Hello all. I'm going to be starting a new Redguard character on Skyrim soon and I've been working on constructing a back story for him. I've read some books on the Great War so I know how that went down in Hammerfell and what effects it had but it's also been mentioned that before the Great War Hammerfell was in the middle of a Civil war but allied against the Aldmeri Dominion when they invaded. I know that the war was fought between the Forebears and the Crowns but I haven't been able to find any information on why. I'm not all that knowledgeable when it comes to Lore so I was wondering if any of you could tell me why the Hammerfell Civil war was being fought. Cheers in advance.

Not much information on it other than what is found in that book. However, it was most likely just a typical war between the two factions, as they fight all the time.

So what do both of these factions support? Is there some reason they could be fighting?

The comic released with the Redguard game had some interesting insight on the civil war.
You can download it http://www.elderscrolls.com/redguard/ or http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Redguard:Redguard

The split between the Forebears and the Crowns goes back to the exodus from Yokuda.

the Forebears claim heritage from the Raga'Da (or is it Ra'Gada? Raga punctuation. ick.), the original 'Warrior Wave' that colonized the southern Illiac Bay region. The were the first Redguards settled on Tamriel since the original diaspora of Ehlnofey. The standard tale, with much complexity smoothed out of it, is that they began assimilating the culture of their neighbors when the second group of Yokudans, the nobility and priesthood, from whom the Crowns claim descendance. The traditionalist Crowns and the marginally-more-progressive Forebears have been fighting about what's Honorable ever since.


Crowns support traditionalist monarchy, opposed Tiber Septim, Forebears possess some of the only republican tendencies in this universe and sided with Septim in a bid for power against the Crowns. Both groups traditionally get over themselves whenever a greater threat appears or Hoonding shows up and starts yelling "MOVE, [censored]"