Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-101.103.30.52-20140219060142/@comment-3256727-20140605130005

wow, didn't expect this to turn into an essay :P

One thing that keeps getting repeated and keeps being ignored: The protagonist in EVERY TES GAME is always a nobody (even if he happens to be Dragonborn, that's just a potential that has to be unlocked) with little or no skills, no equipment other than what he can find laying about at the beginning of the game, and in jail for whatever reason. All he has is a Destiny (yes, with a capital D) and the choice to succeed or fail at it, or ignore it completely and farm Cabbages like in Runescape (KAH-BAH-GEE!).

What could be interesting is for the TESVI protagonist to be, again unknowingly and something that will have to be discovered and unlocked, the child of an immortal and a mortal (i.e.: Aedra or Daedra or similar). His powers will be far from that of an Aedra or Daedra but by the end of the game he will be as powerful as the Dragonborn at the end of TESV. Though there are conflicting stories in the lore (i.e.: Anu created Mundus, Sithis created Mundus by sundering Anu, Magnus created Mundus, Lorkhan created Mundus, the Aedra created Mundus, the Aedra and the Daedra created Mundus...all of these are presented as true. Look up Et'Ada on the wikia for a detailed run-down of the many conflicts/contradiction in the TES creation myth lore), I like the idea of an "immortal" soul who, through his game choices, becomes either Aedra-like or Daedra-like.

To get even more epic, I would love to see a return of the Ayleids (see the Nu-Mantia Intercept) being the true main story of TESVI, and thus a real reason for the protagonist to have to be a god-son or the like in order to have a chance at prevailing against them. Plus the actions of the Aldmeri Dominion in trying to destroy the Adamantine Tower would come into play (thus giving me excellent reason to smash Elven skulls).

Also, don't forget, though the Civil War is part of the main quest, it is more of a background or setting upon which the real threat of Alduin's return is drawn. After all, what is worse, a little war between mortals or the return of the god-dragon destined to destroy the entire world? The Civil War is nothing by comparison.

What would be fantastic but is not going to happen is for us to get a completely new game engine running in 64-bit with none of the basic bugs of the existing piece of patchwork crap that has been added to and changed over the years but never completely replaced. Well, perhaps if Fallout 4 gets a new engine we'll get it for TESVI too.

I definitely hope there will be a LOT of elf-killing. I hate Elves, nearly all of them, other than a select few from LotR. I regularly abuse Faendal for archery training, kill off every Thalmor I encounter, massacre the Thalmor Embassy and Northwatch Keep in twin bloodbaths of Elven gore and slime, snub and eventually murder Ancano and insult Taarie and Elenwen at every opportunity. The only good Elf is a dead Elf, although a lifetime of slavery is a barely acceptable alternative.

More on-topic, it's not really the Aldmeri Dominion in general that is the problem in TESV, but the Thalmor and their lies and attitude specifically. Most Altmer are easy to get along with and the rest of the non-Thalmor as at least tolerable.

Example: Ondolemar, who claims that the Thalmor saved the world from the Oblivion Crisis, which is a total fabrication, and wants to prove the superiority of Mer over Man. Fortunately he and the bodyguards that his weak, patently non-superior self require at all times are easy one-shot bow kills from the corner by the kitchen entrance, incurring no bounty, by the time I usually get to Markarth.

Perhaps in my "epic game idea" the Thalmor would be on the side of the Ayleids with the Empire, Skyrim, Elsweyr, etc. on the opposite. Even better, your race choice would possibly determine your starting point and opportunities (or lack thereof) for joining whichever side.

Truly though, there are so many possibilities based just on the storyline of Skyrim+DLCs that postulating on the general story of TES VI, though interesting, is futile. I can, however, tell you what I am confident will not happen.

If it happens at all, the Falmer reverting to Snow Elves will be a minor side theme, if not a DLC, at best. You can bank on that.

Titus Mede II will have been assassinated, whether the player did it or not, by someone. There won't be a civil war in the Empire due to this, however; the Empire is too old and steeped in bureaucracy to let something as insignificant and frequent as the assassination of the Emperor get in the way of its continuity. It's much like the Canadian government: the leaders may play musical chairs but nothing really ever changes.

Shouts will be gone, at least for the protagonist. Every TES game, like every FF game, has some unique magic system that is completely altered from all previous ones. Likewise there won't be a Dragonborn as the main character, s/he will at best be an antagonist or ally. Remember, the Dragonborn protagonist in TESV is specifically referred to as "The Last Dragonborn", there will never be another.

Forget Nords and Skyrim in general. They will still likely be a player race, but only in the way that every other race was in TESV. The story will not revolve around Skyrim, its lands or its people. You *may* still be able to go there but only if they make TES VI enormous and include all the lands of the Empire and possibly some beyond it.

There won't be an epic crusade to rid the universe of Daedra (and Aedra for that matter) forever, unfortunately, as much as I would love it. :(

The Dwemer won't suddenly appear from whatever dimension or time travel experiment made them disappear, assuming it wasn't the gods wiping them out for presuming to aspire to godhood.

The protagonist won't be the avatar of an Aedra/Daedra, but who knows, maybe the offspring of a mortal and one, perhaps with the possibility of becoming a minor Aedra or Daedra depending on his or her choices made in the game (good overall becomes Aedra, evil becomes Daedra), since there's nothing in the lore (except where there is very conflicting and contrary information) to really differentiate between the two other than one being good and the other evil.

The protagonist will not be a Vampire Lord, or a Vampire at all. He may be able to become one, or a Werewolf, or something else, but it's not something he will start with.

What I think might occur includes:

Something to do with the Psijic Order, it's just too tempting to not have them more involved than in TESV.

I like the idea of basing the story of TES VI on player actions in TESV, but that would mean they'd have to either make several different storylines, or have a voting process (which would betray the upcoming story, so not happening). I don't know where this poll came from that concluded most people chose to make Imperial characters, but most people I talk to (mostly on Nexusmods) are into Nords or Khajiit (who like to sneak).

Personally, whenever I actually participated in the Civil War at all (all of once ever), I sided with the Empire because they are the only thing protecting Skyrim from being completely wiped out by the Thalmor, and because Ulfric is a manipulative, self-absorbed jackass who doesn't give a sweet f*** about the Nord race; he only wants to use them to gain power. His priorities are : Ulfric Stormcloak > "True" Nords (i.e.: Nords that follow him) > everyone else including non-"True" Nords and every other race.

What would be nice:

Insinuative poisons. You manage to poison someone's food or something so they are gradually weakened and go from being impossible, or nearly so, to kill to being merely difficult.

What would be terrible:

Boss mobs. To date we have very few boss mobs, and further console-ification of the series would be one of the worst things to happen since Star Wars I - The Phantom Menace.

Basing the game in the past. Prequels almost inevitably suck because it is impossible to keep the lore from going completely out of whack, and would be even worse in TES because player choice would either totally obliterate the lore or have to be severely curtailed.

Asides:

Coppermantis: Don't be so sure, Oblivion Gates is a popular mod for Skyrim :P

XDEnd00: Cicero was killed at the end of every game I ever played :P Heimskr is annoying, but at least he is avoidable. Cicero always has to die, even if he is a victim of circumstance.