Yeah... as the title says really
I was wondering about Elder Scrolls VI. And whether there will be dragons flying around.
Do you think they'll get rid of the whole Dragons / Dragon Shout / Dragon Soul 'mechanic' entirely?
And if so, how will the 'explain away' their absence?
It would depend on the time gap between games and the province tes6 is in, if it's far enough away and the time gap is small enough then there's every chance that they wont have spread that far, or if there are any it will be only a couple at most. For all we know the next game could start at around the same time as Skyrim, that would also allow them to avoid giving an answer for who won the civil war.
There probably won't be any dragons. Assuming they follow suit with setting games long after each other, we'll probably get some book on how Dragonborn killed Alduin and defeated dragons. In the years to come they were all killed or went into hiding.
Now, the gameplay mechanic will probably stay. It'll probably be applied to powers instead. Might even introduce another form of "currency" in place of dragon shouts.
I highly suspect, based on the general trend of the games and direct quotes from Todd Howard, that the future games will be completely different and separate from the older games.
Dragons I am sure will not make a major appearance. The only way some would would be to give a "throwback" to Skyrim and some lore or maybe reserve them for special quests.
Dragon Shouts I am sure will be completely removed. The Dragonborn concept and character perspective will probably not be something they just want to repeat. Some people have mentioned powers which I could maybe see, but I doubt it. Unless they add a specific racial power perk tree or questline for each and every race, I don't see it happening.
The whole "soul" thing, again, was unique to Skyrim and Howard has said they try to make each and every game separate from the others. I could see something replacing this mechanic, but too many options. A Redguard-Shehai inspired spirit collection? Some sort of Aedra/Daedra worhsip counter? Who knows.
There was still plenty of dragons flapping around at the conclusion of Skyrims main quest and I didn't see any in-game reason for them to be bound solely to the one province, they could easily have spread out to others after Alduins reign had ended.
I don't think they will play a major role in future titles but having a few as high levelled enemies would be fun. I think people would miss seeing them, they do provide for a great battle.
I do hope that a new system is created to replace shouts as it does really add variety to combat. What it will be probably depends on the new lore of the main character.
I think it would be a shame if the dragons were all wiped out again. I think they should play a minor part in the next game and maybe be a high level boss or involved in some quests. But I think they should still have a presence in Tamrial. They can be rarer, but I think they should still be around.
While I highly doubt that the Dragons will be "all wiped out" as a cop-out explanation, we're almost guaranteed not to see Dragons en masse in a new TES anytime soon.
If we do see Dragons again? They're most likely going to be very few, but unique, named Dragons (as opposed to generic enemy encounters). http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Atlas_of_Dragons (Look at the "Known to Live" and the "Slain by Dragonguard" sections)
The vast majority of Dragons encountered in Skyrim are just that; located primarily in Skyrim. They're likely not going to be widespread in the other Provinces.
Since I also highly doubt we're going to be a Dragonborn again in the next TES, I also think that the Thu'um gameplay-mechanic will be dropped for some other unique power. *Sword-Singing* comes to mind when thinking of the possibility of TES VI being set in Hammerfell.
While we're still on the subject of Dragons? If TES VI is to be set in Hammerfell, we are also likely to encounter Nahfahlaar, a unique Red Dragon thought by some veteran TES-players to also be known by the name "Nafaalilargus".