatObsidianwould have been able to bring the large cities depicted inPillars of Eternityto life without significantly shrinking them down, while the Living Lands provide a setting which could avoid the open-world RPG genre’s city scaling problem.
Skyrim: Solstheim’s Storytelling
Raven Rock is one ofSkyrim’s best townswhen it comes to environmental storytelling. Each ofSkyrim’s towns has some level of intrigue - there’s the feud between the Stormcloak and Imperial families of Whiterun, the chatter and tension surrounding the recent public execution of High King Torygg in Solitude, and the string of mysterious murders in Windhelm, to name a few.
Raven Rock throws players in at the deep-end by exploiting their own curiosity rather than making its main conflict clear from the get-go. When players go to sleep in Raven Rock, there’s a chance they’ll wake up at theTemple of Miraak, having been working the stone in their sleep. After discovering a similar building site near Raven Rock, players will have the option to ask the townsfolk about the strange structures. The locals, however, seem unable to quite remember if they built the obelisks on the island, and if they did, why.
This is one ofSkyrim’s best questhooks - it gets the player personally involved from the moment they first sleep on Solstheim without revealing its cards early on. Few places in the game come with such a well executed sense of mystery. In part, Solstheim relies upon a sense of existential horror which has historically come part and parcel with frontier living. It’s an island of people etching an existence on the very edge of the unknown who live controlled by nightmares of what might exist beyond their civilization.
The Living Lands could be a fantastic frontier setting if it also plays with the fear of the unknown in the same way. Players might find entire settlements mysteriously abandoned, for example, motivating them to find out what happened from a sense of insatiable inquisitiveness rather than any in-game reward.Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLCshows how frontiers like the Living Lands can be used in RPGs to inspire unique dread, but also inspire a unique curiosity which can be a key motivator in open world exploration.
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Creating Cultures In Isolation
Raven Rock isn’t just isolated. As a primarily Dark Elf settlement, the player is constantly reminded of their “Outlander” status even if they’re aDunmer. Despite being an abandoned Imperial outpost, Raven Rock is undeniably Dark Elven. Its architecture, clothing, and the characters’ accents are all reminiscent ofMorrowind.
The world ofAvowedis full of interesting races. There are the more traditional humans, elves, and dwarves, but also the diminutive furryOrlans, the mysterious Godlike, and the giant coast-dwelling Aumaua. Despite being far from their homes, the different settlements of the Living Lands could show how these different races try to preserve their cultures while facing down the seemingly endless expanse of a frontier that risks swallowing them whole.
In this sense, the Living Lands have a chance to intensely reflect the entirety ofEora, the name of the world first established inPillars of Eternity. The Living Lands are described as a “lawless land” where different communities are constantly at odds with one another that result in petty armed conflicts. That constantly changing composition of the setting’s inhabitants, however, shouldn’t undermine the opportunity for the Living Lands to reflect the intensely different cultures from across Eora.
In fact, those differences could be the source of many of the “petty wars” across the landmass, while allowing players to interact with cultures that feel as alien asMorrowind’s, seeing the difference imprints those cultures leave on the unmarked territory of the frontier.
While Solstheim has a lot of lessons to teachAvowed’s Living Lands, the unique success of the frontier island as an RPG setting suggests that Obsidian may already be on the right track with its choice of location. What remains to be seen is whether the studio exploits all the unique opportunities its frontier setting presents, or if lets some pass it by.
Avowedis in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
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