Digging through some recently surfaced Dungeons & Dragons notes from the earliest days of Elder Scrolls development has been a surprising highlight for me. These are not just any old scribbles—they come from a campaign run by Julian LeFay, one of Bethesda’s founding architects who sadly passed away recently. LeFay’s role in shaping the series is well known, but these D&D sessions reveal a fresh, intimate glimpse of the world-building that eventually inspired the sprawling Elder Scrolls lore.
What caught my attention most was the setting hinted at in these notes: the Summerset Isles. While Elder Scrolls 6 remains shrouded in mystery, the idea of exploring this enigmatic archipelago feels both logical and exciting. The Summerset Isles have always been ripe for exploration, with their distinct culture and magical history, yet officially, they remain tantalizingly out of reach for players. Seeing these very early inspirations in the raw, unfiltered creativity of the developers helps explain why this location could be a natural next step for the series.
For anyone who’s struggled to reconnect with the older Elder Scrolls games like I have, these glimpses of origin stories remind us how much passion and imagination went into crafting these realms. Far from feeling like dusty artifacts, they make the world feel alive and evolving. It’s rare to get this peek beneath the hood of one of gaming’s most enduring franchises, and it leaves me eager to see where Bethesda takes us next.
Source: rockpapershotgun.com
