I was really disappointed by the lack of factions and the low number of quests in Oblivion. Also that you could become the head of every faction with the same character. I hope they rethink that nonsense.

Factions I would like to see:
- Political factions like the houses in Morrowind
- Religious factions (Imperial Cult + Nord Shor Cult)
- Imperial Guard
- Synod, College of Whispers, Fighters Guild, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood
- Something totally new, like an archaeologists or adventurers guild

The Dark Brotherhood needs to get back to it's former glory. They shouldn't be the emo puppy killers from Oblivion.

Hired Assassins is what they are.

I would love to see more of them unique-ish guilds, such as the Great houses, or the Temple. Speaking of which, I hope we can join the Imperial Cult and the local religion. But I hope they're more interesting than they where in Morrowind. Especially the former.

Counter Dark Brotherhood? Vote for Crimson Scars! Y'all know what that is if you got the "Vile Lair" DLC!

well said, I was rip-**** when my argonian couldnt join blackwater fulltime

Break lore? Blackwater was cool. That competition was one of the only "realistic" things about Oblivion and really fit in with the lore.

There's always competition. In Morrowind, the thieves guild competed with the cammona tong, the dark brotherhood competed with the morag tong, the great houses competed against everyone, etc. In Daggerfall, all the temples competed against each other... speaking of which...

It was weird that you couldn't join a religion in Oblivion. You could join a bunch of different temples to each of the gods in Daggerfall. In Morrowind, you had the imperial cult and tribunal temple. I would like to see a return to the daggerfall style where each god has a different cult, plus the competing local religions like in Morrowind.

I do not know much of the lore sadly, so you will have to deal with my generalizations:
- Dark Brotherhood
- Mage guild ( I do like the idea of having two, college of whispers and that other one)
- Fighters
- Thieves ( I would like a more... dark Thieves, they were far to nice in Oblivion)
- Necromancers/ Underground dark magic
- Religious Guild ( two rival ones would be cool)
- Political guild

I hope they have more then oblivion, less then Morrowind

Agreed, hopefully it will be perfect (not to many, not peletiful enough) but I would rather them overshoot than undershoot.

I have a couple of ideas, what do you guys think?

The Mercenary Guild

"We'll do any job, no matter how trivial or impossible it may be"

First Quest: Play hide and seek with a group of children for 5 gold coins.

20th Quest: You and a partner must BLOW UP an entire fortress and stop any survivors from sending the message of its destruction.

The Eyes and Ears

"We see for the blind and hear for the deaf, there is no information we cannot acquire as long as you can pay the price"

Basically information gathering / giving, spying, scouting, quests to unknown temples etc. And have this guild be ruthless, perhaps killing clients who can't pay up and you can choose to either side with them, pay their debt (Companion?), or watch them die.

I think when you become leader of a guild of faction you should be able to command some of the other members of the guild to follow you so that you have backup in a fight

Guilds pay the empire to be the monopolies of their trade.

The thieves guild is the name of a faction, it is not an imperially chartered guild paying taxes to the empire. Great houses are also not licensed product or service providers across the empire, though I'm sure they pay some sort of taxes.

I agree. They could have done something like that in Oblivion since each city had a different divine's temple, and perhaps just not make them joinable if they run out of time on making the faction.


And this time I hope they don't have a sanctuary. I can't fathom why they'd need one. They're living like summer camp in there with everyone having a bunk and a trunk. Don't they think people are going to notice a bunch of weirdos wearing identical outfits keep coming and going from an abandoned house? There's something like twenty houses in town, and the abandoned house has the most people living there by far.

We don't need a political guild if every guild is a political guild.

I'd prefer that our characters never become the leaders of guilds. There's no reasonable way that could happen, and it's always a letdown in terms of what you can actually do with it.

I hope the guilds simply don't run out of quests ever.

I know the DB is in, I'd like to see a DB and MT conflict, but I'm not betting on it. Other than that, I'm curious to see how they handle the two different magical guilds and what new ones they come up with.

There's only one faction I've been hanging out for and that is the Psijics - they would fit in really well with the lore - especially since their role was to maintain balance - I'd like to see what connection they have now that the Mages School is finally disbanded.

The Synod and College of Whispers are almost a given. There needs to be a Mage faction of course, and it'd be nice to see where the schism in the Mages Guild takes the resulting factions. I'll be very happy to see a Mages Guild/Telvanni-style rivalry again.

I think the Dark Brotherhood has been strongly hinted at, if not confirmed.

Of course, with the civil war in Skyrim we'll almost certainly be forced to pick sides at some point.

There's almost certainly going to be a Fighters' Guild style faction as well.

All I can think of right now.

What I'd love to see is multiple factions per archetype with very frequent interaction and complications, not just on one or two occasions, either.

Fighter:
Nord version of Fighter's Guild, branch Imperial Guard that act as autonomous peacekeepers (Skyrim Mounties basically)

Mage:
Synod, College of Whispers

Thief:
Commona Tong, Thieves' Guild

Assassins:
Dark Brotherhood, Morag Tong

From there, I want to see head-to-head archetype mutually exclusive quests, choices between guild to benefit on certain missions, consequences for sneaky vs. overt, etc. I want to be able to forge alliances and start inter-faction wars. For instance, if on fighter's guild quest you might be forced to do something that causes a falling-out with the Synod, causing them to send battlemage mercenaries to assassinate you. Perhaps you could hire a College of Whispers mage as a personal enchanter to live at your home if you're on friendly terms with them. Protect a Thieves' Guild informant from an assassination attempt and earn the ire of the Brotherhood. That sort of thing.

Also, of course, a return to the skill requirements for advancement. It was stupid in the extreme that you could become archmage without ever casting a single spell. Requiring a minimum skill level or even a certain number of perks in a skill or archetype would be much better and give a character appropriate options.

Also, yes, some more beneficent religious factions that aren't really about opposing anything, just their own thing that has its own benefits and plenty of opportunity for earning brownie points with good factions or with certain cities. This would require a reputation system more along the lines of Fallout: New Vegas, where each area has its own opinion of you which might be affected by your relationships with factions and other regions as well. Hell, maybe you can become an ordained priest and be approached by Radiant Story NPCs for healing or intercession on a convict's behalf or something.

Guilds should be more restrictive. Running membership fees and much higher skill requirements for higher ranks, and no stealing everything in guildhalls. Appropriate rewards for ranks, such as higher-quality rooms for high-ranking members.

I'm guessing these Guilds will most likely be in the game:

- Fighters Guild
- Synod
- Collage of Whisperers
- Dark Brotherhood
- Thieves Guild

These, might be in but I'm not entirely sure:

- Morag Tong
- Skyrim House num. 1 (Just like Hlaalu, Redoran ect. in MW)
- Skyrim House num. 2
- Skyrim House num. 3 (Not sure if 3 isn't too much)
- Vampire/Werewolf Guild/s (?)

I want some quests after the guilds main plotline, ones that can be repeated such as collecting a bounty or help an NPC learn a move.

If you do many of these free-form quests you will get larger payments as your guild builds in strength. There will be a cap but it would be nice if something along these lines were implemented instead of 'Oh I'm guild leader, I'll come by and collect a load of money and that is my role'. Prefer to just be a member, even with the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion I would rather have stayed an underling for Lucian Luchance or an equivalent character.

EDIT: I know it wouldn't be a guild but it is relevant to the topic. The ability to join law enforcement would be great (not sure about your supposed criminal background) you could have missions such as the night watchman in red dead redemption after the main plotline of the law enforcement ends.

This