This just recently occurred to me;

Despite its obvious short-comings - as many people are aware of - the Civil War between the Stormcloaks and Imperials is really the first time that such a major choice has been given to the player.

In past TES games, any major events that will inevitably affect the province / Tamriel as a whole are usually one-sided: It's been that way all the way back to Arena (aside from Daggerfall with its 6 endings - but this was explained very conveniently in Morrowind (involving time-warps / space-time disruptions))

My point is that, although some people may find the Civil War questline to be somewhat anti-climactic (I think it's fine), the results of the civil war in Skyrim - whether it's the Stormcloaks or Empire that wins - will undeniably have a rather significant effect on the history / future of Tamriel. It could even effectively decide whether or not the Empire will continue to exist (in its current form), and what will happen in regards to the Aldmeri Dominion. This is a pretty heavy choice given to the player that could effectively define the future of not only Skyrim but Tamriel.

Now my REAL point is this; I've been trying to figure out how Bethesda will handle this in future TES titles (I have no doubt they will, I'm just not sure how).

A couple possibilities come to my mind:

- (Rather Unfavourable) they go ahead and declare that one of the outcomes was NON-CANON (I highly doubt this one, but you never know)

- (And this would be weird) they implement a BIOWARE-style save-file transfer thing (importing your Skyrim data to the next one) ---- This is of course crazy in regards to TES - I can't see this one happening either.

But there you have it; I can't even figure out a possible explanation for it, but maybe I have either missed something or am over-thinking it a bit.

Anyways, I just wanted to open this intriguing topic to discussion. I thought it would be cool if anyone else has any interesting theories or if you are simply as stumped as I am