User blog comment:Nerevarine465/My TES VI Prediction/@comment-37.228.250.68-20151018173124

Thinking back to the events in Skyrim, we never actually got to deal a big blow to the Thalmor (for example, slaughtering Elenwen like the sow she is). For this reason, I think the next game should take place in the Summerset Isles. Bear with me on this as I'll set out a divergent opening that should continue at least into the latter pieces of the main story.

Instead of forcing us into the role of a prisoner (Oblivion)/Criminal (Morrowind)/Wrong place, wrong time (Skyrim), they could take a leaf out of the mod "Live Another Life - Alternative Start", but they probably won't do that. So here's my idea:

Let's say you choose to play as an Altmer. After character creation you're given a choice to be either a Thalmor Sympathiser (giving you the chance to join later if you wish), a lay office in the Dominion or a revolutionary. The revolutionary option would be available to all races and the sympathiser probably only Altmer and Bosmer. They don't care one whit about the Dunmer.

Naturally as a revolutionary, you'd either be on the run or already in prison waiting for your execution. But if you play the lay officer, you're watchign the cells, listening to the prisoners hurl verbal diarrhea at you. Given the Thalmor really don't care about them, they won't bat an eyelid if you decide to off them and be done with it. A revolutionary on the run might eventually meet up with a mercenary band that looks at them suspiciously and possible even hostility. You'd have to pass a really easy speech check but still with a chance to fail, maybe about 20  or even higher for Altmer. If you fail, you're on your own. The Thalmor will not stop chasing you, but they don't invade your safe house (as safe houses are well, safe and known only to a select few). You'd also have to contend with sympathisers actually ACTIVELY conspiring to turn you in for money or favour. I call it a safe house, but it'd likely be a ramshackle building (at first - we might use a kind of a hearthfire system but with a load more customisation options) and eventually hiring guards. But the more it gets built up the more notice the Thalmor take of it. Attacks become for frequent and there's the possibility that your guards might die or get bribed/bought by the Thalmor.

But if you're playing the lay officer, as you rise through the ranks in a manner much more intelligently than the factions in Skyrim (a massive chain quest spanning oh I don't know, more than two hours?  How about a faction that you don't automagically become the head of because Deus Ex Machina, or at all - like the Bards College? We could make it huge and interesting.  A forty hour faction quest would make a nice turn, but let's not make it the main story this time)  Eventually you're given the order to find this insurgent and do away with them. But it won't be that easy. The Insurgent (as the derpy AI might come to call this person) has been on the run for a long time now and has built themselves a nice little fortress and regained a lot of lost strength. You get through the fortress to find the guy ready and waiting for you. You fail, you die. But if you win, the insurgent employs the magical equivalent of a flash-bang and escapes. Cheap, but you do anything if your life is in danger unless you have a Thanatos Impulse. As your mission is not yet complete, you rest there, waiting for your sight to come back and admiring your latest "acquisition". And the chase continues shortly after.

As a sympathiser, your home is fairly safe from the Thalmor misappropriating it. You visit the local tavern looking for likely candidates or people you don't like and have a chance to finger them as revolutionaries (the Thalmor require little to no evidence of such claims). Eventually you become complacent and make a mistake and finger a double-agent. All the good work you've done for them wouldn't save your hide in this case. However, you may be able to notice such a suspicious person (because divergent story) and choose to report or shadow them. Reporting would land you in a cell. After a couple of days when it becomes apparant that you're not going to die they present you with an offer - languish or join the Thalmor and work off your mistake. Joining would have a handful of initiation quests and then striaght into an evaluation of your magical talents as well as ruthlessness. The poor sod in the cell next to you pleads for his/her (random 50/50 chance, not fixed gander) life, and you have to kill this person slowly with your magic. Refuse and you have to fight your way through the prison (very difficult, but not impossible) but The Traitor doesn't realise the Thalmor were keeping magical tabs on him/her and is forced to flee to either try to join the rebels or on their own (as per insurgent) or decide what to do when you find out the "poor sod" in the cell next door was a Thalmor plant - revived shortly after you leave - and the one keeping an eye on you, feeding information to the guards.

If you're not playing an Altmer, your choices would be Revolutionary, Sympathiser or Subversive. The differences are that a revolutionary doesn't really care who knows who and what they are, while a subversive does it on the quiet, usually inciting rebellion through words. It may have to be handled differently to make it interesting, though. The mercenary band you meet would be a little less hostile and suspicious in this case, but still cautious around a Bosmer. A subversive could eventually branch into a double-agent path.

That's a quick synposis of what I've thought, but here's a list of "Do Not Want!":

1: Become the head of state for any reason at all

2: Become the head of any guild because Deus Ex Machina (Skyrim's guilds were terrible with this)

3: Forced prisoner start

4: Forced participation in any one guild or a civil war style scenario

5: A Civil War style scenario

6: Being a Legendary figure without even trying (Nerevarine, Dragonborn)

7: A save counter. I've hit 200+ saves done and it's daft to even count such a thing.

And a quick list of "Do Want!":

1: Actual body morphing with regard to weapons/armour used (ie, two handed weapons make your arms more muscly, one handed would make your muscles more ropey, running everywhere would change your leg structure and so on). Also armour weight should change how fast you can move.

2: Older spells should come back, like the bound spells that were kicked out.

3: A main story that will last more than one day and an end boss that has a fixed level at an insanely high level so you cannot save the world at level 1.

4: The scaling in Skyrim. For the most part it's good - no more marauders in Daedric Armour or bandits in Glass Armour. Dumb.

5: Smithing. But we should never be able to make superhigh level stuff because poof. One set of Daedric Armour and one set only, never forgeable. Dwarven Armour only possible if you've read about the lost technique (the book would be the reward at the end of the dungeon, not a bloody Fetch quest). Similarly, Elven Armour and Orcish Armour. Orcish in particular is supposed to be a closely guarded secret. These armours and their knowledge should be tied to quests (or dungeon rewards), player level and skill level.

6: An optional Hardcore mode (like New Vegas). Saving handled like an "Iron Man" in this difficulty (only save and quit, no quicksaving allowed).

7: The children. But with better AI. But not the "Potato Head" style of the default kids in Skyrim. Look at what the XVision mod did. But make sure there's a point to them, not just "because meh".

That's it, I'm done.