I know this has probably been asked a million times, but could someone please provide a link explaining what happens between Morrowind and Oblivion? I'm confused about how much time passes between the games, and what happens to the Nerevarine.

Thanks in advance, and my apologies for being repetious.

Taken from in-game TES IV dialogue:

Thats it? Rather anti-climactic, but thanks for the quick reply.

It's just a rumor.

What happens to the Nerevarine after the events of TES III: Morrowind, is up for you to decide.

EDIT: "you must be the letter written in uncertainty."

6 years have passed between Morrowind (3E 427) and Oblivion (3E 433). The whereabouts of the Nerevarine are unknown.

6 years and no one knows where he/she is? That seems a little lazy on the devs part to me. The Nerevarine would be one of the most important people in the entire Empire political system. Someone who could unite all the various Dunmer Houses and Ashlander tribes would pose a serious threat to the Empires control of Vvardenfell. Maybe Uriel Septim had the Blades assassinate him.

Exactly, and thus they would know their race and gender, and that would render whatever nerevarine you played void.

He/She with the Blades. Its out open the clear fact that the Nerevarine could be any race, gender, anything, as turns-the-page explained.

Nothing happens. The Nerevarine just stops being relevant, and so disappears into obscurity. Same as the Eternal Champion and the Emperor's Agent before, and same as the Champion of Cyrodiil after.

At least the CoC got his story wrapped up, pretty much banishing him to the shivering isles.

The Emperor's Agent died in one of the endings of DF though. So...if there was a way to remove him, and keep the level of uncertainty, that could have what the jills kept for him.

-Jagar Tharn melts like the Wicked Witch of the West and is never heard from again (aside from some theories about doppelganger heirs in Morrowind).
-The Warp in the West occurs and everybody becomes buddies. High Rock and Hammerfell become more boring than Todd Howard.
-Vvardenfell is invaded by Daedra and, most likely, totally obliterated.
-The Nerevarine goes off on Akavir with little-to-no explanation or whereabouts.
-Vivec is supposedly missing or kidnapped.

I think Bethesda is just trying to get past lore "out of the way" to avoid retcons. :facepalm:

It's up to you, really. There's a rumour in Oblivion that s/he has gone to Akavir, but it is just a rumour. (And yes, I completely agree that it's laziness on the devs' part - just imagine what a huge role the Nerevarine could have played in the Oblivion crisis, if s/he hadn't been conveniently absent at the time.)

Somebody who was harrased by heaps of proffesional Dark Brootherhood agents would survive a few Blades.

You don't think a Roman emperor wouldn't have had one of his Praetorian Guards killed if they became a threat to him? And what better way to keep an eye on a potential rival than have him be a member of your secret police where you could have them keep an eye on him?

I know he heads to cyrodiil for a bit. And gives a certain helmet to a certain member of the oryn family

Because, you know, we want to play the Nerevarine all over again. If he/she is not us, that would nullify all the different choices made by the player by giving the Nerevarine a specific race/gender. Which would be utter crap. It's an easy way to leave the fate of everyone's Nerevarine up to them. It's not laziness, it's an open-ended way of pushing the past hero aside so a new one can take his place.

That is probably exactly why it's kept so vague what actually happened to the Nerevarine after fulfilling all of Morrowind's quests. Bethesda writes the Nerevarine out in a vague manner so that players can decide for themselves what became of him or who he was.



Alternately, the Nerevarine could also be instrumental to eliminating Imperial opposition in Morrowind, since the Nerevarine, being as important as he is, would probably have a lot of influence, if the Nerevarine chooses to side with the Empire, it might do a lot to make the Dunmer at least more willing to tolerate it. And being an Outlander himself, the Nerevarine has little reason to want to remove the Imperial presence, and in fact would probably do everything within his power to ensure that foreign influences stay in Morrowind. And as Caius makes clear, the advantage of having a Nerevarine under its control are clearly present. Besides, if the Emperor had wanted to ensure that the Nerevarine could not unite the Duner against the Empire, he would probably see to it that the prisoner who has the appearance of fulfilling the Nerevarine prophecies can never fulfill them, not have that prisoner go and become the Nerevarine.



Ald-Rhun seemed to suffer that fate, and with it, the rest of Redoran as well, but as a whole, it doesn't sound like civilization on Vvardenfell has been destroyed to me. In fact, Hlaalu at least seems to be doing pretty well, and I'd think that losing their holdings on Vvardenfell would have been a pretty hard blow.

I never said you would have to play as the Nerevarine again. All they would have to do is include similar rumours describing the Nerevarine's role in battling the Daedra in Morrowind, something which could easily be done without assigning him/her a specific race or gender. His/her fate is not 'left up to you' in any case because whatever you decide on, you have to deal with the fact that s/he has vanished without a trace - something that eliminates a whole lot of more sensible options, such as those mentioned in Selbeth's post above. Having one of the most powerful figures in Morrowind mysteriously disappear throughout the Oblivion crisis is just too bloody convenient.

is/her fate is not 'left up to you' in any case because whatever you decide on, you have to deal with the fact that s/he has vanished without a trace

The Nerevarine hasn't vanished though, s/he's just not in recorded history anymore. If it is your wish that the Nerevarine battled hordes of daedra - then that's what happened.

What if the Nerevarine I played was a good-for-nothing scumbag, who only fulfilled the prophecies for the fame and riches. Do you think that character would stay and fight the daedra? No, it's my character, and I know he wouldn't. He'd take his riches and run.

But it isn't. We're told outright that "the Nerevarine has departed on an expedition to Akavir and has not been heard from since". While the Akavir part may be just a rumour, I think we'd hear something about it if the Nerevarine turned out to be right there in Morrowind and busy battling Daedra.


Whatever the devs decided on regarding the Nerevarine's fate, it would end up pissing at least someone off. Yeah, I guess some people might actually prefer the 'went to Akavir' scenario, but how many? We can't be sure, but my guess is 'not a lot'. It's the easiest solution, rather than the one that makes most sense, hence my comment about 'laziness'.

But it isn't. We're told outright that "the Nerevarine has departed on an expedition to Akavir and has not been heard from since". While the Akavir part may be just a rumour, I think we'd hear something about it if the Nerevarine turned out to be right there in Morrowind and busy battling Daedra.

Why would we hear about it? With the Empire in crisis I doubt anyone cares. Vivec's a much more prominent figure to the people, yet we still only heard rumors about him, nothing concrete.

Whatever the devs decided on regarding the Nerevarine's fate, it would end up pissing at least someone off. Yeah, I guess some people might actually prefer the 'went to Akavir' scenario, but how many? We can't be sure, but my guess is 'not a lot'. It's the easiest solution, rather than the one that makes most sense, hence my comment about 'laziness'.

That's exactly why every player characters fate is uncertain, so all things can happen, and be true. That way the dev's don't anger anyone, and your characters can have a 'fate'. Like I said, it doesn't make sense for my Nerevarine to put his life on the line for anyone, if he doesn't want to. If the dev's did start writing out a fate for our previous characters, it would take the only thing that differentiates our characters from the NPCs away. Choice.

Its not lazy, he simply cannot be allowed to stick around when a new hero had to step up. He'd get in the way. Now I think of it, where's the eternal champion? He's only 34 years older than what he was, surely he should be Ocato's right hand by now? The fact is, uber people with no defined characteristics have to be gotten rid of, as they'd screw with the story. Akavir IS the most sensible choice, short of disappearence.

We hear about all sorts of other things happening in Morrowind, some of which are far less relevant. It wouldn't even need to be anything particularly concrete or detailed, just rumours like "The Nerevarine is meeting with King Helseth to discuss Imperial expansion in Vvardenfell" or "I hear the Nerevarine has returned from Akavir to aid the Dunmer in their struggle against Dagon's hordes". That would still leave plenty of leeway for players to decide what else their Nerevarine has been doing - not total freedom, but as I already pointed out, we don't get that anyway.


But they did still annoy people, as ought to be clear from this thread. Don't get me wrong; I realise that it's a common problem in videogame sequels, deciding what to do with the main character from a previous game in the series. But I have absolutely no sympathy for the 'shove them offstage and pretend they no longer exist' approach.


Why? Why can't he be doing the same sort of thing in Morrowind that the Champion is doing in Cyrodiil? As for the Eternal Champion, I agree; that makes no sense either. My point is that I'm sure the devs could find a way round these problems if they really tried; it's just easier for them to say "oh yes, these incredibly powerful and influential people all just mysteriously vanished and no one knows what happened to them".

You're not getting it.

It's like us trying to tell MK what Vehk did after his Trial. We can't, because Vehk isn't our character, just as the Nerevarine isn't their character. Or rather, my Nerevarine isn't their character.