Why the Thalmor HATE Talos - How Did the Empire Get Away With This!? - Elder Scrolls Lore

[Music] Talos mastered the power of The Voice and with it he United the lands of men into a great Empire there are those who would silence the dragon's truth not I never in all the ages of Muran man had Eleanor Fallen to Invaders the somerset Isles were impregnable the vile slug folk had tried unleashing their profane necromantic Magics from the shallows and while they visited unspeakable Horrors upon the High Elves they always slunk back into the murky depths the Malmo sea elves too had pillaged the coastline and raided every Bay and Cove across the circumference of the province this spiteful tenacity had almost paid off for it seemed they existed on nern solely as the bane of the Ultima but when they came close the syjic sent a storm to obliterate their Fleet of wooden serpents eons of Anguish at the hands of their aquatic Rivals had made the Ultima the masters of the sea they sailed ships of Crystal and solidified sunlight with wings though they do not fly and prowls that elongate into swirling Sunbirds and Gem encrusted mini trebuchets fit for sailing which fire pure etheric fire and Banners banners banners listing their ancestors all the way back to the dawn the mighty Riemann cyrodiil light of man had turned to diplomacy rather than wage war against the Isles it was in recalling these high Elven triumphs even those that had yet to occur that the soldier atop the ramparts felt a wave of renewed Vigor wash over him rumors of Tallow storm crowns impending Invasion had refracted Around The Crystal Maze of the capital for days but one look at Eleanor's dazzling Beauty demonstrated to all Ultima the defensive prowess of the Dominion to Outsiders it was far too bright but to the inhabitants it showed that even the most delicate of structures could stand for eternity if its protectors were backed by the Gods an ambassador of the Riemann Empire had described Eleanor as made from glass or insect wings other humans had marveled at the city's glimmering symmetry one such Account Details Eleanor as a hypnotic swirl of ramparts in impossibly high Towers designed to catch the Light of the Sun and break it to its component colors which lie draped across its Stones until you are thankful for Nightfall the pocket guide to the Empire could be obtained in Somerset though it was categorized under comedy these humans had only been permitted into Eleanor's ports yet the pride of man and of their infallible leader LED them to boast about the incorporation of the Isles into the empire the soldier caught his smiling reflection in the Milky Sheen of the parapet carven from malachite infused with Moonstone even their defenses were a thing of beauty and then in an instant as he looked into the eye of his glassy green tinged Echo a crack split his Visage warping his face snapping his smirk into a slanted scowl the Soldier cast his gaze above the battlements across the Tranquil undulating sea of pearls he refused to believe what he saw cresting the Horizon was a lone figure no ships just a shining giant of brass wading the depths of the ulpheric ocean as though it were a puddle city of glass trembled with every torrential footfall Angelic Eleanor a metropolis fit to house the eagle King and his aederic Apostles it had stood unchallenged since the beginning of recorded history growing taller with every Century many believe the towers would keep Rising until they reached a furious but tybercept him had come and Millennia about Mary architectural advancement seemed ready to collapse the soldier stood Resolute ready to fight for his fragile home but there wasn't going to be a Siege could a man besiege an ant hill when one indifferent kick could send it scattering shattering Talos came alone to Eleanor accompanied only by his thousand foot tall automaton tidal waves heralded the arrival of his brass God and the Defenders on the walls were Swept Away the impenetrable Isles capitulated after one bloody hour the walking star humbled the haughty High Elves and answered their architectural achievements with unfettered annihilation and those who lived to speak of the siege of alanor never did for some subjects are too sickening to be spoken aloud to think the mighty Talos Tiber septim became a tamrielic legend his Ascension to godhood espoused by many to be the Divine reward for his heroism if you were a citizen of the empire in the midst of the Tiber Wars you would have surely been enraptured by his powerful presence and his military might even the graybeards proclaimed his preeminence they said he would go south defeat the elves and Rule a United Tamriel bringing the land of Dawn's Beauty into a glorious golden age the recorded histories especially in provinces with substantial Imperial influence Shield the masses from the colorful truth displaying history in black and white ink on parchment Thai receptin was a great man a unifier so his legacy would be one of heroism but outside of the Empire's reach on the fringes of human Colonial dominance the elves don't see a hero they see a merciless avaricious tyrant if your take away from the Tiber Wars was that Tiber septim valiantly United the continent and commenced a utopian septim Empire then it may be time to look a little deeper you may have seen my controversial video decrying Talos as a fraud and if you haven't I highly recommend giving it a gander I'll leave a link for it in the description below but in this video I want to go over the crucial latter stages of the Tiber Wars in detail his profane weapon of mass destruction and draw attention to a particular catastrophic event that somehow never gets spoken about by the end of the video you may just be a bit more sympathetic to the old merry Dominion the siege of Eleanor is a peculiar event because it is simultaneously unheard of and extremely consequential a forgotten turning point in tamrielic history it was in the wake of this siege that the septim Empire reached unrivaled Supremacy and the second error gave way to the Third due to the Imperial skew in historical records a great deal of what we know about the siege comes from controversial Fringe sources and beyond that most of what we know derives from extra Canon texts but there is still plenty of canon law to talk about before doing so let's talk about the build up to this event the Tiber Wars maybe you know him as healthy early beard the promising young Breton Warrior or Talos of atmora maybe you know him as the Survivor of the Nightblade assassination attempt or the scheming usurper of coolicane's Throne maybe both a true simultaneously in the winding bending breaking course of the time Dragon what we do know is that hyalti Talos ascended the Ruby throne and took the cyroditic name Tiber septim the 424-year interregnum had finally ended and septim was destined to unite all Tamriel he wouldn't be the first to claim to have unified Tamriel the Riemann Dynasty did as well and the claim was as meaningless then as it would be this time however I won't deny that he achieved more than the riemanns the riemanns failed to conquer Morrowind and their idea of conquering Somerset was an agreement that avoided conflict while forbidding Imperials from traveling to the Isles unless authorized and in my opinion blackmarsh never has and never will be conquered by any Empire or Dominion septim started his Conquest with an advantage his ambiguous Origins made representing the interests of the bretons and the Nords easier and having served cooler cane he already had the colovian Estates on his side the Nords followed him after seeing his or wolf halves use of the storm voice at sancrotor the bretons were trickier to subdue but with the help of the Nords and the witch Kings of the reach he quickly brought High Rock under his Imperial Wing hammerfell proved difficult to tame as the Western Warriors would not yield to foreign rule however the internal strife between crowns and forebears weakened the province Civil War had almost broken hammerfell and the conservative crowns had fared better so when the four Bears aligned with the Empire seeing an opportunity to have their leaders replace the old guard of the crowns they pounced On It ultimately Red Guard rebellions allowed hammerfell to maintain just enough of its sovereignty to not bring shame to their Warrior culture but the forebears had opened the door for the Imperials and Tyber septim was going to make himself at home the subjugation of Elsewhere is another that seems conveniently absent from the records one imperial soldier named attribus speaks of his involvement in the sack of Saint Charles and claims that after the Khajiit refused to surrender the Imperials were commanded to slaughter every cat in the city the Khajiit continued to resist but they were inevitably sucked into the swirling Vortex of Imperial dominance the Empire conquered the outer cities of blackmarsh and attempts were made to civilize the swamps But ultimately black Marsh would never be domesticated by fleshy Folk at this point septim was at a Crossroads invading Valen wood meant going to war with Somerset for the two provinces had United under the second old Mary Dominion the alternative was to attempt what Riemann cyrodiil and his sons had not been able to achieve the conquest of Morrowind Morrowind was the most mysterious of the tamrielic provinces for Imperial strategists as they'd never controlled any part of the Eastern land to any extent and despite his might septim was hesitant to go to war with a land ruled by a trio of living gods however the abundance of ebony in the region would provide the Empire with the resources needed to restore cyrodiil to its former pre-interregnum glory now I believe the Empire would have failed miserably were it not for one fortuitous turn of events the tribunal at full strength would have trounced Tiber septim's armies but dagoffer had stirred beneath Red Mountain and his adversarial presence had prevented arm Savi from making their pilgrimages to the heart of larkan thus their powers were waning if this fact became public knowledge then tiberceptin may not have come to the negotiating table at all but both parties feared and respected each other tiber's Army sacked mournhold the capital of Morrowind but this wasn't enough to give the Imperials the confidence to further overwhelm the dunma even without the power of the tribunal the dunma were capable of giving the Empire a run for its money redaran warriors were among the best on nirn and few were as skilled in the arcane is the telfani so if your Thai bersept him and you're unaware of the triune's waning powers it's understandable that you would turn to diplomacy even after taking mournhold What followed was the Armistice the most significant turning point in the Tiber Wars it was here that tiberceptin was given the pieces needed to reconstruct a weapon of mass destruction the terms of the Armistice suited both Tiber septim's Ambitions and the tribunal's reputation Morrowind did have to endure a figurehead King chosen by the Empire as well as an ongoing military presence to keep up appearances there were other terms but as far as the general dunma populace were concerned these were the big ones in exchange the dunma were permitted to preserve their traditional laws and customs including slavery the moragtong and the great house societal structure despite the puppet King Morrowind could largely operate as they had prior to the Armistice this was a fairly easy pill for Morrowind to swallow it avoided a great deal of Bloodshed and most importantly arm Savi did not look weak in the eyes of the public tiberceptin gained a great deal from this Arrangement firstly he came off looking like the Victor forcing living Gods to capitulate to his demands and he could formally declare Morrowind as a part of his Empire a feat that hadn't been achieved by any man in thousands of years not since high King vraga of the Nordic Empire back in first era 240. the key term of the Armistice was the secret one the dismantling of the nomidium transferring it into septim's possession this was a loss to the tribunal but the Armistice offered Morrowind protection from whatever septim might do with the brass Tower with the aid of his trusted battle mage zurinactus septim reassembled the namidium in the halls of Colossus in elsewhere arctus created a substitute for the heart of larkan to use in powering the automaton a great Green Gem called the Mantella the Crux of transcendence for more information on arctis Wolf half and septim's roles in this process check out my Talos video I'm going to avoid the mantelon rabbit hole at least for now and the infamous arcturian heresy but in short the numidium was restored to working order perhaps Vivek in giving the Golan to septim didn't expect him to achieve this but he did through great Ingenuity and or treachery and with this weapon the Dominion would soon yield while the Heartland had been caught in the endless turmoil of the interregnum the second old married Dominion had flourished the Dominion had reconstituted the falmor party to serve as the governing body of valenwood but the prosperity of the second Dominion would be short-lived once Tiber septim came into the picture the septim Army swept away all of the Dominion's progress conquering valenwood forcing the Altima to retreat back across the sea to the safe haven of Somerset this was a blow to the old Mary Dominion but they could always count on their unrivaled prowess at Sea and the Tactical advantage of being an island nation but we know what comes next as the title of the video suggests Siege of alanor and how tiberceptin brought the somerset Isles into the empire in general is a nebulous topic no doubt there was plenty of obfuscation on the part of the victors let's start with the most mainstream of historical sources available the pocket guide to the Empire the Third Edition States the conquest and assimilation of Somerset into the Empire is remembered by many a living Ultima with horror only partially diminished by time certainly the pride of the people has never recovered this is all the detail we get from the pocket guide but it's ominous even from an imperial perspective no clear mention of how it was achieved no mention of the weapons used in the process simply horror followed by annexation there's another text called on Morrowind written by a high Elven scholar named error man way of Sun Holt that goes into more detail about the hidden term of the Armistice and how it impacted Somerset nothing is known of the circumstances of the personal meeting between septim and vivec or where it took place all the preliminaries which must have preceded the treaty the public reason was to protect the identities of the agents involved in the East rumors suggest that Vivek offered nomidium to Aid in the conquest of the Ultima and Somerset Isle in return for significant concessions to preserve self-rule house traditions and religious practices in Morrowind Vivek had shown admirable restraint in not finding a use for the namidium after acquiring it from the Disappeared Dwemer it seems the tribunal had agreed to keep its power dormant and we'll explore why when we talk about the medium in detail but for all his virtues Vivek is not afraid to make sacrifices for his own self-interest the celestial Rock Bar Dao being a perfect example he could have removed the looming threat from the city but its presence was a warning to the populace that to abandon him is to assure your own Doom in his words I shall keep it there with its last intention intact so that if the love of the people of this city for me ever disappears so shall the power that holds back their destruction Vivek knew well that it would be Reckless to give this megalomaniacal Imperial ruler than a medium but it was a Priceless bargaining chip and of all the people who would suffer from its activation his dunma were not among them the next Canon source to mention the siege of Eleanor is the arcturian heresy in which the underking states the namidium while not the god tybersept him and the Dwemer hoped for the underking was not exactly larkan after all it does the job after its work on Somerset Isle a new threat appears another excruciatingly vague reference to its use against the High Elves this text asserts a great deal more including the fact that ibiceptim allegedly wished to use the namidium to conquer the world as well as to kill the tribunal with it but as I said earlier the arcturian heresy is an hour of discussion in and of itself so we'll avoid it for now this is where we delve into extra Cannon Kirk brydian Coda territory but this First Source has ties to in-game law heimskier says the following in his sermon in front of talus's shrine but you were once man I and ass man you said let me show you the power of power storm Crown born of the north where my breath is Long Winter I breathe now in royalty and reshape this land which is mine I do this for you red Legions for I love you the reason this quote is relevant is because it legitimizes one of Michael kopebride's non-canon writings heimsky's words come from the text titled the many-headed Talos and the sentence prior reads as follows and after the Throne of Eleanor did finally break at the feet of men and news of it came to the Dragon Emperor in cyrodiil he gathered his captains and spoke to them saying you have suffered for me to win this throne and I see how you hate jungle I can't confirm anything but I believe the first part of this speech was removed in order to retcon the idea that cyrodiil was once jungled but it conveniently removes the part about Eleanor as well also the phrasing seems to suggest that tibercepting wasn't there during the siege whatever the case we have a variety of sources now that support the idea that not only did cyberceptin break the Ultima and Conquer their unconquerable land use than a medium to do so in regards to what Canon about septim's conquest of the Isles we only know that the namidium was used and that it is remembered by the High Elves with horror even over four centuries later when the Pocket Guide Third Edition was published if we look Beyond Canon into kirkbride's extended writings there are multiple references to the namidium and even directly to the siege of alanor in one post kirkbride wrote The Surrender of alanor happened in one hour and if that doesn't sum up the devastating power of the brass God nothing does a region that stood Resolute against constant seaborne aggression from the slowed and the Sea elves not even the cultural God Hero Of Man Riemann cyrodiil could take it by force yet the nomidium Managed IT in one Twist of the Dragon's time-bound Tale there's more to that quote of kirkbright's more to the consequences of unleashing the Prime Gestalt with time warping ramifications but we'll get to that when we delve into the nature of the numidium I'm not going to speculate on just how catastrophic the siege of alanor was but the way I see it for the ultimate to surrender in one hour septum either delivered total Destruction or promised it a peaceful surrender seems impossible though especially with text biased in favor of the Empire referring to unspeakable Horrors in the wake of Somerset subjugation and septim's success in officially uniting Tamriel under one Empire Tiber became a living legend he had achieved what was fought impossible and septim wasn't done using the namidium he took it back to the mainland and stomped out any potential of prospective rebellions largely in High Rock where the leaders of the many feudal kingdoms had never taken kindly to Imperial total control the Mantella revealed letters shed some light on septim's post-unification Deeds numidium was Tiber septim's secret weapon in his beard for supreme power a thousand foot tall automaton a Golem or an Atronach of Swords powered by a gem called the Mantella and with it septim crushed all who stood in his way after the complete and total defeat of all his opponents septim began using the medium to crush the neutral royal families of Tamriel so that he could enthrone only persons he knew to be loyal there is no doubt that tiberceptin was a great man but he went to such extreme lengths to secure his complete unyielding authority over Tamriel it's no wonder that he created enemies with long memories his Conquest was brutal and it's impossible to know what more he might have done with the namidium were it not for surinactus the very man who had empowered the brass God the Mantella revealed letters go on to say his Imperial battle mage was furious at this use of his creation and fought to reclaim the Mantella in the ensuing battle both the created and the Creator were vanquished the heart they shared blown out of this reality into the never World they call a furious nomidium's body was scattered throughout Tamriel and the Imperial battle mage without his life force went into a semi-slumber in a Subterranean vault in the centuries that followed the emperor's elite soldiers for Generation after generation collected the pieces of the namidium and became known as the blades tiberceptim's Imperial battle mage became known as the underking and set his forces out to find the Mantella the arcturian heresy penned by the underking personally attests to this account to continue an earlier quote from the arcturian heresy after its work on Somerset Isle a new threat appears a rotting Undead wizard who controls the skies he blows the medium apart but it pounds him into the ground with its last flailings leaving only a black splotch the Mantella falls into the sea seemingly forever how did The septim Empire get away with this well it could be a variety of factors after the domination of all dissidents tiberceptin was crowned again this time as the first emperor of a unified Tamriel septim declared an end to the second era what he called the age of chaos and the third era began the Golden Era for almost four decades septim ruled a tamed and tranquil Realm some say he breathed the secret syllable of royalty and changed the jungles of cyrodiil into temperate Meadowlands he used his acquired wealth from his many inter-provincial vassals and the rich sources of ebony from Morrowind to completely rebuild and fortify cyrodiil and the Imperial City restoring the heartland's claim to the Romantic title The Starry heart of nirn this period of Peace combined with an array of loyal Imperial chroniclers writing the histories from the Winner's perspective and it's easy to forget the war crimes at least it is if you live close to the hub of the Empire far from the capital the emperor's enemies would await their opportunity to rise again it should come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to history why the foulmore and the old Mary Dominion as a whole loathe Talos worship why they seem void bent on tearing down the legacy of mankind the Ultima endured almost 900 years of the septim empire but when the Oblivion crisis ended the dragon blood line of septimaires and disrupted Imperial dominance of Tamriel the old Mary Dominion did not waste any time reforming Tiber septim and his prosperous Empire got away with so much Relentless ruination the Great War and the determination of the falmor a direct consequences of all the Terrors that Talos had carried out only to sweep under the gold-trimmed rug nothing carried out thus far by the third old Mary dominion and the falmor comes close to the tyranny of tiberceptim perhaps the Empire is finally paying for septim's actions there is a reason why the namidium led to the downfall of the Dwemer race there is a reason why the sagacious Sovereign of the Clockwork City would not speak of it and his fellow demigods did not Galvanize it back to life for their own Ambitions the nomidium is not an overwhelmingly powerful automaton like a Dwarven Centurion times a thousand and eight it is a walking God it transcends the material world every time it is used the dragon is broken it shakes the foundations of the Mundus creating orbic shock waves tiberceptim's leisurely use of the namidium was inconceivably Reckless and there are many accounts of the Desolation it left in its Warpath I'm going to bring this tale to a close for now even though there is so much left to explore I have stacks of text both elicit and forbidden I want to delve deep into the law of the walking star but this brass Beast stood tall enough to knock the moons from the sky and it deserves a dedicated video stay tuned in the coming weeks for this is not the last you've heard from the big Walker it only gets more mind-bending from here thank you so much for watching if you're new to the channel consider subscribing and if you'd like to support the content further there's a link to my patreon in the description please only consider pledging if you can comfortably afford to my name is Drew you've been watching Drew Mora and I'll see you in the next one [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Drewmora

Views: 53,832

Keywords: skyrim, elder scrolls, oblivion, eso, skyrim lore, elder scrolls lore, talos, empire, thalmor, imperials, altmer, high elves, aldmeri dominion, numidium, tiber septim, daggerfall, summerset isles, alinor, dwemer, dwarves, dunmer, vivec, almalexia, sotha sil, elder scrolls secrets, skyrim secrets, morrowind, elder scrolls vi, elder scrolls 6, high rock, hammerfell, valenwood, elsweyr

Id: odT8ngqeIJE

Length: 28min 22sec (1702 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2023