This was a primer for a roleplay game set in theTES universe. It was created after extensive research through every book in the TES games that I could find.
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The Elder Scrolls
This is a lot of stuff to read, but it won't really be all that bad, and it's mostly fairly important. Don't worry, you wont have to know all of this stuff to be able to play the game, but it will help you get more into it and have a richer experience. I did ramble on a bit more than necessary, I admit. If you are a veteran of the videogames you probably already know most of this stuff to some extent, but if not, then you really should read this to get a feel for what you can expect.
There is a lot of weird religious stuff in this at the start, but it's handy stuff to know, so bear with me. You can ignore it if you wish and just boil it all down to "there was some demon guy who tried to invade this land last month with a demonic legion, but he got clobbered and sent packing by the guy who was about to be crowned emperor, who died in the process. In the meantime, there are several races of elves, men and beast folk on this planet who don't get along so well for some reason, and now it looks like all hell is about to break loose politically with no Emperor to keep things together."
Welcome to the land of Cyrodiil, the heart and seat of power of Tamriel, a continent unified into one grand empire on the planet Nirn. There is a tremendous amount of lore concerning this world, enough to fill several books, but here are most of the only things you really need to know.
The ancient prehistory of this world is largely unknown, but the old legends seem to agree on enough salient points to give us an idea of what happened.
In the beginning, there was a bright energy & order, and a dark void of chaos. The order and the chaos, known as Anu and Sithis depending on who you ask, had achieved a self awareness of a sort and interacted with each other. Theirs was a tumultuous relationship, and the clash gave form, change, and energy to the Grey Maybe, their first child, as it were. Now that the first "place" existed, things could have somewhere to happen.
In the swirling tempest of possibility now possible, several little fragments of this first creation splintered off and formed the first sentient beings formed of both void and matter, of law & chaos, of power and weakness. They quickly grew until they consumed most of the remaining residual materials of the Maybe, and found themselves linked to the place. They also found themselves in competiton, but by the time they noticed it was already pretty much too late. These were the first Gods, which we of Earth might call Titans.
It didn't take very many millennia until they got bored, sitting around with ultimate power and having nothing to do with it, so they eventually started to create things in the Maybe, giving it more form and shape, and they created children of their own of much lesser power, but immortal, linked to the Maybe, and ultimately bored themselves. Still, with everything in a peculiar timeless state, not much could really happen. This turned out to be unsatisfying in the end for some, but others were content enough. The portions of Anu & Sithis were not mixed and distributed evenly throughout the Gray Maybe, leaving each of the resulting Gods with an imbalance toward one end of the spectrum, and with differing attitudes to match. They often squabbled and warred with each other, partly in vain attempts to settle arguments, and partly just to have something to do. All in all, it was a bad situation with no point and no hope. That would soon change, though, for soon a particularly powerful and peculiar child would be born, and he would change everything. For reasons probably unknown even to the Gods themselves, this child brought with him a whole new dimension, a whole new sort of order. He was Akatosh, the bringer of Time, the first of those known today as "the" Gods. After time became a factor that applied to things, things started to take on whole new meanings, and the fundamental ways things were done changed with them. The Titans themselves were changed, and their children changed as well. They were suddenly much harder to create, and their numbers dwindled as they died off in the constant fighting. The few who were created, however, were also occasionally exceptional in some way like their brother Akatosh.
Eventually, one of these new exceptional beings hit upon an idea during one of these pointless battles. He noticed that theirs was an existence without motive, without meaning, and he felt badly for the children of the Maybe, knowing that they had nothing to look forward to and no real reason to even live. He came up with some noble ideas before noble ideas were even a concept, and his ideas rocked the tiny universe when he espoused them. Some of his fellows thought they were pretty good ideas, but some thought they were stupid beyond measure. As expected, yet another war began over it.
In the confusion of this new war, this God, named Lorkhan, with the help of some allies, tore off a chunk of the Grey Maybe and transformed it into a new, separate plane of existence, a new universe, no longer linked to the realm of the Gods and beholden only to it's own new laws. A place where the stakes were high and life meant something. A place where children could grow, learn and develop and even die! Yes, death would be necessary to allow the animus of the children to be once again free to return to the Maybe, perhaps this time much wiser and less prone to so much pointless fighting.
Sadly, it was not complete. Something was fundamentally wrong with this new universe, and it didn't work very well. It needed to be infused with the power of the very Gods it was made to escape. It was beholden no more to the laws of the gods, but it didn't have enough laws of it's own.
Lorkhan went back to his brothers and fathers and explained what he had done, and what was required to finish the project. His new concepts of sacrifice and selflessness struck a chord with many of them, but others thought he was crazy. That's when the real trouble started. A new war like no other began, with heavy casualties on all sides. Eventually, one group broke away and formed a new realm of their own, which they called Atherius, a place of peaceful refuge. The other side likewise broke off, forming a new realm of their own, called Oblivion. A great many of the children were consumed in the creation of these new realms, as spare energy and materials were scarce by this time, but many more were given the chance to escape such a fate by fleeing to the new universe created by Lorkhan, which was called Mundus. The Gray Maybe was torn to pieces and consumed almost completely in the mad dash to cannibalize it's resources by both sides
Looking over the situation and realizing how it was largely their fault, the Titans with the light & order leanings finally learned the lesson and wisdom of Lorkhan's words. They decided to give life and order to this new plane, this Mundus, by sacrificing themselves and merging with it, giving the last of their children a fighting chance for a decent life.
The Titans of the chaotic darkness leanings, however, had no interest in such insanity. The most powerful among them further divided Oblivion into several smaller realms, with each of them as it's Lord & Master. They gathered their children and set about the task of building their own new armies and raising more children, but they soon discovered that they couldn't create any more children. The severing of their link to the Maybe had rendered them unable to create much of anything anymore. They really should have quit while they were ahead, it seemed, and refrained from dividing their Oblivion into separate realms. This angered them considerably, and they sought revenge.
On the plus side, they found that they could no longer die. At all. If killed, they found that their spirits simply went to the Waters of Oblivion, the remnants of the original plane of Oblivion before it got divided, and from there they could make their way back to their own realms with ease, whereupon a new body would instantly form to house it.
The remaining Gods of the light side were not much happier about what happened. Not one bit. Sure, a whole new everything had come into existence, but at what cost? They gathered with the spirits of the darkness, and together they set upon Lorkhan and killed him. One especially skilled warrior named Trinimac even tore out his heart.
The spirits of darkness were the first to notice that Lorkhan was dead, and that he stayed dead. Soon it became apparent to all that while those of the darkness could not die, those of the light, could. ( it wouldn't be much longer before the spirits of light proved able to reproduce as well )
Then something odd happened.
Trinimac swung his mighty sword to destroy Lorkhan's heart, but it proved invincible. He tried and tried, but to no avail. Eventually the heart started laughing at him, mocking him! Having a mortal body but an immortal heart was a strange thing indeed. Was Lorkhan a being of balance so perfect that he had the strengths and weaknesses of light & darkness, order and chaos? Was this what gave him such peculiar insights, ideas and wisdom?
"Fools," it said, "this is the heart of the world, for one was made to satisfy the other."
No one there at the time knew what that meant, exactly. Lorkhan was prone to cryptic quotes and trickery, so they knew it probably meant something major, and probably something they wouldn't like, so they decided to just get rid of it. They tied it to an arrow and flung it away, deep into this new universe where no one would ever find it and where it would never again cause any trouble.
Heh, heh. svckers. It would take a few millennia, but the Heart of Lorkhan would again shape destiny.
Today, these powerful beings of light & darkness are called the Aedra and the Daedra, the Gods and the demons. The words literally translate in Aldmeris, the old elven tongue, as "ancestors" and "not our ancestors." This is important. You see, the humans and the elves have a very different view about all of this stuff which explains why they never got along very well in times past. The elves see this all as one huge tragedy in which their immortality was stripped from them. Were it not for Lorkhan, they would all still be happily linked to the Grey Maybe's power, enjoying their immortality. They view themselves as direct descendants of the Gods. They hate Lorkhan for what he did and see the mortal existence as a terrible fate.
The humans, on the other hand, except for a lot of Redguards, have the opposite view. They see themselves not as the descendants of the Gods, but as their mere creations, and are very happy to have their lives and a nice place to live them.
Since the Daedra decided to NOT come to Mundus and instead stay immortal in Oblivion, then it follows, to the elves, that the mortal races are not their descendants or kin. This is why they named them the Daedra, "not our ancestors."
Now, the Daedra are still pretty upset about everything that happened, and they really don't like leaving Mundus alone when they could instead wreak havoc upon it. Lucky for the mortals, the Aedra, led by Akatosh, were able to put a stop to that by erecting a magical barrier between Oblivion and Mundus. Powerful magics can allow passage through that barrier, but not in any big way, and only under certain conditions. Akatosh was able to infuse Mundus with a little of his own power to maintain the barrier from the mortal side by creating a bloodline of mortals and a magical gem set into a device known as the Amulet of Kings. As long as one of the bloodline of Akatosh wore the Amulet of Kings, and as long as a magical fire in the Temple of Akatosh burned brightly, The Dragon God of Time, Akatosh, would be able to maintain the barrier keeping the mortal realm safe from incursion by the legions of Oblivion.
This was the whole plotline of the videogame, Oblivion.
Agents of an evil Daedric Prince named Mehrunes Dagon assassinated the Emperor and his sons, and stole the Amulet of Kings. The Dragonfire in Akatosh's Temple went out, and the mortal realm was again left defenseless against the invading armies of Oblivion.
Naturally, he was ultimately defeated, and once again by heroic sacrifice. The upshot is that the barrier is sealed once again, probably permanently. The downside is that while the Emperor no longer needs to be of the dragon blood, there is no Emperor at ALL !
The outer provinces have been grumbling for years about numerous problems, and even while the powerful Emperor Uriel Septim lived there was much talk of secession and revolt. Now, with no Emperor and everything in chaos after the Oblivion invasion crisis, those sentiments have been getting stirred up like crazy, and they're taking hold instead of being pooh-poohed like they used to be. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Empire's old enemies from faraway lands are now seeing an opportunity to attack that they haven't had in centuries.
So...who ARE all of these people, anyway? What is this empire and who are it's people? Who are these enemies? How did all of this come to be?
Well, for that, we have to go back several thousand years.
You see, I failed to mention a few things earlier. Remember how the ancient prehistory is a bit fuzzy? It's time to fill in the rest of the story.
Just as Anu & Sithis were alive yet not, so too was their child, the Grey Maybe, also known as Nir. The birth of Nir was very injurious to Anu, whose energy and order was drained to give life to the new child, and this put Anu into a coma of a sort. Despondent, Sithis retreated in solitude and largely never noticed all of the stuff that was going on that I mentioned earlier. Ah, but he loved Nir, even though she wanted nothing to do with him.
When Lorkhan tore away such a large part of Nir to make his Mundus, she was mortally wounded. When the Aedra and Daedra struck the final blows to make Oblivion and Aetherius, Sithis flew into a rage. By this time, Anu had awoken, only to once again be drained to give form and energy to Mundus. Enraged that Anu would participate in such an action, helping the upstarts destroy his cherished Nir, he attacked Anu. They fought and fought across all of creation, their blood spattering everywhere.
The blood of Anu became the stars. The light shining from them has magical properties to this very day. The ancient doomstones scattered across the land of Tamriel are powered by it, and the old Ayelid Magicka wells gather up this power each night until they have collected enough to fashion it into pure raw magicka.
I should mention also that Mundus has very few stars actually inside of it. The stars we see each night are actually floating in Aetherius, which surrounds Mundus. As universes go, Mundus is very, very tiny. Indeed, there were only 12 worlds within it by the time all of this happened.
While that was going on, the blood of Nir also kept dripping and got splattered in the fighting. Those innumerable drops of blood became the spirits of the lesser daedra, and they populated the realms of Oblivion wherever they landed. Daedra cannot reproduce, but that didn't prevent legions of them forming anyway. The Aedra were able to reproduce, and their numbers grew accordingly. The spirits of the Aedra would be destined to be scattered across the 12 worlds of creation, and by the time Sithis showed up, many worlds were already partially populated. The spirits of the daedra mostly stayed in the realms of Oblivion.
When the fight was over, Nir was dead, and so, too, at least it seemed, was Anu. Sithis looked around and couldn't believe what had happened, and was struck with grief. That grief led to rage once again, and this time he decided to take out his frustrations on the cause of all of this, Mundus. He shattered the 12 worlds of creation in a fit, seeking revenge.
Anu wasn't dead, though. Anu found Sithis, saw what he had done, and used the last of his/her strength ( Anu, I should point out, was an odd being of both male and female, yet also neither ) to hurl Sithis outside of the confines of this spiffy new "Time" thing, imprisoning him for at least a little while until he figured out how to re-align with it. ( remember, Sithis was off somewhere alone when Time started, and wasn't yet hip to its ways. )
With Sithis out of the way, Anu dashed around the universe of Mundus, trying to salvage something of Creation. He/She was able to find some bits of the 12 worlds, but they had all been destroyed beyond any hope of repair. He/She, pressed for time, gathered up as much of the best bits available and smooshed them all together into one single new world, which Anu named Nirn in honor of his/her lost daughter. Most of the fun new lifeforms were forever lost, but these few would survive.
Anu then returned to the void right about the time Sithis figured out how to escape, and in a final push, Anu was able to force him/herself and Sithis once again back out of the flow of time, where they would remain for millenia until Sithis got over it all.
At least this is all one way of looking at it. The only ones who really know for sure what actually happened aren't talking. What we DO know for sure is that aside from various plants and animals, only a relative few races of "people" survived to become the inhabitants of this new world. We also know that not very long after Nirn was formed, the heart of Lorkhan eventually drifted by close enough to be ensnared in it's gravity, and it plunged to the ground on the island destined to one day be known as Vvardenfell, where it would cause all sorts of trouble.
Before we get into the various races of these people and their lands, I should mention something important about the way people measure time. You'll hear the word "era" mentioned fairly often. For example, the current year is 4E1. This means it's the first year of the 4th Era. The 3rd Era just ended in it's 433rd year, after the fall of the Septim Dynasty. You see, Eras are denoted when hugely significant things happen. The permanent closing of the barrier between Oblivion and Mundus, and the end of the Septim bloodline along with the need for it, was just such a major event.
After Nirn was formed, it entered into it's first Age, the Mythic, or Merethic Age. This is the prehistorical time before anyone thought to start keeping historical records or use the word "Era". We don't really know how long this Mythic Age lasted. We do know that a heck of a lot of stuff happened during that time, and we know some of it. We also know that peoples of the old world had much knowledge that has since been forever lost, leading to many modern day mysteries. How such primitive people could have harnessed such technologies and magics is one of the greatest of those mysteries. The elves will tell you that the ancient people were considerably more advanced that the modern ones, having literally been Aedra kicked out of the heavens and unceremoniously dumped on this miserable planet, and that the people of Nirn have simply been growing progressively stupider ever since. Others think that the Gods used to walk with the mortals fairly often back then, giving them guidance. I guess we'll never know for sure.
It appears that only two significant peoples were rescued by Anu. These were the Hist, and the Elnofey.
The Hist were, and still are, not even really people at all, but intelligent trees! They connect together via their roots into one great collective, and easily share their thoughts along this network. Being immobile trees, though, they couldn't really accomplish very much, and were without any way to defend themselves. No matter; they had a way to fix that.
The sap of a Hist tree has many amazing properties. The Hist gave some of their sap to some of the nearby lesser creatures, and over time were able to modify these into sentient beings themselves. Local amphibians became Argonians, and the Argonians of today revere the Hist completely and serve them. It wouldn't be wrong to call the Argonians "hist" as well, for the bond between them is inseparable. A Hist tree can actually communicate to an Argonian via strong mental imagery after that Argonian eats some sap. Non-Argonians eating that sap will have severe hallucinations and other bad symptoms.
Some local cat like creatures also got some Hist sap, and they eventually became the Khajiit. These cat-men turned out to be much less useful as servants to the Hist, for soon they discovered moonsugar. Starlight and moonlight imbues the waters near the southern coast of their homeland, Elswheyr, with magic which the sugarcane roots absorb. Eventually the sugar from that cane is harvested and crystallized, and when eaten it packs a powerful euphoric punch. The Cat-men have been distracted and on their own ever since. There are at least 17 different "breeds" of Khajiit, each with distinctive features. Some look and act almost like humans or bosmer, and some look and act even more catlike than the typical Khajiit we generally think of of the tops of our heads.
Some large apes from Valenwood and the Summerset Isles also apparently tried some Hist sap, creating the Imga race. They didn't get much, leaving them developed more than most apes, but still very primitive.
Next come the Sload. The Sload are, well... giant greedy slugs, pretty much. Nothing good can be said about them, or at least never is.
Another marine species are the Dreugh. They live mainly in the sea, but have a land-dwelling life phase. These odd creatures are just mindless monsters when in their land-dwelling phase, but the waterborne version is intelligent and social. Not very friendly, though.
On the continent of Akavir we will find a few other peculiar beast-races, but since they could never have been exposed to Hist sap, it is not known how they came to be. Frankly, not very much of anything is known about Akavir, despite all the times Akavir has attacked Tamriel. More on these guys later.
The Dragons are another decidedly different race not of Man or Mer. They are ancient beyond measure, early settlers of Nirn during it's first days, and almost certainly direct Aedric transplants. No one has seen one in centuries, and most people believe them to be extinct.
Along with the Hist, the other race saved by Anu was the Elnofey. The Elnofey were plonked down on Nirn in the land of Aldmeris. Contrary to popular belief, the Elnofey had much sub-racial variation within their species. Despite the haughty better-than-us attitude of the modern Altmer elves, they really weren't better at all, and it didn't take very long at all before shiploads of them began to leave in an exodus to explore their new world mainly just to get away from each other.
Bear in mind that the world was still very new at the time, and the poles hadn't yet even frozen over very much. Some of the wanderers wound up on the the continent we now call Akavir, but some wound up on the continent of Atmora. Akavir is a large, temperate to tropical land much like Tamriel, but Atmora was a great temperate to chilly plain. The settlers claimed these lands as their own and over time began to take on new physical characteristics.
Things really got weird on Akavir, but we'll get back to them.
The people of Atmora made a pretty good life for themselves, but every year it got a little bit colder as the icecaps started to form. The change was very gradual, though, and the people were able to adapt and evolve over time to the increasingly harsh conditions.
Meanwhile, other explorers wound up settling on the small continent of Yokuda, and along the southernmost edges of Tamriel and the Summerset Isles.
Those on Yokuda eventually became the Redguards.
Those on the Summerset Isles remained fairly unchanged, and named themselves the Altmer in honor of their homeland.
Those who ventured more inland into Tamriel became the Bosmer, the Chimer, the Falmer, the Dwemer, the Orsimer, and the Ayleids.
Eventually all of Aldmeris was evacuated for reasons unknown, and no one today has any idea where it even was anymore. Oh, many have searched for it, but none have succeeded.
Time passed. We don't know how much. However, eventually the splintered tribes of the Aldmeris had become several distinct races, and the real fun was still yet to come.
By this time, the Elnofey of Atmora had lost their elven characteristics completely, and were now men. Well, almost men. Proto-men. They were known as the Nedes, the Nedic people. Inbreeding over time in this isolated gene pool probably had something to do with what happened, coupled with the hash and ever worsening year-round winter conditions. They had to leave, or die. Once again they took to the sea in ships, and they discovered northern Tamriel.
Things didn't go very well for them.
Some wound up along the western shore, where they found themselves boxed in by the Orsimer and the Ayleids. To make matters worse, the small continent of Yokuda was destroyed and sunk in a great cataclysm, resulting in hordes of Redguard refugees spilling into the west. They clashed with the Nedics and drove them back to a small area where they were eventually assimilated into Ayleid society. They eventually wound up being wiped out as a race, but not before they crossbred with the elves, becoming the peculiar Man-mer, who today are known as the Bretons.
Remember Trinimac, the daedric guy who killed Lorkhan and tore out his heart?
Well, the Orsimer were his devout followers and they worshipped him. One day Trinimac wound up having a really bad day, and was eaten by another more powerful daedric prince. Being a daedric prince, this didn't kill him, but what he wound up looking like later was... unpleasant. When he got himself put back together, he changed his name to Malacath, the name we know him by today, and he transfomed his once beautiful orsimer followers into the Orcs.
Compared to Atmora, Skyrim was a garden spot. Many of the Nedes decided to stay put right there, and they became the Nords. Others pushed east into what is now Morrowind, but the Chimer met them with much resistance, and the resulting battles eventually pushed the would-be settlers back to Skyrim. Still longing for someplace greener and warmer, they went south into what is now Cyrodill, where they were promptly captured and enslaved by the Ayleids. Some were put to work on the eastern Nibenay valley side of Cyrodiil, and others were sent west into the Colovia region. Over time they developed different but similar cultures, and while not overly fond of each other, they were united in their hatred of their oppressors, something those oppressors had tried to prevent by stirring up the troubles between them in the first place.
Eventually, a leader wouild rise up to unite the nibenay and colovian slaves into an army, and with a little work, a little luck, and perhaps a little help from the Gods, they were able to crush their oppressors and regain their freedom. They eventually drove the Ayleids from Cyrodiil and possibly even to extinction, and were destined to ultimately unify the whole continent into one empire. Today we know this race as the Imperials.
The Falmer and the Dwemer are little more than memories. The Dwemer, more commonly known as the Dwarves, tried to monkey around with the forces of the universe by trying to harness the power of the heart of Lorkhan, which they eventually found, and wound up erasing themselves from existence. Whoops.
Alas, they didn't do this in time to save the Falmer. The once proud and mighty snow elves were tricked by the dwemer into eating toxic mushrooms which blinded them and transformed them into pathetic monstrous beasts relegated to living in caves.
The Chimer were also changed for their role in the shennanigans involving Lorkhan's heart. The Daedric prince Azura put a whammy on them to punish them, transforming them from their beautiful golden selves into the ash-grey, red-eyed Dunmer we know today in order to make them always remember the battle of Red Mountain. Red Mountain is the name of the large, active volcano where the Chimer leaders' treachery unfolded.
Some of the events listed above happened in later times, but the great migrations and evolutions happened in the prehistoric Mythic Age.
We don't know how long the Mythic Age lasted, but it was presumably a few thousand years at least. History was first formerly recorded when the Camoran Dynasty began in Valenwood, marking the first historic year, 1E1. Only 242 years later the Ayleids would fall to their former slaves and the Cyrodiilic empire would form.
The first Era would end in 1E2920 with the fall of the Cyrodiils. The Second Era lasted 897 years, until Tiber Septim finally conquered all of Tamriel and unified it into one great, single Empire. The 3rd Era was the time of the Septim Dynasty, lasting 433 years until just recently when the last Septim died in a sacrificial act to forever seal the barrier between Oblivion and Mundus. It is now 4E1, this first year of the 4th Era. 4250 years of recorded history lie behind us, and the future is uncertain. After 434 years, the Empire is showing signs of instability promising much upheaval and strife. Could this be the end of the Empire?
The outer provinces are unhappy. The Oblivion invasion hit them even harder than it hit Cyrodiil, and the people are displeased with the Government's response. The rumblings under Red Mountain suggest that it may erupt again soon. The Tsaesci of Akavir have no doubt already learned of the events of late, and know that they have a golden opportunity to strike. The man-god Vivec has been taken away by daedra, leaving Tamriel, and Morrowind especially, without the protector it enjoyed for centuries.
To top it all off, the Ancestor Moth cult suffered heavy losses in the invasion, seriously curtailing their ability to work with the Elder Scrolls to see what might best be done to prevent further disaster.
The Elder Scrolls? What exactly ARE these Elder Scrolls, anyway?
These are the ultimate compendium of history and prophecy, the definitive guide to all that was, or could have been, all that is, and all that will be or could be. They aren't just written records, either. They have the very power to change things or make certain they happen. Everything lies in a state of constant flux. Invoking the power of an Elder Scroll removes that malleability from the event in question, making it an absolute. The scrolls themselves were written by the Aedra and their mortal servants of the Mythic Age, the so called Elders. How many scrolls are there? That, too, is in flux. Their number is uncountable and unknowable, ever-changing.
Reading them is very difficult. Not only must one know HOW to read, understand, and invoke their power, the act of reading them causes blindness. At first the blindness is only temporary and of short duration, but over time the harm is more and more severe. Unfortunately it takes practice to learn the craft of reading them, so by the time one is suitably proficient at it he is already suffering from partial loss of vision. Since the use of the scrolls is so inherently dangerous to the readers and to the whole world, they are kept in just a few places and read only by a specialized, dedicated cult known as the Ancestor Moths. I'm not sure how they got that name, but I suspect it has to do with them being drawn like moths to the flames of blindness, reading the scrolls of the Aedra, their "ancestors."
Boy, the Empire would be in some real trouble if it lost the ability to consult the scrolls in these tragically troubled times.
Okay, the races of Akavir--
-- Ka Po' Tun-- These are cat-men are not believed to be related to the Khajiit. Their origin is as mysterious as the rest of Akavir. They have big plans to crush all of their opposition on Akavir and invade Tamriel.
-- Tang Mo-- These are monkey people who turned out a lot better than the Imga. Again, without Hist, no one knows how they originated. They are generally peaceful, and they are frequently attacked by the other races of Akavir who have been trying to enslave them for centuries. They have so far always been able to mount a suitable defense against this, though.
-- Kamal-- these guys are known as "Snow Demons." They have a peculiar lifestyle, hibernating in the wintertime by becoming frozen solid in blocks of ice and snow. When they are released in the thaw, though, they lash out and attack everyone in sight, especially the Tang Mo. However, they aren't very good at it and are always easily repelled by the monkey men. However, they once invaded Skyrim back in 2E 572, and the Nords never knew what hit them. The Kamal managed to capture and hold some significant territory with ease until the Tribunal goddess Almalexia intervened directly to defeat them. She's long gone now, though.
--Tsaesci-- These guys are the dominant race of Akavir, and the one most people of when they think "akaviri." They are decidely reptilian, and snake-like to varying degree, but most of them look more man-like than Argonians. A D&D or WoW player might think of them as Naga-like, with snake-like elongated bodies with a man-like head and torso. However, there is much variation among them, and most of the ones who ever set foot upon Tamriel had more normal-looking manlike legs. Not much is really known about them, and certainly not enough to account for this wide variation. By most accounts, they are actually charismatic and strangely attractive, shimmering with golden scales. After the fall of the Cyrodills, bringing the start of the 2nd Era, a string of Tsaesci Potentates actually ruled Cyrodiil for around 430 years in the place of any native Tamrielic Emperors, until the last of them was assassinated and the humans again seized control of their own land and destiny. However, the humans had to admit that the Potentates were competent and effective Administrators, and that many of their cultural trappings were pretty cool. They liked their architecture, their nifty scale armor, and their katanas, all of which were adopted by the Royal Blades.
Akavir is a war-torn land with everyone constantly bickering or looking for an escape. It's no wonder that they occasionally invade Tamriel.
A few years ago, a hero known as the Nerevarine swept across Morrowind and did many heroic things which saved that land from disaster, but in so doing he also brought about the end of the Tribunal, who were three Chimer made immortal and given the powers of gods by the heart of Lorkhan. For centuries they used their powers to defend Tamriel from invaders and disasters of all sorts. One of them, Vivec, even put a stop to a major Akaviri invasion by teaching all the people of Morrowind how to breathe water and then flooding the entire province, washing the invaders away. Sotha Sil & Almalexia are dead now, though, and Vivec was last seen being abducted by daedra.
As for the Nerevarine, Vivec's abduction has led him to travel to Akavir, presumably to try to convince the Akaviri to not invade Tamriel. No one really knows why he left, but that's the usual assumption. It is not known if he went there at the behest of the Imperial Council or at the command of Azura, but everyone is hoping for the best.
Another thing we don't know about Akavir is how it fared in the Oblivion invasion, or if it was even invaded at all. Mehrunes Dagon seemed to have a personal score to settle with Tamriel, so for all we know, he might have left Akavir alone.
» Tue Jan 19, 2016 8:21 am 
