Look up the Skyrim Conquests. The First Empire of the Nords was an Empire created by the descendants of Ysgramor which covered High Rock, Skyrim, Colovia and Morrowind. To do it they defeated the Falmer of Skyrim, the Aldmer and the Orsimer of High Rock, the Dwemer and Dunmer of Morrowind and the Ayleids in Colovia. The only group of Elves they hadn't attacked were the Bosmer and when Borgas asked the Alessian Empire to assault Valenwood with him, the Bosmer unleashed the Wild Hunt. Which started a civil war which ultimately destroyed it.

Since then, the Nords haven't been that prominent although they are usually the Beef behind the Cyrodiils Talk, the soldiers of the Empire. Although during Jagar Tharn's reign they defeated both High Rock and Hammerfell in althe war of Umbra 'Keth(?).

The War of Bend'r-Mahk. The Umbra' Keth is something very different.

The appearance of a new dynasty in and of itself certainly isn't enough to result in a change of Empire (the Akaviri rulers were considered part of the Second Empire, according to the Pocket Guide), and I doubt a period of less than a generation in between is quite enough to add to that meaningfully compared to the nearly four and a half centuries of rule that came before. And to compare: the interregnum between the fall of the First Empire (the War of Righteousness) and the beginning of the second (Reman's victory at Pale Pass) was 382 years, and that between the Second (the assassination of Savirien-Chorak) and the Third (the recovery of the Amulet of Kings from Sancre Tor) was 421 years. A couple decades is nothing compared to those.

You might want to start with these:

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-skyrim
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-third-edition-throat-world-skyrim
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/frontier-conquest-and-accommodation

From memory: The first PGE puts the nedes on a fairly straightforward descent from the Nords, while Frontier, Conques and Accomodation explains that the Nedes have always been here and have mixed with the Atmorans. The First PGE has some obvious propaganda reasons to proclaim Imperials and Nords to be blood brothers. FCA makes most historical sense given the existence of all the different tribes of man under Ayleid rule around the time of Allesia.

It wasn't so much the lack of leadership that makes me wonder, it is the fact that much of the empires provinces were lost in the process. I think the White-Gold Concordat is a pretty big departure from the 3rd Empire as well. The 3rd Empire and Talos are so interconnected that the ban on Talos worship reveals a completely new empire with a different "personality".

The relatively short time period after the fall of Ocato is a good point though. I guess I'm sitting on the fence at this point.

I hope I'm not misinterpreting this bit of RL history, but it reminds me greatly of the splintering of the Roman Empire. It became two different national powers after that, but was still considered an extension of the previous Empire.

It's not the good, old Septim days, but the Third Empire still exists in a lesser form.

Tiber was Hjalti Early-Beard the Breton. Talos was Hjalti, Zurian, and Ysmir Kingmaker souls all wrapped into one big Aedra.

Titus Mede I was similar to Cuhlecain, only lacking of a Tiber Septim stabbing his back so the Zero-Dynasty continued.

By birth and deed we can even say something like Titus Mede I was mantling Cuhlecain.

Is it still mantling if certain events don't quite mirror the original (incarnation?)?

Or anticipation?

I guess? I feel that we drop the Mantle bomb way too much on this forum.

Just because they're similar doesn't mean he's mantling him. There's only so many things you can do without being compared to someone else.

I subscribe to the Tullius Stormcloak theory based primarily upon the obvious punny names. Tullius sounds like Talos, Stormcloak sounds like Stormcrown, and I doubt that's an accident.

Iirc, the Rome situation was pretty radically different. Basically, the way it went with Rome was:

• We've got a kingdom!
  
• Screw Tyranny, we've got a republic!
  
• The republic thing isn't working out so great (Social Wars). We need an emperor!
  
• We're too big, have had too many civil wars and upstart generals, we need emperors (Iirc two Augusti and two Caeses)!
  
• We have multiple sovereign leaders. We need to separate our states!

It was all pretty continuous. The situation with the Mede empire strikes me as being more similar to how the Tsars considered themselves to be the inheritors of Rome's legacy via the Eastern empire, despite there being no real connection between them (besides the Church).

I was only referencing that last particular bit of Roman history, not all of it.
Byzantium (more specifically) believed they were the direct inheritors of the Roman empire. In a way, they were (culture, language) and yet were not (smaller, different areas).

Mede was the "inheritor" of the Septim empire. It still had the same culture, same laws, etc, but it was considerably lesser in form (influence, wealth and might) then when Uriel was still sitting on the throne.

That's all I was trying to point out.

Punny, or ironic?

It's punny. The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humor or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric effect.

In this case, it's word-play using similar-sounding words for a non-humorous effect.

I guess I just don't see how that's the same. It's not like the Medes were regional rulers of Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and High Rock or anything. They're just a completely different family.

So.... a Breton founded the Empire?

I thought it was the Nords who led the Imperials to building the Empire. Without the Nords, there would be no Empire. Without the Imperials, there would still be no Empire. The two races had to culminate in order for it to work. I thought that was how it was.

I thought Talos was a Nord because the Nords respect and look up to him so highly.

Talos is a Nord as Wulfharth was/is/will be a Nord.
So though born a Breton or a Breton-Nord Hybrid or even any other races, Talos IS a Nord, and beyond a Nord.