 The team set the game in the province of Skyrim , designing it by hand . While similar in size to Oblivion 's game world of Cyrodiil , the mountainous topography of the world inflates the game space and makes it more difficult to traverse than Cyrodiil , which was relatively flat . In designing Skyrim 's world , the team opted for a different approach to what was taken with Oblivion ; art director Matt Carofano considered the " epic @-@ realism " of Skyrim 's world design as a departure from Oblivion 's generic representation of classic European fantasy lore . Howard expressed the team 's desire to re @-@ encapsulate the " wonder of discovery " of Morrowind 's game world in Skyrim , as the return to the classic fantasy of Arena and The Elder Scrolls II : Daggerfall in Oblivion meant sacrificing a world with a unique culture . As a way of creating diversity in the world , the team divided the world into nine sectors , known as holds , and attempted to make each hold feel topographically unique from another ; in addition , the team wanted to reflect the socioeconomic background of the NPCs by making some locations elaborate and wealthy while others are poorer and lower @-@ tech . 
