Players will be able to saddle up a dragon of their own in Skyrim's next confirmed piece of downloadable content.

The Dragonborn expansion also returns to Solthseim, the small island to the north of Morrowind that was featured in the third Elder Scrolls games' add on, Bloodmoon.

The plot will revolve around a new antagonist referred to as the Dragonbeast, referred to as the first of the Dragonborn, as he attempts to return to the island and consume all the dragons he can along the way.

Other features that had previously been speculated from the Skyrim patch 1.8 beta source code back in October also appear to be present in the upcoming DLC, with spears making a debut as a new weapon type in the game and bone armour making an appearance.

Dragonborn is slated for a December 4 release on Xbox 360 with no dates yet announced for a PC or Playstation 3 release.

Bethesda trademarked the name Dragonborn in September and a model of the island to the north of Morrowind has been viewable in Skyrim since the game's launch. Dragonborn will be the game's third expansion following the vampire themed Dawnguard and the home-building themed Hearthfire.

First released in November 2011, Skyrim was a huge critical and commercial success, managing to ship more than 7 million units within its first week. On release day, Steam reported that more than 230,000 players were running the game concurrently.