Oddly enough, the most loyal supporters of the Empire are likely to be the Orcs of Orsinium, given how hard Gortwog worked to get them into it in the first place. Without the Empire to support their claims, they're likely to end up diplomatically isolated, vulnerable to being picked apart by their neighbors and returned to pariah status.

I'm sensing the plot of a TES spinoff, like Redguard. The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Orsinium.

Yeah...I like the sound of that. Play as the Orc who managed to mantle Trinimac, before he became Malacath. Though you could say Gortwog is almost doing that already....PLAY AS GORTWOG!!!

why nerevarine is dead???as far as i know he went on an expedition in akavir.he could play a role in TES V

He's not, though he may as well be. "Heroes" in TES games don't generally stick around after they've played their role. You might think of the man that remains as a "spent cartridge."

When I watched all the way through Babylon 5 recently, and , it made me think of the Nerevarine leaving for Akavir, presumably to avoid the consequences of his fame. Truthfully, his continued presence would have probably torn that society apart, given there's no guarantee the Nerevarine knows how to manage his own fame.

That's a good point. I also think he or she may be pulling his/her own strings now, after working for numerous factions in MW and its two expansions. Here's an entire continent that no one has had contact with in generations -- wouldn't you be curious about Akavir if you were the Nerevarine? In real life, there would have been merchants, missionaries, and would-be conquistadors travelling there much sooner.

They're very buddy-buddy with Wayrest.



Blizzard already did that with their Orc leader guy. Kind of. It was more replaying the events of 'How Orsinium Passed to the Orcs' from what I remember, but similar enough.

Dictatorship. With an empty seat, it's open season. With all that power, corruption is just around the corner.

It became a book. It was set up to be an adventure game I believe, but they opted out of it.

Anyway, I figure the empire will still stand fer a while, but yeah, it's going to fall again. During that time before things fall apart, Ocato will try to keep it together and may resort to either being more brutal or weak-kneed when things go out of favor. Summerset Ilse is going to be interesting. You got youngins trying to take the Altmer back to what they were like before Tiber kicked their asses with the giant stompy bot, all the while you have The Beautiful destroying many of the old Altmer artifacts. And we got the psijjics who have been taking in a LOT of apprentices recently. They're likely to try to get out of the empire

Skyrim, like always, is attacking Morrowind, because their young advlts are maturing to advlthood and they're going though their rite of passage by invading Morrowind, or they're just really drunk and they want to kill some elves.

Black Marsh is only in the empire by name. If they try to leave the empire, no one would really seem to care.

Parts of Elswyer may try, but I doubt they could. Plus, the southern portion doesn't seem to really care.

This is just a guess but probably another emperor...

Maybe the imperial wont be in charge anymore..


since it is a new Era a new race will rule.

Imperials don't control half of what they think they do...

If you read the http://www.gamesas.com/eng/news/pressrelease_042709-3.html, you might be right.

A plausible scenario would be the Council trying to keep everything together, supported by the Legions. Then some archaic families across the continent, aswell as some power hungry generals would try to make their little kingdoms, propably fighting for dominance over important landmarks, like the Towers. Also racism could reach to a climix in border regions, where one blames the other for the crisis/bad handling of the crisis, resulting in ethnic cleansing.

I think that whatever Bethesda [censored] wants to happen is gonna happen...

Hooray for inconsistency!!!!!

The one thing we can be sure of in the novel is that the new Emperor won't be a Septim. "Oblivion" didn't end by saying "Martin's dead, but that's all right; there are other illegitimate sons."

For all we know, the next emperor is Lhotun, after invading Cyrodiil with an army of Redguards. I don't think this will occur, but we shouldn't assume Attrebus' father or grandfather is a Septim.

Nor does it mean an Empire of the same scope as the Septim Empire. For all we know, the empire mentioned in the book could be comparable to a "Cuhlecain Empire," or an alliance or domiance/serfdom between two or three provinces, like the Aldmeri Dominion.

I hope in TES 5 it doesn't turn into "barbarians sack teh evil empire".

Most likely it'll be ruled by the Elder Council, although if alot of them are from the other provinces that might not help.

Heck, it would make more sense if it was another Septim, being as there are cadet branches of the Septim dynasty.

One need not be a Septim to rule.

Or if you want Talos' words:

Chanchellor Ocato will go corrupt and name himself emperor then create the fourth Reich therefore hunting down and killing the Argonians and Kajjitts and Dunmer and Bosmer and Altmer and Bretons and Orcs and nords and Redguards.

Well...I hope that the next elder scrolls will be about elswyr,vallenwood,and the black marsh.All three of these areas are only lightly detailed by lore and such.I think that these three areas are likely to ally themselves with each other,as they would have to in case the empire began ethnic cleansing.The bosmer are considered strange due to their strange customs,and the khajiiti and argonians are so different that they would be the first targets.Thus they would ally with each other so that they could survive the storm of hatred aimed at their races.The next TES could be a "Pick a side" style game,in which the nords,imperials,redguards,and high elves form an alliance centered in cyrodill.The dunmer would be a sort of side group,fighting for whatever side is in their best interests.This would make the game more replayable.You will start at the central city of your races province,and begin exploring until some story related event will lead you somewhere else.Of course,there is no limit on how much exploring you can do in each area,as you will allways be able to explore any province you have already entered at will.The story will be different for each race,as each alliance and province within it will have an agenda of its own.

Funny joke you made there huh.

All hell is about to break loose...

It's a tough position politically. Effectively, it's impossible to say without knowing more about the personalities which compose the council. The only member we truly know is Ocato (and Fyr, but he seems to keep to his own), and even then, it's not as though we know that much about him. The crucial point is whether they attempt to keep a (relatively, for this time period) centralized system, or try to ease tensions by allowing the empire to fall into a much more decentralized realm akin to the Holy Roman Empire (obviously, the system as it stands isn't terribly centralized, with most regions having a fair amount of autonomy, but it seemed that the Emperor's word was still absolute, if only because he had his legions and legacy. As it stands, the various regions might seek to exploit the weak position of the empire and regain true autonomy.

Still, if the next game is to take place in Skyrim (It's been about a year since I've been here, so I'm uncertain as to whether things have changed), it is possible that it could feature an aspirant to the throne, a son of Shor and walker of the Hjalti's path. Ocato's position as an Altmer might allay the desire to split off for Summerset, but it would surely be upsetting to human races, both due to racial tensions as well as the sheer symbolism of it. Regardless of speculation as to whether Ocato is a secret Ayleid or not, the Ayleids were simply a sub-sect of the Altmer/Aldmer, and thus having an Altmer occupying the ruling position recreates the symbolism of old when the Ayleids ruled over human slaves, and it is a point which the humans are likely to catch on to and which the particularly ambitious will exploit¹. This would likely lead to a largely Imperial legion choosing to ignore the orders of the chancellor, turning rather to their own generals and the like to call the shots. Without the legions, the empire is in quite the fix. Thus, the window is left open for a Nedic figure to rise up in Skyrim, gather the legions around him, and remove the "Ayleid" from the throne once again.

The scenario might arise due both to this and another possible event, namely the return of the Akaviri (It might be part of why it is mentioned that the Nerevar departed for there. Mysterious Akavir also states, "'First,' Tosh Raka says, 'is that we kill all the vampire snakes.' Then the Tiger-Dragon Emperor wants to invade Tamriel.") The Tsaesci once held sway over the Empire and have tried to invade Tamriel by way of Skyrim, so it seems reasonable that other Akaviri peoples might do much the same. With a disorganized and headless legion standing as the only defense, it would seem to be a situation where a particularly strong-willed and charismatic figure might rise up to lead the legions and people of the north to repel the Akaviri. Then, having formed an alliance between the Nords and the Imperials, they will gather their armies the retake White-Gold from the "Ayleid", giving birth to the next Empire in much the same way as the first was born.

Such an event as this would likely be the springboard for the next part of the series. I imagine the Dunmer, under the pragmatic Helseth, would maintain a wait-and-see attitude, picking a side only when it looks to suit him best, but Summerset will likely be thrown into an upset with anti-Imperial (and even just anti-human) sentiment reaching a fever pitch (effectively, "why should we submit to these barbarians?"). Thus, it might be the case that, after Skyrim, the next game will be set on Summerset, with the scenario being the sons of Shor against the sons of Auri-El, the Padomaic versus the Anuic. It could be interesting, especially since the Emperor-to-be hasn't the Numidium as his predecessor did. Indeed, as some others have stated, all Hell may break loose.

Of course, I'm not sure how the Throat will be worked into such a storyline (and obviously, such is pure and baseless speculation. If I have hit on something after a year's absence from lore, it is purely by luck). So far, each game has held the tower and its stone as key elements of the story. I suspect Skyrim will be much the same. Perhaps the giants of the mountain can be harnessed by way of the Throat, but once again, I'm far too rusty to make any proper speculations on the matter (as for the short version of this, simply: New emperor, lots of strife, probably some o' them Daedra, and a couple of towers. Par-for-the-course in Tamriel. Well, except for the towers...).




From what I could see, the Emperor was, in a sense, the head of the church. This wasn't in the "Pope" sense, but rather more like in the "King of England and Church of England" sense. There may have been a religious leader at some point, but such individuals can prove to be serious rivals to any temporal lord, and thus a strong ruler would likely see to it that their position was either abolished or severely curtailed (much like we saw with Helseth and Almalexia).

As for what the books put forth in regards to succession, my assumption is that the books are to be regarded as an alternate reality such that the author can have his story without Bethesda having to constantly look over his shoulder to correct any mistakes. It's far easier to let such novels be alternate reality since the concerns are far less and the author has much greater freedom. Thus, I wouldn't take anything that the book states as fact, such as the existence of the Emperor's son. Only after the fact, if it manages to fit within the lore and/or is well-received by the fans, would it be be moved to canon.

¹The caveat here being that, although Ocato is the most vocal and visual member of the council, it is still the council that rules, not Ocato alone. Unless the council appoints Ocato as regent, then he is not truly the leader. Although appointing a regent would, in our world, be the next step in such an event, and although Ocato would be the most likely candidate, this does not mean that Tamriel operates under such measures, not to mention we do not know if Ocato is strong-willed enough to rise above the council, which itself seems to be composed of fairly powerful individuals. Thus, all of my ravings may be for naught... but why waste concepts? Without being voiced in some form, they merely fade into dream, and who knows, perhaps there will be some use for them in the end...