Technically, the Ayleids, or whatever came before them were the first Emperors. Alessia was the first Dragon-born emperor, I don't think it says if she was Nordic or Imperial, just that she was born to a human tribe and grew up in a Ayleid fort, now ruin.

What exactly is a Dragonborn, anyway? I've read all the articles, but are they really heirs of the emperor?

Basically, nothing more or less that humans who have been touched by the Divines, and given the ability to wield the power of dragons -at the level of a dragon-. Most probably, as a safety precaution to prevent things like the unplanned end of the world (and possibly as a balance =to= the dragons themselves). Tiber Septim was a Dragonborn, and used that power among others to forge the Empire. It was also about then that the Amulet of Kings was forged, and the Septims became the defacto protectors of the world from the daedra by simply existing. And it was Uriel Septim's death in Oblivion that ended the legitimate line and allowed the Oblivion Crisis to occur.


And any Duke reference is a good one.....particularly since Rockstar got the IP from 3DRealms and is finishing DNF. More than one legend in the offing in 2011, there is, there is.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG-9k-SIWvo

uhh, correct me if I'm wrong here

but isn't that already the case?
in the GI article it was explained that the Septim Empire had been dead for two centuries, that elven territories had since been declared sovereign (Morrowind, Summerset Isles and Valonwood are independent now) And that the human provinces are mostly independent too, (in fact didn't someone on this forum say that Skyrim was actually staging an invasion of Hammerfell?)

I don't know, maybe I misunderstood something but it seems like Tamriel is already a split apart continent

from what I can tell it would make sense if the player character started some new empire and Skyrim is the first in a string of TES games that involve reuniting Tamriel. The Lore could be enigmatic about the identity of the player like it always was with every other TES game.

I'm indifferent though, doesn't honestly matter whether we become king or not, but I'd like to be the focus this time though rather than being Martin's whipping boy.

If you listen closely to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1qYRICeaSk&feature=related video, it sure seems like he wanted you to be Emperor...

Duke Nukem Forever is in Gearbox's hands which is either a subsidiary or something of Take Two's who owns 2k Games. Rockstar and it's various studios are of Take Two Interactive. And so are others like Bioshock's dev studio which is owned by 2k Games.

Gearbox is a private company and I'm not sure of it's specific relations to Take Two other than 2k being a publisher.(Also published Oblivion)

Gearbox itself owns DNF and possibly the Duke IP? Which is funny since people like the CEO and co founder Randy worked at 3D Realms and apparently on DN 3D too. They have some other people working on DNF from the Duke Nukem 3D team collaborating with Gearbox from around 2009ish.

So no Rockstar has no hands on it. Same goes for L.A. Noire where it's being published by Rockstar (Not 2k games like DNF) but on the other hand since Rockstars publishing it and knowing the Houser brothers Rockstar has had quite a bit of a hand on L.A. Noire. The Getaway was a forgetable game afterall @ McNamara.

(Fun fact: Of the 5 Gearbox founders two, Randy Pitchford and Brian Martel worked at 3D Realms at one time, and one Landon Montgomery worked at Bethesda Softworks previously.)

THIS!

I like that.

Many wars and feuds did Khattrsh fight. Honour and fear were heaped upon her name and, in time, she became a queen by her own paw...