1. A couple of Aylied ruins up near the pale pass over for a sense of continuation
This, definitely. The game definitely lacks continuity. It would be nice, also, to have continuity in the bestiary, that is to meet some Ogres, Imps and Minotaurs in the southern Skyrim.
I have already stated why I think there should be Ayleid ruins in Skyrim. As you said, continuity is one of these reasons. Another one is that in http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Adabal-a, it is said that Ayleids imported the Men-of-'kreath from the North to use them as slaves in Cyrodiil. I personnally believe that the apostrophe before "kreath" is a clue that an apheresis hapenned and that the Men-of-'kreath come from the surroundings of Falkreath. Of course, this is merely an hypothesis, but I don't find it too far-fetched (except that I don't know whether the name of "Falkreath" existed at the time of the Slave Queen). This hypothesis is further substantiated by the fact that http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Falkreath. So lorewise, it would pretty much make sense to have some Ayleid ruins in the Southern Skyrim.
Moreover, it would be nice to uncover bits of the history of the Men-of-'kreath in such ruins, or traces of the posssible interactions of the Ayleids with Falmers or Dwemers. Or Dragons. An Ayleid ruins would also raise many possibilities. Like a forge dedicated to http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Magic_from_the_Sky, new traps, new armors, weapons and clothing sets. And it would undoubtfully be of high interest for the Thalmor, which could possibly ask you to explore it... Furthermore, this would be an occasion to discover how http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Lithnilian's http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Lithnilian%27s_Research_Notes evolved after the Oblivion Crisis. And well, it would look gorgeous with Skyrim's engine, and it would provide useful official stuff for the modders.
The following DLC idea is also -- albeit loosely -- related to the Ayleids.
The Hive of Nilichi's GodThis is an idea I have had while watching Adam Adamowicz's wonderful drawings. A bunch of them, made for Oblivion's DLC, are entitled "NBug".
Here are two of these :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877426899/in/set-72157629321027031
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877427321/in/set-72157629321027031
It is not clear to me whether they were supposed to be inhabitant of a abandoned "Nightmare" subrealm of Sheogorath's, or whether bugs were inhabitants of a "Neutral Realm" of Jyggalag (after all, the first drawings of the Knights of Order seem to depict them as riding insect mounts, accompanied with armored mites), or if they were supposed to be inhabbitants of somewhere else.
One of the explaination for the "N" appearing in the titles -- and I must concede it is not a likely one -- is that it stood for "Nilichi". About Nilichi, nothing is known (or at least, I know nothing) but that he was an Ayleid King nicknamed "The Flower King" who destroyed the Nedic tribe of the Men-of-Ge by offering large-scaled sacrifices to an insect Deity whose name has been lost. Well, this may be a very unlikely interpretation... but... In my opinion, visiting the Realm of such an insect God could make a very good DLC.
One could even imagine that the Men-of-Ge still exist and are prisonners of the realm, used as slaves of the hive... It would be interesting to discover how their culture evolved from the Nedic one due to the interaction with the insects (if the bugs let them have any culture at all). And as always, a new realm would be an occasion to discover fancy architecture, new ores, new weapons, new religions, and in this case, lost pieces of the history of the Nedes and Ayleids.
The Wooden MaskThis already in-game item is really fascinating. Well, it would be great, imo, if the Wooden Mask allowed us to explore other places than http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Bromjunaar_Sanctuary as they were in the past.
Think, for example, to the preceding idea about Nilichi's God. Imagine that you step into an Ayleid ruin with the Wooden Mask in your inventory. As you walk along a wall, small pieces of unfinished graffiti on the wall seem to get blured, or shine, or resonate, or react in any way when you are near them. The reason could be that the mask reacts when it "feels" the memory of some terrible event that occured, or as it feels that the place itself remembers it. Upon equipping the mask, you see the shadows of people who lived here ages ago, just before the terrible event happens.
You discover that the graffiti were performed by a woman, an enslaved Woman-of-'kreath, or a Woman-of-Ge. She was writing her name and her children's in order that they don't vanish into oblivion, but before finishing her last writing, this mother and her two childs are taken by Ayleids, and brought to the sacrificial altar of Nilichi's God. Just three anonymous beings in a long row of victims. As everything happens in smoky shadows, you can't intervene. You witness the woman's assassination before the shadows shiver and disappear.
At another place in the dungeon, the Mask could show you that a mercyful Ayleid soldier saved a child from the altar, possibly one of the woman's children. You could follow him to his house, within the ruin, where you can see him bringing the child to his wife, who can't get pregnant, and hear him telling her that he thinks the perverted faith of the Flower King will eventually bring mourning and woe to all of them. On a wall of his house, some horizontal line engraved in the stone resonate again, and the Mask reveals that they were done by the mercyful soldier, so that they are a testimony of the human child's growth.
At the upper stairs of the house, you could see a resonating notch in the stone. When equipping the Mask, you'd see that it was caused by the axe which killed the good Ayleid, as the revengeful Nedes sacked the Ayleid city. When the human warriors come closer to the human child in disguise with their blood-thirsty blades, the shadows vanish again.
If you find another artifact, maybe you can really go into the past, and intervene, to save the woman and her children, or to save the mercyful Ayleid soldier and his wife. Maybe you could even bring them to present, or find ancient weapons, or a now destroyed Dragon wall.
In my opinion, the Wooden Mask doesn't get at all the attention it diserve. I just threw here one of the first bunch of ideas that came to my mind when I thought about how this artifact could be more used. I am sure that the Devs could find as easily much better stories. And I am sure, also, that this item could afford insanely good quest opportunities, from the point of view of story-telling as well as from the gameplay mechanics viewpoint, and could lead us into amazing delves into yet uncovered lore.
The Ancient NineI know I have already stated it, but I would love to do some quests for the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Dragon_War. That is, the totemic deities related to hawks, wolves, snakes, moths, owls, whales, bears, foxes, and Dragons. It has already been said to me that these are no other than the Nine Divine in an archaic form, but I have a new argument to substantiate that they have their individual existence. Again, this new argument comes from the wonderful work of Adam Adamowicz. On the Skyrim album, you can find nine drawings of walls, each depicting one of these animal deities.
It is precisely because they are Nine that I think they are not archaic forms of the Divines. Cause the Divines were Eight before the Advent of Talos, and the animal deities are by far anterior to it. But well, I am not a lore buff, so one could also consider that Talos is an Avatar of one of them, or that one of them was an Anticipation of Him, or that he simply replaced one of them in the Pantheon...
Of course, adding them would require to add snakes, owls and whales to the game...
Here are AdamAdamowicz's nine drawings I mentioned :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877470775/in/set-72157629321466509
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877502469/in/set-72157629321466509
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877521677/in/set-72157629321466509
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877525709/in/set-72157629321466509
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877538419/in/set-72157629321466509
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877544549/in/set-72157629321466509
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877563849/in/set-72157629321466509
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877583609/in/set-72157629321466509
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877590793/in/set-72157629321466509
Unusual weaponsWell, as I looked at the game jam, I started to hope again for new weapons. Of course, it would be so genuinely great to have spears !
But I think I have seen a flail or a whip when the introduction of Verlet surfaces was presented. So, here are a few other ideas of weapons that could be used :
Halberds
Lochaber Axes
Tridents (imagine a Dreugh one!)
Scythes
Flails
War Whips (Imagine a whip of Spriggan fashion!)
Urumi (whip-swords)
Rope darts
Shurikens
Darts
Throwing axes
Throwin knives
Slings
Slingshots
Kestros (slings to throw darts)
Fustibalis (staff sling)
Bolas
Atlatl
Javelins
Bladed boomerangs
Chakrams
Blowguns (again, it would suits Spriggans imo)
Bolas
Scimitars
Tanto
Khopesh
Ciquedea
Sai
Kris
Garrotes (for silent assassinations)
Cesti (battle gloves) (related to a new hand-to-hand perk tree?)
Bagh-Nakh (claw-like weapons)
Katara
Tessen (war fan)
Swordsticks
Tea spoon (just kidding... or not?)
(... this is by far not an exhaustive list)
So, what are your thoughts about these ideas ?
EDIT : I added the links to the mentioned drawings of Adam Adamowicz, and I expanded a little the Wooden Mask stuff, but merely with minor details.
EDIT 2 : Added some sources.