re-watching the announcement and trailer over and over again I noticed something.

Did the dragons possibly return from Oblivion through the Great Oblivion Gate(s)? most likely the one opened over Kvatch.

Or were they simply pushed to retreat into some extinct volcano or cave?

(not looking for a definitive answer, as to my knowledge we have not been told, but just to post ideas on how they returned.)

Edit: Realised i messed up the quote. should be "...the time after Oblivion opened..."

No, I don't think so. I don't remember seeing any dragons in Kvatch or Bruma. I had a theory on how the dragons came back, but I forgot it.

No, no, i did not see any either... but we arrived at Kvatch after the great gate closed there. Is it possible that when it was opened the dragon followed that death machine out and none of the citizens were around to see it. It very easy could have flown north without detection. I would agree there were too many people at the Bruma gate for a dragon to sneak out.

Esbern's dream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlsAJjmmZno

That gives me chills every time I hear it. Very well written and voiced.

No, dragons arent from Oblivion.

Probably Alduin's realm.

Dragons have more chances of coming from Akavir actually. If anything, they just crossed over to Tamriel. They haven't switched from one realm of existence to another

It was prophesied that the dragons would return after a number of other things had already occurred. Two of those things were Oblivion opening and Skyrim fighting in a civil war. Now those two things have happened, so the dragons have returned from where they had been all these years. Seeing as how they're dragons, they have pretty free access to most places (they can fly, after all). I'm not sure where they were, but they're not daedric, so I doubt they would have been in Oblivion.

No no, it's basically that everything the PCs did in previous games made Akatosh turn into his crazy destructive form, or something to that effect. That's what I got out of it, anyway. I think someone else said something along the lines of Akatosh being the one who protected Tamriel during all of those crises, and by doing so his deal with the mortals was done with, and he could finish his bargain with destroying Tamriel, or something like that. I might just be rambling, but the point is that he didn't fly out of an Oblivion portal, that's for damn sure, most notably because they never would have been there in the first place. Dragons are not Daedra, though there is a Daedric Prince who takes the form of a dragon.

I was thinking they had been killed and sent to the plane of oblivion. Thanks for clearing all that up for me.

Alduin is Aedric

The Dragons are not Daedric and could not have come from oblivion

The dragons are Aedric "angels" from what I've heard.

HAHA i was reading this thread and i could imagine youre guys voices as ob npc vocies they could write npc pvssyr from some of these threads I saw a dragon the other day where do you suppose it came from.

judging from the orriginal teaser i guessed that they had been sealed away and are coming out of hybernation or something. maybe the coming of alduin woke them up

Well, my own interpretation of everything, is that all of the Aedra are all really just the fragmented pieces of Lorkhan reassembling himself. The dragons like in the original teaser video seem to be just 'awakening' from out of the stone. Another aspect of Lorkhan then suddenly coming to life.

A dead and dismembered god(or Daedra Lord) slowly coming back to life to reclaim his realm. The dragons would just be the form that this latest awakening spark of power manifests in the world.

The chances of Mankar being right is very low. Mundus was most likely created in the manner of the traditional myths.

What's most likely is that Alduin and his angels were sealed away, most likely by a Shezzarine (avatar of Lorkhan). The events of the first four games (reconstruction of the Staff of Chaos, activation of Numidium, severing of the Heart of Lorkhan from the Earthbones, dissolution of the symbolic pact with Akatosh) made it possible for the cycle of renewal to move forward again.

maybe the dragons are from a different plane of Oblivion...such as Hermaeus Mora's Apocrypha

(do dragons know the Dewey Decimal System?)

You want a reason?

it is written. in the elder scrolls themselves.

after Oblivion opened. and the sons of Skyrim would spill their own blood...

after these events, then the dragons would return under Alduin to reclaim nirn in fire