I love story and lore behind games, and when I was younger I briefly played Daggerfall, but I barely understood what was happening...I played Morrowind, and loved the hell out of it, the same with Oblivion, and now I'm waiting for Skyrim anxiously. Now, there are a lot of in game references, and so many articles referring to the lore of The Elders Scrolls...but I need help finding a starting point, and an easy way to branch out, so that I can get to know the world that I've come to spend quite a bit of time in, and probably will spend many more hundreds of hours exploring. Any advice?

www.uesp.net has a lore section (dozens of them). I'm too lazy to provide a direct link. There's some other site I also had bookmarked, it's no longer there anymore. I'll try to see if I can find it.

The http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1112211-how-to-become-a-lore-buff/ thread is pretty much your best resource for this. You can get started where ever you want, learn whatever interests you, and it lets you branch out like crazy.

After that, you can pursue your own studies at http://www.imperial-library.info/. As Rene mentioned above, http://www.uesp.net/ is also a place to look, but it's not as reliable as TIL, as it often gets a lot of lore wrong and is designed more for in-game information.

Reading and participating in discussions in the Elder Scrolls Lore section here on the forums is also invaluable.

Lore Buff guide is designed for people like you. If you want a really quick crash course, check the Pocket Guide to the Empire, both http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-and-its-environs-first-edition and http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-and-its-environs-third-edition editions.

And don't use the UESP, unless you use it for looking for books. I cannot tell you how many times people came to the wrong conclusion, or information that was just flat out wrong.

Don't consult 3rd hand knowledge, when there is plenty of 1st.