Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-3322638-20130429120723/@comment-7153552-20130603173124

Most of the things mentioned here are side-quests and faction-specific things. Those, historically, play very little role in the next main story, but usually carry over a little onto themselves. As for the Dark Brotherhood, even if you chose to "destroy" it, you didn't kill the little Vampire Girl or Cisero(sp?). . . so it's possible for it to revive itself at Dawnguard much like you do with it at the end of the other side of that coin. As for things like the civil war, it'll be rumor, or generalized statements. Skyrim's civil war will be mostly meaningless to whatever province we go to next.

Now as for Dragon Breaks, game developement and lore writing has become so much larger nowadays and a more fine-tuned thing, that I don't forsee having to worry about it. They'll do what they did from Morrowind into Oblivion, and Oblivion into Skyrim. Look at the rumors of the Naravarine, and the rumors for the Hero of Kvatch. Think about the vague references to various things from past games, but never anything concrete that wasn't established as main quest cannon. All side-quests are iffy as far as "true" and "hard established" lore goes.