I want to see several different magic and fighting guilds, like Morrowind. Whether they are local variants or evolutions of existing guilds, I don't care.

EDIT: I do NOT want to see the return of the mages or fighters guild. These guilds were so generic and cookir-cutter I will be mad if they are brought back.

Honestly I like the idea of the mages and fighters guilds being replaced. One of the biggest complaints for Oblivion was that it had fewer guilds than Morrowind and you could join all of them. Maybe with Skyrim we'll see a return of competition between the guilds. It might be cool if there were guilds devoted to specific schools of magic or combat skills, and you were required to be at least a journeyman in those skills to join the respective guild.

I would imagine the "Synod" and the "College of Whispers" would have made their way up as well given time. Unless they didn't gain a foothold on that province and the local mages made their own thing

It would all depend on whether or not Skyrim takes place before or after the events of the Infernal City. If I'm not mistaken, The Infernal City takes place 30+ years or some after Oblivion, yes?

True but something about Skyrim and dragons would have been mentioned in the book. I doubt the events we are going to see in Skyrim are of no consequence and not worth mentioning in the book. So Skyrim is likely to take place after the book

If the Mages guild is replaced by some other magic-related guild, who cares? As others said, it would be nice to have multiple factions specializing in similar traits. And making it impossible to join them all would be a wise choice. Adds to replay value.

I'm all for something different. The guilds in Oblivion were very meh, and had no interaction with one another and didn't care or seem to know if you were the friggin' leader of both.

Mages, fighter, and thieves guilds should be startup guilds, and not go too far wrt what you can achieve there.

It's definately after infernal city.

Huh, I posted that exact statement a while back. What the heck, ElvisFred?
Anyway, on topic: I hope we have what I/you suggested.

College of Whispers sounds cool. I'd love to see these competing factions. It wil be interesting to see Skyrim a few hundred years into a new age (as I suspect it will be) and all the changes that have occured. Maybe Skyrim itself is now the strongest empire in Tamriel... Sorry... digressing a bit there.

Besides Bethesda claiming in a soon removed statement that the next Elder Scrolls games will be taking place after The Infernal City, we don't know that. Bethesda are the creators of the Elder Scrolls afterall, so they can change things around if they want and have Skyrim take place before The Infernal City.

All will become clear in about 2 weeks. :read:

As for the returning of old guilds or new guilds replacing them, I wouldn't mind either way. I just hope that people who aren't familiar the events that took place in the Infernal City don't raise up a storm that their favorite guild from Oblivion isn't in the game. The less "BETHEZDA R FAEL DEVZ 4 nO MAJUS GUELD" threads, the better.

I don't know. It seems full realism would allow you to lauch a campaign that would allow you to dominate them all and unify them under a single banner. . . i.e. your banner, if you so choose and had the requisite power and skill to manage it.