The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is set in Cyrodiil, the province in Tamriel home to the Imperial Empire. It is a fantasy setting packed with enough quests to keep even the most dedicated adventurer busy for hundreds of hours. But that hasn’t stopped some from probing the invisible barrier of its border for cracks — and even exploring the regions beyond.
Over the weekend, redditor GnoblinXD recounted their journey through Cyrodiil’s border and into Valenwood, Tamriel’s southwestern province and home to the Bosmer, or Wood Elves, and next door Elsweyr, a region featured in The Elder Scrolls Online. GnoblinXD found they were able to move through the invisible barrier set in place to prevent this sort of thing, and, from there, simply jumped their way across the river and up the cliff face in classic The Elder Scrolls fashion.
“I explored a bit and was surprised to find basically the whole landmass of the map was there, even if not detailed ofc,” GnoblinXD said.
Valenwood itself is a barren area, devoid of life, cities, NPCs, or even trees. There are a number of graphics and environmental issues GnoblinXD ran into while exploring here, which you’d expect given the developers of Oblivion Remastered never intended it to be explored in the first place. GnoblinXD tried to reach what they believe to be the Summerset Isles west of Valenwood, but fell afoul of the void. Reloading from saves set outside the bounds of Cyrodiil do not appear to work, forcing GnoblinXD to restart inside its borders.
If you want details, GnoblinXD uploaded a video, below, showing exactly how to get into Valenwood via this new border-breaking discovery.
Undeterred, GnoblinXD later uploaded images of their journey to Hammerfell, the province in the west of Tamriel rumored to be the setting of the upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI.
Bethesda has remained tight-lipped on where the next brand new The Elder Scrolls game will take place. All we have to go on is the game’s 36-second announcement teaser, which presents a towering stretch of mountains and a picturesque coastline overlooking a vast ocean. The prevailing theory is that the sequel will let players loose in Hammerfell – the central setting of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, as well as a visitable location in The Elder Scrolls Online. With tropical forests, harsh mountains and scenic coastal cities, Hammerfell’s depictions in previous Elder Scrolls games seem to align with the teaser, hinting that we may be set to explore the Redguards’ homeland once again.
To get to Hammerfell, GnoblinXD passed the southern Valenwood gap and walked around the port city of Anvil, the westernmost city in Cyrodiil, and up towards Hammerfell.
“After many an hour spent searching, I finally found my way to the other side of Cyrodiil’s northern border!” GnoblinXD said. “The region seems vast. Much bigger than the Valenwood/Elsweyr area. The landmass stretches way beyond render-distance, so who knows how far it goes… Likely there is nothing here, but I’m intrigued nonetheless.”
Now here’s where things get really interesting. GnoblinXD tried to find the coastline from the The Elder Scrolls VI teaser, walking west towards where that area would be in-game, but ended up falling off the edge of the map (“I didn’t die, but now I’m stuck in the backrooms of Oblivion, lol.”).
Perhaps GnoblinXD will eventually be able to find that area, or perhaps another player will manage it. Either way, the challenge is set for a glimpse at what may end up being the setting of one of the most-anticipated video games ever.
“I got here using no mods, glitches or console commands, my game is entirely vanilla,” GnoblinXD insisted. “Oh, and it’s kind of funny that Hammerfell seems thoroughly covered in forests while Valenwood had no trees at all, lol.
“Anyway, time for me to do some exploring, might update more later :)”
And so they did, this time pictures of a journey into the aforementioned Elsweyr. Elsweyr is of course home to the Khajiit, the playable bestial and feline race feature in all the main The Elder Scrolls games so far.
What’s brilliant about this out of bounds area is that from within it you can see what very much looks like The Throat of the World, the highest mountain of Tamriel and perhaps the most iconic location in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It is here that the Dragonborn climbs the Seven Thousand Steps to the ancient monastery of High Hrothgar, where the order of the Greybeards dwells, and learns from them Shouts and speaks with the dragon, Paarthurnax.
That’s right, you can go to Skyrim in Oblivion Remastered, but you can’t actually travel far enough in to get to The Throat of the World or see any sign of life.
This is so cool. If you go to the edge of the map in Oblivion Remastered, you can see Skyrim’s tallest mountain, The Throat of the World, off in the distance. This was not in the original game pic.twitter.com/oilOVpeuXF
— sackchief 🍂 (@sackchief) April 24, 2025
“Much like Valenwood, Elsweyr is quite barren once you leave the border area with Cyrodiil,” GnoblinXD explained. “Unlike Valenwood, however, I suppose the lack of flora and fauna is somewhat more lore-accurate. With that said I found neither cats nor deserts, unfortunately, and most heartbreaking of all, no Moon Sugar 🙁
“I ran around a bit looking for anything of interest, taking some pictures along the way. I decided to see how far south you could go. Well, it turns out you can go quite far. After reaching and going beyond the southern edge of Elsweyr, there seemed only to be endless sea, so I decided to head east towards Black Marsh instead.
“And, oh boy, Black Marsh is definitely… uh… Unique, let’s say. I might make a post about it at some point if people want to see. I didn’t see how far east I could go, but very interestingly there is a HUGE landmass beyond the far eastern edge of the map.”
GnoblinXD is still mid-journey outside Cyrodiil, and may uncover even more areas to explore and famous landmarks looming over the horizon. They managed to find their way to both the Morrowind and Skyrim side of the border, but the walkable area doesn’t extend far. “So no selfies from the Throat of The World, unfortunately :(“ GnoblinXD said. However, after their initial post blew up on reddit (19,000 upvotes and counting), it seems others may make discoveries of their own. And so it has proven. “Went to Hammerfell a game early lol,” said X / Twitter user @Mar_Animation.
Went to Hammerfell a game early lol.#Oblivion #OblivionRemastered pic.twitter.com/EBB9abBGMD
— River (@maranimation.bluesky.social) (@Mar_Animation) April 27, 2025
Me just generally frolicking outside the map. Evidently someone didn’t appreciate me leaving Cyrodill.#Oblivion #OblivionRemastered pic.twitter.com/5N1yZifQD3
— River (@maranimation.bluesky.social) (@Mar_Animation) April 27, 2025
We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
