bliviongate:

So I have looked around for a long time now but have found only bits and pieces of info, so I am sorry if I am ignorant on the topic of when in relation to the events in Oblivion and Morrowind is Skyrim set at?

Also I read on a few posts now about Vvardenfel having been destroyed; I have actually read that novel (can't think of the title now) where those events take place. I think it is the only novel based on the elder scrolls to date and it was actually very good, but I did not realize that the events described in it would actually become game lore.
So is this indeed the background setting to Skyrim, where all of Morrowind is a wasteland and the empire has collapsed etc?

I believe it's right around 200 years after the Oblivion crisis.

Skyrim takes place around 4E182 (according to the map), and the novel took place around 4E50.