The Elder scrolls series guilds have always been a key part of the experience. They give a clear sense of direction, purpose, progression and weight in the universe that the main quests and other side quests do not have. I believe this is down to the feeling of being a part of something larger than yourself and seeing your consequences take shape. The thieves, warrior, Mage and dark brotherhood guilds have become staples of the series but I would like to see the inclusion of new ones that could tie into the existing guilds, flesh out characters in the game and allow the writers a whole new slate to create quests.


Post your new suggestions and try and flesh them out a little to give context and placement within the world.


Allow me to start with my suggestion - the Food guild/ Culinary guild.

Wait

Hear me out.

"How exciting could food be I hear you ask?"

Well take a scrap out of a show called Hunter X Hunter which has as you imagine "hunters" which are much in the same vain as adventurers in the fantasy genre. During a part of the hunter exam (where people must prove themselves to be the best of the best and get their license to take dangerous work) a part of the exam is handed over to food hunters which is laughed at by some entrees but it soon becomes clear that they could well be some of the most badass hunters out there. This is due to and what I would have the culinary guilds objective be is make the amazing and rare meals they can gathering all the essential ingredients, this doesn't sound to thrilling but consider what gathering "rare" ingredients would actually entail. Why has no one got these ingredients? Because they get themselves killed. Imagine a slaying rare bear deep within the mountains trapped by creatures keeping the meat to themselves, do you free the rest of the bears, take them to the guild for cultivation or take all the meat to the market? Imagine a herb that grows on the highest peaks that is guarded by a great dragon. Imagine a fish that only lives in a dwarves ruin deep in the ocean floor that you need another plant to expand your lung capacity (gillyweed Harry Potter nerds).

The possibility are endless and relatively easy to put together.

For my finale I would ideally have different branches of guilds in different cities like oblivion. After completing the quests of each guild you receive a letter from the guild saying the King (or whoever is the head honcho) requests the finest meals in the land for a special event. You are then tasked with choosing which branch to represent in preparing a meal for the King with each member taking a certain aspect which they will inevitably need help with. Shenanigans ensues with skullduggery, cheating, bribing and the sort to be the Kings own chef and finally you draw with whichever guild you annoyed the most with your actions in the contest astheking just can't decide and off you all go, no ones a winner. The most annoyed person with this result is not you or the other competitors but a daedric prince who was enjoying the show. You are transported to another plane with your team and the opposition and are told that a food contest to the death will take place. Whichever team wins goes home, the losers are cooked by the prince himself, the most illustrious honour. This strange place has flora and fauna no one has ever seen and therefore most be tried, potentially poisoning some team mates that require a antidote, perhaps offered to you by the prince if you can include an opposition team member in your ingredients. You win naturally and head home. Your deeds have promoted you to master chef (avoid that trademark perhaps) and now have the right to create your own dishes and name them in the same way spells could be created in oblivion, eventually you can see these meals appear in inns as they grow in popularity.

Side note the daedric prince finale if you wanted to really turn it on its head you could make it so that whoever WINS gets the honour of being eaten by him/her so both teams are desperately trying to lose and make it as awful as possible but at each course you give him seperated by ingredient collecting, he loves every dish he's given and both teams are freaking out until, a member of your team (or you) urinates in the dish in front of him essentially sacrificing themselves for the teams return but he is still positive on your dish however he declares he prefers tradition means of food delivery as he is not swayed by contemporary Presentation, preferring the flavour to do the talking so on a technicality declares your team the winner. Shocked the other teams captain urinates in the dish after the competition is over, the daedric prince calls him lude and uncultured saying art should not be replicated by amateurs and promptly vaporises him, returning you all back home whilst the other team is left to their doom.


Give me thoughts on my idea and suggest your own

I food guild?.....at first I was sceptical..but then i started thinking about it it wouldnt be to bad like the bards college in solitude a "side guild" but would bethesda ever go for it?..doubt it..or maybe no who knows they could surprise us.

also on the cooks trying to lose because they dont like the outcome of the winning place? Ya southpark did it! And if you like that part in hunter x hunter you should definitly try food wars and toriko.

The Gold Mask Cult

A cult of vampire worshipers that center around a golden mask with a crimson soul gem in the forehead that holds Lamae Bal's soul. Through this mask vampires can be made while being free from Molag Bal's grasp. They are the foe of every vampire clan in Tamriel due to this and what they see as desecration of the soul of Lamae Bal who they think deserves to be sent to Molag Bal. While the mask can make anyone into a powerful vampire few get the privilege to be turned into one by the grandmaster of the cult who holds onto the mask so no one else can use it's powers.

I think a "Rangers Guild" might be interesting

archaeological guild, that serves to study ancient ruins and their artifacts

I don't hate the existing guilds, but I would like to see more things like the companions and college.


Instead of a guild we have the local group of fighters or mages.

sounds like morrowind mages guild.

perhaps some trade guilds to join.

I'm an avid history guy, so I'd very much like to see some sort of historical guild. An archaeological guild like funnybunny suggested would be cool to have, but I would like to see more than just exploratory digs and studying ancient ruins and artifacts.

Perhaps you could find the answers to some historical case(s) that has/have never been quite solved (sort of a similar vein to "figuring out" the disappearance of the Dwemer). Or perhaps research on a subject that would be pertinent to the province the game is set in. For example, researching about the Ansei and sword-singing, or historical figures like Makela Leki or Frandar Hunding if the game is set in Hammerfell would be pretty dope.

So maybe we could have archaelogical stuff be part of an overarching history guild. By the Nine, that would be grand to have such a guild.

Also it would be cool to see opposing guilds (like Camonna Tong vs. Thieves Guild and Morag Tong vs. Dark Brotherhood in Morrowind) or some upstart guild try to gain a foothold in a region (like the Blackwood Company in Oblivion).

Archaeological Guild and Historical Society gets my support.. I've been playing this role in the last two game now.

I loved the Archaeological Guild in "The Lost Spires" mod for Oblivion. I would love to see something like that from Bethesda.

The Lost Spires is a good example of what a new guild could be like. It might be setting the bar too high for Bethesda though, considering some of the quest lines they've come up with lately.