Any new DLC addition to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is, or perhaps I should say, was always a welcome one. But since the Skyrim DLC bundle cemented the announcement that no more DLC was coming, we can only wonder what could've been with the rumored Red Guard DLC.
One of the many races to grace the lands of Tamriel, the Redguard made their debut all the way back in 1994 in the first Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, a first-person adventure style game set centuries before the events of Skyrim. Much like they are in Skyrim, they were proficient with melee weaponry. They would go on to appear in every Elder Scrolls game that followed.
The race proved popular enough with players that Bethesda chose to explore them more in the spin-off game The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, in 1998. The game centered around a Redguard man attmepting to find and rescue his sister from a nearby island south of Hammerfell.
The idea that the race would feature heavily in the next Skyrim DLC began when Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax, filed, and later extended a trademark for "Redguard" in regards to "downloadable computer game software offered via the internet and wireless devices," a long winded way of saying DLC. The geography made the DLC seem like a possible, if not likely, concept. Previous DLC's let players visit areas bordering Skyrim: Morrowind's island of Solstheim in Dragonborn, or a whole other plane of existence in the case of Dawnguard. So who's to say players couldn't explore the region of Hammerfell?
Dawnguard offered players a bit of the mystical side of things, with new spells, vampire and werewolf skill trees, and just getting involved in a supernatural mythos overall. Likewise with Dragonborn, which had players attempt to destroy an uber-powerful Dragon priest. Hearthfire was more of a SimSkyrim, having players build their own houses, and provided them with further customization options. So players still needed something that would offer the flip side to all the magic and mysticism. Enter the Redguard.
Over the last few games, Bethesda had developed the race into a ferocius people who excel at swordplay. They weren't barbaric savages, but you still wouldn't want to come across them in a dark alley after too much argonian ale. So when the rumors of a Redguard DLC hit, players who favored brawling tactics over magic where thrilled. It was assumed the DLC would offer all sorts of new weapons, armors, and abilities preferred by Redguard warriors, accompanied by the usual arrangement of new quests and plotlines.
A video leak helped keep the idea that Bethesda had something up their sleeve, until it was determined by savvy players that the footage featured characters wearing armor that was actually made from a popular Skyrim mod, and wasn't new at all. Despite all the rumors, DLC under the Redguard name was never formally announced, and Bethesda's VP and head of PR Pete Hines continued to deny that any such DLC was ever in development.
So when Bethesda announced that they were officially complete with DLC for Skyrim, quite a few were disappointed that a Redguard adventure would never come to pass. This doesn't mean that Bethesda has thrown the option away though. The race is set to feature as part of the Daggerfall Covenant, one of the playable factions in the upcoming MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online. But if or how that could come into play won't be seen until the game releases, which is slated for sometime later this year.
