My guess is Cyrodiil is at least partially a draconic name.

It's the older name of the city and after unification of Colovia and Nibenay the name of the province (and early empire).

But since the city is in Nibenay lands, people from Colovia might not appreciate being called Cyrodiilic.

Many people (meaning: those who are not Colovian) will not care if someone calls them Imperial or Cyrodiilic. To them, the terms are synonyms.

But if you are a Colovian you might prefer to be called an Imperial or as someone hailing from the Imperial Province.

It might be the same way as how Dutch people (Nederlanders) who are from the fringes make the distiction of saying they are from the Netherlands and not Holland. Holland is historically the northwestern part of the country and has had the most influence economically, politically and internationally over the other parts of the country. As a result Holland became a misnomer for the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in international politics.

BTW, I don't think people in Tamriel identify themselves with which Province they live in (as in there isn't a term for it): Black Marshian, Morrowindian, Skyrimian, High Rockian (High Rocker, yeah!), Hammerfellian, Vallenwoodian, Elsweyr-ian (Elsweyr-r?) or Summersettian don't really role of the tongue easily. The most they'd say is that they lived in Black Marsh or Hammerfell. Or more likely the Town or County/Duchy they live in. Now, if someone is a part of a faction or cultural group, than ofcourse that makes more sense as an identifier: I'm a Telvanni; I'm a Colovian, etc.

As a Welshman who has often been mislabeled English, I understand this perfectly.

Actually, Cyrodiil does sound Draconic. It's the only language I've seen with redundant vowels.

Given the in-game content the identity of the champion in Arena was disguised as has been said ... there have been other threads on questions of who the Champion/s have been in other threads including threads where people were invited to suggest the names of NPCs who have been Champion in non-game eras. This suggests that the Champion may not always have to be the player.

Eternal is a big word - and for me the Eternal Champion will always be Michael Moorcock's Elric/Corum/Count Brass - they are all part of the same being and therefore eternal

In ES, altough it could be intending to indicate avatars of a single being, it feels like the meaning is a bit different - that of a line of distinct characters who step up to the mark. Reason I say this is that there is no ongoing material to identify the player as taking on avatars of a single being. To the contrary in Morrowind the player was put forward as potentially an avatar of a historical figure, the Dunmer Hortator Nerevar, who is not identified as the Eternal Champion in any material I am aware of.

They write out the protagonists of each game, the daggerfall dude gets stomped, neravarine gets killed for becoming to localized with the dunmer...i mean goes to akavir lol, and the coc becomes a lunatic who may or may not be a god

also the neravarine getting assassinated by the empire is my own personal conspiracy theory, don't get mad about it

I like it that way because i make up my own cannon about the es universe with my own main characters, if they said the coc was a imperial warrior, it kinda invalidates whatever choice you made about your character

I haven't played arena, but from the sound of it the ec's identity was concealed with magicka so its no wonder his identity is debatable

I like the point about the Champion of Cyrodiil. The events of the Shivering Isles could be revealed to be pure delusion on his/her behalf and he/she never became a god at all, just a lunatic.

Yeah, but that's boring (about the CoC).

Just so you know: in addition to the Talin referred to in the Arena manual, one of the chargen questions refers to a Talin as well (I think they say he's your father or a quartermaster or something). In addition, the introduction to the game shows Uriel VII standing alongside a Talin who is "leader of the Imperial guard". It can't be you though, because Tharn imprisons him in Oblivion with his Emperor. Visually, this Talin looks like the http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Warhaft seen at the end of the game's floppy disk ending.

So yeah, I don't think it's safe to believe anything presented in the manual about characters' backstories.