OP's NOTE: Comments, suggestions, criticisms are all welcome! This is just a little bit of fluff I'm crafting for the Immortalblood Timeline but I want to keep it as true to what little lore is availabe! Enjoy! more to come!

The Elder Council of Cyrodiil -

A History of Cyrod Power

and Heartland Politics.

Penned By

Maurise Levaticus,

Order of the Writeworths,

________________

CHAPTER ONE: FOUNDATIONS AND THE ALLESIAN EMPIRE

The Elder Council of Cyrodiil is one of the oldest and longest enduring political institutions of Tamriel, second only to the Great Moot of Skyrim and its venerable Jarls that have long since appointed the High Kings of the Northern Kingdom. Indeed, it is often argued by many Nordic Scholars that the Elder Council itself can draw direct roots from the ancient Nordic institution, citing Vragian influence in the development of early Cyrodiilic Government and the cultural advancement of their Southern Nedic cousins. It is true, undeniably, that the rapid expansion of the Nordic Empire and the hand King Vrage the Gifted played in the Alessian Slave Rebellions certainly helped mold the Alessian Empire and its successors, however most modern Cyrod Scholars point to the Alyied blueprint left behind in the form of Cyrod’s former masters and turncoat allies as the true foundation for the Empires modern day beuacracy, and that of Cyrodiil’s most illustrious club.

While little is known about Alyied government, Elvin and early Cyro-Nedic historians can cite the Alyied’s as once colonial surveyors from Summerset Isle who eventually, much like the Nords and previous immigrants from Atmora, outgrew their colonial motherland both politically and economically, becoming full fledged nation and city-states in their own right. Separated from the King of Alinor by immense jungles and sea scape the Children of Topal the Pilot began to exercise more and more political independence of their own and culturally grew into a race of Elves that had become distinguishable from their highbred brothers and sisters back in the Isles.

As the tribute from Cyrodiil began to dry up it became unclear whether Alinor could, or even cared, to reassert control over their rebellious colonies. The Alyied’s, having at this time become emboldened by their freedom from the court of Summersetset, began unifying together into a loose Confederation of City-States to form a unified Elvin power on the Tamrelic Continent. The epicenter of this power consolidated in the City-State of White-Gold, what is now known as the Imperial City, located at the heart of the Lake Rumare. While at the time of Alessia the Alyied Empire was headed by King Umaril the Unfeathered, the Alyied’s were in fact led by a body knownas The Council of Eight, representing the most powerful cities in Cyrodiil and ruled through a semi-elected body of Kings and Witch-Lords who much like the Nords, elected a King in which the other states swore fealty to.

It’s here that we begin to uncover the true ground work for which the Elder Council would come to be built. Upon the death of Umrail and the sack of White-Gold mankind found itself to be in control of a wide swath of land consisting of various tribes and cities that had, until now, little government other than local tribes and petty Kings who in term owed allegeance or were enslaved by local Alyied overloards. In the aftermath of the cultural and political upheavel in the Heartland Alessia’s Alyied allies stepped in, eager to reap the benefits of what some believe was a carefully planned coup by dissenting Alyied minorities and reassert control over the land. Experienced and embedded, they began to guide the young Empress in an attempt to counter the growing Nord influence of the 1^st Empire of Man whom sought to use the recent change in power to their advantage and claim the human lands south of the Jarl Mountains. In exchange for the aid of the Alyied dissenters, Alessia’s Alyied allies demanded that she assume the position of High Priestess of Auri-el and be allowed to rule in conjunction with the new Empress, reforming The Council of Eight around her as chiefs of government and advisors with the catch that the council be made up of only Elvin stock. Alessia, largely owing her new Kingdom by in large to her Nordic allies and Alyied vassals, accepted their conditions. In response to fears of Elvin influence, Alessia expanded her council by creating a lower, more numerous governing House of advisors at the behest of King Vargas and filled them with representatives from every tribe and city of her growing Kingdom.

Historically we don’t hear of the Elder Council’s influence, or even outright existence, until the death of Empress Alessia and the Council’s acceptances of Belharza the Man-Bull as her successor in 1E 266. The constant threat (Or perceived threat) from the Aldmeri Dominion, the political authority of Alinor in Summerset and nearby Valenwood, and suspicion of many of Alessia’s former Alyied allies had grown to become the dominant concern of the young Alessian Empire and in turn gave birth to a powerful and influential breed of Battlemage Aristocracy in the Nibany. Taking point from their former masters, these families established strong roots amoung the their local regions and soon rose to prominance as local warlords and rulers, using their skill in magicka to both mesmorize and instill fear in the local masses too ignorant or enept to understand. As more and more of these families began to crop up around the villages and towns of the lower Nibany, so did their influence in national politics, presenting a destabilizing challnege to the established strength of the Alyied remaints.

Those Alyied Wizard-Kings still in power soon found their influence challenged by not just former slaves, but the rise of powerful mercantile and Battlemage families that began rising from their former subjects like the Men-of-Ket and the Keptu. The Elder Council often became a battleground of racial tensions that was only subjugated by the power of the Emperor himself. As time progressed the Council would become dominated by the influence of these families which quickly swallowed the power vacuum left by the defeated Alyied Kingdoms that had not been replaced by Alessia's Alyied Vassals. Conflict not only arose between the Alyieds and rising Nedic politicians, but among the Nedes themselves. While the Emperor theoretically held sway over the Alessian Empire, there was little he could do to stop the conflict that arose between the various tribes and kingdoms that constituted his Empire. House Wars between the families were common enough with blood feuds between tribes oft than not led cases of violence in the streets or in the forests between competing families. Such instances, however common, never managed to destabilize the patchwork kingdom that was Alessian Empire yet would permeate the air of the Elder Council from now till the 3^rd Era.

The political influence of both the Elder Council and Emperor would become subservient to the power of the Alessian Order and its prophet Maruhk in 1E 361, and would sequentially mark the end of the remaining Alyied Kingdom’s influence in the Alessian Empire. Councilmen swayed by the teaching of the Alessian Order swiftly rose to prominence and the persecution of the Alyied remaints quickly spread like wildfire through the Stary-Heartland. Maruhk, the Monkey-Prophet of Alessia, would lead the Alessian Block of Councilmen in the Elder Council to draft and pass the abolishment of the remaining Alyied Holds in Cyrodiil and in the process caused a mass hysteria amoung the remaining Alyied populace. Under the Alessian law ‘Guilty until proven innocent’ Alyied Councilmen were quickly alienated and swept from power, their estates swallowed up by rivals and in phony trials were disbarred from the Council in a manner of questionable circumstances. The end result was a mass exodus of Alyied’s into Valenwood and High Rock.

The Elder Council would remain dominated by the Alessian Order’s Politics until the Orders defeat at the Battle of Glunmbria Moors in 1E 482, but by the time of the Orders eventual defeat the Alessian Empire was on the verge of collapse. The rebellion of Kjoric the White in Skyrim, the death of of Emperor Gorieus in 1E 478,the succession of the Colovian Estates and the eventual rejection of the Order by High King Yismir Wulfharth had all but ended the Alessian Empire’s dominance over Tamriel, and under Empress Hestra the Alessian Empire attempts to regain its lost glory.

The War of the Righteous in 1E 2321 would see the end of the Alessian Empire, but not the Elder Council.