This may have been asked before, if so please direct me to the thread. Is The Infernal City canon?

"Tamriel now has a new Emperor named Titus Mede"

How could this be Canon? O.o

Taken from Wikipedia.

Also is it possible to get it in hardcover? I only see Paperback and me and paperback just don't mix! lol

From my understanding Bethesda considers all officially published work to be canon.

I like that Idea, they let the fans shape their world and lore to a certain extent.

Yes it's canon, and the empire fell. A new emperor rose to the occasion and united Cyrodiil. The other places seceded, MW blew up, Skyrim is scary, Black Marsh is purging all non-argonians (and imperialized argonians), Summerset is trying to remake the Aldmeri Domain and has currently taken Valenwood, Elswyr is under anarchy after the assassination of the Mane. Nothing about Daggerfall or High Rock, but I'm going to assume they went back to many kingdoms that all hate each other.

why is the world in such chaos?

Mainly the Septim Empire's fall. Tamriel is no longer united and is reverting to inter-province warring. Landfall didn't help matters either.

Don't forget the Argonians invading Morrowind :spotted owl:

Yeah, I neglected to add that.

I don't really follow, anything released by fans wouldn't be considered officially published so none of it is canonical.

There are some things inspired by fans and fan interactions that have made it into the games and other officially published materials. I can think of two RPs held on this forum that have some mention in the official games/literature, technically speaking only those details that made it in to the games are actually canonical (leaving the bulk to be semi-canonical) it's still cool to see.

BUT GREG KEYES ISN"T JUST A FAN!!!

Pete Hines gae him a basic sketch of what to write, and payed him to write it.

I know you're excited, but he's still a new a guy. He can't be Emperor until he's born from a hill or powers a god-bot with his heart.

he's emporer of the Imperial Empire. All he has to do in order to become emporer of Tamriel is... well... reconquer Tamriel.

When hasn't it been?





He's not technically Emperor of Tamriel anyway. The Empire collapsed. He's barely Emperor of Cyrodill, as the Cyrodill he rules is smaller than the one from TES IV. They've lost Leyawinn County, barely have Bruma under control, etc. He's definitely no Reman Cyrodill or Tiber Septim. He's just a guy who barely controls the heartland but has many enemies.

He may not be of noble/divine birth and yada yada yada, but he's still the emperor of the newly reformed Cyrodiil. Never did I say Tamriel.

Neither was Hjalti.

Anyhoo, Cyrodiil isn't his yet. Skingrad and everything west of it aren't secured. There's unrest in Leyawiin, correct? The titular city is making a bee-line for "his" palace, and he doesn't know that. The Dominion is in the south and their agents are fomenting unrest. Cyrodiil isn't his, whatever his authority, until it's secure.


It's my impression the novel is a patchwork of "current" lore and Common Era history, which never made it into the games' books.

I think Titus Mede is sort of a "We're sorry, Mario, but your Emperor is in another castle." situation. He's not going to be the person who ends up being the true successor to the Septim line. It may be Attrebus after some period of growth and apotheosis that may take part in the second TES novel. Or it may be somebody else entirely. It might end up being Sul or somebody weird like that. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Not really, you only getr to shape the lore if the developers are willing to let your work be officially published, or the Bethesda sees some fan theory or something from fan fiction, likes the sound of it, and just says "Sure, why not?" and add it into the official lore. It's not just any fan who can decide what is and isn't canon in the Elder Scrolls. And in any case, the Elder Scrolls isn't exactly the first example of a setting where material outside of the main works has been considered canon.

But yes, I think it's safe to say that Infernal City is canon, I certainly see no reason it shouldn't be, after all, it's not like it violently contradicts everything we've learned in past games, as far as I know, while I haven't read it, all the new lore from it I've seen mentioned on these forums seems like things I could believe are true given what I already know of the setting, or future events I could imagine happening based on what's happened in currently released games (Even though they aren't necessarily the first thing I'd expect to happen.) so I don't see anything that really NEEDS to be conidered non-canon to keep the lore from becoming a huge mess. Obviously, we can't be completely certain that it will still be taken into account by future games, but right now, I see no reason it wouldn't be, so yes, I'd say the Infernal City is probably canon.

Lay off Titus, he's workin' on it.
I don't get what he was hoping to accomplish by making Attrebus a joke. I get the feeling that there's something there that we've yet to be told.

I also get the feeling that they're setting up for an MMO, but that might just be my nightmares spilling into my waking hours.

What's the trope for the need of an empire, especially right after one just failed?

I'm not sure if tvtropes narrows it down that specifically, but there is a trope called http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VestigialEmpire that pretty accurately described the condition the Empire is in during the events of the first novel.

Titus seems worthy of respect, but the difference between his empire and the Septims' empire is that his isn't founded on a covenant with the gods. It may be significant that the Blades aren't around in "The Infernal City", though Cloud Ruler Temple still stands. The Blades would be serving Titus if his rule was closer in nature to the late Empire.

I think Attrebus will end up as the next emperor, with Annaig as his wife unless she decides the life of an independent alchemist is better suited to her. It will be interesting to see if another covenant with the gods ever crops up.

It seems logical, if cliche', that the Aedra will be involved in some fashion with the second ES novel.

Recently I've started wondering if Umbriel is meant to somehow break the cycle of conquest and apotheosis.
Once it makes "landfall" (but certainly not the Landfall), the Imperial City is going to be changed in some way, I figure. Which hasn't really happened before that I know of.

Or maybe Titus is going to use it as his Numidium to crush the Dominion and step up to that throne in the sky.

I don't think Titus wants to transcend humanity, or is even meant to transcend. Umbriel will either land atop the Imperial City and destroy it, or land near it and have already killed everyone in the city (turning them into undead in the process), or land near the IC but have stopped the "soul harvesting" process by then.

It's long been speculated that Bethesda, through Keyes, is setting us up for the next TES game. Possibly a TES V game set a couple of centuries after "The Infernal City" will see a Tamriel of competing (and often warring) provinces, with no Empire restored. I could see Umbriel either being just another city by then, if exotic, or perhaps destroyed long before. Everything's speculation at this point.

Come on guys, Titus is hardly the first guy to grab power without a "covenant with the gods." Alessia had one, as did the first Reman, and thats it. Tiber stole his and usurped a god. Everyone else was just a 'common' emperor, and they did just fine.