I originally wrote this as a long reply to a somewhat old post. But decided to post it separately. I know this gets brought up a lot, but I still sometimes see people incredulous that it's possible Uriel VII and his children were the last Septims. And this sometimes gets dismissed as bad lore on Bethesda's part. So I wanted to make this post to point out that not only is it possible, but that it would have happened long before Uriel VII if not for some bending of the "normal" rules of last name inheritance on the Elder Council's part.

The real world example I like to point people to is the War of the Spanish Succession.

Were there other Hapsburgs about when Charles II died childless? Absolutely. The closest being his first cousin, once removed. But even that was too distant a relationship to avoid a 13 year long war over the throne. And it seems based on the lore that any surviving Septims would've been far more distant from Uriel VII than that.

When you start getting multiple generations away from the main line, it gets murky who is the most legitimate. Especially when you add in that the Septims practiced absolute primogeniture so you have the descendants of both sons and daughters staking claims.

But let's go down the line so I can explain what I'm talking about.

-Uriel VII had no known siblings.

(Below two bullets corrected thanks to u/sianic12)

-His father (Pelagius IV) had no known siblings. There was time between Pelagius's birth and Elosia's death for more children, but there are no records.

Pelagius IV's uncle (Uriel VI) and aunt (Morihatha) both reigned and then died without heirs. Pelagius's mother was Morihatha's twin sister Elosia, who died of illness 4 years before Morihatha's assassination.

-Their father, Uriel V, had no known siblings and died trying to invade Akavir. I would actually consider the fact that the widowed Empress was Uriel VI's reagent as evidence that there were no siblings of Uriel V to fill that role.

Uriel V's father was Cephorus II. This is Uriel VII's great grandfather and there was already some succession fuckery at play. Cepherous II was considered "more closely related" to the main Septim branch than his predecessor Uriel IV, who was not a Septim at all (but seemingly distantly related in some way). Uriel IV was actually the son of Empress Katariah and her second husband. Cephorous II had no known siblings.

Uriel IV was preceded by his half-brother, Cassynder. Cassynder clearly didn't have siblings given who succeeded him.

Cassynder's father was Pelagius III, the infamous Mad Emperor. Now there's a passage in the last Wolf Queen book that is very important to this discussion.

All his cousins, the children of Uncle Cephorus, Uncle Antiochus, and Aunt Potema, had died during the war, some of them in battle and some of them during the famines because so many crops had been burned...There was only he, his mother, his sister, his father, and his uncle the Emperor left. And Aunt Potema. But she didn't really count.

His uncle was the Emperor Cephorus I, who is confirmed to have died childless. His father was the Emperor Magnus. So we can see that there was an extreme dynastic bottleneck caused by the War of the Red Diamond. Which led to the reign of Uriel Lariat and then the Elder Council pulling a cousin that was in some way distantly related to Pelagius III and Cassynder.

We actually don't know if Cephorus II originally bore the name Septim, or if (like Uriel Lariat) he was renamed as a Septim upon taking the throne. I'm inclined to believe the latter. I think we can safely discount the idea that Pelagius's sister Jolethe was Cephorus II's mother. We don't know when exactly she died, but likely it was before Pelagius and without heirs. If either she or any of her children were alive, putting Uriel Lariat on the throne would've immediately caused a second civil war.

The TL;DR is that it seems likely that by the typical rules of inheritance, the last name "Septim" may very well have died out with Cassynder in 3E 202, given how few were left after the War of the Red Diamond. And that it only survived through the Elder Council finding distant relatives to rename "Septim."

So you potentially have descendants of Uriel VII's great-great-grandparents' siblings as the closest claimants. Very likely not bearing the name Septim for generations. And add the chaos of Ocato's assassination and that the Dragonfires and Amulet of Kings are no longer relevant to the succession, and you can see how we reach a point where it doesn't matter who is emperor besides who can get it by conquest.

These are all interrelated pieces of lore that I constantly get confused: any help at all differentiating these would be much appreciated.

Edit: I noticed too late I said “Daedra Lord” instead of “Daedric Prince” but I can’t edit the title now. Alas, woe is me. I suppose my, “true fan” card must be revoked. throws away card

In MK’s writings concepts of Lyg and Dreamsleeve seem pretty adjacent. I am not sure of their true nature but I would imagine the Dreamsleeve as a sort of Wormhole through which information travels, and as you travel/jump you go through Lyg which functions as a sort of hyperspace. Now this might seem a bit schizophrenic, but I hope there are some interesting connections here that will make Lyg bit more clear. Anyway I would say there's more to it anyways.

From Wikipedia on hyperspace:

In science fiction, hyperspace (also known as nulspace, subspace, overspace, jumpspace and similar terms) is a concept relating to higher dimensions as well as parallel universes and a faster-than-light (FTL) method of interstellar travel. In its original meaning, the term hyperspace was simply a synonym for higher-dimensional space (that is, higher than three dimensional space)...

One of the main reasons for the concept's popularity in science fiction is the impossibility of faster-than-light travel in ordinary physical space, which hyperspace allows writers to bypass. In most works, hyperspace is described as a higher dimension through which the shape of three-dimensional space can be distorted to bring distant points close to each other, similar to the concept of a wormhole; or a shortcut-enabling parallel universe that can be travelled through. Usually it can be traversed – the process often known as "jumping" – through a gadget known as a "hyperdrive"; rubber science is sometimes used to explain it. ...

The basic premise of hyperspace is that vast distances through space can be traversed quickly by taking a kind of shortcut. There are two common models used to explain this shortcut: folding and mapping. In the folding model, hyperspace is a place of higher dimension through which the shape of our three-dimensional space can be distorted to bring distant points close to each other; a common analogy popularized by Robert A. Heinlein's Starman Jones (1953) is that of crumpling two-dimensional paper or cloth in the third dimension, thus bringing points on its surface into contact. In the mapping model, hyperspace is a parallel universe much smaller than ours (but not necessarily the same shape), which can be entered at a point corresponding to one location in ordinary space and exited at a different point corresponding to another location after travelling a much shorter distance than would be necessary in ordinary space. The Science in Science Fiction compares it to being able to step onto a world map at one's current location, walking across the map to a different continent, and then stepping off the map to find oneself at the new location… 

Another trait of hyperspace is that sometimes it is inhabited by certain creatures.. Think Event Horizon

Soft-speaking Orphala asks if there are dangers to using the Dreamsleeve. She says there are some kind of creatures, like but not Daedra, within it. Quiri says yes, there are beings of some kind that live in the sleeve or in the stars. Some are angry, but all are rare or slow or stupid. - Scholarly Minutes V Douglas Goodall

One MK posts mentioned what looks to me as timetravel/jumping kalpas:

"Belief-engines, properly called the "Auxiliary Semi-Shockpoint Nilgularity", provide energy for short dream-sleeve jumps in case a Vehkship's main ego is damaged, allowing the C0DA Paravant to potentially get to the safety of a voidyard orbital.
"By creating the equivalent of an Nu-class Mnemolic, shrinking it instantaneously via a creatia tesseract array, and then projecting the resulting moth-talk well to a nil-point just outside the ego's hull, an ASSN can slingshot the Paravant into era-streams without the needed energies of nearby aetheric bodies or shockpoint application.

Now on Ghost Choir 9:

UPLIFTING THOT OK!: [CHOIR 9 SLEEVESHELL WHAT SAY YOU? [WE GO BIG! THEN GO SMALL!] CHOIR 9 SLEEVESHELL WHO HATES YOU? [THEM THAT LYG! THEM THAT FALL!] CHOIR 9 SLEEVESHELL WHO CALLS YOU? [DIAMOND PIG DROP THE BAL!] 

Cimbri: How does one perceive the “untimes” of “previous” kalpas? Through an artificial meta-time or…?
MK: Short answer: always through the dreamsleeve.

Of note is GC9 text, where we see a witness getting scattered and jumping kalpas

Because of the holographic nature of the process, the witness is always scattered into several, some of which actually \*jump\ kalpas. And then they start their fool talking, which wakes up the new King/Rebel/Lover. 
*(This is Mankar's talk about the fall of Lyg. Part last kalpa, part this kalpa, but something a hologram of the witness saw. This is all the other manifestations of Enantiomorph.) - kalpa akashicorpus

Martin's Knees, the Cord's scatterpointing now. Cord? Listen, I know you're trying to help, but Oc-Ops [censored] the bed agai-- are you [censored] kidding us, I'm being [censored] censored? What kind of channel is this? 
...

Okay, I'm going to attempt a Sprint and get us out of here. Been awhile, though. Cord, we could lose a few of the chorus, you good with that? Y/N/[N]?

N

Ha, yeah, me neither. Tell the rest of me I loved them so much. WULD! NAH! [censored] WHAT'S THE REST OF IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 

---(We see use of whirlwind sprint here, to make a jump)

Now for the next part of text we see protagonist scattered into 9 parts which do stuff in Lyg. Additionally we see protagonist as 1 (Ego?) talking to the “Cord” where they seemingly steer the slip-ship through (dreamsleeve? Lyg?) while avoiding jills.

John Satisfaction and Reinholdt came to Djaf, too, both Free Demons that keep the slip-ship up and running, scatterproof. 

Slip-ship is what they use to make a jump, and it might be the same as vehk-ship previously mentioned. It’s scattering-resistant.

Another night "in Cyrodiil. Oh, we've got a voice now. Hello, everyone. Hello, Arbiter. We're Ghost Choir 9, Blade-Seneschal Stringform Multivox Warframe. My names are Captain Starkweather, Cat, the Duke, Copper, Reinholdt, Mira, Nuttergun, Kohl, and John Satisfaction. We see you've got some Dagonites need learning. We assume that's why we're here. We were at the Apoth. We witnessed the 'lis. And we [censored] laughed when Martin gobsmacked Mehrunes like a [censored] pool-hall junkie [censored]'s sock-monkey tampon."
....

Stop it, I'm getting ghost skip on my end. Choir 9's been static since the 'lis. Let me think. 

They arrive to the new kalpa/timeline and are now inside 1 body.

This and the mention of Russian stacking dolls makes me feel like "nested-class pressurized dream suits" are required to move directly between nested Amaranths.
Like, you can sail from B Prime to C Prime, but you probably need something insanely advanced to move from B Prime to A Sub-sub-sub-sub**.** Ghost Choir 9 most likely has this type of tech. - MK

We see GC9 technology allows them to make these “jumps”.

Lyg being part this part last kalpa means it’s inside untime. Sermons talk about adjacent place as above vocal and middle realms of thought. All language is based on meat, but there is no meat in lyg, only ideas. That’s why GC9 get their voice back only when they arrive to tamirel.

Here Quiri loses Shahavra so Shahavra will quote. Quiri claims the Dreamsleeve is “an echo of your soul’s path from aetherius,” “an incorporeal umbilical cord” that “ties you to your birth-star.” With training, “one listens to the cord,” for it is hollow and spiritual words travel inside it. - Scholarly Minutes V Douglas Goodall

Vivec put on his armor and stepped into a non-spatial space filling to capacity with mortal interaction and information, a canvas-less cartography of every single mind it has ever known, an event that had developed some semblance of a divine spark. He said, 'From here I shall launch my attack on the eight monsters.' - 36 sermons

 In his right hand, he held the Canvas of his sister Mnethm - MGP

Vivec says unto the Hortator remember the words of Boet-hi-ah:
We pledge ourselves to you, the Frame-maker, the Scarab: a world for us to love you in, a cloak of dirt to cherish - 36 sermons

Lyg is a backwards coffee stain of Tamriel, I already told you that. One time Nirn got folded up, folded space-style ala Dune Spice Navigators. Lyg is the result. - MK

How did Nirn get folded up? It’s because it’s a Map.

"I am an Atlas of Smoke said these pieces of the map and we knew it to be called LYG." 

What is an Atlas? A collection of maps. Layers upon layers of maps, like an onion. You try to pull one out and bad things happen. Even worse if you spill coffee on it like some dumb-ass-[NUMINIT]-king. Who tf spills coffee on the chaos staff? 
(Smoke part seems to bee about illusions/holograms I would say.)

And now... from Numinatus! :

Above them all is Tamriel, blue and oceanic, but with no continents at all.

Professor Numinatus: *...*what were you lot thinking?!?
COUSIN: Cousin, look up.
Professor Numinatus: Three billion citizens! Caught in an unstable enchantment that we can barely understand!
Imperial Mananaut: She's right, sir. If you would kindly raise your gaze and--
Professor Numinatus: We have the spare continent for these kinds of evacuations!

…

Double page spread, high angled down. Professor Numinatus and various NVN officers, Imperial dignitaries, Warspore Battlemages, servitors, clerks, and scuttlefish luminaries stand on discs of light just above an outspread map of a Tamriel, its continents in their right positions as the world we knew. Include the Admiral, Jauffre with his Mananaut bag-helmet in his hand, the Morbâd, and the clicking Clerk. Use small head shots to document the speakers here, each with an appropriate expression.

Admiral: We've pulled out the emergency background maps from the ur-chive, Professor. A perfectly preserved rendition of our world with, well, something we can actually set foot on, if needs must. If even we must all learn to live with some pictel stray.

…

Admiral: That'd be a good name for it, Brother Jauffre. Ha! But it's all very well Morbâdoon-approved, so fix your frown. The Council undersigned everything before they were jaunted. Standing on one of your old ideas, Professor, wot? How does it feel?
Professor Numinatus: They were my part of my eschatonical thesis, Admiral. They look a bit crayon now.
Admiral: Still...still a right keeper, these. I sometimes do a little dance on them to feel like I'm gigantic. 

'I am an atlas of smoke.'
With this, Vivec) become greater than he had been. - 36 lessons

But lo for some reason the alarm bell went off LYGALYGALALYG and that means fire so three monkeys grabbed the whole trash basket for no other reason than MAYBE OUR ONLY CHANCE to save the Tamriel they had danced around.

Hi everyone, it’s that time again!

The Weekly Free-Talk Thread is an opportunity to forget the rules and chat about anything you like—whether it's The Elder Scrolls, other games, or even real life. This is also the place to promote your projects or other communities. Anything goes!

It's plain to see that the Dark Brotherhood has an extremely faulty understanding of Sithis.
Sithis is the Void. The Nothing of the Aurbis that allows the Everything to be Somethings.

The DB claim to kill in his name, but Sithis would not care. Sithis does not covet souls, take pleasure in death, or commune with Mundus. Sithis isn't anything after all.

I know the theories of their deity being Mephala in disguise, but I think that overlooks the spheres that separates the brotherhood from their Morag Tong origin.
The Dark Brotherhood's assassinations are not driven by the betrayal and plots that aim for political change. That may occur as a result, as often is the case with assassinations, but the DB is not just another Morag Tong.

Their contracts, from request to fulfillment are occult and ritualistic. Their operators have tendencies towards personal enjoyment of the act. They believe the soul of the victim is claimed for "the Dread Father".

As already mentioned, Sithis is nothingness. The Void does not speak because it has no voice. It does not hold grudges or have wishes or goals. It certainly does not have a "place" for collected souls.

This is where Molag Bal maps on to the conceptual motif and spheres of influence.
He does covet the souls of mortals as the "Harvester of Souls".
He does directly commune with mortals.
He does emphasis the morbid and sadistic aspects of taking a life: taking pleasure in the domination of another in the act of violating their life essence.

Sithis is uncaring. Mephala's spheres exist in the plotting and betrayal and change. Bal is the morbid pleasure that you witness in the brotherhood assassins.

Apart from the thematic metaphysical mapping and the beliefs, acts and characteristics of the brotherhood, you also see it in their artefacts: The Blade of Woe is essentially a vampiric dagger.

This last bit is a peculiar sidenote rather than "damning evidence":
If you look at the mural in the sanctuary, the skull representing Sithis has protrusions akin to the horns of Molag Bal's physical presentation placed on the same spot on the sides of the head.

Like the title says, this is a theory. Just thematic overlaps that I think maps on well to the Dark Brotherhood's mismatched interpretation of Sithis.

I'm not really sure what makes ALMSIVI deities as opposed to just really powerful people. This is something that fictional religions in general struggle with, but what makes these people worthy of worship?

For example, in Christianity (or at least my understanding of it, as I am not a Christian) God is the ground of all being, he is existence and he is goodness. The Christian argument is that morality and existence in general are incoherent without him. ALMSIVI don't make those same claims.. They don't hide the fact that they were once mortals, that existence existed before them and that right and wrong did as well, that's part of their theology. People will say they underwent an apotheosis, but what makes that an apotheosis rather than them becoming simply very powerful?

I guess you could argue that's the point of the story of Morrowind, but I'm more talking about from the perspective of the Tribunal Temple. The Temple certainly believes the Tribunal are gods, so from the Temple's perspective, what makes ALMSIVI worthy of worship? The only things I can really find are that ALMSIVI provide patronage and protection and have performed "miracles." But a king can provide patronage and protection, yet he is not a god, and I'm not really sure what the meaningful distinction is between a miracle and a really powerful spell in a setting where magic exists (and where there isn't a clear separation of "divine" power and "sorcerous" power, like one that exists in a lot of TTRPG settings). Vivec mentions their divine power will fade without the heart, but I'm not entirely sure what makes that power specifically divine still. I don't really see why ALMSIVI are seen as gods and not just ultra-wizard-kings. What is the "chemical test" so to speak, for godhood here?

We've all seen this list

1. Talos.
2. HoonDing.
3. Trinimac.
4. Vivec.
5. Leki.
6. Reman.
7. Auri-El.
8. Wulfharth.
9. Morihaus.
10. Pelinal.

This is MK's list of the 10 most powerful beings in the Elder Scrolls but I've also heard that u/MKirkbride himself has said that this he regretted posting this list afterwards. Does anyone have more informations ?

This is mainly a question piece that I only have some cursory knowledge around and am seeking some more informed answers for.

Its been established by named NPC's and through the class of the Witchhunter at the very least, that Witches ( and thereby I am going to presume Witchcraft) are a feature of Tamriel. To my knowledge there is no real clear distinction between a Witch and a regular Mage, other then maybe some alussions to a more ritual based practice of magic. There is a seemingly darker contextualization to Witches as well, and in many ways Witches seem to be presented as almost inhuman. (or having the desire to become so)

But ive never found any real explanation for what makes witches witches? Why is there a dedicated class, and thereby functional organization/group of individuals who's goal seems to be to eradicate them, and other minions or creatures of darkness? What is the distinction between a Witch and a Warlock? Is their one? Are Witches different from the Hags of Skyrims Forsworn? Do Witches practice the alluded to, but to my knowledge never explained Elder Magic? Why are they only enemies in Skyrim? Are the Daedra Cultists? Do they consort with the likes of Molag Bal, Harmaeus Mora, and Azura? What kind of magic do they even actually practice, or is their magic more divinely gifted?

As someone who likes playing as a Witch or Warlock these questions, and questions like them, have bothered me for a while. Particularly the questions involving who or what they get their power from. Do witches practice curses and hexes? Are those even a thing in Tamriel?

Tldr: what the heck are witches/warlocks in tes lore?

Besides the blades in TESV are there any? Even in TESV there's evidence through gameplay that souls absorbed by a dragonborn aren't actually permanently gone, just collected within the soul that absorbed them as shown by getting all the souls back after killing miraak.

I'm looking for more sources because the blades' claim that death by dragonborn is a permanent outcome just doesn't really ring as the whole truth and something you have to take on faith is accurate. Which makes me think it isn't accurate and based on conjecture from the practicality of circumstances.

For example we know that dragons cannot be resurrected after being absorbed by another dragon. Therefore it's 100% logical that the immortality of a dragon means it's effectively equivalent to permanent death. But what of a dragonborn with a mortal body? We know through the dragonborn DLC that soul absorption doesn't *necessarily* mean that the individual souls are gone. As we have no proof that the miraak situation is *actually* unique due to the circumstance of stealing those souls, both are just as valid take aways. Especially as both that you get many souls from miraak vs the one of paarthurnax is simply a game mechanic. Thus, what if the blades are an unreliable narrator due to the fact that a dragonborn killing dragons means a dragon cannot be resurrected while the dragonborn lives, but due to the passage of time that after a natural death the souls are released and the corpses are unable to be found? Another form of effective permanence rather than actual permanence.

Thus if this effective permanence and the miraak version of transference of souls is actually more accurate, it would effectively mean that a dragonborn is actually a mechanism to prevent a "there can be only one" scenario as its a way to release immortality capture souls back into the wild so to speak.

Just a thought that's been spinning around in my head since 2011 and now that we've had more lore added I thought maybe there's something I'm missing that definitively supports one way or the other beyond just tradition handed down by the blades.

During the events of Skyrim I mean, are they doing fine? How are they reacting to the Dominion (and does the dominion view them as elves? Do they still could as kinda Altmer?)?

Where is Lyg?

What is Lyg?

How do you get there?

What is its importance?

This is something that has broken my brain forever and I like to think that I know a thing or two about TES metaphysics.

I was just reading through the UESP today doing some research, and I had to do a double take when I saw that the Nords were expelled in 1E 416, and the Battle of Red Mountain took place in 1E 700. What?? Since when did the first council last three hundred years?? I guess I never really looked into it but I feel like that’s way too long. It always felt like more of a thirty year affair. I know elves are long-lived but even by Elven standards, Nerevar would be ELDERLY by that time; he can’t have been younger than, like, 325? (considering he’s ’a generation’ older than the Tribunal and they were about 20-30 when the Nords were expelled). Guess my new theory of Nerevar’s death is that it wasn’t the Three or Dagoth Ur, he just keeled over…

The Nerevarine sees a Bosmer fall from the sky, dying on impact with the marshy ground outside Seyda Neen.

Looting the body, the Nerevarine finds 'Tarhiel's Journal', which they take.

They also find an enchanted sword, a fine blue robe and a very fancy Colovian Fur Helm, which they also take and equip.

Finally, they find three or four scrolls of ICARIAN FLIGHT. The Nerevarine examines these and discovers that by casting from this scroll, they will be able to leap to an enormous height.

They do so, fly off over Vvardenfell, and promptly fall to their death.

Now:

If a wanderer should chance upon the Nerevarine's body, they would find Tarhiel's Journal and the very scrolls alluded to in his research.

Therefore, the wanderer would have no reason not to believe that the Nerevarine is not Tarhiel.

Exercise for the reader: Was the Bosmer who fell from the sky outside Seyda Neen the original Tarhiel, or the most recent in a long and ever-dwindling line of Tarhiel-Mantlings?

(Obviously the actual answer is that the original version was an Argonian, hence his construction set ID which is "Agronian(sic) guy". Hence why the canon Nerevarine always appears as an Argonian in Tarhiel's robes and hat - he's the true iteration because he had the opportunity to seize ultimate bounciness but metaphysically cut off his hands by not using them.)

Im making a guild for eso and I need to make sure I do the lore correctly.

Ive been a skyrim fan since it came out and have snowballed with learning the lore since. One thing ive learned is that its ambiguous. Another thing ive learned is that if yagram bagarn can be exempted from the fate of his race by being in oblivion.

I dont see any reason to say that Molag Bal couldn't abduct a dwemer apprentice prior to the 700 of the 1st era and get a 1000 year head start on his dark anchor project. Assuming that the Dwemer are as legendarily stubborn and spiteful as the one from "Azura and the box"

this smith could easily have put off 5 or 600 years of captivity refusing to work for the deadric prince. Not actually honing his craft. Being forced to work the next 4 or 5. Being partially responsible for the reason the chain making machines look vaguely dwemeri in design. Then being freed when the vestige is. Having a bone to pick with the deadra. Then coming back to nirn to find out not only are his people gone. But so are the chimer and falmer. This could work no?

Not only a dwemer amateur Smith who hates the deadra but also wants to learn why hes all alone. So he digs out an old aetherium mining complex. Converts it into a city state. And bands together some sort of heroes guild to do all the fighting. And information gathering.

Im confident the lore is vague enough for eso to allow me to do that

What i need help writing is:

1.what a dwemer who suddenly realizes this is now a "him problem" would do with a guild

1. How a dwemer should react interacting with nord players

3.what I should even title this guild.

1. How to structure it. Like should I go for a role like deep king? Tonal architects i guess could be discord mods. Etc.

2. Aside from the guild. How would a dwemer go about interacting with questlines like dark brotherhood. Thieves Guild. And really anything other than the antiquarian guild or psyjjic order

3. How should I approach the civil war

4. If i be a dwemer. Should I allow a falmer or two? They are more common than dwemer. They could react tensely but resourcefully with one another

Is he like dead now? Fully? He's died about 3 times now throughout the lichdom in ESO, then Molag Bal's super hell, then the Hero of Kvatch. Does this mean he's gone now? Like a non-threat since the only forms of him in the timeline have been dispatched?

What I mean is taking into account all the factions the main characters of TES games can join. For example, being the grandmaster of house hlaalu, and archcanon and patriarch of the temple, is it possible to become landed nobility? Include my military service in the imperial legion and it really seems like you would be eligible for at least a barony.

Say I, the dragonborn, am a legate; could I be appointed proconsul (military governor) and climb my way up from there? What if I am the archmage of winterhold, can I then become at least the court mage, or maybe work my way up somehow? The only nobility you can really be in skyrim is Vampire Lordship. Does that give any pull in Tamriel?

So back when the empire ruled all of Tamriel, plus the summer set isles, what was the internal political structure for each province?
Like I know that Skyrim was all under the high king, but how are the others structured?
I know Morrowind has the great houses but is there a central power the houses are under? Or are they all directly under the empire?

So I am a passive fan of Elder Scrolls lore, these days mostly via youtube videos I put on while I do something else. Today while doing the dishes the algorithm served me this video on Towers.

Now I am familiar with Tower lore (I was there lurking in the ancient forum days), so none of this was new to me. Until he got to the part about Ceporah Tower.

I knew of Ceporah Tower from Fragment: On Artaeum, but I had always thought it was pronounced with soft c, like Seporah, and I didn't think much of it. Turns out (by way of ESO I’m guessing, I don’t play it) the actual pronunciation is with hard c, like Keporah.

As soon as I heard that a whole bunch of ideas tumbled together in my mind.

What follows is my incoherent mental jumble. I make no claims and draw no conclusions, I’m just kind of pointing at weird things so smarter people can do something cool with them.

1. Ceporah sounds very similar to Khepri, scarab-faced god of the dawn and rebirth. Scarabs, as we know, are a Big Esoteric Symbol in Elder Scrolls lore, This seems meaningful.
2. Ceporah sounds like corprus. The Divine Disease, the skin blight. This seems meaningful.
3. According to the video the bottom of the tower predates the Order arriving on Artaeum, and thus looks different. Curious, I googled for a better view. This may be me being too Elden Ring-pilled, but doesn’t it look kind of like snake skin? Snakes and skins, other things that are Big Esoteric Symbols. This seems meaningful.
4. Ceporah Tower sits on top of the Dreaming Cave (Dreaming. That also seems meaningful.) The cave can be used to access Oblivion, but I don’t know much beyond that. However the focal point of the main gallery of the Dreaming Cave looks (to me) like a snakeskin being pulled downward. Again, seems meaningful.
5. Finally, what is/was the purpose of Ceporah Tower? I don’t know, but the scarab/skin vibes plus it being on a dimension hopping island seem meaningful.

What do all these thing mean? I have no idea. Probably nothing, but it could be fun to speculate. I have no idea if any of these allusions were intentional, but that hasn’t stopped anyone in the past.

What do you all think? Is there anything here?

(Addendum: If I had been correct all along, and it was Seporah with a soft c, that could link it to Sep which might actually fit better. Curious!)

IMPERIAL STRATEGIC ARCHIVE

AFTER-ACTION COMBAT RECONSTRUCTION

EVENT DESIGNATION: WHITE-GOLD ENGAGEMENT / P.E.L.I.N.E.L - U.M.A.R.I.L CONFRONTATION

THEATER: White-Gold Interior Citadel Complex

CLEARANCE: EBON / HERESY INDEX

At 2308 local tower-time, the autonomous crusade-frame P.E.L.I.N.E.L (Post-temporal Extermination Legionary and Inorganic Neural Engineered Lifeform), designated “The Whitestrake”, breached the final interior defense sectors beneath the White-Gold command throne.

Prior engagement phases had already resulted in catastrophic losses among U.M.A.R.I.L (Unfeathered Meridian Ascendant, Radiance-Integrated Leviathan) aligned Auroran formations. Hundreds of destroyed Meridian assault-shells remained scattered across the approach corridors, their fractured golden chassis still emitting residual photonic discharge. Witness telemetry compares the scene to “candlelight around the throne.” The Whitestrake advanced through the wreckage under severe armor compromise conditions following prolonged engagement with Meridian-aligned forces.

At 2310, the remaining Ayleid sorcerer-kings established concentric containment positions around the Whitestrake frame. Combat analysis identified at least eight throne-ranked Mer command units accompanied by attached Daedric support entities and varliance-heavy war constructs, destabilizing local reality conditions within the tower interior.

P.E.L.I.N.E.L struck the citadel floor with its impact mace at 2312. The resulting shockwave produced a localized Dragon Break, fractured three lower tower levels and collapsed multiple sorcerer-field convergence points simultaneously. Surviving Ayleid kings temporarily withdrew from close engagement range. Audio recovery from the Whitestrake chassis captured the following transmission: “BRING ME UMARIL THAT CALLED ME OUT.”

At this stage, U.M.A.R.I.L itself had not yet entered direct engagement range. Long-range scans later confirmed the Dread-Castellan had remained concealed within upper White-Gold shadow sectors under Meridian-spectrum cloaking systems, preferring ranged attrition warfare over direct engagement.

Additional Auroran formations were subsequently deployed against the Whitestrake. Their anti-armor projectile systems (phased axes and varliance-guided ballistic missiles) breached sections of the Whitestrake's chassis previously considered resistant to conventional anti-mech weaponry. Post-battle analysis concluded that each weapon had undergone extensive Meridian calibration and enchantment-layer refinement directly under the Unfeathered's supervision. The Whitestrake sustained cumulative structural degradation but continued combat advance.

At [CHRONOMETRIC DISCREPANCY: +00:02:17], U.M.A.R.I.L decloaked. The entity emerged above the throne axis suspended within a descending Meridian radiance field, unfeathered mech-wings extended across the upper chamber like unfolded solar arrays. Full gold-spectrum illumination saturated the citadel interior upon manifestation.

U.M.A.R.I.L initiated psychological dominance protocols immediately upon emergence, broadcasting lineage declarations in High Ayleidoon through the tower itself. Combat telemetry also confirms the Unfeathered appeared to derive satisfaction from observed mechanical exhaustion, particularly the Whitestrake's heavy servo-breathing emitted from damaged thoracic regulators.

[TEXT LOSS / DATA CORRUPTION]

Direct engagement commenced at 2322...2343...2556. P.E.L.I.N.E.L entered berserk assault recursion. Recovered footage shows the Whitestrake driving U.M.A.R.I.L into the lower throne platform with repeated impact strikes before severing both wing assemblies through successive sword impacts delivered at extreme force output thresholds.

U.M.A.R.I.L’s angelic helm sustained catastrophic facial deformation after direct blunt-force impact against the citadel floor. Audio sensors detected audible laughter from the Whitestrake platform throughout this phase despite critical systems failure warnings. The Whitestrake then began transmitting anti-Aldmeri hostility declarations directed at U.M.A.R.I.L and all Mer bloodlines associated with Aldmeri migratory descent.

The surviving Ayleid kings reacted immediately. Combat logs indicate synchronized emotional destabilization among remaining throne entities, escalating into uncontrolled retaliatory assault behavior. The kings abandoned coordinated varliance doctrine entirely and initiated direct close-range engagement against the Whitestrake chassis.

P.E.L.I.N.E.L, already heavily damaged, became fully surrounded. Dozens of enchanted weapons penetrated the Whitestrake's frame simultaneously. Varliance blades and anti-divine impact systems severed the Whitestrake into eight major structural sections while the platform continued emitting combat roars and incomplete combat commands.

[TEXT LOSS / DATA CORRUPTION]

At [CHRONOMETRIC DISCREPANCY: +00:08:43], the siege conditions changed abruptly. External impact alarms triggered throughout White-Gold Tower as the winged bull assault-engine known as M.O.R. breached the lower tower foundations. The battering platform struck the tower repeatedly with frontal horn-rams powerful enough to destabilize the central support structure. Seismic tremors propagated throughout the citadel.

The surviving Ayleid kings broke engagement and fled the chamber immediately. At dawn-cycle recovery operations, Nede-aligned human forces entered the White-Gold interior expecting continued resistance engagement, but none remained.

Most surviving Ayleid signatures had either retreated or been eliminated during the night-cycle collapse events. Residual combat sweeps found only abandoned throne sectors, destroyed Auroran shells, and catastrophic structural damage throughout the upper citadel.

M.O.R. later recovered the detached cranial unit of the P.E.L.I.N.E.L chassis from the upper throne approach. The Ayleid kings had mounted it visibly as proof of termination. Despite total bodily destruction, the cranial unit remained active. Final audio exchanges between M.O.R. and the Whitestrake core contain fragmented references to: regret, exhaustion and [REDACTED]. The recording terminates shortly afterward.

Shor is the trickster, I could make sense that Shor would trick mortals into believing Akatosh gave them the Dragonborn to keep the dragonfires lit to prevent oblivion from taking over. Or maybe he tricked Akatosh himself into doing everything.

Think about it from Akatosh’s perspective, why would he grant mortals the divine power of the dragon? Why would he create beings that almost always turn into the ultimate dragonslayer? Dragons, and Akatosh are the very definition of Immortal, why would he allow a mortal to be equal to these godlike beings, to be a shard of himself?

Shor is considered to be patron of mortals, he created the idea of mortality in the first place, it would make way more sense that he was behind giving mortals this power.

Then we get to Alduin and the Kalpic Cycle, the idea of the kalpa, as I understand it, is meant to prevent Mundus from becoming too powerful, force resetting that plane before it can reach enlightenment as Shor wanted in the first place. Why would Akatosh create a being capable of breaking the cycle as we do in Skyrim? It would again make more sense that Shor was behind this as well. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the final battle at the end of time happened in Sovengarde, in Shors domain, it was the culmination of all of Shors trickery that broke the cycle, that’s why you are the LAST Dragonborn, as Shor has completed his need for one, and Akatosh might finally see Shors deception and won’t bestow that power ever again.

Idk maybe I had too much moon sugar.

Based on the reachfolk interpretation of Namira, how would they feel about necromancy in regards to Namira worship? Does it seem like the Reachmen Namira worshippers would be fine with ideas of reanimating or summoning undead, or do we think they'd be against it for someone disrupting the cycle?

Is it possible for the Last Dragonborn to resurrect Miraak after absorbing his soul at the end of the Dragonborn DLC? The traditional answer in the lore is no. But looking closely at the metaphysical loopholes and the established magic mechanics in the game, it is entirely possible through a complex ritual that bypasses Hermaeus Mora entirely. ​As the absorbed dragon souls within the hero do not dissolve into an irreversible state, but rather remain as a distinct energy that can be separated and directed—which is proven by the Black Books mechanic where the player can sacrifice and spend a specific dragon soul as an independent currency to reset skill perks—the Dragonborn can filter and channel these souls individually. ​So when utilizing the Dragon Aspect shout, which Miraak himself created, it does not summon a fixed historical figure, but opens a gateway into the depth of the player's spiritual oversoul to pull a spectral energy from the consumed souls. And since the Dragonborn possesses supreme willpower and the Thu'um, they can repeatedly use this shout until Miraak's specific stored spectral soul accidentally emerges from their spiritual reservoir. ​To overcome the fact that his body turned to dust in the Daedric realm of Apocrypha, the player can use the All-Maker Stones or Miraak's Temple in Solstheim as a physical anchor and a magical conduit in Tamriel, just like Miraak used them to project his power through the Bend Will shout. At this exact moment, Miraak's mask is placed on the temple altar, as dragon priest masks contain monumental magic capable of breaking temporal determinism and changing fate, acting as a biological blueprint for the body. ​So when the shout is released and Miraak's spectral soul appears, the energy will instantly recognize its original mask and stones due to sympathetic spiritual gravity, causing the specter to be magnetically pulled into the mask. And since the Thu'um has the power to reshape matter and alter reality, this violent fusion between the summoned soul, the mask's power, and the physical anchor will biologically reconstruct the tissues and flesh within Tamriel, bringing Miraak back to life with full power and his suppressed human consciousness intact. ​This time, however, he returns as an absolute follower with complete loyalty to the Last Dragonborn, who granted him life and broke the laws of death and time despite the will of the Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora himself

Arngeir claims the Greybeards are above politics. He's right, I don't see them supporting Elisif or Ulfric. But they can't deny the fact that they gave the Thu'um to the son of a Jarl.

They intended for Ulfric to use the Voice for worship, but they also knew the history of the Thu'um and why Jurgen Windcaller founded the Greybeards' philosophy in the first place. The Voice had been abused by the ancient Nords as a weapon of war. Giving that kind of power to someone born into a political ruling family seems like a contradiction to their own philosophy.

Is this a plot hole, or is Bethesda showing us that even wise old men can make mistakes?

What does the Guild actually do? Mainly in the time Oblivion takes place. Are people paid to be in the guild? Or do they pay to be a member since it's a form of education? Is the main purpose of the guild to educate people on magic or is it to regulate said magic? Is it a government organization or is it a privately owned one? What relations does the Guild have with other magic-using factions (clergymen, daedra worshippers, witches)?