The Elder Scrolls games have always been known for their sprawling open worlds, rich lore and dense questlines, however, they're also somewhat known for having a significant amount of content that was cut for one reason or another. Cut content is certainly nothing knew in gaming, for example Halo 2 is infamous for having an entire ending cut from the game. Fallout New Vegas is also known for having much of its Caesar's Legion content cut for time.
For The Elder Scrolls series, each game has had all sorts of questlines, mechanics, weapons, abilities and even whole locations cut out, leaving fans wondering how each game would be if they'd survived the chopping block.
7 The City Of Sutch (Oblivion)
Sutch is a city in Northwestern Cyrodiil that rests near the banks of the Brena river near the border of Hammerfell; or at least that would be the case if the entire city wasn't cut out entirely from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. What's interesting is that the city does in fact appear in the E3 2005 demo of the game, and many NPCs in the final game will mention it.
In fact, if one were to open the construction kit and take a look at the location from the top down, they'd be able to make out a rough layout of the city based on the vegetation patterns. Only a single ruined tower remains of this once impressive city, however.
6 Cut Civil War Content (Skyrim)
Skyrim's civil war questline was planned to be far more intricate than it ended up being. Not only were there going to be more quests for each hold (up to 12 instead of 2), the players actions would directly affect the outcome of the battles and wider war in a way that they simply don't in the final product.
The player would be able to win or lose each battle freely, with either outcome having a tangible effect on the game and story. For example, losing in Whiterun while fighting for the Empire will result in Jarl Balgruuf and other important characters of the city attempting to escape via a secret tunnel system. Modders have done their best to restore some of this, but there are more than a few bugs associated with it, which would explain why it was unfortunately cut.
5 Ash Storms Causing Blight (Morrowind)
As it stands in the final release of Morrowind, ash storms, aka blight storms, will slow down player movement and restrict their vision and hearing, but little else beyond that. That said, at one point in development, storms were planned to have lasting implications if they got caught in them for too long; mainly by infecting the player with blight. Blight can still be contracted in the game but only from fighting blight infected creatures.
Originally, getting caught in a storm had a percentage chance of the player getting infected with one of four blight diseases, which they would have to try and cure later on. This is cool function that has thankfully been restored by mods in the years since the games initial release in 2002.
4 Elder Council Questline (Oblivion)
Politics has always been a factor in each of The Elder Scrolls games to a certain extent. In Oblivion, however, Bethesda opted to tone it down after Morrowind went somewhat crazy with it (though many fans loved this). Oblivion was to have a whole questline dedicated to the politics of the Elder Council in which the player would climb the ranks of the Nobility faction and eventually have a seat on the council itself as the Duke of Colovia.
This quest was cut while it was still just on paper, so there's no chance of it being restored by mods. The Nobility faction is still in the game, however, but the player's level of interaction with them isn't as high as was planned at one point.
3 Windhelm Combat Arena (Skyrim)
As part of Windhelm's system of crime and punishment, the player was going to be able to participate in a fighting pit in order to set themselves free. The arena itself is technically in the base game and can be found in the console by using the teleport command. The cell looks to be situated in what would later become the Gray Quarter district in the final game.
The NPCs attached to the pit were also mostly cut. In addition to the numerous citizens being placed around the pit as spectators (indicating that it served as a form of entertainment for the city), there was also a cut character named Benkum, who managed the pit but was actually corrupt and would accept bribes from fighters. Unlike other cities, fighting in the pit was to be the only method for getting out of prison in Windhelm before this feature was cut.
2 More Complex Marriage System (Skyrim)
Marriage in Skyrim is an extremely simple affair. The player merely wears a special necklace and goes to one of the several marriable characters and proposes. They then become a companion, move in with the player, open an invisible shop that sells unknown goods and that's basically the gist of it. Cut content, however, indicates that marriage was supposed to be a bit more fleshed out than players got on release.
In the base game, unmarrying is pretty much impossible unless the spouse is killed, but cut dialogue indicates that the player would be able to break the marriage off by insulting the spouse enough times. The player could also argue and reconcile with their spouse at will, and even remarry their divorced partner if their speech skill was high enough. Some of this has been restored via mods.
1 Joining The Sixth House (Morrowind)
While Morrowind for many fans represents the pinnacle of Elder Scrolls role playing, the game unfortunately bars the player from joining the sixth house and allying themselves with Dagoth Ur. House Dagoth are essentially the villains of the story in Morrowind, however, the game teases the possibility of joining them numerous times.
What's more, cut dialogue seems to indicate that they were intended to be a joinable faction at some point. Alas, this was not to be. It goes without saying how much being able to join up with Dagoth Ur would change the ending of the game if Bethesda made it possible.