We don't actually know where TES VI lands, and I'm not pretending I do. But Hammerfell has been the leading bet for years. The teaser's mountains-and-coast, the obvious Redguard pull, the loose threads Skyrim left dangling about the Aldmeri Dominion and the Second Great War. So humor me. If the next game really is the desert and the Iliac coast, here's the short list of older systems I'd want pulled out of the attic, and why each one fits this setting specifically rather than being a generic "Morrowind was better" wishlist.
Sword-singing, and combat with an identity
Redguards aren't just "the warrior race." Their whole martial tradition is sword-singing. The Way of the Sword, the Shehai, the spirit-blade Frandar Hunding wrote about in the Book of Circles. Cyrus pulls a Shehai out of thin air in Redguard. That's a combat fantasy you literally cannot do justice to with Skyrim's three-attack-and-a-shout loop.
I'm not asking for a fighting-game combo system. I want directional power attacks that actually mean something, stamina that gates the flashy stuff, and a skill line that culminates in something like manifesting your own blade. Hammerfell is the one province where Bethesda has lore-backed permission to make melee feel like a discipline instead of left-click. Wasting that would be the real crime.
Ship travel and a coast that matters
The Iliac Bay is right there in the name of Daggerfall. Stros M'Kai is a port town we've already walked around. Give me a boat, owned, fast-traveled-from, occasionally boarded by reavers, and suddenly the map has an edge that isn't an invisible wall. Even if it's mostly a glorified loading screen between coastal hubs, a working ship as player housing-on-water would do more for immersion than another procedurally-empty cave.
Spellmaking
This is the hill I'll die on. Oblivion let you stand at an altar and build "Fireball but cheaper" or "Fortify Speed 50pts for 3s to clear a gap." Morrowind let you make spells absurd enough to break the game in glorious ways. Skyrim took the altar away and gave us nothing. A real magic system in a province full of Yokudan sword-saints and Crown/Forebear tension could be the contrast that makes both halves sing. But only if magic is something you author, not a fixed menu. Bring the altar back.
An economy that isn't a vending machine
Hammerfell is a trading culture. Sentinel, the old caravans, the maritime routes. So let the economy breathe. Merchants with finite gold and regional price differences. Buying low in a backwater and selling high in the city. A stolen-goods market that fences actually care about. Skyrim's economy was a pile of septims you couldn't spend by hour 40; I want one where being rich is a thing you build, not a thing that happens to you.
The honest caveat
I know how this goes. Every one of these costs dev time, and Bethesda will pick maybe two. Radiant-everything and a wide stable launch will eat the budget before sword-singing gets a proper skill tree. I've made my peace with that. Which is exactly why I want to argue about priorities now rather than complain after.
If you want a refresher on Cyrus, the Restless League, and what 1998's Redguard actually established, the UESP Redguard page is still the best single source. Half this wishlist is just "do what that game already did."
So here's the real question, and I want a single answer, not a top-five: if Bethesda could only revive ONE of these, sword-singing combat, ship travel, spellmaking, or a living economy, and the other three were off the table forever, which one do you take? I think I'd trade ships and the economy in a heartbeat to get spellmaking back, but talk me out of it.