Trying to find an accurate map of the 4th era is hard, Lol. But I saw this recent one on Reddit.
- Red = Mede Empire which controls Cyrodiil, High Rock, Parts of Skyrim.
- Blue Lines = Stormcloak Rebellion
- Yellow = The Aldmeri Dominion which controls Summerset Isles, Valenwood and Elsweyr.
The Empire effectively surrendered to The Aldmeri Dominion with terms extremely favourable to The Dominion, including a large tribute of gold to be paid to the Dominion from the Empire, the outlawing of The Blades, banning the worship of Talos, allowing The Dominion to fuck around in Skyrim and ceding Southern Hammerfell to the Aldmeri Dominion.
Hammerfell weren't willing to agree to these terms though and therefore continued to fight (Hammerfell was previously aligned with The Empire) which forced The Empire to release Hammerfell as an Imperial Province in order to respect the treaty made with the Dominion because The Empire was too cowardly to continue fighting against the Dominion.
Hammerfell eventually "won", the Dominion had to withdraw from Hammerfell but they won their independence at a huge cost as Southern Hammerfell was completely destroyed. This has caused Redguards to hate both the Aldmeri Dominion for their attack and The Empire for their betrayal and abandonment.
Cue The Elder Scrolls VI and why it would be amazing to have both High Rock and Hammerfell in it. You don't need to include all of each, I'd say cut out Wrothgar and a large part of Hammerfell and since a large part of Hammerfell is devastated it would provide a good excuse to not include it all, Lol. They'd both be geographically completely different, they'd both have a different set of enemies, etc.
They'd also be completely different politically, and it could be interesting to see the relationship between High Rock and Hammerfell now, imagine if you get to choose where you're born which results in how people treat you, if you pick that you're born in High Rock and then travel to Hammerfell they treat you with distrust.
And finally, while I'd prefer High Rock from a geographical standpoint, I'd prefer Hammerfell from a story perspective if The Dominion are going to be a major antagonist, Hammerfell did what The Empire couldn't. Plus tomb raiding like Indiana Jones would be awesome, Lol. There's plenty of undiscovered secrets in Hammerfell's deserts.
