Good to know someone else speculates about the next Zelda also. I've thought about countless possibilities, but after narrowing it down, this is what I want -- a game set before Ocarina of Time; before Link; before Zelda; before Ganondorf. A time where all the races were so much more secluded, and Hyrule was not unified. The land would be immense and expansive in all directions: north, south, east, west, downwards, and upwards; chasms, peaks, vast fields -- everything.
I would love to see the Death Mountain, Lost Woods, Zora's Domain, and Gerudo Desert areas expanded tremendously. Death Mountain should have surrounding mountains, valleys, cliffs and what not for exploration -- including many, many Goron tribes. The Lost Woods should not be a series of "rooms", but actually be seemingly endless woods (as seen in the intro to Majora's Mask) with tons of nooks and crannies to twist the woods into a place of mystery. Zora's Domain should be a "sea" within a giant "bowl" a la Lake Hylia with many Zora settlements both above and under water. The Gerudo Desert should house many Gerudo tribes/towns and consist of rolling dunes, canyons, oases, and perhaps even jungle extensions as it meets up with the lusher surrounding land.
As the player in the game, I think you should be able to create your own character -- from the selectable races: Hylian, Hyrulean (human), Sheikah, Goron, Zora, Gerudo, Deku, and perhaps even Kokiri (yeah yeah, they technically can't leave the woods, but they are seen outside of their forest in the credits of OoT). On the subject of Kokiri, since we have seen them transform into the Koroks in Wind Waker, perhaps they should be in an entirely different form in this game -- a form before Kokiri. Back to the character-creation -- you should be able to select your own race (as stated above), select gender (Gorons being genderless and Gerudo being female only), change skin color, facial structure, height, weight, etc, etc. Make it fully customizable.
As for the story -- I think there should of course be a main story so that it reveals a lot about Ocarina of Time and the subsequent Zelda titles, but there should also be many many side quests and what not. Also, the story should be told differently and affect the way you play depending on what race you play as. If you play as a Goron, you would do very different things than you would as a Zora, or a Hylian. So the replay value would be incredible. Remember though, at this time, the Triforce has yet to be distributed to anyone for Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf have yet to be brought into this world.
To get back to the world itself -- perhaps it should not just be Hyrule, but also include some of the surrounding and foreign land. As for new land introduced in Twilight Princess, I think that the Snowpeak Region should be given much more attention, with the Yeti people (or another race) being prominent. And now that I've put myself back on the race track (no pun intended) perhaps a few extra races should be a part of the game (playable or not) that for some reason (maybe explained in the course of the game) are not existent in the following Zelda games.
I have a plethora of ideas, so I'll post 'em later.
