After 200 years I hope the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood have survived and are in Skyrim.

We will likely see a mix of guilds...

we know the mages guild is long dead... most likely it will be colledge of whipsers and synode..

the warriors guild likely died out.. so id expect some sort of nordic alternative..

I expect theiving is going srong but agin the thieves guild is likely long dead.

We also have each nord hold likely as a faction as well as the two sides in the civil war.

We likely have a faction of dunmer refugees.

very likely an anti dunmer faction too.

I hope the factions will be
Magic- Synode vs College of Whispers
Fighters- Nordic Clans ( Individual Holds supplying Fighters )
Thieves- Just your average Thieves Guild
Assassins- Dark Brotherhood
Religious- Nordic Deities vs. Daedric Deities
Civil War- Skyrim Nationalists vs. Imperial Loyalists
Special- Vampire, and Were clans, and maybe Witches Coven.

Oh, right, I'd forgotten that the Mages' Guild had split into two factions.

That's actually kind of interesting. I don't think Bethesda would have asked for that detail if they didn't plan on using it in Skyrim. It'd be cool to have two rival Mages' Guilds.

i have a fear that there will be no guilds

Beer Brewer's Guild

Well, that's guilds, again, not too well educated with ES lore but is it so that if some group of people try to create a faction of their own without being a guild they get eaten by a daedra lord?
I mean, a group of people with a common goal can still get together and create their own faction right?
So Guilds are their own thing and I respect that.
But I think there should be factions as well.
Groups with their own agendas that don't do the whole "Monopoly on mercenaries/magic/thievery".

Here's a pitch, a group of people calling themselves Teal Beasts that worship a ghost(Or wraith or whatever.) and follows it's absurd commands which seem completely random at times but it's all part of this undead's plan to get revenge on a group of people who had her killed.
It was a long time ago though so she is now taking it out on their grandchildren.
Might seem black and white but all the ones she want dead are.. Well.. Kinda bad people. Guess it's in the blood.

Anyway, it's not perfect but it's a quick pitch.

So I think there should be both kinds, Guilds and Factions.
Guilds perform their services that they are specialized in while Factions are more indepth stories of gray morality.

Oh and I'd like it if say I help Faction H then Faction L will resent me for it, if I help Faciton H too much and also help Faction O then Faction L will kill me on sight.
(Too much Fallout for me... But honestly, I think the race picking at creation screen is great and should be in Fallout and the reputation system in NV should definitely play a part in any RPG.)

Guilds are definitely the part of Skyrim I am looking forward to the most. They are a ton of fun! Cant wait to see what guilds make the cut for Skyrim.

They're doing away with the class system, so I think it's extremely unlikely they will have the traditional Fighters, Mages and Thieves guild. No doubt there will be tonnes of side quests, but as for how they're delivered, that's anyone's guess.

I was pointing out what a guild means, otherwise it's an organization or a business.

Fun fact, what the Blackwood Company did was completely infringe on the Fighters Guild charter in Cyrodiil, and could be legally terminated, if the [censored] members of the Fighters Guild had the bright idea of telling their respective counts/countesses that by allowing BWC exist is a gross violation of their Imperial charter. But noooooo, they had to be brainless dopes and kill all of them using a highly gullible and non-thinking person known as the Champion of Cyrodiil. At least the previous heros of the land had a chance to decline missions to do something else, or solve problems another way.

But we have to have a necromancy guild, so..
are you saying necromancy will be a business in Skyrim?

Why would they do away with guilds altogether, that would mean some effort would have to be put into the xbox achievements/playstationtrophies

If not, then I'm sure there will be some equivalent, or at least anology, of these institutions in Skyrim. For example, perhaps the ITC has formed into a new, more ubiquitous organisation, or maybe the Nords have their own. And I would imagine there would be some form of military force.

I would like to see some guilds/factions that can only be joined if you are a specific race. For example, a Nord only faction, an Argonian only faction, etc.

This would be interesting when you play as different characters of different races.

More than just the main three class guilds, I'd like to see a Crafting guild, another assassins guild be it dark brotherhood or not, a White Glove society of sorts (for speechcraft, not canables), and maybe even a few other dark guilds. Necromancers, one for if your a ware-wolf or vampire if they add those, a guild for those fighters who would take any contract, something like that.

And you shouldnt be able to join every one. I have no problem with being able to work your way till your the leader, but you shouldn't be able to be the leader of the fighters guild, mages guild, theives guild, and the dark brother hood if your only good at swining a sword. You should need like, 25 in a skill to be considered if you should be able to join or not. And if you have 25 magic, and your evil, the mages guild should probably not let you join. Even if you paided your bail. You would have to work up your good rep in order for them to reconsider if you really want to join. Paying bail shouldn't whipe your slate clean in that regard.

Bring back the Imperial Legion for sure. I think more factions in general than what we had in Oblivion would be great. Obviously that means a lot more quests, VO, etc., but I assume that's not really an issue as Bethesda now holds 100 employees instead of the 70 they had during Oblivion's development.

Why there be an Imperial Legion? We don't even know if Cyrodiil is back to having some power.


We don't have to have a necromatic organization, necromancy could be a taught at a magical organization (or guild).

Remember, people, guilds are organizations/businesses that hold monopolies of a service. Like I gave in examples, the Fighters Guild holds the monopoly of hirable mercenaries in the area. The Mages Guild held the monopoly of magical learning and teaching during the time of the Septim Empire (and sometimes had to enforce it, as seen in MW). The Thieves Guild holds the monopoly of illegal activities, in order to create an equilibrium in the rate of crime and make sure thieves know how to steal effectively, instead of getting caught and killing someone in the process (and if you didn't join, they would rat you out to the guards and break your arms).

If the business or organization doesn't hold the monopoly of a service, it's just a business or an organization, not a guild.