However, the question is WHICH empire that might be...
The Imperial Empire was once great and now broken, and uses a similar banner.
The Akaviri Empire was once just as great (war of red diamond, people) and was also broken.
The trailer said "we never thought they were real, or never wanted to believe" (paraphrase). at the end of TES:IV the Empire was out of heirs, was missing one city, but aside from, it was not in that bad a shape.
During all of the TES games we have played, the Akaviri have only been referred to as a past threat, and we never actually encountered them anywhere, leading us to believe them to be a myth or legend of the past.
The trailer is obviously not just saying that there are going to be literal dragons in this game. Its is most likely a metaphor to a force that has been famously linked to dragons. Knowing that, two groups come to mind. The Akaviri and the Imperials.
I doubt that the threat are the Imperials. They would be most likely nursing their wounds after the daedra invasion, and not going on a region conquering spree (Perhaps in the time of Uriel, but not now).
However, we have known that Tamriel is absolutely irresistible to the Akaviri (due to their multiple invasions).
Because of these reasons, I believe that an Akaviri attack is much more likely than an Imperial attack.

:laugh: You're talking about Cyrodiil, not about the Empire. At the end of TES:IV, there was no Empire anymore. And the continent Tamriel had lost more than one city.

I agree that an Akaviri invasion is not completely unlikely. It would probably make for quite an epic game. I mean, immortal vampire snakes and/or (tiger) dragons?
The whole premise of this thread though - fixing this speculation on the fact that the Imperial banner, which has been kind of the logo of The Elder Scrolls, appears in a teaser for the new TES game - is just ridiculous, I mean even if it was actually from Akavir or whatever.

Hey, you know what definitely has an Akaviri origin though? The lorica segmentata worn by Dovahkiin. That's a bit more interesting, isn't it?

Obviously, the Blades come to acknowledge the Dragon Born and move to assist him.

Yeah, that's a possibility. I was more going for the "He might be from Akavir" route, since we're in the "Akavir invasion" thread here and not in a general story speculation thread. Just wanted to point out that there are signs in the teaser that can be linked to Akavir in a reasonable manner. There are dragons, and they know the one they fear, and they have a special name for him. We know there are dragons on Akavir. We see a picture of that guy, and he's wearing armor from Akavir. If you were so inclined, you could argue that they a) must come from the same place, and b ) that everything seems to suggest that that place would be Akavir.
(Just to be clear, I'm saying you could. Other interpretations are possible too.)

Exactly, and didn't the Akavir go through Skyrim and then through Pale Pass to Cyrodiil ?

I am fairly certain that TES: V involves an Akaviri invasion during the midst of a Nordic civil war. Let me elaborate: In addition to the whole mess with dragons and such (Akavir itself literally means "Dragon Land"), two important things stand out.

"Their defeat was merely a delay."

Tamriel has defeated Akavir in the past.


"But no one wanted to believe. Believe they even existed."

Two important bits here. The first is that you have to realize that it's been since the First Era since Akavir actually invaded Tamriel. While Uriel V (I think) invaded Akavir himself a few hundred years back in the Third Era, Akavir is an issue that's at the very back at most people's minds. Most people don't even know what kinds of races exist there, beyond perhaps the Tsaesci, much less the Ka Po'Tun. It's no coincidence that the only major source of Akaviri knowledge is a book titled Mysterious Akavir, and that even it is a highly unreliable piece of information. The second is the whole they bit. If it was some kind of Akatosh/Anduin thing, I can't possibly see how that'd work, or how any of this criteria would work.



Furthermore, the Elder Scrolls as a series has been building, with little hints an references, to an Akaviri invasion for awhile now. I have no doubt when they included the whole Pale Pass thing up by Bruma that they had at least a passing idea as to what the contents of TES: V would be. The Nerevarine also went to Akavir. It's possible that he went there not only as a plot-based means of sending him off to his death, but to hint that there's something threatening there; something as threatening as the invasion of Oblivion itself, that needs dealing with. And he, by all signs, failed.

In addition, you folks that are saying the Dragon logo is just an Imperial construct fail to remember exactly how much of a major influence Akavir was to the Empire, starting in the Second Era, where the whole dragon logo came to be in the first place. After defeating the Akaviri invasion Reman Cyrodiil absorbed much of the Tsaesci that survived and many of the things they taught the Empire or brought to the table are commonplace representative facts of the Empire nowadays. The two are intrinsically linked.

And one more thing makes perfect sense. "But, there's one they fear. In their tongue, he is Dovahkiin: Dragonborn!" Why would the Akaviri fear that so much? Because supposedly Dragonborn individuals are directly responsible for kicking Akaviri tail in the past. Akavir evidently planned this attack of theirs during a weak period of Tamriel's history (The provinces are fractured and warring not only amongst themselves but internally; the Empire is gone, and the Oblivion Crisis is the catalyst that destabilized what was already a fragile balance). They would be scared to death of someone--presumably Dragonborn in the Septim or Reman sense--that has what it takes to reunite Tamriel under the banner of the Empire. Someone that can unite the various factions and form a solid, united line of defense against them.

Looking at all the other possible lore options, unless Bethesda pulls out something entirely new (Which I doubt), I see no more appropriate alternative.

It did seem foreshadowed a bit in Oblivion:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Report:_Disaster_at_Ionith
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Remanada
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Lifting_the_Vale

Its just the logo of the Empire guys. Akavir does not have a logo, why would the Tang Mo and the Tsaesci make a banner that represents themselves when they hate eachother. And the Ka Po Tung too.

uesp.net doesn't know much about lore. They are great for gameplay but not lore.


Edit:

Thats not saying that it is not the Akaviri they are talking about though.

Edit: Oops wrong thread.

History has them going through Morrowind, which means the borders were different at the time. Pale Pass was actually part of Cyrodiil, iirc.