Tamriel... where the Gods unmade Lorkhan
and left their Adamantine tower of secrets, where the mortal world of Mundus intersects
with the infinity of Oblivion and the eternity of Aetherius. Many temporal rulers have
tried to tame it over the millennia, but only those blessed by the Divines have
succeeded. Welcome to the Wizards and Warriors video on the history of the Elder Scrolls universe
and our first video in which we will explore the history of Tamriel from the perspective of the
Empires of Men, with a focus on the third and most famous of these Empires, that of the
Septim Dynasty: the blood of Talos Stormcrown. Powerful bloodlines are all important in many
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in this one of a kind rpg. The earliest known inhabitants of the continent
later called Tamriel were the beastfolk, ancient ancestors of the reptilian Argonians,
and the feline Khajiit, among others like the ape-like Imga and now extinct fox folk and bird
folk. Next came the ‘Aldmer’ - the ‘Elder Folk’, who millennia before made landfall on what
is now Alinor, or the Summerset Isles. This began the Merethic era: the age of
Elves. From Alinor, the Aldmer would begin their colonization of the mainland, pushing the
beastfolk into the uninhabitable deserts, jungles, and swamps on the edges of the continent[1] . In
the center of Cyrodiil, they built the White-Gold tower, which forever would become a symbol
of Imperial power for whoever controlled it. As generations passed, the Elder Folk became
increasingly divided. Those who populated modern-day Morrowind became the Chimer[2] ,
ancestors of the modern Dark Elves. Concurrently, the Elves of the White-Gold tower had slowly
evolved into the Ayleids, or heartland wild elves. These two peoples worshipped the demonic Daedra
of Oblivion, something their Aldmer ancestors had strictly forbidden. Some Elves became
the Dwemer, or “Deep Folk”, rejecting the superiority of all Gods and secluding themselves
in deep underground technocratic societies. Those who disappeared into the deep forests of
Valenwood became the wild and carnivorous Bosmer “Wood Elves”, and those who lived in High Rock or
stayed in Alinor became the Altmer “High Elves”, the closest descendants of the original Aldmer.
No one seems to agree on how and when the races of men arrived on Tamriel. If Nordic legend
is to be believed, then they were created on Skyrim’s highest mountain[3] , where the
sky-Goddess Kyne formed them with her breath. In any case, by the middle-Merethic era, a
diversity of early human tribes had dispersed across Tamriel[4] . In most places, they were
forced to become subordinate to the Elves: in High Rock, the Men were subjugated
under the local Altmer clan, the Direnni, who began taking on human concubines
and producing half-blooded children, resulting in a magically-gifted race, the
ancestors of the modern Breton people. Meanwhile, the menfolk who found themselves
in the Cyrodiil were indiscriminately enslaved by the Ayleids[5] , who subjected them to
horrific tortures like ‘flesh sculpting’ and ‘gut gardening’. This was often done at the
behest of their cruel Daedric overlords, who rewarded these depravities by giving the Ayleids
armies of Daedric creatures to command. However, as the Merethic age passed into the first era, the
balance of power between Men and Mer would shift. The turning tide was when the ancestors of the
modern Nords began a multigenerational exodus from their ancestral homeland in northern Atmora[6] ,
back into Skyrim, the land of their mother Kyne. There, they encountered the ‘Falmer’, or Snow
Elves.[7] Relations were initially peaceful, until the Falmer attacked the Nordic city
of Saarthal, massacring its population. But they didn’t finish the job, for a
warrior named Ysgramor was able to escape and return to Atmora. There, he recruited a mighty
army known as the ‘five hundred companions’, and returned to wreak an act of genocidal revenge
on the Snow Elves, claiming Skyrim for the Nords. While this was happening, a slave in Cyrodiil,
praying on the sacred hill of Sancre Tor, had received a vision from Akatosh, the King of the
Dragons[8] . The chief of the Divines had imbued her with the blood of Dragons, and gifted her the
magically-imbued Amulet of Kings. Akatosh promised that so long as men were ruled by a Dragonborn
who bore the Amulet, the gates of Oblivion would remain closed, depriving the Ayleids of their
demonic soldiers[9] . This slave who received this vision was named Alessia, and now charged
by divine blessing, she became a queen, leading a massive uprising that captured the White-Gold
tower from the Ayleids in year 243 of the First Era. Alessia died in 266, but she left behind
the first Empire of Men, whose Dragon-blooded Emperors would sit atop the Ruby throne in the
White-Gold tower for the next two thousand years. Now free from the Elvish rule, the modern
Mannish races of Tamriel began to form. In High Rock, centuries of warfare with Nords
and Alessians had left the Direnni High Elves near death, allowing for their human descendants,
the magically-inclined Bretons[10] , to become the hegemons of that region, while in Skyrim,
the Nordic culture flourished[11] . While Elven Kingdoms persisted in Alinor, Valenwood,
and Morrowind, it was now clear that the age of Mer was over, and the age of Men had begun.
Despite this, Alessia’s realm was never able to unite humanity. The proudly independent
Nords never accepted Imperial rule, while the Alessian control over the capricious
Breton sorcerer-Kings was always tenuous at best. Meanwhile, on the horizons beyond Stros
M’kai, a whole new mannish enemy would emerge. Having sundered their own homeland of Yokuda,
the Ra Gada, or Redguards as they came to be known[12] , arrived in Tamriel in 808 of the First
Era, swiftly and brutally conquering the Alik’r desert and annihilating its native populations.
By First Era 2331, Alessia’s Empire was dissolved, crushed under the weight of internal religious
struggles. Consequently, Cyrodiil fractured into numerous petty Kingdoms for the next four hundred
years, but soon, an Empire, ruled rightfully by a Dragonborn ruler, would rise again.
According to myth, the seeds of the second Empire were sown when the 2,000-year-old spirit
of Alessia, bound to the hill of Sancre Tor, participated in divine conception with a mad-king
named Hrol. In his efforts to make love with a magic mountain, Hrol would expire, leaving behind
an infant with Akatosh’s divine Amulet of Kings embedded into his forehead: a dragon-blooded
child named Reman, ‘the light of man’. Young Reman’s first test came in 2703 of the
First Era, when the Tsaesci, natives of the mythical eastern continent of Akavir, landed on
the northern coast of Tamriel. Some claim the Tsaesci were exotic snakelike creatures, while
others say they were a wayward race of men.[13] Either way, these invaders tore through
the armies of the Nords, before garrisoning themselves at a mountain keep called Pale Pass.
Reman utilized the Akaviri threat to unite all the disparate lords of Cyrodiil under him. He then
marched to Pale Pass to confront the invaders. Yet, in a strange turn of events, as soon as the
Tsaesci heard Reman’s voice, they poured out of their keep and prostrated themselves before him,
claiming that they had finally found what they had come to Tamriel to seek: the Dragonborn.
And just like that, Reman was the most powerful man in Tamriel, with not only all of
Cyrodiil at his back, but now also supported by the mighty snake-men, who he incorporated into a
special unit, the Dragonguard. During his reign, and that of his successors, the Empire
of Man was born anew. In the heartlands, a mixture of Nordic, Breton, and native Cyrodilic
cultures gave rise to the modern Imperial race, which achieved what the Alessians could not
when they incorporated Skyrim, High Rock, and Hammerfell into their growing domain. Before
long, even the domains of Elves and Beastfolk, fearing the Remanite armies, nominally
swore fealty to the Second Empire of men. The lone exception where the Dark Elves
of Morrowind, who after a mild kerfuffle involving the heart of Lorkhan, now un-existed
Dwemer, and being universally cursed by Daedric Prince Azura,[14] were ruled by a tribunal of
nigh-undefeatable living Gods,[15] who killed the third Remanite Emperor, Reman II, in battle.
This led the Second Empire to go into decline, and in First Era 2920, the Tsaesci Dragonguard
launched a coup against his successor, Reman III, deposing him and creating a regime known as the
Akaviri Potentate. The extinction of the House of Reman marked the end of the First Era, and 430
years later, the assassination of the last Tsaesci potentate resulted in the end of the Empire they
had built. The line of Dragonborn Emperors was once again broken, the Amulet of Kings was once
again missing, and Tamriel was once again divided. It is here that our story finally arrives upon the
birth of the man of many names: Talos Stormcrown, Tiberius Imperator, the mortal who became a God.
Tiber Septim was born in Second Era 828, though we know little else about his early
life. Centuries later, Imperial Orthodoxy would claim he was born in Atmora, and that his
birth name was Talos, meaning “Stormcrown” in old Elhnofex. However, a contradictory account
known as the ‘Arcturian Heresy’ claims he was born on the island of Alcaire, in High Rock,
and his birth name was ‘Hjalti Early-Beard’. Whatever his origins, Hjalti-Talos spent his youth
in Skyrim, where the hardy Nords groomed him to be a warrior, teaching him to wield not just sword
and axe, but also his own voice. For centuries, the Nords had utilized the ‘Storm Voice’, or
‘Thu’um’, a form of magic that they had been taught by the Dragons. For even the most powerful
of Nords, it took many years of training to master even a few words of the Dragon tongue, but young
Talos took to it naturally, and in a remarkably short time, was able to shout as forcefully
as the eldest and most powerful of Dragons. As a teen, Talos found himself in the service
of Cuhlecain, the Petty King of Falkreath.[16] Due to his powerful command of the Thu’um,
Cuhlecain quickly made Talos his general, a decision which paid off when the Dragonborn
was sent off to conquer the Reachmen[17] , a wild offshoot of the Bretons native to the titular
‘Reach’ region of Skyrim. With only a small band of Nordic warriors and western Cyrodiils, also
known as Colovians[18] , Hjalti carved through the tribes of the Reachmen and their Briar-hearted
Kings with ease, until he had forced them back into the fortress of Old Hrol’dan. At first, the
Reachmen were confident, heckling Hjalti from the safety of their high walls. But then, a fierce
storm broke out. Imbued with power, the Dragonborn general shouted down the walls of Old Hroldan
with his mighty Thu’um and stormed the keep, officially annexing the Reach into Culhecain’s
domain. Hjalti was only twenty at the time. It is likely here where, awed by his mighty powers, his
soldiers began to call him ‘Talos’: “Stormcrown”. After Old Hrol’dan fell, the sky darkened
and thunder rolled across the sky. From the monastery of High Hrothgar
atop the sacred throat of the world, the Greybeards spoke Talos’ name, and the
world shook. The Greybeards were the most sacred of Nordic institutions, a coven of
wise monks who, other than the Dragonborn, were the most powerful Thu’um users in the
world. One does not take their summons lightly, and so Talos made his pilgrimage up High Hrothgar.
There, the Greybeards heralded him as “Ysmir, Dragon of the North”. They declared him to
be Dragonborn, perhaps the first since Reman, and told him that, like all Dragonborn who came
before him, he was prophesied to unite Tamriel. In the wake of his recent conquests, Talos
had attracted new enemies jealous of his growing power. In 2E852, an alliance
of Nordic freeholds and Breton Kingdoms crossed the border into Cyrodiil, where they
occupied the major passes in the Jerall mountains, and settled into the ancient and sacred city of
Sancre Tor, where Alessia had received her divine vision from Akatosh millennia ago. From there,
the Nords and Bretons made plans to conquer the entire Tamriel, and dared the supposedly
invincible general Stormborn to try and stop them. Thus began the event which would launch Stormborn
into greatness: the battle of Sancre Tor. It was the dead of winter when Talos received
this provocation, but he was never one to turn down a challenge, and immediately marched south
from Falkreath. We can assume that to avoid the Breton-Nordic garrisons in the Jerall mountain
passes, Talos marched his armies right over the mountains themselves like a general from a
state called Carthage in another universe. As a result, when Talos’ army of Colovian
legionaries descended upon the Cyrodilic plains at the foot of the Jeralls, they were
short on rations, exhausted, poorly outfitted, and overall unprepared for winter campaigning.
At a glance, the Nord-Breton alliance had the overwhelming force. While Talos had been marching,
they had turned Sancre Tor into an impregnable redoubt. High walls built atop an unscalable
cliff face dominated the front of the fortress. The only entrance to the fort lay in its rear, in
a mountain basin at the base of equally unscalable heights, and concealed by a massive illusion
conjured by the Breton battlemages, who had created an ephemeral lake over the said basin,
concealing the fort gate that lay within it. Before long, Talos had arrived in
the lowlands beneath the Citadel, assembling his ragged, exhausted levies in plain
view of the Bretons and Nords in the castle above. So weak, vulnerable, and small in number did they
look, that the alliance decided there wasn’t any need to wait out their foe out from the safety
of their fortress. Instead, they sallied out of Sancre Tor in force, leaving only a small garrison
within the walls, while the rest would charge and overwhelm Talos’ host. A fatal underestimation of
their foe which would prove to be their undoing. Unbeknownst to the alliance, Talos had managed to
secure the loyalty of a secret Breton defector, and through either intimidation or cajolement, had
convinced him to reveal the secret of Sancre Tor’s concealed entrance. Furthermore, the supposedly
feeble nature of Talos’ army was also a ruse, for the Colovians in the lowlands in front of
the fort represented only a small rearguard, while the rest, acting on the defectors’
information, had secretly snuck around the fortress, descended the supposedly unscalable
cliffs, and penetrated the illusionary lake. The coup de grace soon followed. The bulk of the
Bretons and Nords charged down into the lowlands, swamping the Colovian rearguard, who despite
being massively outnumbered, held true and never broke their lines. Meanwhile, the Dragonborn had
used his Thu’um to shout down the citadel gate, and with the cream of his troops, stormed
inside and annihilated its small defense force, capturing the Nord-Breton nobles who remained
in the fort. Seeing that Sancre Tor had fallen, the alliance’s morale quickly plummeted, then fell
apart entirely. The confused and demoralized Nord captives, suspicious of the scheming Breton
sorcerers’ territorial ambitions, and awed by Stormcrown’s Dragonborn nature which was sacred
to them, deserted the Bretons and swore loyalty to Talos. The Skyrim generals joined their rank
and file in Stormcrown’s army; while the High Rock battlemage command was summarily executed and the
captive Bretons imprisoned or sold into slavery. Following his great triumph, Talos took a somber
tour through the ancient catacombs of Sancre Tor, where the ancient Dragonborn rulers of man
lay entombed. Passing among the presence of Saint Alessia, Reman, and those of their sacred
bloodlines, he came upon the tomb of Reman III, the last Emperor of Man. Upon his
remains, Talos found the Amulet of Kings, the sacred artifact of mankinds’ covenant to the
most holy Akatosh. In Tamriel, one should never attribute to coincidence what can be explained by
fate, and with the ancient Amulet in his hands, the Dragon of the North no doubt felt the prophecy
of the Graybeards slowly coming to fruition. But for now, Talos was not yet an Emperor, but a
general serving under King Cuhlecain. And indeed, under Talos’ invincible generalship and his
mighty Thu’um, kingdom after kingdom fell into Cuhlecain’s domain. Within only a few months
of Sancre Tor, Talos had brought the Colovian estates of Western Cyrodiil under Cuhlecain’s
rule, and the eastern merchant lords of Nibenay soon followed. Finally, in Second Era 854,
Talos marched into the Imperial city, home of the White-Gold tower, where the Remanite Emperors
had once lit the sacred dragonfires in the temple of Akatosh which marked their Imperial rule.
With the Imperial heartland now under his control, Cuhlecain now intended to have himself crowned
Emperor, with his invincible general Talos at his side. But Cuhlecain was no Dragonborn,
and could never wield the amulet of Kings, thus his reign was never meant to be. What
happened next is a matter of fierce debate: some claim that a Reachman assassin managed to
sneak into the Imperial palace and assassinate the would-be Emperor, while Talos, attempting
to defend his liege, had his throat cut, but managed to survive. Others claim that it was Talos
himself who murdered Cuhlecain, and after the act, slit his own throat to deflect suspicion. Whatever
the case, it would be the Dragon of the North, baring the amulet of Kings and renewing the
ancient pact with Akatosh, ascended as the first Dragonborn Emperor of the Third Empire of Man.
The damage to his throat would leave Talos permanently crippled, he would never shout
again, but he would conquer. Cyrodiil was his, but Cyrodiil was just the beginning. Just as the
Graybeards prophesied, Stormcrown was destined to unite all the provinces of Tamriel under him.
Not as Talos, however, but as a man reborn. An Emperor, who took on a new name in honour
of his adopted Imperial homeland: Tiber Septim. The tale of how the Dragon of the North united
men, elves and beastfolk has been told a dozen ways, with each version possessing extraneous
details that directly contradict the others. As such, the story we are about to present to
you is merely our interpretation of events, based on the two most substantial yet contradicting
records of the Tiber Wars: the official Imperial narrative published by the ‘Pocket Guide to the
Empire’, and the controversial ‘Arcturian Heresy’. We should begin with a brief introduction to two
men who would be critical in helping Stormcrown fulfill his expansionist ambitions. First was
Ysmir Wulfharth. Wulfharth was an ancient High King of Skyrim, reigning thousands of years
before the age of Talos Stormcrown. If legend is to be believed, Wulfharth met his end in a duel
with the death-god Orkey, hyper-aging himself to expiry while using his Thu’um to reverse a curse
which had reverted Skyrim’s people into childhood. But time and time again, allegedly through the
will of the Nordic creator-God Shor, his ashes would remanifest into living form, effectively
making him immortal. Throughout the first era, this Ash-King would develop a searing hatred for
the elves of Morrowind, whose leaders had ‘stolen’ the heart of his beloved Shor, and defiled it
by drawing from its power to turn themselves into Gods. Throughout many resurrections, he
tried to vanquish them, but time and again, the Chimer- and later their Dunmer descendants,
blasted him back into ash. In the late second era, the Ash-King reincarnated once more, and attached
his cause to Talos. As per the prophecy of the Greybeards, it would be Stormcrown who would
finally unite Tamriel and defeat the elves. Beyond Wulfharth, Talos had another key
lieutenant: the brilliant sorcerer, Zurin Arctus, who by some accounts was one of the most
powerful magic users in Tamrielic history. Different stories explain Zurin’s massive
arcane powers in different ways, the most popular of which claim he was a reincarnation
of Magnus, the father-god of magic. In any case, Zurin had served Talos since he was a mere general
in Culhecain’s employ, and upon his crowning as Emperor Tiber Septim, became his chief battlemage.
It is here that we continue from where we left off the last episode. In the 854th year of the second
era, the never-Emperor Cuhlecain was assassinated, and in his place, Talos, known now by his
Cyrodiilic name of Tiber Septim, relit the ancient dragonfires of Alessia and Reman and
declared himself first Emperor of the Third Empire of Tamriel. But there was still much to do, for
while Cyrodiil and the Reachlands were now his, the rest of the continent
remained yet unconquered. The remaining independent human Kingdoms would be
the first dominos to fall. Skyrim swore fealty to Tiber with little resistance. After all, he had
grown up there, and the Jarls saw him as one of their own. No doubt that Ash-King Wulfharth,
the tongue of Shor, also had an influence in the integration of his erstwhile realm into
the Third Empire. High Rock was soon to follow. The Bretons had long been divided into a
patchwork of petty feudal Kingdoms, which made them all the easier for the united forces
of Skyrim and Cyrodiil to steamroll through. Ironically, the Nords and Bretons, whose plans
to conquer Cyrodiil had been foiled by Tiber at Sancre Tor, were now ruled by an Emperor who had
been raised by Nords and probably born a Breton. After these conquests, only one human realm
remained outside the Third Empire. Indeed, the Imperials were about to clash headlong against the
warriors from Hammerfell and their curved swords. The late second era had actually been an era
of unprecedented peace for the Redguards. The threat of the growing third-Empire on their
eastern border had compelled the Kingdom’s two feuding factions, the Crowns and Forebears[1] ,
to unite under the rule of High King Thassad II, who was himself a Crown, but was evidently
moderate enough to keep peace between both sides. However, when Thassad died in Second Era 862,
and was replaced by his more radically pro-Crown son, Prince A’tor, old rivalries resurfaced, and
civil war quickly engulfed the Alik’r once more. Tiber’s window into the Redguard realm came
when Baron Volag, the leader of the Forebears, sent ambassadors to plead with the
Emperor for help in their struggle. Volag was losing ground to the crowns, and had
finally grown desperate enough to make a deal with the proverbial devil on their doorstep, promising
Tiber fealty to the Third Empire in exchange for help in vanquishing their ancient Crown enemies.
The Emperor wasted no time accepting this offer, and within the year, the full might of
the Imperial Legions had been brought to bare upon Hammerfell, pushing the
forces of the Crowns to the sea. Prince A’tor put up a fiery resistance, but he
was simply far too outnumbered, and before long retreated with what remained of his navy to the
last Crown Stronghold, the island of Stros M’kai. In Second Era 864, Stormcrown appointed his
finest naval commander, Admiral Amiel Richton, to dislodge this last wedge of native
resistance. Thus, the Imperial ‘New West Navy’, pride of Colovia, sailed to Stros M’kai, where
they encountered the Royal Navy of Hammerfell, led by Prince A’tor himself, in the open
waters just beyond the harbour of Port Hunding. Accounts on the composition of the opposing
forces are sparse, but it would not be unreasonable to assume that the Imperial ships
outnumbered the Crowns by a significant margin. Nevertheless, Prince A’tor was no coward, and
immediately signalled his fleet to draw up into a battle line, and engage their foe. We can
assume that the Redguards used their sleek vessels to dance around Imperial warships,
relying on lightning boarding tactics as they leapt from one deck to another, engaging in
brutal melees as Imperial battlemages and archers flung fire and arrows in a vain attempt to
prevent their landings. In the thick of it all was the Redguard Prince, ferrying his flagship
to fight wherever the battle was most intense. These were conditions unfavourable to
standard Imperial battle conventions, as the war manual of Zurin Arctus states: “A
close-fought battle is to be avoided; the fortunes of war may turn aside the most powerful sorcery,
and courage may undo the best-laid plans.” Thus, one can imagine that the fast-paced and
up-close ferocity of the Ra’gada warrior wave kept the Empires’ marines on the perpetual back foot.
Despite his numerical advantage, Richton saw the tide of battle slowly turning against him. But the
Imperial admiral had one card left up his sleeve, a secret weapon- one he had been reluctant
to use, but now had no choice but to do so. In the age before recorded history,
Dragons had ruled the men of the north, but when men had learned to shout as Dragons
do, their supremacy had been overthrown. Then, in the second era, when the Snake-men of Akavir
came, they slaughtered nearly all the Dovah, leaving very few remaining on Tamriel. Proud and
arrogant immortal beings, it is in a Dragon’s nature to seek to dominate mortals, but as their
numbers dwindled, a select few made the fateful decision to submit and serve the race of men. So
it was that on that fateful day of Second Era 854, a pair of red wings blot out the sun over
Hunding Bay. Nahfahlaar the Red, loyal soldier of Tiber Septim, had been ordered into the fray.
Knowing that a torrent of dragonfire could easily annihilate his fleet, Prince A’tor signalled
his ships to pull back, scatter, and concentrate their ranged weapons upon Nahfahlaar. But it was
at that fateful moment that a poisoned arrow, loosed by a renegade Dunmer assassin wielding
the legendary Daedric Bow of Shadows, found the Princes’ flesh. A’tors Archmage, Voa, was able to
preserve the dying Prince’s soul in a soul gem, but moments later, a stream of dragonflame sunk
the Redguard flagship to the bottom of the sea. Using the confusion caused by
the death of the Crown commander, the dragon attacked the fleet relentlessly, making
them hastily retreat towards the harbor of Stros M'Kai in the Hunding Bay. Most of the troops
disembarked at the well-fortified Old Quarter, hoping its high walls would protect them. In
response, Richton simply ordered Nafaalilargus to burn down the entire section of the city with
all the Crowns inside, leaving no survivors. The Battle of Hunding Bay was a decisive victory
for the Imperials, and with the final bastion of Crown resistance broken, Hammerfell
was fully annexed into the third Empire. Rather than give power to the
Forebears as had been promised, Emperor Tiber instead decided to appoint
Cyrodiilic governors throughout the Province, with Admiral Richton in overall regional command.
The proud Redguards chafed under direct foreign rule, and soon a province-wide revolt had broken
out. This ended in success for the rebels when the renegade Redguard hero, Cyrus, slew Nahfahlaar and
severely weakened Imperial control in the region. As a result, the Empire was forced
to sign the Treaty of Stros M’kai: Hammerfell would remain a part of the Empire, but
with significant internal autonomy for both Crowns and Forebears, who would continue to bicker
amongst themselves under Imperial suzerainty. In any case, Tiber Septim had done what a century
ago seemed impossible, and united all the human nations of Tamriel under his banner.
Following the annexation of Hammerfell, the rest of unconquered Tamriel was made up
of non-human lands, whose native populations lived in ashy wastes, primordial woodlands,
jungles, deserts or swamps: all territory that could not be conquered conventionally.
This forced Tiber to think outside the box. Generally speaking, he employed a tactic where
his armies would blitzkrieg over a border, win some quick victories, then offer an armistice
where the native population would be offered autonomy of culture, faith and self-rule in
return for allegiance to the Dragon Crown. This prevented the need for Imperial legions
to engage in long, protracted campaigns in otherwise untameable lands.
This was likely what occurred in the Khajiiti homeland of Elsweyr. When Imperial
forces initially crossed into the Catlands, they conquered parts of the historical northern
region of Anequina, and cast out all the native Khajiit there. After the city of Senchal refused
to surrender to Imperial General Pottreid, Cyrodiilic forces stormed its walls and
massacred every man, woman and cub inside. This slaughter would later be omitted
from the Empires’ official histories. In any case, Elsweyr was soon after
assimilated into the Third Empire. To prevent a perpetual guerrilla war, the Cat-folk
placated by being allowed to retain their customs, with their traditional spiritual leader, the
Mane, retaining temporal authority over them. Things would play out slightly differently with
the lizard-folk. Rare was the man who would walk willingly into Black Marsh. Only a few generations
had passed since the Knahaten Plague had spread out of that region, while the Argonians
themselves were hostile to all outsiders, able to strike effortlessly like shadows. Even
Tiber saw the futility of trying to fully subdue such an alien land, so he contented himself
with just conquering its outer coastlines, and when the Argonian resistance retreated
into the swampy heart of their province, the Imperials dared not follow, knowing only
disease and death awaited them- with little to gain in return. With that said, the Empire now
considered all Beastfolk lands to be officially subdued, and so, Tiber looked to his next
conquest, and his gaze to the east, to Morrowind. Always had the Dark Elves of Resdayn
resisted the conquests of men. The Ash-King Wulfharth was
Tiber’s active reminder of this. In the late-second era, Morrowind was ruled by
Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec, the same tribunal of living gods that had presided over the Dunmer
for millenia. The soldiers of Cyrodiil dreaded an invasion of Morrowind, in their eyes,
nothing lay east but a land of barren ash, peopled by demon-eyed fanatics. If the Arcturian
Heresy is to be believed, then even Stormcrown himself was reluctant to provoke the Dark Elves,
and had to be constantly pressured by Ash-King, who was desperate to finally vanquish his
ancient foes. Ultimately, Tiber was swayed, likely due to the rich Ebony deposits in the
region. Thus, an invasion fleet was amassed along the northern coast of Skyrim, while the Imperial
legions massed along northeastern Cyrodiil. Soon, Imperial legions advanced into Morrowind,
meeting with dogged resistance the whole way. Nevertheless, the soldiers of the Dragon banner
were able to push through to the capital of Mournhold, sacking the city. Seeing where the
wind was blowing, Vivec, the warrior-poet of the Tribunal, arranged to treat with the Emperor, and
an arrangement was struck: Morrowind would join the Empire, but as a fully autonomous province,
with “all rights of faith and self-government.” This arrangement allowed Tiber to avoid the
catastrophic losses that would certainly result otherwise. But, there was a cost, for now
the Emperor had to deal with the wrath of his immortal Ash-King, who was furious that
the Tribunal would not be destroyed. Feeling betrayed that the man prophesied to
vanquish the heretical elves instead collaborated with them, Wulfharth abandoned the Septim cause.
A setback to be sure, but the loss of Wulfharth was a small price to pay, for peace with the
Tribunal had yielded the Emperor something far more valuable, the Big Walker: Numidium. The
Numidium was a massive, skyscraper-sized metal golem, originally made by the hyper-advanced
Dwemer in their vain quest to create a new God, powered by the heart of Lorkhan, that would help
them transcend the mortal plane. It was precisely this ill-fated attempt to achieve divinity that
caused the Dwemer to vanish from Nirn. After the disappearance of its creators, the Numidium came
into the possession of the Dunmer Tribunal, who in turn, gave it as a peace offering to Tiber Septim.
After all, what harm could it do? Lorkhan’s heart was safely guarded under red mountain, and without
it, Numidium was but a brass shell with no soul. By now, the only remaining nucleus of resistance
against the Septim Empire on Tamriel was the Aldmeri Dominion, a political union between the
Bosmer of Valenwood and the Altmer of Alinor. Prior to the rise of Talos, the Dominion had
been the most powerful state in Tamriel, but now, the continent was polarized between them and the
Third Empire. Indeed, Elsweyr had been a Dominion client state before its annexation into the
Empire. Suffice to say, tensions were sky high, and total war between men and mer was inevitable.
Armed conflict began in Second Era 887, and would rage on for nine years. The
Imperial legions advanced into Valenwood, and between its extremely dense primeval forests,
and savage cannibalistic Bosmer natives, we can assume the campaign was no holiday. Imperial
Troops were able to push deep into Y’ffres domain, but the Wood Elves, no doubt with High Elf aid,
made the invaders pay for every inch with a pound of blood. Nevertheless, the Empire was soon
again in a position to make the usual offer: religious and cultural freedom in exchange
for submission. Valenwood henceforth became a province of the Empire, while maintaining a King
from its ancient Camoran dynasty as a figurehead, and limited internal rule through
a council of tribal chieftains. If the subjugation of the Wood Elves had
been grueling, following up with the High Elves would be nigh on impossible. The
Altmer homeland was an island stronghold, protected not only by a royal navy that
far outclassed its Imperial counterpart, but by Tamriel’s most powerful sorcerers,
wielding dawn magicks barely comprehensible to the average human mage. Trying to land an
army in Alinor was clearly a futile endeavor. That is, until Zurin Arctus approached Tiber
with fateful news. Numidium was finished. Long had the imperial battlemage laboured over the
pieces of the God-Robot, meticulously assembling the colossus back together. Now, the question was
how to activate it. Numidium was originally meant to be powered by the Heart of Lorkhan, how could
one find a substitute for the heart of a God? Two stories tell different versions of
what happened next: In the first, Zurin willingly sacrificed himself on Tiber’s behalf,
pouring his life force into a massive soul gem. In the second, Zurin and Tiber convinced Wulfharth
Ash-King to return on the promise they would destroy the Morrowind Tribunal together, but
this turned out to be a trap, and instead, Wulfarth was ambushed, trapped, and his soul
siphoned. Either way, the result was the same: the Mantella[2] . A massive gem powered either
by the essense of a mage with the soul of Magnus, or an immortal King with the soul of Shor.
With the Mantella, Tiber Septim was able to activate Numidium, and in the 896th year of the
Second Era, a titan of cold brass blot out the sun over the crystalline towers of Alinor. It is
not known how exactly Tiber used the Numidium on the high elves, only that he used it well.
Utter devastation was wrought upon the Altmer, as the very fabric of time and space was sundered
upon their sacred isle, causing chronological aftershocks which still impact the land to this
day. The invasion of Alinor lasted an eternity and lasted an hour. Afterwards, the islands were
annexed into the Empire. The Tiber wars were over, for the Dragon Banner of the Third Empire now flew
proudly over every nation and race of Tamriel. After the unification of Tamriel, the second era
ended, and the third era began. For the next four decades, the Dragon of the North reigned
over a golden age of peace and prosperity in the land of Dawn’s beauty- at least, that
is what Imperial records would have us believe. In the 38th year of the third era,
the man who had been born as Hjalti, raised as Talos, and crowned as Tiber Septim
passed away. So powerful was the spirit of this most extraordinary man that when he shed his
mortal form, he achieved apotheosis- Godhood. Since the days of Alessia, the Imperials had
worshiped a pantheon of eight Aedric deities. In death, Tiber Septim became the ninth, reborn as
Talos, the God of war and governance. Meanwhile, the High Elves, believing themselves to
be the descendants of the Aedra and their mortality a curse, looked on in horror as a member
of their oldest rival, the race of men, achieved the divinity they so coveted. But all they
could do for now was harbour their resentment… Tiber Septim’s tenure had been one of
peace and stability, but after his death, a series of incompetent Emperors beget
centuries of civil wars and rebellions, the most famous being the Wolf Queen Potema,
and Dread-King Haymon Camoran of Valenwood. As a result, the third Empire came upon the brink
of collapsing entirely. But this was not to be, for a year after Haymon’s collapse, a true
warrior would ascend to the Ruby Throne, one who would turn the attention of
Tamriel away from internal strife, and revive the spirit of strength and conquest
embodied in his ancestor Talos Stormcrown. In tenacity and ambition, Emperor Uriel Septim
V truly was a worthy descendant of Tiber. Unlike the cloistered hedonists or meek puppets who
had plagued the Septim bloodline for centuries, Uriel was more soldier than prince. In his eyes,
the solution to the Empires’ problems was simple. In order to put a stop to the endemic civil
wars and insurrections plaguing the realm, a massive show of strength was needed, a grand
expedition of conquest which would inspire fear and awe amongst the Empires’ subjects. A grand
concept, but what could Uriel V conquer? The entirety of Tamriel, which was basically the known
world, was at least nominally under Septim rule. There were other continents on Nirn,
but most were utterly undesirable. Atmora, the ancient homeland of the Nords,
was by the third era an uninhabited chunk of ice. The ancient homeland of the Redguards -
Yokuda, had ages ago been sunk into the sea. Overall, outside of Tamriel, Nirn had slim
pickings. There was, however, one exception. The continent of Akavir, the mystic far
east, loomed large in Tamrielic folklore. Twice had peoples from that land invaded Tamriel,
the first being the Tsaesci ‘snake-men’, and the second being the Kamal, a race of ostensible ‘snow
demons’. The Tsaesci in particular had a massive impact on Tamrielic history, particularly
in their supplication to Reman Cyrodiil, and subsequent pivotal role in building his
Second Empire of Men. Even in the third era, the Blades, the Septim Emperor’s elite honour
guard, still wore armour in the Akaviri style. Despite this, the people of Tamriel knew precious
little about Akavir proper. Any information about its cultures and peoples came from the mad
ramblings of the anonymous author of the book ‘Mysterious Akavir’, which on top of writing about
the continents’ native snake-men and snow-demons, also span tall tales of monkey folk,
shapeshifting tiger-men, and even dragons. The mystery surrounding Akavir would
not deter Emperor Uriel’s ambitions, but he nevertheless understood that this was
not a project he could charge into blind. Before invading the eastern Dragonland, he
had to establish a network of outposts on the small islands that dotted the Sea of Ghosts and
Padomaic Sea in order to maintain a supply line across the vast distance between Tamriel and his
prize. So it was that in 271 of the Third Era, an Imperial Fleet, staffed by the Fifth Legion
assembled at the Great Docks of Solitude, and from there made northeast, for
the small and frigid isle of Roscrea. After a four-week journey, the Imperial
expedition fleet landed on Roscrea’s south-eastern coast. Without delay, Uriel
commanded the legion engineers to begin construction of a port outpost town and fortress
named Crane Shore and Fort Uriel, respectively. Curiously, all this was done before any
contact with the native islanders were made. The indigenous people of Roscrea were of the
same stock as Skyrim’s Nords. Like the Nords, they were descendants of migrants
from the now-frozen-over Atmora, but unlike the Nords, they had remained
fairly isolated on their island for millenia, so while their distant mainland cousins
absorbed the cultural and religious influences of their Cyrodilic neighbours, the Roscreans
remained truer to their ancient Atmoran roots, albeit with their own unique island flair. One
of these Atmoran traditions was their religious adherence to an animist pantheon of animal totems,
such as the Bear, the Owl, and the Whale. Warriors of these cults had long fought each other for
dominance, tempering the Roscreans into a fierce, battle-hardened people. However, by far the most
hated cult on the island was the Dragon Cult. Just like on Skyrim, Dragons had once ruled
over men on Roscrea, but both they and their sycophantic human worshippers had been driven
off the island by Bear Cult Berserkers long ago. However, the Roscreans had long memories.
So, when a foreign navy landed on their shores, waving the proud Dragon banner that represented
their Emperor’s ties to most holy Akatosh, the Roscreans prepared to repulse the intrusion
of what they assumed were their ancient foes. During the month of Second Seed, a large warband
of Bear Cult warriors, led by their chief Gundar White-Bear, fell upon the natal settlement of
Crane Shore, massacring its inhabitants. Having had little contact with the natives thus far, the
Imperial soldiers and labourers there were taken completely by surprise. This attack, known in
Septimite records as the ‘Sack of Crane Shore’, launched the beginning of the war between
the Red Legion and the descendants of Ros. Predictably, the Empire responded to provocation
with swift brutality. From fort Uriel, the Emperor appointed his General, Didymos,
to lead half the fifth legion to the native mining town of Stonvaal. The Bear Cultists
there held firm, defending the steep valley passes leading into the town fiercely, but
the Imperials eventually broke through, and repaid the sack of Crane Shore with a
sack of their own. Nevertheless, it was a costly victory, as for every Roscrean
slain, twelve legionnaires had fallen. While this occurred, Uriel deployed the Imperial
fleet to subdue the Island’s coastal settlements. The fishing town of Vengolt was home to the
island’s Whale Cult, which had long been oppressed by the dominant Bear Cult. So, when the
Red navy arrived, Vengolt threw open its harbour and welcomed them as liberators, something they
later regretted when they realized the Imperials cared not for the cult allegiances of the natives,
and saw them all as enemies. The Dragon-bannered ships then sailed on to Eanduur, which met a
similar fate, and submitted to Imperial authority. These coastal conquests isolated the settlement of
Frulthuul, the capital of the Bear Cult. Situated deep in the island’s northwestern mountains,
and well-fortified by Atmoran stoneworks, Frulthuul would be a tough nut to crack.
The Fifth’s legions numbers were already dangerously thinned out after the battle for
Stonvaal, and general Didymos was unwilling to risk losing thousands more attacking an
incredibly well-defended enemy position. So instead, he ordered the construction of fort
Cephorus to control the Stonvaal pass, the only mountain corridor that connected Frulthuul to
the islands’ fertile southeastern lowlands, isolating the Bear Cult warriors by land, while
the Imperial navy cut off their access to the sea. For three months, a tense standoff ensued, as,
despite their encirclement, the Chief Gundar and his Bear Cult warriors refused to
surrender. Native marauders launched regular sorties out of Frulthuul, striking often
at Stonvaal, which changed hands multiple times. Knowing the terrain far better than the
legionnaires, the Roscreans were able to harry isolated Imperial foraging parties,
patrols, and scouts with relative impunity. Winter was soon approaching, and Emperor Uriel was
growing frustrated. he was losing too many men and resources over a relatively insignificant island
whose only use was as a backwater supply port. This had to end. To that end, he turned
to the missionary Cato of Skingrad, one of the few Imperials who had built a rapport
with the natives by taking the time to learn the Roscrean language and customs. Under Cato’s
purview, a treaty was agreed to between the Emperor and Chief Gundar. Per its provisions, the
islands’ southeastern lowlands between Fort Uriel, Crane Shore, and Fort Cephorus would be ceded
into direct Imperial control, while the Imperials would recognize the Bear Cults’ ultimate
supppremacy over the rest of the island. Roscrea had been subdued, and the first supply
outpost between Tamriel and Akavir had been secured. In later Imperial records, the conquest
of Roscrea would be reduced to a single footnote in the historical record, but at the time it was
an important development of Uriel V’s ambitions, for it gave his army well-needed battle-experience
for the campaigns to come. The far east awaited. It would take another seventeen years for the
Emperor and his armada to actually make it to Akavir, as Uriel spent the better part of two
decades conquering the other small islands of the Padomaic sea and establishing functioning supply
ports to support his eventual Akaviri conquest. The mysterious isles of Cathnoquey and Yneslea
were subsumed into Septim control in Third Era 276 and 279 respectively. Then, in 284,
Imperial forces conquered Black Harbour on the spice Island of Esrionet.
After subduing Esrionet, the Emperor's full attention could be
devoted to planning for the Akaviri campaign. Naval expeditions were dispatched in 285 and 286
to scout the sea lanes and coastlands of Akavir; and various Imperial intelligence agents,
both magical and mundane, were employed to gather information. On the basis of all this
information, the kingdom of the Tsaesci, in the southwest of Akavir, was selected
as the initial target for the invasion. In the Imperial University, heated debates have
often broken out over who, or what, the Tsaesci were. The book Mysterious Akavir depicts them
as vampiric serpent people who ‘ate’ the native men of Akavir, while surviving depictions of
the Tsaesci who served Reman in the second era suggests they were the men of Akavir. It is
also possible the Tsaesci were a nation of men ruled by a serpentine elite, and ‘eaten’
is a misinterpretation of an Akaviri word for ‘conquered’. Or, the Tsaesci serpents
were shapeshifters capable of taking on a humanoid form. In any case, they were deadly
warriors, known especially as Dragon hunters, as the old Dovah Parthurnaax attested: the Tsaesci
were responsible for wiping out most of his kind. Uriel had a tough fight ahead of him.
On the 23rd of Rain’s Hand, 288, an Imperial invasion armada departed from Black
Harbour, staffed by the Fifth, Seventh, Tenth, and Fourteenth legions. After a six-week
journey, his army made landfall in Akavir, at the mouth of a large and fertile river valley.
There, they found a small Tsaesci town, which had been completely abandoned. The town was annexed
and renamed Septimia, the first colony of the new Imperial Province of Akavir. After fortifying
Septimia and expanding its docks, two of the four legions continued inland along the river, seeing
fertile, yet abandoned farmlands along the way. Before long, they came upon another
settlement, also a ghost town. They named this town Ionith, and because it was
much bigger than Septimia, and better suited to dominate the surrounding countryside, Emperor
Uriel set up his base of operations there. So far, all had gone well, the Tsaesci had fled
rather than put up a fight, and as a result, the Empire had a foothold in Akavir. Things
were going so well, infact, that the Imperials began to let their guard down. Two legions, the
Ninth and Seventeenth, were still in Esroniet awaiting transport to Akavir, but due to the lack
of resistance, the Emperor decided their support was unnecessary, and instead used the limited
capacity of the Imperial fleet to transport civilian colonists to Septimia and Ionith to
farm the fields the natives had abandoned. However, as it turned out, the Tsaesci were
not fleeing, but observing. As the Imperials had advanced, mounted patrols had shadowed them
all the while, and now, began repeatedly harrying Imperial scouting patrols and frustrating efforts
to build a road between Septimia and Ionith. As his navy had been incapable of transporting
any horses, Uriel’s soldiers were incapable of striking back against these Tsaesci sipahis,
who were faster and knew the terrain better. Soon, however, cavalry mounts
arrived via boat from Esrionet, and the Tsaesci raids were effectively stymied. Afterwards, Snakemen emissaries arrived in
Ionith under a banner of diplomacy. A manner of truce was reached, and the legions and
colonists settled in for the coming winter. Winter, as it turned out, brought
nothing but suffering upon the invaders. A frigid seastorm prevented the Imperial
fleet from making further landfall, depriving the expeditionary force of
much-needed supplies and provisions. On the 5th of Suns Dawn, a procession
of Tsaesci envoys arrived at Ionith claiming to bear surrender from their King, only
to prove treacherous, murdering the guards at the city gates and allowing in a large force which
made a beeline for Uriel’s palace with the aim of assassinating the Emperor, but were repulsed
by the valiant efforts of the tenth legion. Spring brought no reprieve, when the Imperial
fleet finally arrived, it was as a tattered remnant, much of it having been lost to
the capricious storms on the Padomaic sea. The expeditionary force had begun to starve,
and the local farms would prove no help either. Throughout spring and into summer, terrible
scorching winds blew in from the east, drying up the farmlands and turning the river
into mud. To this day, Imperial scholars debate whether or not these repeated natural disasters
were natural Akaviri weather patterns, or the result of powerful Tsaesci sorcerers wielding some
form of unknown magic to starve out their foes. It is also here that the fate of the
expeditionary force becomes more obscure, as the Imperial battlemages charged with
maintaining communication lines with Tamriel had to be put aboard the Imperial fleet, using
their arcane talents to protect the ships from the constant ocean storms in a desperate final
attempt to resupply the expedition by sea. In late 289, the Red fleet had arrived safely back
to Black Harbour thanks to the Battlemage Corps, but all attempts to return to Akavir were
frustrated by a series of ever more savage storms that battered Esroniet. By the end of the year,
the Imperial legions in Ionith and Septimia were starving, ragged, and demoralised. In the middle
of the month of Sun’s height, some Imperial scouts were apparently able to confirm that a large
Tsaesci army had begun massing on the other side of a mountain range to the north. The Snake-men,
it seemed, had successfully played the long game. Uriel knew full well that to remain
sheltered in Ionith was to die a slow death. So, he initiated a hail mary. With the full
force of what remained of all four legions, the Emperor marched out of the outpost in
the middle of the month of Sun’s Height, leaving only small garrisons to hold the
two cities. Evidently, the Tsaesci were not expecting their beleaguered foes to have the
will to scale mountains to face them, so when Uriel’s legionaries descended upon the lowlands
of north Snakeland, they were able to find a large encampment of Tsaesci warriors and rout them.
However, reinforcements soon arrived, pouring out of surrounding hills and forests, and before
long, Uriel found himself highly outnumbered and in danger of total encirclement. With no other
choice, he was forced to retreat back to Ionith, harassed by Tsaesci horsemen the entire time,
who inflicted heavy casualties upon their foes. A rump force made it back to Ionith, and the
Tsaesci laid siege to both colonial outposts. By now, the best outcome was withdrawal,
victory was now truly out of Uriel’s grasp, but some of the Imperial fleet had broken
through the storms and was en route to Septimia to evacuate the survivors.
For all his hubris, it cannot be said that the Emperor was without honour or
integrity. In the month of Evening Star, he rallied the remnants of the tenth legion, and
together they led a fierce sortie out of Ionith, formed a shield-wall, and engaged the far larger
Tsaesci foe. This bought enough time for the other legions to retreat back to Septimia. By the
time the Imperial fleet arrived in Septimia, the city was under heavy Tsaesci assault. The
battlemages aboard the ships were able to repel the attackers long enough for the ragged remnant
of Uriel’s once mighty Akaviri expedition force to board. Among these survivors were two members
of the tenth legion, who confirmed what many already feared. Uriel V had fallen in battle, the
Imperial conquest of Akavir was officially lost. Had fate played out differently for Uriel Septim
V, he may have been an Emperor equal to the mighty Talos. As it is, he is afforded a mixed legacy in
the Imperial records, depicted both as the Septim Empires’ second-best warrior-King, but also as a
man who charged far too readily into the unknown, and met with calamity as a result. Nevertheless,
Uriel V’s reign was not without its successes, his thorough and meticulous approach to
military consolidation had managed to bring relative stability to Tamriel, calming
the constant insurrections and civil wars that had plagued it before his reign,
and while Akavir eluded his grasp, his smaller acquisitions, like Roscrea, remained
in Imperial hands for generations to come.
Despite its calamitous end on the distant
shores of Akavir, the reign of Uriel V had had a relatively stabilizing effect on the
Third Empire. The Late Emperors’ successors, Uriel VI, Morihatha, and Pelagius IV, ruled over
a relatively peaceful Tamriel. However, when Pelagius IV was succeeded by his son, Uriel VII,
trouble would return to the realm once more. More than any Emperor before him, Uriel VII’s tenure
was defined by interactions with a procession of nameless, faceless heroes who time and again
helped him restore order and justice to the realm. In the early days of Uriel’s reign, he relied
heavily on the counsel of his battlemage, Jagar [Yay-Gar] Tharn. Under Jagar’s guidance,
the young Emperor was able to strengthen Imperial control over the troublesome eastern provinces,
most notably by assimilating the Dunmer Great House of Hlaalu [Huh-Lah-Loo] and using them as
a spearhead to spread Imperial culture throughout Morrowind. However, as Uriel’s skill in statecraft
began to outpace his advisor, Jagar began to fear that his usefulness to the Emperor would run
dry. In a bid to preserve his position of power, the battlemage used a sordid artifact known as
the Staff of Chaos to imprison Uriel in a realm of Oblivion, using illusion magic to impersonate the
Emperor himself and continue to rule in his place. Under Jagar’s neglectful rule, the
unity of Tamriel began to shatter. The Dark Elves and Argonians clashed in the
Arnesian war, while Skyrim violently annexed territories in Eastern High Rock and Hammerfell,
and the Khajiit and Bosmer fought a territorial border skirmish in their dense native forests.
This era of chaos, known as the Simulacrum, was ended when one of those aforementioned
faceless heroes, known simply as the Eternal Champion, revealed Tharn’s deception,
defeated him, rescued Uriel from Oblivion, and restored the rightful Emperor to the throne. [1]
Remarkably, the Emperor was able to stabilize his realm once more, mainly through use of the Blades.
On top of being the Emperors’ honour guard, the elite warriors descended from Reman’s
Akaviri Dragonguard now also operated as covert agents throughout the provinces, restoring
order through clever political subterfuge. One of these agents was the second of Uriel’s
nameless heroes, the Champion of Daggerfall. When Tiber Septim’s erstwhile Brass God,
the Numidium, resurfaced in Iliac Bay, this Champion navigated the complex political waters
of the region to ensure that not only would the Big Walker of the Dwemer[2] finally disappear from
Nirn and cause no more chaos, but that the highly fractured petty Kingdoms of High Rock became more
unified and loyal to the Empire than ever before. Of course, while the Emperor was putting out fires
in the west, new ones had lit up in the east. In 3E 427, pillars of ash plumed from red mountain,
choking the air, while a virulent plague known as corprus infected highborn and low alike.
The powers of Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil, the Divine Tribunal, were weakening. Before the
Tribunal were Gods, they had been mere advisors to the great Chimer Lord, Indoril Nerevar,
but had betrayed and murdered him in order to usurping the lost heart of Tamriel’s creator
God, through which they became Gods themselves. As Morrowind choked, Emperor Uriel VII found a
prisoner in the Imperial city dungeons, released him, and sent him to the ancient Dunmer homeland.
Uriel knew that this prisoner was the Nerevarine, the reincarnation of Indoril Nerevar, destined
to restore balance in the east. It is unknown how the Emperor identified this hero of fate, but sure
enough, the Nerevarine served his purpose when he found the Heart of Lorkhan beneath red mountain,
cast it from the mortal realm, and in so doing, ended not only the plague choking Morrowind[3]
, but also the divinity of the Tribunal which had ruled it for thousands of years.
The situation in Morrowind had been stabilized, but in 3E 433, the largest and final crisis
would loom its ugly head. It is here that we must take a brief moment to discuss the life and
times of a man with a dream of creating paradise: Mankar Camoran. Mankar’s father was Haymon, a
royal pretender, who during the Imperial Reign of Cephorus Septim II, had usurped the Bosmeri
throne from King Kaltos Camoran and used the Wood Elf armies at his disposal to launch a
devastating invasion across Western Tamriel. The usurper’s dread crusade was halted by
the united Bretons of High Rock in 3E 267. However, his pregnant mistress, a Bosmer named
Kaalys, fled into the wilderness of Dwynnen, where she gave birth to his son, Mankar.
Much of Mankar’s life is shrouded in mystery. Even his appearance is an enigma, for despite
being ostensibly born of Wood Elf stock, his adult body took on a distinctly High Elf form. What is
known is that, like his father Haymon, who was said to summon demons from Oblivion to fight for
him, Mankar developed an affinity for the Daedra. At some point, he was chosen by Mehrunes Dagon,
the Daedric Prince of Destruction. Mehrunes gifted his devout servant with the Mysterium Xarxes, a
book so vile and corrupting to mortals that even handling it was said to drive them mad. Mankar was
no exception, for he became lost in the prophecies and poetry written in the Xarxes, and through
it, created a new, insane vision for the world. Mankar came to believe that Mundus, the
mortal realm upon which Tamriel sat, was not the nexus of creation as many believed.
Indeed, Lorkhan, the ur-God who had created the earth, was infact just another Daedric Prince, and
Tamriel was just another Daedric realm. Therefore, when the Aedra had ripped the heart from
Lorkhan’s body and trapped it under Red Mountain, they had essentially usurped Tamriel from its
rightful Daedric owners. Therefore, Mankar had a sacred duty to help the Daedric Prince of
Destruction reclaim the birthright of his kind. With the power afforded to
him by the Mysterium Xarxes, Mankar slowly drew in mortals from across Tamriel
to join in a secret cult, the Mythic Dawn. Then, he set in motion his plans: On the 27th of
Last Seed, 3E 433, catastrophe struck the Empire as Geldall Septim, Enman Septim and
Ebel Septim, the sons of the Emperor, were simultaneously assassinated by the mysterious
cult of the Mythic Dawn. Reeling in shock, a contingent of Blades immediately sought to spirit
the Emperor out of the Imperial city to safety through a secret underground route leading past
the imperial prisons. There, the escape party happened upon an unknown prisoner, the last of
Uriel's heroes. Recognizing this mysterious inmate as a face from his dreams, Uriel entrusted
the prisoner with the Amulet of Kings, and charged him to deliver it safely into the
hands of Jauffre, Grandmaster of the Blades. The Emperor would be cut down by Mythic
Dawn agents moments later. Ever since Akatosh had gifted the Amulet of Kings
to Queen Alessia thousands of years ago, Tamriel had been shielded from the wrath of the
Daedra, and while powerful conjurers could summon Daedra into the realm, but the Princes of Oblivion
could not invade Tamriel of their own volition. Now, the pact between Akatosh and the Dragonborn
rulers of man had been severed. Across Tamriel, Oblivion gates opened up across Tamriel, and
from their dreadful maws, hordes of Dremora poured forth. The Oblivion Crisis had begun.
The nameless prisoner ventured to Weynon Priory, where he delivered the Amulet
of Kings into Jauffre’s care. There, the Grandmaster of the Blades informed
them that the only way to stop the invasion was to have a Dragonborn Prince relight
the dragonfires in the Temple of the One while wearing the Amulet of Kings, thereby
restoring the covenant with Akatosh. The problem was, the Dragonborn Bloodline ran
through the blood of the Septims, and the Septims had all been assassinated, all the legitimate
ones, in any case. In the city of Kvatch lived a man named Martin, a priest of the nine divines
completely unaware of his true parentage. In him, the salvation of Tamriel now lay.
They arrived too late, for Kvatch was already in flames. A massive oblivion gate had opened just
outside the city’s main gate. Hordes of Daedra had poured forth, taking the city guard completely
by surprise, and laying waste to the town. Here, Uriel’s chosen prisoner entered through
the Oblivion gate, closing it from within, stymying the Dremoric menace, and earning
himself a new epithet: the Hero of Kvatch. During the chaos, a young priest had ferried
many civilians into the Chapel of Akatosh, sheltering them from the hellfire and saving
their lives. There, the Hero of Kvatch, found him amongst a crowd of survivors. At
first, young Martin was hesitant to accept the gravity of his destiny. However, he eventually
agreed to go back with the Hero to Weynon Priory. Nevertheless, the Mythic Dawn remained one step
ahead of them, for upon their return, assassins of the cult had already struck, and made off
with the Amulet of Kings. Despite this setback, Martin, Jauffre, and the Hero
made their way to the ancient Akaviri stronghold of Cloud Ruler Temple,
ancestral stronghold of the blades. There, the Dragonguard whose ancestors had
once served Reman Cyrodiil now declared this new bastard priest to be Martin Septim,
the rightful Dragonborn Emperor of Tamriel. Meanwhile, gates continued to open throughout
the continent, heralding misery and destruction wherever they manifested into being. The
situation was particularly tragic in Alinor. Nestled in the heart of the ancient High Elf
homeland was the Crystal Tower, one of the oldest structures in Tamriel which alongside the
Adamantine Tower in Balfiera and the White-Gold Tower in High Rock made up the primordial pillars
that stabilized the fabric of the Mortal World. When Oblivion gates opened across Summerset,
countless Altmer fled to their beloved tower, believing its ancient magics would
protect them from the Daedra. This was to no avail, for the infernal servants
of Dagon conjured massive tremors which collapsed the most important monument in Elvendom,
and killed the thousands of souls inside. Meanwhile, things were going about as poorly
in the east. Although still reeling from the disappearance of the Tribunal, the Dunmer put
up a vicious fight against the Dremora host. The city of Ald’ruhn was an ancient stronghold
built inside the carcass of a long-dead, colossal Emperor crab. When Mehrunes’ horde
descended upon the city, the great wizards of House Redoran re-animated the massive crustacean,
essentially making their very city fight for them. A valiant effort, but to no avail, for Ald’ruhn
fell all the same, and the Dunmer were massacred. Not every province in Tamriel
was caught on the backfoot. The Argonians of Black Marsh were a people
bound to the Hist, a species of massive, hyper-intelligent primordial trees who created
the lizardfolk and maintained a telepathic link with them. With infinite foresight, the Hist
foresaw the Oblivion crisis before it happened. Through the trees’ sacred sap, the
Argonians were made stronger, faster, and able to endure endless pain. Thus, when
the Oblivion Gates opened in Black Marsh, the lizardmen poured right into them, invading
the invaders themselves with such merciless fury that Dagon’s lieutenants had to close the gates in
that region to stop themselves from being overrun. Back in Cyrodiil, Martin Septim, the Blades, and
the Hero of Kvatch had begun the first steps in their plan to end the infernal invasion for good.
After some investigative work, the Hero managed to disguise themselves as a member of the Mythic
Dawn, and infiltrate one of their secret meetings. There, they encountered Mankar Camoran, but
before the Hero could reclaim the Amulet, Mankar escaped into Oblivion through a portal.
This time, however, the side of good had something to show for their efforts, for Mankar had left
behind something important: The Mysterium Xarxes. Through the very examination of Dagon’s infernal
tome, Martin deduced that he could reopen a portal directly to Mankar’s location in Oblivion with
the help of three artifacts: a Daedric Artifact, a Great Welkynd Stone, and the Blood of the Divines.
These tasks were entrusted to the Hero of Kvatch. Finding an artifact of one of the Daedric Princes
came first, although the histories are unclear which Princes’ object of power was sacrificed.
Next came the Great Welkynd Stone, which the hero found in the ancient Ayleid Ruins of Miscarcand,
a remnant of the last time Daedra had walked freely on Tamriel under the patronage of depraved
Ayleid Princes. Finally, the blood of the divines was obtained through a comic loophole. In the
ancient ruins of Sancre Tor, where Dragonborn Emperors had been buried since the days of
Alessia, was interred the armour of Tiber Septim, where still remained the residue of blood from
when the mortal who became a God was still a man. Unfortunately, even with all three relics
acquired, one more was needed before a portal could be opened to Mankar, a great sigil stone,
the anchor to the largest of the Oblivion Gates. Thus, Martin made the risky decision to allow
a Great Gate to open outside the city of Bruma, enabling the Daedra to launch a full invasion of
the city. The battle outside Bruma was brutal, with soldiers from across Cyrodiil clashing with
the endless Dremora host, and Emperor Martin, donned in the armour of his forefather
Talos, at the head of the fray. As the melee raged, the Hero of Kvatch dove
into the Great Gate, seizing its Sigil Stone, and closing the portal. Bruma was saved.
Finally, a portal could be opened directly to Mankar Camoran’s location, and thus the hero
of Kvatch journeyed through it and entered into Gaiar Alata, a small slice of Oblivion created
by Mankar himself, a reflection of the paradise he would create whence Tamriel had been
purified by its rightful Daedric owners. But Mankar’s paradise was an illusion,
the delusional dream of a deranged madman, and finally, the hero chosen by Uriel VII in the
Imperial Prison cut down the insane assassin of Emperors, and recovered the Amulet of Kings.
With the Amulet back in their possession, Martin and the Hero rushed for the Imperial City,
where they intended to relight the dragonfires and restore the covenant of Akatosh. But, once again,
they were too late. With his chief servant dead, Mehrunes Dagon had launched a last ditch,
all-out assault upon the Imperial City, in which he personally led the charge as a
massive, nigh-invulnerable avatar of himself. The veil of Oblivion was torn, the Dragonfires
rendered useless, and Dagon himself stood in the heart of Tamriel, intent on its destruction.
After he and the Hero fought their way to the Temple of the One, Martin acknowledged the
futility of renewing the old pact of Akatosh. It would not banish Dagon now that his physical
form walked freely upon the mortal plane. Now, only the greatest sacrifice could close shut the
jaws of Oblivion. So it was that Emperor Martin, the last of the line of Septim, shattered
the Amulet of Kings, transforming himself into an avatar of Akatosh and handily defeating
Dagon in the form of that great Golden dragon, before eternally committing his mortal soul
to the divine. The Oblivion Crisis was over. It was a bittersweet victory. With Martin’s
sacrifice, no Daedric Prince could ever again invade the realm. However, with his death, the
Septim line was now extinct, and the descendants of Talos Stormcrown no more. Greatly weakened
by Dagon’s invasion, and now without its ruling dynasty, the Empire began to disintegrate. It was
here, at this weakest point, that what remained of the Tiber Septims’ realm would face its greatest
foe. Deep in Alinor, a faction of Altmer had begun the process of seizing power, with the intent of
reclaiming their ancestral lands, and taking their revenge on the Empire that had once laid them
so low. The sun was setting on the age of men, and with the new dawn name a new Merethic age-
the Great Thalmor War loomed on the horizon.
At the dawn of the new fourth era, there was no
Emperor on the throne, and a massive power vacuum threw Cyrodiil into political chaos. For the
province of Morrowind, this could not have come at a worse time. Back in the second era, a small
meteor from Oblivion called Baar Dau had come careening down onto Vvardenfell’s largest urban
center: Vivec City. Vivec, the city’s namesake and one of Morrowinds’ three living Gods, stopped
the meteor and kept it frozen above his city in suspended animation. However, when Vivec
disappeared alongside the rest of the Tribunal right before the Oblivion Crisis, Baar Dau became
unstable, and in the 5th year of the fourth era, resumed its descent with all its original
velocity. This caused a catastrophic shockwave throughout Vvardenfell, which triggered
a massive, apocalyptic eruption in Red Mountain. Vast swaths of Morrowind were rendered
uninhabitable, choked in a sea of ash. As the Dunmer were left wondering why
their Gods had forsaken them, it got worse. Long had the Argonians of Black-Marsh
been the victim of Dark Elf slavers, and now, emboldened by their decisive victory over Dagons’
hordes during the Oblivion Crisis, they decided to take their revenge on their former masters.
Led by a nativist faction called the An-Xileel, the lizard-folk poured into southern Morrowind,
repaying a thousand years of indignity with rivers of blood. It is unclear how much territory
the Argonians managed to capture. Either way, the Empire was unable to handle that hot potato
while dealing with its crises closer to home, while Black Marsh, now led by the anti-colonial
An-Xileel faction, broke away as well, with Cyrodiil able to do little to stop them.
As a result, the east was lost to the Empire. In year 10 of the fourth era, High Chancellor
Ocato of the Elder Council, serving as a regent in place of an Emperor, was assassinated, and
the political crisis in Cyrodiil escalated into a bloodbath as warlords across the heartland
province battled for control over the Ruby Throne. This chaotic battle-royale ended in year 17 of the
Fourth Era, when a rugged Colovian general named Titus Mede captured the Imperial city and restored
unity to what was left of the Empire. Although incomparable to the Dragonborn Emperors of old,
Titus Mede I was a decent ruler and a pragmatic military leader, but his reign would be fraught
with yet more crises beyond his control, as a new threat arose in the Merrish west: the Thalmor.
Throughout the provinces of man, the Thalmor are seen as cartoonishly evil villains hellbent
on racially motivated world domination, and there is certainly truth to that.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to understand the Thalmor mindset, and how such an extremist faction
was allowed to foment within High Elven society. During the Empires’ heyday, there were always
Altmer who resented being ruled over by men, and who had never forgiven the death and
destruction that Tiber Septim had wrought unto them when he unleashed the Brass God Numidium upon
their beloved isles. This resentment was amplified by the fact that Tiber Septim had become a god for
his troubles, salt in the wound which was extra course because at its core, Altmer philosophy
believed the elves to be the true descendants of the Aedra. Ultimately, as enlightened and
cosmopolitan as the Septim Empire ostensibly was, it had broken the Elves into submission
through fire and blood, and the Elves, a long-lived people, had equally long memories.
The Thalmor had always existed as a political party in the Summerset Isles, but during the
glory days of the Empire, they had always been a minority voice. However, the Oblivion Crisis gave
them an opportunity to rise to power in a meteoric fashion. During the invasion, as the Imperial
city was in chaos, pro-Imperial factions in the Summerset Isles were forced to give the Thalmor
high authority to fight off the Daedric horde. Evidently the Thalmor proved to be fine
leaders, for despite the catastrophic destruction of the Crystal Tower, they were fairly
successful in driving off the demonic advance. Of course, after Mehrunes Dagon was banished from
Mundus, the Thalmor kept their emergency powers, and in year 22, seized control of the Summerset
Isles, rebranding it as Alinor, the name it had once had before Tiber’s conquests.
Almost immediately afterwards, the Thalmor jumped across the pond to seize
the lands of their Elven cousins, the Bosmer. The fall of Valenwood, which occurred in year
29, was likely an inside job. Certain powerful wood elf clans within the floating trees of
Falinesti were already closely tied to the Thalmor even before the Oblivion Crisis, and appear to
have opened the door to Y’ffres ancient forest for them. With the two Elven sister-provinces of
the south east [should be south-west?] reunited, the Aldmeri Dominion, a Kingdom which had not
existed since the second era, was reborn. For the next seventy years, the Thalmor bided
their time and consolidated their gains. The next avenue for expansion occured seventy
years later, not that long a time by Altmer standards. In 98, Nirn’s two moons, Masser
and Secunda, vanished from the skies. The reasons for this are unknown, but it was an
absolute catastrophe for the Khajiit of Elsweyr, for the moons were central to their religion,
and determined which of the many Khajiiti forms their children would be born in. Thankfully, the
moons returned two years later, with the Thalmor taking credit for their restoration. Scholars
today still debate whether or not this was true, or a clever bit of Dominion Propaganda, but
either way, enough Khajiit believed it, so in 115, the Thalmor easily launched a coup to
take control over the whole province, spitting it in two by reviving the old borders of
the ancient Kingdoms of Anequina and Pelletine. The Aldmeri Dominion were now the undisputed
masters of southern Tamriel, and about as powerful as their predecessor state, the old Dominion had
been during the Interregnum of the Second Era. In contrast, when Titus Mede II
ascended to the throne in 168, he inherited an Empire half the size it had
once been. Only the human provinces remained, and even among them, Hammerfell had
fallen back into old habits, as the Crown and Forebear factions of the Redguards
had begun fighting amongst themselves again. Titus Mede II was a decently capable ruler, but
he was no legend like Alessia, Reman, or Tiber, but a normal man, who would be stretched
to his limits in the impending war to come. On the 30th of Frostfall, in the 171th year of the
Fourth Era, a tall, golden skinned ambassador of the Aldmeri Dominion drove a covered cart
through the gates of the Imperial City, baring gifts for the Emperor. However, when given
an audience, he dropped the pretense of diplomatic parlance, and delivered an ultimatum: the Empire
was to disband the secret service of the Blades, become a tributary state to the Aldmeri Dominion, cede large parts of Hammerfell into Dominion
hands, and- in what would later become the most controversial demand of all, completely
outlaw the worship of Talos, the man-turned-God. These demands were absolutely outrageous, and as
expected, the Emperor immediately rejected them. Evidently having expected this, the haughty Elven
ambassador kicked his covered cart onto its side, allowing the ‘gift’ he had brought to roll
onto the floor. A hundred severed heads: every Imperial blades agent who had been
secretly operating in Alinor and Valenwood. Immediately, the Empire scrambled to mobilize
its legions, but their enemy was many steps ahead of them. For months, the Dominion
had been mobilizing their forces in secret. From hidden camps in the jungles of Elsweyr,
a mighty host commanded by the Thalmor general Lord Naarifin marched essentially
unopposed into southern Cyrodiil. Leyawiin fell within days, and Bravil was isolated
and besieged shortly afterwards. Simultaneously, another Aldmeri force led by one Lady Arannelya
launched a two-pronged assault from the west. Elven marines landed on the southern coastline
of Hammerfell, while the main body of her troops pushed the hastily assembled and ill-prepared
Legions on the Valenwood border backwards. The Imperials put up a dogged but
futile resistance as Elven battlemages made an interminable advance through Colovia. When
Arannelya’s main force managed to link up with her marines on the coast, the Legions were forced to
disengage, withdrawing north through the Alik’r desert in what would later become known as the
“march of thirst.” Meanwhile, native resistance in Hammerfell was piecemeal at best, as infighting
between Redguard factions had rendered the defensive capabilities of that proud warrior race
inert. Soon, the entirety of western Hammerfell, save for Hegathe, fell into Thalmor hands.
In 172, Anvil fell to Lady Arannelya, who then redoubled her efforts to seize
the stubbornly defiant city of Hegathe. Meanwhile, Lord Naarifin’s expeditionary force
finally captured Bravil. Co-opting the city’s substantial merchant fleet, Naarifin ferried
his troops across the Niben river, and began advancing up its east bank. While fresh legions
from Skyrim were deployed south to hold the line, they were only able to delay the Thalmor advance.
In Cyrodiil, the Empire was fighting a war of attrition in which they were slowly
losing ground. In Hammerfell, however, the sands began to shift when an army of Forebears
broke the siege of Hegathe. Hegathe was a crown city, and the cooperation the two rival factions
displayed against a common enemy led to the reunification of the Redguard people. Meanwhile,
the surviving legionaries from the march of thirst regrouped near Dragonstar, where they were
reinforced by fresh legions from High Rock led by one General Decianus. As native resistance
in Hammerfell thusly intensified, Decianus saw his chance, and ordered an advance. In response, Lady
Arannelya stabbed eastwards with an expeditionary platoon of her own. The two armies clashed at the
city of Skaven, in a brutal battle in which both sides took heavy casualties. This effectively
rendered the Hammerfell theater of the war into a stalemate, as Decianus’ legions no longer
had the manpower to push deeper into the Province, while the Thalmor’s losses had weakened their
hold on their occupied territories significantly. The setbacks in Hammerfell made Aldmeri leadership
grimly aware that, the longer the war went on, the more unstable things could become for
them. Thus, they cast the proverbial die, and committed all their available forces into
an all-or-nothing assault on the Imperial city, hoping that in doing so, they could force a
surrender and end the war once and for all. By 4E 174, the city was surrounded by gold-plated Elven
battlemages in all directions. Emperor Titus Mede II knew the city was doomed to fall. What legions
he had in the city and the hinterlands beyond were desperately outnumbered, and while
reinforcements from Skyrim were on the way, they would not arrive in time to relieve the city.
Heavy is the head who wears the crown, for Titus was thus forced to make a hard decision: to flee
the city. As the Thalmor launched their attack, sending all manner of deadly arcane magicks
crashing into the gilded streets of the capital, the eighth legion fought a desperate and suicidal
rearguard action along the city’s southern and western walls. Meanwhile, Emperor Titus made
a ferocious charge from the northern gates, breaking through the Aldmeri forces stationed
there, and linking up with the Skyrim legions in Bruma, where they retreated through Pale Pass
to relative safety in Skyrim. The Emperor would live on to fight another day, but his city
came under the total military occupation of Lord Naarifin and his Thalmor justiciars. In the
following days, The Imperial Palace was burned, the White-Gold Tower itself looted, and all
manner of atrocities were carried out by the vengeful elves on the innocent populace.
By winter of 174, all of Cyrodiil, save for the counties of Bruma and Cheydinhal,
had more or less fallen into Aldmeri hands. With the Imperial capital captured, and the
Emperor in exile, the Thalmor expected Titus to begin overtures for surrender, an assumption
that the Emperor deliberately fed credence to, all while he mustered his forces
for one final desperate bid to save his Empire: the battle of the Red Ring.
In early 4E 175, Titus II began mobilizing all his remaining soldiery into three separate
army groups in the hinterlands of Cyrodiil. The Skyrim legions, composed principally of
Nord warriors and led by one General Jonna were deployed southeast to Cheydinhal, while
the Cyrodiil legions who had escaped the fall of the Imperial city amassed in Bruma under
the personal leadership of the Emperor himself. Meanwhile, General Decianus, still holding
the line in Eastern Hammerfell, was ordered to retreat to a hidden position near Chorrol and
await further orders to advance on the capital. Decianus obeyed, but unwilling to abandon
Hammerfell to Lady Arannelya’s tyrannies, he discharged a large number of quote unquote
“invalids” from his legions before he left. Remarkably, without the aid of the Imperial
army regulars, the hardened legion veterans Decianus left behind managed to link
up with the native Redguard resistance, and broke the deadlock with Arannelya,
pushing her forces slowly back to the coast. Meanwhile, in Cyrodiil, the final fight began. On
the 30th of Rain’s Hand, the armies of Decianus poured forth from their hidden position in the
hills of Chorrol. Lord Naarifin, who had been fed bad intelligence that Decianus was still
in Hammerfell, was taken by surprise. For once, the Thalmor were the ones on the back foot, and
the veteran legionaires of the Alik’r theatre were able to break through the Aldmeri lines,
driving eastward down the titular Red Ring road towards the western bank of Lake Rumare. From the
east, General Jonna’s Nords encountered fiercer resistance as they made a westward plunge to link
up with Decianus’ forces. However, despite being faced with dogged resistance from the Thalmor
garrisons in Bravil and Skingrad, the Sons and Daughters of Skyrim broke through, reaching the
Red Ring road from the east as Decianus’ forces secured the west, effectively encircling the
Imperial city and the Aldmeri garrison within. While the largest Thalmor armies in Cyrodiil
were encircled, slaughtered, and driven into the Imperial city, the coup de grace came from the
North, as Titus Mede II personally led a final, all-or-nothing assault to break the Elven army’s
resolve. Rather than weather a siege from behind the city walls, Lord Naarifin bet the proverbial
farm, sallying out across lake Rumare to meet the Emperor on the open field. This gamble would
cost him everything, for the Emperor’s ragged and battle-hardened legionaries smashed through
his justiciars, with Titus himself, allegedly wielding the legendary sword Goldbrand, personally
capturing Naarifin. With their leader now lost, morale within the remaining Aldmeri
forces within the city collapsed, and they tried to abandon it via the south gate,
only to be blocked in by Jonna’s nordic legions, and cut down to the last. The battle of the
Red Ring was over, the Thalmor army occupying Cyrodiil had been all but annihilated,
and for now, the Empire was saved. Following the battle, Lord Naarifin
was hanged from the White-Gold tower. There he dangled for thirty-three days, with some
stories claiming that on the thirty fourth, a winged Daedra carried him off. For the Empire, the
triumph at the Red Ring was, at best, a pyrrhic victory. Despite having retaken Cyrodiil, the war
had left the Imperial State severely weakened. Three entire legions had been completely wiped
out, while the rest were operating at less than half their total manpower. In his heart,
Titus Mede II was a soldier, but he knew his realm was in no state to continue fighting an
indefinite, expensive war of attrition against a foe who had an unknown amount of manpower
still in reserve. Thus, he sued for peace. In autumn of 175, the Empire and the Aldmeri
Dominion signed the White Gold Concordat, officially bringing the Great War to an
end. It was a treaty heavily skewed in favour of the Thalmor, for they received much
of the demands in their original ultimatum, including the cessation of southern Hammerfell
and the outlawing of the worship of Talos. To many critics within the Empire, this made
Emperor Titus’ decision to fight the war in the first place pointless. However, it should
be considered that, had the Emperor accepted the Thalmor’s original ultimatum back in 171,
when the Empire was at full strength, he would have had a civil war on his hands- whereas now,
with the Empire in a state of utter exhaustion, most everyone welcomed peace, no
matter how humiliating the price. Peace, however, proved to be no reprieve for
the anemic remains of Tiber Septim’s once great Imperium. The Redguards of Hammerfell had been
fighting long and brutally against the Aldmeri forces in their lands, and understandably felt
utterly betrayed that the Empire would cede parts of their homeland after all they had sacrificed
to liberate it. Thus, the descendants of Yokuda rejected the White-Gold Concordat and fought
on, and Emperor Titus was forced to relinquish Hammerfell from the Empire. Remarkably, the
warriors of the Alik’r managed to fight the Elves to a standstill, and in 180, the Thalmor withdrew,
having failed to annex any territory permanently, but having weakened the Empire further
nonetheless by sowing seeds of bitterness between the Imperials and the Redguards.
Meanwhile, in Skyrim, the outlawing of Talos worship caused great social chaos within Nordic
society. Ever since his ascension to Godhood, Tiber Septim had become a deity that rivaled Shor
and Kyne in his importance to Nordic worship. Tensions soon grew between the Nords who
would, at least ostensibly, give up their faith in Stormcrown at least until the Empire
was strong enough to fight the Thalmor once more, and Nords, who refused to relinquish their
religious and cultural freedom, and wished to forge a new future for themselves free of
the Empire and its new Elven puppet masters. The year was now 201. Ulfric Stormcloak, the
Jarl of Windhelm, has assassinated Torygg, the High King of Skyrim, plunging the province
into civil war. From wings on high, the world eater returns to Mundus to bring about the Kalpa’s
end, and on the path to Helgen, an Imperial patrol catches a mysterious figure trying to cross
the border into Skyrim. As all this happens, Tamriel stands on the precipice of war, as
the Empire and the Thalmor, acknowledging their peace to be implicitly temporary,
each make their preparations for round two. Will the tradition of human Empires endure as
the fourth age progresses? Or will the legacy of Alessia, Reman and Tiber come crashing down
as a new Merethic age dawns? Much and more lies in the uncertain future, and perhaps only the
Elder Scrolls themselves what fate has in store. We are planning to cover the battles of many
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