After Martin died, who ruled the Empire in the three hundred year chunk between Oblivion and Skyrim, and what led to the empire weakening?

The Oblivion Crisis obviously weakened the Empire and it's influence over the rest of Tamriel.

Titus Mede took over after the fall of the Septim heirs (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:People_T#Titus_Mede)



Between that (the events of the Infernal City) and Skyrim, I'm a little cloudy on what happens.

EDIT: And it is only about 200 years between TES4 and TES5 (not 300).

Well, when Titus Mede came to power, did he retake Elsweyr and Black Marsh for the Empire?

No. The empire is only Colovia and The Niben, or better known as, all of Cyrodiil.

Elsweyr has it's own problems. The Mane was assassinated, causing the entire nation to fall under anarchy, with cities being the only semblence of rule, but actively discriminate against nomadic khajiit (not city khajiit).

Black Marsh was part of the empire in name only. When the empire fell, it stop being part of the empire, and the nation as a whole grew in strength after completely wiping Mehrunes Dagon's forces. They also drove the dunmer out of Morrowind sometime after The Red Year, which has pissed off every dunmer fan to the point of making RAAAAEEEGE look tame.

Skyrim was also mentioned, but it seems the nords are not in friendly terms with the Cyrodiils atm. Sending spies would be like sending spies to Russia in WWII during the winter; it's going to svck, it's very cold, no one will like you, and chances are, you'll never come back to see your home.

Summerset Ilse took over Valenwood, in an attempt to recreate the Aldmeri Dominion. The bosmer seem pretty fine with it, as it seems the normal bosmer is a blow where the wind blows, and families, like the Camorans, are pretty altmerish in their beliefs.

Sad face...

Somehow though, the Imperial Legion has a presence in Skyrim in the upcoming game. IIRC, there was a demo previewer that mentioned that the IL was a joinable organization. So maybe the Empire will be taking advantage of Skyrim's internal strife to regain lost territory :shrug: (there are also Imperial weapons floating around in Skyrim)

The Empire will rebuild,rearm and Prosper once more!
With the power of the Nine and their Champions we will prevail!
Long live the Empire!

Well since the Nordic civil war is about seceding from the Empire, doesn't that mean that Skyrim is still technically part of the Empire? That always got me a bit confused.

We have a 150 year gap in our knowledge. I'm guessing (and only guessing) that the Empire has re-absorbed some more former territories. Skyrim was probably part of the empire for a while, and its possible they have some hold in high rock / hamerfell / orsinium. My personal best bet is that in the year 4e 199 (just before Skyrim Starts), the Hist control Black Marsh and Morrowind, the Empire controls Cyrodiil and Skyrim, and the Aldmeri Dominion controls Summerset and Valenwood, with Elswyr and the HR/HF/OS region acting as no-man's lands / battleground states.

Is there any mention that High Rock or Hammerfell broke away from the Empire?

MinotaurWarrior and Hellmouth's post pretty much answered all my questions. Thanks guys. And, (hopefully), long live the Empire, and the Dunmer will rise again!

As far as I know, they're not mentioned at all. The Imperial library's lore notes for the infernal city don't have a header for them, at the very least. Anything is possible.

No mention or anything, but it would be a very good assumption that because Cyrodiil split into two, everything kinda fell apart.

I would like that area to go back to squabbling kingdoms, as it were in days past.

Hopefully Lord of Souls will have some more information.

There's obviously still an Imperial presence in Skyrim 200 years after Martin's death. If the Empire did lose their holdings there, they regained them either under the Medes or some other rulers.

We don't even know for sure what state the Empire is in as of the events of Skyrim. The only thing we'll learn in Lord of Souls is the conclusion of the events that take place roughly 40 years after TES IV. That still leaves 160 years for events to unfold. For all we know the Empire could have split into two or more smaller Empires by then, each with their own Emperor, similar to the later Roman Empires.