I'd say the Dragonfires became irrelevant when Martin sacrificed himself and the Amulet of Kings to summon a deus ex machina. Since the Dragonfires could only be lit with the Amulet of Kings, that's why you had to go through so much trouble to get it back when the Mythic Dawn took it from Weynon Priory (Which wouldn't have happened if Jauffre hadn't wanted to keep the Amulet with him, nice job breaking it Jauffre. But I guess he can't be blamed for not wanting to leave such an important item in the hands of a prisoner who might not even survive the trip to Kvatch.) If the Amulet wasn't needed to light the Dragonfires, you could have just gone on to the Imperial City after saving Martin and the whole crisis could end there. Still, that doesn't mean the player can't be the Emperor, it just means that if a new emperor rises, it probably doesn't have to be a Dragonborn.

Still, I highly doubt the player will become the Emperor, while technically, it could work from the lore standpoint, it could cause a problem with the fact that players are free to create their own characters. Letting the player become the Emperor would mean that the player character must be given an identity, even if only in potential sequels, and that's something Bethesda has always tried to avoid. Besides, from a narrative standpoint, it would seem rather awkward as the Empire only just collapsed, okay, in terms of in-game timelines, the events that lead to its collapse actually started too hundred years ago, but in real life, we only just saw the death of the Septim line in the last game. Usually when you do things like that, you don't have the Empire rise again to its former glory in the next game, you do something with it. Either you use it to explore the effects of lacking a unified government on Tamriel, or you have a new power rise in it's place, and I think the latter possibility deserves a story dedicated to it, in Skyrim, the story is about fighting dragons and stopping Alduin from eating the world, I think having the player become Emperor in it would come of as saying "Thank you for stopping the big bad evil guy from destroying the world and bringing peace to Skyrim, and by the way, you're our new Emperor now." Finally, would you want your continent wide Empire to be ruled by someone who is constantly neglecting his duties to go out and loot dungeons and kill rats for the Fighter's Guild?

Not gonna happen, they need someone with a strong identity that could be set in stone for that, not some nameless hero.

That is a very good point.

At any rate, I'd prefer it if the Empire finally crumbled and came to an end, far more conflict and drama that way, and that'll provide interesting new stories. No great civilization lasts forever.

They could always do my idea and just pick one of the alternatives to be the set in stone Emperor.

........I'm not the only one who saw this and immediately thought Duke Nukem am I?

Also our character will be speaking (which is very rare in FP/S games) like Duke.

Emporer of Tamriel...doubtful

Emporer of Skyrim...probable

I think it would be interesting, though admittedly cliché, if the Empire transformed into a Republic.

Seriously?

Do you reckon the player-character could be Elvis Presley?

skyrim can't have an emperor only a king, considering they're not an empire, but a kingdom!

Right, so after reading the recent update on gameinformer, the one talking about Dragonshouts and how Bethesda created the language for Skyrim, it got me thinking.

Just gonna go out on a limb here.

Do you reckon the player-character could become Emperor of Tamriel?

From a lore standpoint, yeah, absolutely. Granted i don't know much about TES lore, but from what I understand only a dragonborn can light the dragonfires and become emperor, so yeah, in theory you could do that. I doubt the game will let you, but the lore allows it.

I sure hope not, that would be horrible, it would mean I would HAVE to be of the Septim blood line. That would mean I would have to be Imperial.

Yea, after putting some thought into it, particularly from a gameplay point of view, its a pretty bad idea.




I'm not sure that you'd have to be of the Septim bloodline or an Imperial, only a Dragonborn was required to light the Dragonfires suggesting that anyone of the 10 races who is a Dragonborn could light them, otherwise the trait of being Dragonborn would be restricted to Imperial's only.

So theoretically any character COULD be Emperor, this though does raise the issue of what is canon and what is not.


Let's just hope Bethesda think the same way...