Skyrim How The Empires Mede Dynasty Lost Power In The Fourth Era

Skyrim: How The Empire’s Mede Dynasty Lost Power In The Fourth Era

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Skyrim is the only Elder Scrolls game to take place under the rule of the Mede Dynasty, which gradually loses influence in Tamriel in the Fourth Era.

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Skyrim How The Empires Mede Dynasty Lost Power In The Fourth Era

When compared to its predecessors, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a bit of an oddity as the only mainline game in the series that takes place under the Imperial rule of the Mede Dynasty. The first four games in the fantasy RPG series – Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion – all take place in the Third Era, which ended alongside the culmination of the Septim Dynasty’s long reign. Skyrim takes place in 4E 201, and the contemporary Tamrielic Empire has significantly less influence than it did prior to the Oblivion Crisis.

From the time General Talos conquered Tamriel and united the provinces as Emperor Tiber Septim, to Martin Septim sacrificing himself to stop the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon from destroying The Elder Scrolls’ mortal plane of Nirn, the continent enjoyed a relatively peaceful four centuries. It’s understandable that after such a sturdy pillar of governance collapses, a power vacuum ensues. It would take more than a decade for the Empire to find its next ruler after the death of Martin Septim, but it could not recapture its former glory under fledging Mede Dynasty.

Skyrim is set nearly 200 years into the Mede Dynasty, and the eponymous province is the staging ground for an open, violent rebellion against the Empire. Imperial Legions march against the Stormcloak Rebellion at the behest of a rival sovereignty in what is known as the Skyrim Civil War. The Third Empire of The Elder Scrolls remains a pillar of the socio-political landscape throughout the first two centuries of the Fourth Era, but is a shell of its former self, gradually losing power, territory, and influence.

Rise Of The Mede Dynasty In The Fourth Era

Skyrim How The Empires Mede Dynasty Lost Power In The Fourth Era

When Uriel Septim VII was assassinated in the tunnels below The Elder Scrolls’ Imperial City, his illegitimate son, Martin, inherited the Ruby Throne. Martin’s rule would be extremely short-lived, however, and the Septim Dynasty would end along with the Oblivion Crisis. Following the culmination of the Third Era, a period known as the Stormcrown Interregnum began with the assassination of High Chancellor Ocato, head of the Elder Council and interim Potentate of the Tamrielic Empire. Though the Empire attempted to endure, many were vying for the Ruby Throne, and seven years after Ocato’s murder, a witch-warrior named Thules the Gibbering was ruling Cyrodiil and the floundering Empire.

Around 4E 17 in The Elder Scrolls Titus Mede overthrew Thules the Gibbering, convinced the High Council that he was the best ruler for the Empire amidst a lack of better options, and was subsequently crowned Emperor. Thus the Mede Dynasty began. In the early years of Titus Mede’s rule, the Empire’s weak state gave rise to other single most important ruling faction thus far in the Fourth Era – the Third Aldmeri Dominion. After years of instability in the Imperial City, the kingdom of Alinor rose once again in the Summerset Isles. Alinor soon conquered the neighboring province of Valenwood, declared sovereignty, and the Aldmeri Dominion officially began in 4E 29.

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The Aldmeri Dominion was largely governed by a political and paramilitary entity known as the Thalmor, which sought to establish High Elf supremacy throughout Tamriel, much like during the Merethic Era in the time before the First Empire. In order to combat the Aldmeri Dominion, the Empire sought an alliance with an Argonian faction from Black Marsh known as An-Xileel. It’s unknown how effective the alliance was, but The Elder Scrolls’ Aldmeri Dominion continued to grow in power during Titus Mede’s reign. Perhaps the biggest indication of how close the Third Empire came to irrelevancy is the fact that the date of Titus Mede’s death is a mystery, and what followed was a protracted era of unknown rulers.

The Mede Dynasty Leads The Empire In The Great War

Skyrim How The Empires Mede Dynasty Lost Power In The Fourth Era

It is presumed that Titus Mede was succeeded by his son, Attrebus, but the exact lineage is unknown until Titus Mede II ascends to the Ruby Throne in 4E 168. One of the defining events of this period is the Void Nights, in which Nirn’s two moons disappeared for roughly two years, which caused pandemonium amongst the Khajiits in Elsweyr. The moons hold great significance in Khajiit culture and when they returned in 4E 100, the Aldmeri Dominion claimed responsibility, resulting in Khajiit adoration and tanking Imperial influence in Elsweyr. A coup was staged to topple the Elsweyr Confederacy, giving way to the reformation of the kingdoms of Anequina and Pelletine, which both became client states to the Aldmeri Dominion.

In 4E 171, three years into Titus II’s rule, the Aldmeri Dominion made multiple requests of the Third Empire: make the worship of Talos illegal, disband the Blades which once served as the Imperial secret service, and cede territory in The Elder Scrolls’ Hammerfell province to the Dominion. The Aldmeri Dominion took issue with Talos since he was a Man deified; the ninth Divine which joined the pantheon when Tiber Septim ascended to godhood. By this time, the Blades no longer served the Emperor directly, since they were sworn to protect the Dragonborn, and the last known Dragonborns in The Elder Scrolls were the Septims, but the Thalmor nevertheless viewed them as a threat.

When Titus II declined these requests, the Aldmeri ambassador presented him with hundreds of heads taken from members of the Blades serving in Dominion territory, and the Great War began. The Great War is a major component in the continued decline of the Empire’s power. Over the course of the war, which lasted a total of five years, the Thalmor relentlessly invaded Cyrodiil and Hammerfell, eventually laying siege to the Imperial City. In a last ditch effort, Titus II abandoned the city, consolidated his army with forces from Skyrim and Hammerfell, and miraculously recaptured the capital in a five-day siege known as the Battle of the Red Ring. The two belligerents then signed the White-Gold Concordat, bringing an end to the Great War in 4E 176.

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The Mede Dynasty’s Treaty Starts Civil War In Skyrim

The White-Gold Concordat essentially granted two of the Aldmeri Dominion’s three original requests: outlaw the worship of Talos, and cede territory in Hammerfell to the Dominion. The latter would see The Elder Scrolls’ Empire lose yet another province, since the Redguards of Hammerfell felt abandoned by the Empire and started another conflict with the Thalmor. For noncompliance to the Concordat, Hammerfell was ousted from the Empire, and left to its own devices against the Aldmeri Dominion. The Summerset Isles, Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Hammerfell had now all fallen out of Imperial control under the Mede Dynasty.

Talos’ removal from the pantheon of the Divines angered the Nords of Skyrim in particular, and played a key role in an affair known as the Markarth Incident. Taking advantage of the preoccupied Empire during the Great War, Skyrim’s city of Markarth in the Reach was taken by Bretons native to the region. Jarl of the Reach, Hrolfdir, enlisted the help of Ulfric Stormcloak in recapturing Markarth, and promised to allow the free worship of Talos in the Reach if Ulfric was successful. Ulfric eventually ousted the Reachman and took control of Markarth, where chaos allegedly reigned and Talos was worshipped openly. Titus II sent Imperial Legions to investigate reports of rampant violence in Markarth, and acquiesced to Ulfric’s requirement that he and his men continue their worship in exchange for Imperial access to the city.

The Aldmeri Dominion eventually found out that a central tenet of the White-Gold Concordat was being shirked, and pressured the Third Empire to once again put an end to the worship of Talos. Ulfric was more or less used as a scapegoat for the Empire, and his capture and attempted execution began The Elder Scrolls’ Skyrim Civil War. The outcome of the Civil War depends on the player’s actions in Skyrim, but represents the continued decline of Imperial influence throughout Tamriel. Depending on the decisions of the player, it is also possible that Titus Mede II is assassinated by Skyrim’s chapter of the Dark Brotherhood. In comparison with the Septim Dynasty that came before, the Mede Dynasty of the Fourth Era leads a rather impotent Empire, which is openly persecuting religious worship to appease another nation by the time Skyrim takes place.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/skyrim-empire-mede-dynasty-fouth-era-elder-scrolls/

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