r/TESVI

A couple times, I've floated the idea that the city of Gilane in Hammerfell could potentially get ax'd, as we've seen with cities like Sutch in Cyrodiil and Snowhawk in Skyrim. Between the cities of Taneth, Rihad and the newly-added Abah's Landing, the region is fairly crowded, and its location on the isthmus of Hew's Bane is in equal parts rife with potential in terms of design, as well as potenttially frustrating.

With Gilane's history as an Imperial stronghold in the region, with Cephorus Septim ruling as king there prior to his ascension to the Ruby Throne, and Gilane conveniently not appearing on the East Empire Company map in Skyrim, I could see Bethesda potentially setting-up Gilane being destroyed by the Aldmeri during their invasion and occupation of southern Hammerfell.

If that's the case, then that could open-up some interesting avenues for storytelling. Gilane, the city, is gone, but Gilane, the kingdom, isn't, with the royal family moving their seat to Abah's Landing, perhaps leading to a power struggle between said royal family and the city's merchant lords. Though a ruin, Gilane would still have much strategic significance, with whoever controls it also controling the land trade between Abah's Landing and the rest of Hammerfell.

There could be a questline, where the player character helps the royal family retake the ruins, with them in turn being named castellan and charged with holding and rebuilding the city. This could essentially be our settlement building mechanic, with us starting out with rebuilding the citadel, then the walls and surrounding districts. And as castellan, we could involve ourselves in the power struggle in Abah's Landing, either staying loyal to the royal family and help them regain a foothold on the mainland, or side with the merchant lords against them and perhaps even usurping them, the merchant lords being content with us calling outselves royals, so long as we allow them to continue doing business as usual.

Socketing could be very useful and I'd like to see it in TES6 by using various items found in the world from precious gemstones to runes, bones or other beast parts, seeds, precious metals, or interesting rocks.

Moving on. For the record we should keep magical enchantments, so these effects would be different than those. Also, bring back weapon durability, and keep the ability to poison weapons.

These sockets would differ from enchantments in various useful ways and each material would have unique properties. Also, each material would operate on a 5-10+ tier quality scale ranging from trifling to flawless.

And maybe some unique qualities like:

fused gems(2 different types of stones fused)

Or combined materials like rabbits foot and thorns, which can normally be used separately with their own unique effects, can also be combined as "thorn-wrapped rabbits foot"

ancient, daedric, etc that would add special properties.

Some items may work for any piece of weapon or armor. And some may only exclusively work on certain types of weapons(axes, swords, bows, spears, throwing weapons, etc) or pieces of armor(shields, helmets, boots, necklaces, rings, piercings, etc)

Gemstones and properties to be sorted amongst them:

Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, Jade, Opal, Obsidian, Emerald, Amethyst, Garnet, etc.

Gemstones properties: based on quality.

Item is X% lighter(saves encumbrance and uses less stamina), item swings X% faster, item does X% more base damage, item loses durability X% slower, item repairs X% faster, item can be thrown X% further, blocking is X% more effective, jump X% higher, sprint X% faster, climb X% faster, etc.

Bones and critters parts:

These would have benefits towards certain creatures depending on the parts used.

Some may help you locate certain critters in the wild(a predators tooth nose piercing may help you locate(sniff out) smaller prey)

Some may help you locate items like certain foods/plants (a rabbits tooth may help you locate vegetables but may also attract predators to you)

Rabbits ears hung from your helmet or rabbit fur lined ear piercings may allow you to hear creatures footsteps, breathing, growls, eating, etc from further away.

Some may have weakness effects applied for certain creatures but may hinder damage for others(example: you have a wolf's claw, it does more than base damage to small prey but less than base damage or simply no extra damage to larger predators or mudcrabs because of their hard shell)

Seeds/flowers/thorns and other flora:

These could be used not only in weapons but in tools to help you sow/harvest certain things faster, cut down certain trees faster, locate flora, attract critters, repel critters, cook more efficiently, do alchemy more efficiently, attract mates and repel other races that despise certain scents, add garlic oil to your weapon to repel or deal extra damage to vampires, etc.

Precious metals:

Gold, silver, copper, bronze, aluminum, iron, steel, platinum, etc.

Other than upping the value of your item, weapons encrusted or decorated with precious metals can represent wealth for those you may want to impress either by showing off or gifting.

You can keep them as collectors items on your wall at home.

You may simply want to add them to your weapon to give it that 2 or 3 tone look that you find cool.

Maybe a weapon encrusted with a certain metal vibrates or glows around ores to be mined of similar material.

Some creatures have weakness to certain metals in the way that werewolves are weak to silver.

Fossils:

Can awaken in your weapon or armor certain abilities from creatures long lost to time.