Having recently started with Morrowind again, I was quite puzzled about rumors regarding disturbances in Cyrodiil, Caius Cosades saying "the Empire is slowly coming to an end, we both know it" and even the printed manual of Daggerfall stated something like that. Sure, when Cyrodiil could not even mobilize organized units of soldiers for protecting their own cities, it became quite obvious the Septim Empire had, militarily speaking, went way beyond the pale, but I still don't see why the whole Empire, even a united Cyrodiil would slowly collapse after the Oblivion crisis. bliviongate:

In Morrowind and Oblivion, Imperial force was nothing you'd like to mess with, and even after the death of the Septim line, things seemed more or less in place. Did the other provinces generally feel opressed and were waiting for revenge? Was Uriel Septim too weak and sped the decay up? Or was the collapse probably a long-term consequence of Jagar Tharn?

The Septim Empire has historically been far from a stable state. Every chance that arrose there were always groups and cities trying to break off for independence. The Empire wasn't really a welcome thing to the people of Tamriel. During Uriels time imprisoned in Oblivion the Empire fell to pieces and wars raged everywhere, when he was freed, he had to spend the following years reconquering and restoring order where Tharn had slacked off, but even before Tharn separatist elements were always waiting to strike.

It didn't help that his sons hadn't married or produced heirs, despite being middle-aged (with the hidden son Martin being a celibate priest to boot). For a number of years, the people of Tamriel didn't even fully trust the Emperor's sons to be human -- the rumor was widespread that they were dopplegangers. This plotline seems to have been dropped, and the sons were probably human, but they were a further indication that this was the end of the line for the Septims (and the era, as it turns out).

in oblivion if you read that thing about the assassination they say that since jagar tharn the things started to get a little hard in the empire i hope that in skyrim the things be ok...but really speaking the flueted island that i don′t remember the name(The Infernal City)if it′s not destroyd i think that the empire will probably decayd in short time!!