I like the all in one idea.

IT IS UP TO WHOEVER HAS FINISHED ARENA. EVERY GAME HAPPENS DURING A DRAGON BREAK.

I'm pretty sure there was only ever one Dragon Break...

well, three actually, but the games don't take place during any of them.

I only know of the Warp in the West, which I assume is the one that takes place at the end of Daggerfall. What were the other two?

The first was the Tribunal when they became gods (made it so they were gods all along)
The second was...Talos right? Or does that count as DF?

So if it turns out Umbra becomes a Daedric Prince, or whatever, does that count as a Dragonbreak?

If Umbra makes it so that he was a god at all points in time, yeah that'd be a dragon break, as he broke Akatosh (time) to be a god at all points. If he mantled something, then he was always that. If neither, I doubt Akatosh's back is going to be broken. However, someone did mention the dragon tends to break (well, every time it has happened so far) when a new god appears.

Oh crap, forgot about the Tribunal, make that four.

1) Tribunal
2) The Marukhathi Selective when attempting to remove aspects of Auriel from Akatosh. (This even is the original Dragon Break, as it literally involved the dragon)
3) At Rimmen, when Numidium is first assembled.
4) Warp In the West

The most important part of a Dragon Break is not someone becoming a god, it is the fracturing of time (Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time). Only the King of Worm's side of the Warp involved ascension. The Marukhathi weren't trying to ascend either - their goal was to remove the elven parts of their religion. Obviously impossible, as Auriel and Akatosh are [nearly] the same. The reason the Tribunal's ascension causes a Dragon Break is not that they became gods, it is the way they became gods (using mythopoeically enchanted, earthbone bending tools on the heart of Lorkhan). On the other hand, we have the ascension of Talos, which caused no temporal confusion (that is Dragon Break). Likewise, Vivec's realization of CHIM goes unrecorded, and nothing happened when the Dwemer absorbaside-ed themselves into a god (although one could say that is because the ritual was not completed).

I'd say no, Umbra becoming a Daedric prince will not cause a Dragon break. It would depend on the second novel, of course, but at the moment it looks like Vuhumba is borrowing power. He is a powerful individual, but not technically a god.

The Tribunal, the king of Alinor dude, and the Marukhati share the Middle Dawn dragon break. Five, if you're counting the middle dawn in pieces.

Bleh, I always forget the Marukhathi Selective.

While we're on the topic, where are we getting Dragon Break at Red Mountain from, anyways? Differences in perception of the Tribunal are more easily (and more elegantly, imo) explained by the passage of time than by a fracturing thereof. Obviously people still remember that the Tribunal used to be mortal.

Mannimarco?

Vivec, apparently (I just looked it up, luckily TIL is not yet down). I suppose it was just quick enough in the currently scheme of things to go unnoticed.

Well, not just Vivec and the Temple. http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/dragonbroke.shtml corroborates.

It wasn't so much a fracture of time, as two timelines acquiescing to be one.

Hrmm, could have sworn at least Vivec was more of the one who did so.

Close enough, really.

P.S. High King of Alinor = Auriel.

nevermind

Well I always thought the PC from Daggerfall was the "same", story-wise, as the one from Arena, as the Emperor calls you a close friend.

but then what about the 'history' thing in your main menu; that tells you your character's backround?

I though a dragon break whenever Akatosh dies (being mortal as an Aedra) and time is missing until he/she/it comes back through the dreemsleave. That's why every game is during a dragon break; in order for a shezzarine to appear I think Akatosh must be dead. Akatosh came out of the dreemsleeve to fight Dagon, and visibly dies from exhaustion. (in the time while Akatosh is alive every CoC is exactly the same, a person standing on the side)

Short answer: nope.

Long answer: Aedra don't just die, something has to kill them, and thats hard (if not impossible) to do. "Mortal" does not mean the same thing to a god as it does to a human. When Akatosh breaks (or bends, as it is also referred to) the Jills, his dragon daughter wives, put him back together, essentially reconciling what ever broke him in the first place (attainment of godhood, attempt to split the unsplitable, multiple game endings). Time is still present while he is broken, in fact, there are multiple (perhaps endless) realities which the Jills then put together into one combined reality. Time returns to the "nonlinearity of the dawn"*. There are far too many Shezarines for them to correspond to a Dragonbreak, and the player is not (always, ever?) a Shezarine. In conclusion: no, the game does not take place during a dragonbreak. We wouldn't know anything about the story of the preceding games if it did.

*quoted from memory, might not be exact

[censored] it. I whould stick to the enantiomorph metaphysical stuff. dragon breaks and vampire lore just aren't my thing.

Wait, wait, when was that mentioned?

Back in 2002 or 2003, I suggested this around these parts and got shouted down.

Doesn't really matter, I don't even remember the theory I had in mind when I suggested it.

I forgot. With TIL down, it makes the situation a little more difficult

Well, as you can see, I came around during 2007, so I assume many of the lore guys from before have left (and were probably very snobby about it)

Yeah, this is annoying. I'm trying to get my nephew to check this stuff out and no TIL.



I remember now: I suggested that interfering with divine things could cause dragon breaks, and that if one use of Numidium could cause a dragon break (Daggerfall), then another use could have. I was primarily wondering what happened to the Dwemer as well as what killed Indoril Nerevar.