I've been thinking about an idea for an Elder Scrolls game for a while now and finally decided to send it to Bethesda. Of course, they informed me that they can't accept unsolicited ideas, but suggested that I share it on the forums. So, here I am, hoping that they'll crowd-source a game concept some day. Here is the idea I sent to Bethesda last week:
"Now that TES Online has been out for a while, I've been meaning to drop you a line with an idea for a future game in the series. Granted, you are probably working on the next game right now and you probably receive dozens of ideas every day, so I apologize for the spam, but I still thought the concept worth sharing.
Having thoroughly enjoyed the history imbued in the TES games I've played, it occurred to me that Tamriel, fraught as it is with divine intervention, could stand for a bit of upheaval. I imagined that some mortal, at some point, would try to challenge or overthrow the Daedra. Hence, TES VII: Divine.
In this iteration of TES, some commoner's normal workaday life would be interrupted by a vision from Akatosh. The least of the Daedra passes along a message that the player is meant for great things, to break the order of the world and end the enslavement of mortals. A family heirloom, Uriel Septim's pendant perhaps, is mentioned as the key to Oblivion through which the player will lead an attack on the gods. Following the vision, the player returns home to find his/her village ransacked by acolytes of Mehrunes Dagon wishing to end any threat to his rule.
Seeking revenge and retribution, the player crosses all of Tamriel, gathering Elder Scrolls in order to open the gateway. The player may forge alliances with both Daedra and mortals in order to amass divine powers and an army to subdue those nations that resist and challenge the gods. Unlike Talos' questionable divinity, the player would actually attempt to ascend to the level of the Daedra in order to overcome them.
In essence, it would be a sprawling sandbox experience like other TES games, but with a strategic warfare element, alliances forming/breaking, and all-out battles with the Daedra in both Tamriel and Oblivion. Also, as the seventh (or eighth) game in the series, the title screen could open much like Oblivion, with the Roman numerals in the name ("VII") moving to make up the letters in "divine". Maybe that's cheesy, but I've been a svcker for it since TES IV."
I played Oblivion and Skyrim extensively and loved every hour of it. TESO seemed promising at first but did not interest me since it seemed to trade visual quality and sandbox-ness for massively-multiplayer aspects. As a fan of powerful single-player, story-based games, I thought Divine would be a great way to return to those roots and, for the first time, include conquest of all of Tamriel, and beyond.
Bethesda, if you read this, thanks for TES and, if you like this idea, please use it! I don't want anything in return except to play it.