I believe they'll have a Thalmor war (or some similar event) take place after the events of Skyrim which will be the main focus of the past. Whether the Empire or the Stormcloaks win would be left to interpretation, chances are the event I'm suggesting would have happened regardless who won the civil war so it wraps up the past in an open enough manner that player can decide to believe what they want without spoiling it for other players.

Both the Empire and the Stormcloaks are weakened from their war, and they will have fallen to the Thalmor by the time the next game is around. That way it won't matter which side you chose.
Helps with the setup for the other game, if it will involve stopping the Thalmor.

Never make a TES game beyond the timeline of Skyrim.

I strongly agree with this. If another great war were to break out between the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion, those events would obviously dwarf the Skyrim civil war. I think you said it best when you noted that it would more than likely be left up to interpretation. Besides, for all we know, the next Elder Scrolls game could take place in another 200 years in the future, just as it was from Oblivion to Skyrim. I mean, it's not everyday (In real life) that you hear people talking about the American civil war. It's obviously not forgotten, but it's rarely spoken of in everyday conversation.

My bet is that they throw a curve ball, and whatever happens makes the Civil War moot. Due to the chaos, and other events (Alduin, Thalmor, Emperor's murder), nobody knows exactly what happened, but:

The emperor died by assassination

Ulfric died at an unknown time, either during or shortly after the CW

I really doubt there will be another dragon break anytime soon, because BGS doesn't want to get into a "they killed kenny" pattern (i.e., they don't want to make it into a comedy routine). And BGS won't say that the Dragonborn killed Ulfric or the emperor, they'll just mention that the events happened around the same time that the Dragonborn took down Alduin and Miraak.

This is a very interesting idea as well as the other one I commented on moments ago. Placing the Aldmeri Dominion at the helm would make who won the Skyrim civil war almost totally irrelevant. Great observation.

Considering how butchered it was and how they left it to rot storyline wise with no DLC to finish it up, I wouldnt be surprised if this happened.

Honestly though I think they will just make it so there is a peace treaty and they work together to defeat the thalmor.

Who cares? We will be off in some other province fighting a different war, so after 3 odd years or more of waiting for the next game, whether the Stormcloaks or Empire kept Skyrim is not going to make that much difference. Maybe neither side ended up wining and the Thalmor invaded, maybe they joined forced after all and decided to take the fight some where else, maybe nothing changed, we will have to wait and see. I really never noticed what happened in any previous game being that important in later games, maybe I just never played enough games.

Yeah, but the previous games didnt involve the empire rising to power again or crumbling to nothing. Thats kind of a big deal.

The Civil War, the rise of the Thalmor, and the waning of the Empire are all tied to the Oblivion Crisis (possibly the return of Alduin, too). The situation in Morrowind (and hence the Dunmer in Winterhold, etc.) is a result of the events of Morrowind plus the Oblivion Crisis.

A lot of lore fans believe that the major events of each of the games is a step leading to a "final" confrontation (destruction/unmaking of the towers that stabilize Mundus).

No one but the Dragons were rising to power in Skyrim, so who won the civil war does not seem that important to the empire. If the Stormclpacks won, they would lose to the Thalmor, if the empire won, they were still only occupiers of a hostile province, doing the Thalmor's bidding. Skyrim does not seem that important that the entire Thalmor plan is going to be affected that much if a few rebels temporarily gained their freedom.

I don think they will ever stop making TES games, at least not for a LOOONG time. We still have Hammerfell, Summerset, Valenwood, Blackmarsh AND Elswyr , and thats just in Tamriel, they will probably do the akaviri lands too eventually, then there is Pyandonea and a few other continents too.

It actually makes a big difference, its either defend one front, or defend two, and thats a huge difference.

If stormcloaks win, it shows the other provinces that the empire can be beaten. as a result of the empire being in a weakened state after the Skyrim Civil War, most other provinces will declare war against the empire seeking their independence (though, whether they do it as a massive alliance or as independent states is unknown), as such the Empire will fall and likely cease to exist.

I'm also afraid of what they're going to do about Paarthurnax.

That scares me even more than the Civil War.

It's also possible that there could be a second great war, only this time, Tamriel would be more divided than the previous great war. The Aldmeri Dominion have been trying to form an alliance with Eylswer, and there's no sign that they're going to reject that offer. That said, it's safe to assume that the next Elder Scrolls game will take place years after the events of Skyrim, therefore the Dominion could have already established other allies.

All they have to say is The Thalmor declare war and the peace treaty is broken, so all the nations join together in another battle against the Thalmor.

So, all they have to say is that "Skyrim joins in along with the rest". Both sides are considered perfectly cannon.

If ANYTHING, I'm more interested in how they're going to address Skyrim kingdom Heirs and, specifically, Ulfric Stormcloak. Since Ulfric can die in one outcome - they can't give him a played-out story beyond this point.

I don't think they'll be doing dragons in the next Elder Scrolls game. It would make it too tired. That said, I'm assuming that Paarthurnax won't even be featured in it. Of course, this is all just speculation.

I hope he is dead. Seriously, how can people have pity or sympathy for him? He committed mass genocide, even if he did learn from his mistakes, that would be like saying the generals that were responsible for the holocaust should not be punished because they "feel" differently now.....

what worries is that bethesda is probably gonna take the boring and easy way out and make elder scrolls 6 set in hammerfell rather then the logical conclusion of setting it in valenwood or the summerset isles or even elsweyr basically anywhere the dominion influence is strong.

He doesn't just "feel" differently. He has helped Men save Mundus from Alduin, and taught them the Voice.

Twice.

It doesnt change what he did. He was never punished. He deserves it. Thats like saying " ok that man slaughtered 1,000,000 people, but he helped 3,000,000, so we should forget about those 1,000,000"

THANK YOU! I couldn't believe how many people called Delphine a b**** because she wanted him dead. If he helped Alduin enslave Tamriel, I'm pretty sure he deserves to pay for it, even if he helped defeat the world eater. However, as Delphine pointed out, it makes him even more volatile and dangerous because he betrayed his master. Would you forgive Hitler's second hand man if he helped defeat the very thing he helped create? I'm guessing most people wouldn't. I know comparing the Nazi regime to Paarthurnax may seem a little extreme, but it's the same basic concept.