» Thu Sep 30, 2010 3:31 am
Oblivion really does explain everything you need to know, especially if you stop and read the lore books when they're handed to you. And I'm really not an expert. But here goes. First go to http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-third-edition-all-eras-man-comprehensive-history-our-history and scroll to the Third Era. It's about a page. Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion are set in the late third era, under the reign of the same Emperor. I don't know when Arena or the spinoff games happened. Dates start at the beginning of an era, so "3E 433" is the 433rd year of the third era. By the way, days of the week and months have their own names, but are about equivalent to our own.
My summary of the series is that you, a prisoner turned agent of the Emperor, have to go around fixing the political messes that different rulers of Tamriel get themselves into. Besides the imperial line itself always being under threat, there are also kings, queens, and nobles in the provinces who are always up to something. In Daggerfall (which I barely played any of) I believe you had to sort out some backstabbing royalty in High Rock and Hammerfell, after a king died and started haunting a place. http://uesp.net/wiki/File:TamrielMap.jpg of the provinces, btw. In Morrowind, you had to deal with the very complicated religions and great houses of the native dunmer people, almost none of which turns up at all in Oblivion. The gods you dealt with were called the Tribunal, you were called the Nerevarine. The houses were in brief: Hlaalu (empire-loving capitalists), Redoran (warrior types), Telvanni (excentric hermit wizards), Indoril and Dres (not seen much in the game), and the Sixth House, Great House Dagoth, which died off in the past and was revived as a sort of zombie-raising cult who wanted to purge Morrowind of foreigners by creating really bad weather. They were the bad guys. Defeating them also meant ending the Tribunal. That was very bad for Indoril, since at least of the Tribunal was a member. All of that is really just so you'll understand conversations you hear in Oblivion, and to give you an idea how (un)related the plots are. Same Empire, same politics, different stories. I don't know any good, short plot summaries to link.
"You" are a different person every time. It's not one ongoing hero. In fact, there are barely any recurring characters. Even the Emperor only appeared in Morrowind (and Daggerfall, I think) in the form of a couple written letters that kicked the main quest off. Though many of the factions are the same, like the Fighters/Mages/Thieves Guilds, you take orders from the local leaders in the area where the game takes place. You're called things like the Nerevarine or the Champion of Cyrodiil in lore because you get to make up who you are beyond that, including your name. You start in a prison for an unspecified reason, and go on to do things for reasons which are your own.
The Empire is strongest in Cyrodiil, as that's where it's based and the majority there is the imperial race. Further out, provinces still fight, local law still holds more weight, and there's lots of racism. Imperials are disliked because they claim everything as their own and so want everyone to live under laws based on their own morals. Argonians (lizards), khajiits (cats), and orcs are considered inferior and often used as slaves in places where the Empire has failed to abolish it. In Morrowind, many dunmer consider all non-dunmer invaders.
The religions are the domain of lore scholars and get overlong, so here's my own highlights. The Nine Divines are the state religion of the imperials. One of them is an ascended emperor. In Cyrodiil, they have cathedrals; in other places, they have tiny shrines in the corner of some isolated imperial fort. Akatosh is a divine with a special role in protecting the Empire. Followers of the nine tend to be missionary, help-the-needy types. They were joinable in Morrowind and their quests were mostly "bring us this relic" or "go help this person." The nine are one religion, though followers tend to have a favorite that they serve.
There are sixteen daedric princes. They interfere, from toying with random people for fun, to using their worshipers to settle disputes with other daedra, to trying to topple entire other religions and even destroy the Empire. Outside the mortal world, each prince has a realm called a plane of Oblivion. The generic hell you visit in Oblivion is one, and so is all of the Shivering Isles expansion. All sorts of people worship daedra, and they pick and choose which ones. The daedra are not one united religion. There are also lesser daedra, minions and monsters, which some mages can summon. It's separate from worshiping the princes. Each daedra has at least a misc quest in the game, so if you feel it would help, you can read this http://www.imperial-library.info/content/imperial-census-daedra-lords of all the individual daedra.
There's some other random stuff. The dunmer worship their ancestors (among other things), so sometimes they summon ancestor ghosts to protect them. The Dark Brotherhood is its own weird assassins' cult. They were bad guys who attacked you out of nowhere in Morrowind (the plot of an expansion starts with investigating why you were attacked), but they're joinable in Oblivion. Mannimarco is a recurring necromancer whose followers resemble a religion, and he's a villain in an Oblivion questline. A real lore scholar could tell you loads more. This giant post has been a brief glance at the lore, and I'm sure now I've said it all, there will be lots of corrections as well. I know I've left a lot out, but this is what I feel really gives Oblivion context, and what I know well enough or could look up quickly enough to talk about. It has been fun doing though. Good luck, and don't get bogged down in trying to remember it all.
