Alright folks, buckle up because today’s experiment was one of those nerdy deep dives I just had to do. Heard whispers online about Hammerfell being a monster next to Skyrim, decided to grab my digital ruler and see for myself.
Finding the Raw Goods
First step? Track down usable maps. Spent a good hour digging through forum posts and old news articles. Found that leaked TES6 concept map floating around – you know, the one everyone says is legit for Hammerfell? Looked super rough though, all cruddy and pixelated. Grabbed the highest-res version I could find. Then, pulled up the official Skyrim map from the game files, nice and crisp for comparison.
The Frustrating Part: Getting Them to Talk
Here’s where the headache started. Open both images side-by-side in GIMP. Problem number one: That Hammerfell “map” wasn’t a proper map yet, just a landscape mockup with big placeholder markers. Zoomed in real close on the Solitude coastline in Skyrim, tried eyeballing recognizable landmarks for scale. Used the Skyrim border on the north edge near Winterhold as my anchor point.
Problem number two: Needed a common reference point that might exist in both. Good luck. Skyrim’s map projection? Hammerfell’s leak? Who knows! Figured the Iliac Bay area separating High Rock and Hammerfell kinda-sorta-might align near Skyrim’s border. Honestly, this was mostly guesswork, aligning coastal shapes the best I could. Felt like trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing and the picture on the box faded.
Cramming the Maps Together
Used GIMP’s scaling tool on the Hammerfell image while keeping an eye on Skyrim’s scale bar. Shrank and stretched that leak map like crazy, trying to match the rough coastal alignment near what might be the Skyrim border region. Plopped the scaled Hammerfell image over Skyrim. Holy wow. Even with all my rough estimates…
- The sheer landmass difference slapped me in the face. Skyrim looked cozy tucked underneath.
- You could easily fit Skyrim into the wider western part of Hammerfell alone, especially around the Alik’r Desert area.
- The coastlines? Way, way longer. Hammerfell has those massive bays cutting in deep, tons more shoreline action.
The Big Takeaway (Despite the Mess)
Look, this wasn’t NASA-level precision. That leak is ancient and probably not final. But the core idea stuck out like a sore thumb: Hammerfell is gonna be HUGE. Way more sprawling than Skyrim based on what little we’ve seen. Those endless desert dunes in the west? Vast mountain ranges? All hinting at Bethesda aiming for scale that dwarfs the last adventure. Forget walking everywhere in Hammerfell without fast travel, I reckon!
Sure, things might change. But based on cramming those maps together? If this leak is even halfway right, we’re signing up for one absolutely massive province. Scale matters, folks. And Hammerfell? It looks colossal. Quit worrying, start prepping your adventuring boots. You’ll need ’em!