OK, lets say at maximum Dagail is 100, if so then her father would be at most 140.

The time of Tiber Septim was 200 years ago. And Uriel has been ruling for 65 years!

So how could Dagails father work for Tiber Septim?

For the similar architectures of the forts, I'd wager that it's just Cyrodiil's architecture. Like how Kogoruhn was separate from the other Dunmer strongholds (as the propylon network did not extend to it), but had the same architecture and basic design.


Dagail could be older than 100, being both an elf and a mage. Easily.

Also, Tiber Septim was over 400 years ago, since TES IV begins late 433 of the Third Era, which Tiber Septim started.

Elven mages can live well into their thousands, the third shortest* lived elven race, Dunmer, have mages (Diviath Fyr) who has been around since the first era. He was older than Sotha Sil.

*Orsimer and Khajiit(mer) as elven races, and assuming Khajiit(mer) are short lived.

I don't know if the thread addressed this, but in the real world the amount of fortresses in a medieval environment is inversely proportional to the degree of centralization in the government. That is because castles/fortresses are very easy to defend and very difficult to capture. So while technically subject to some other sovereign (assuming we're working under a model of Feudalism and assuming Feudalism existed at all) each and every Castellan was essentially a nation unto themselves. That is bad for things like empires, so during periods of centralization, Imperial powers would do everything they could to destroy castles/fortresses except those in the vital and semi-autonomous boarder regions. Likewise, during periods of decentralization (such as minority rule -- or the relationship of Holy Roman Emperors with the territories that can be considered "German" and their non-"German" colonies) local rulers would build up castles/fortresses like mad to ensure their independence.

Since the Empire appears to be relatively centralized, it makes sense that they'd have relatively few castles/fortresses. And the few castellans that remain aren't randoms but rather entrenched nobility -- and that is precisely what we see in-game with the major cities.

So they weren't repaired?

There is no mystery. M'aiq knows all. The forts were here, and now they are not!