What Happens After Skyrim?

0:11 Introduction It has been 15 years since

0:16 the release of the latest mainline Elder Scrolls game,

0:19 and for a solid three generations of gaming,

0:22 the world of Tamriel has been stuck in the year 201 of the Fourth Era,

0:26 leaving questions about the world and its future unanswered.

0:30 Questions such as “who will win the Skyrim

0:33 civil war?” and “will the races of men

0:35 be able to defeat the Thalmor?” are nearly

0:37 old enough to have a driver’s license now, and while we at Wizards and Warriors

0:42 unfortunately don’t have the answers to them,

0:44 we would like to take today to engage in a bit of fun speculation.

0:48 So, join us as we perform a survey across Tamriel,

0:52 examining the situation of each major race at the current point in the timeline,

0:56 and discuss what the future might have in store for them.

1:02 The World of the Fourth Era The Fourth Era began in the ashes of the Oblivion

2:20 Crisis that brought an end to the Third Era before it in fire and flame.

2:24 The invasion of the Prince of Destruction, Mehrunes Dagon, had been thwarted.

2:28 Through the sacrifice of Martin Septim, no Daedric Prince could ever again enter

2:33 directly into the mortal world of Mundus.

2:36 However, with his death, the bloodline of Tiber Septim was extinct,

2:40 and mankind’s pact with Akatosh was spent.

2:43 With the Empire left in a derelict state in the wake of the Daedric invasions,

2:48 its control over periphery provinces began to crumble away.

2:52 Only recently deprived of their living gods' tribunal,

2:55 the devastating eruption of Red Mountain in Fourth Era 5

2:58 plunged the homeland of the Dunmer into an ashy apocalypse.

3:02 Armed with the daedric weaponry they seized in their furious

3:06 counter-invasion through Dagon’s Gates during the Oblivion Crisis,

3:10 the reptilian Argonians launched a vengeful invasion

3:12 of the land of their Dark Elf enslavers.

3:15 Unable to handle the crises in the east,

3:18 the Empire was forced to relinquish both Morrowind and Black Marsh.

3:22 By Fourth Era 22, the provinces of the Summerset

3:25 Isles had come under the control of the fundamentalist Thalmor,

3:29 who seceded from the Empire and restored the High

3:32 Elven homeland to its ancient name of Alinor.

3:35 Seven years later, an expertly organized

3:37 coup overthrows the pro-Imperial government of Valenwood

3:40 and installs its own agents in the primordial forest cities of the Bosmer,

3:45 thereby heralding the union of the High Elf and Wood

3:49 Elf peoples and the rebirth of the Aldmeri Dominion.

3:52 In Cyrodiil proper, a chaotic power struggle

3:54 in the power vacuum following the Septim Dynasty’s

3:57 extinction concluded with the ascension of the Colovian

4:00 warlord Titus Mede I to the Imperial throne,

4:03 just in time for Tamriel to once more be devastated

4:07 by an interplanar intrusion by the floating city of Umbriel,

4:11 a pocket of the realm of Prince Clavicus Vile.

4:14 In Fourth Era 48, the spiritual leader of the Khajiit, the Mane,

4:19 was discreetly assassinated by Thalmor agents,

4:21 plunging Elsweyr into decades of political chaos.

4:25 In 4E 98, Nirn’s two moons, Masser and Secunda, vanished from the skies.

4:31 The reasons for this are unknown,

4:33 but it was an absolute catastrophe for the Khajiit of Elsweyr,

4:37 for the moons were central to their religion,

4:40 and determined which of the many Khajiiti forms their children would be born in.

4:45 Thankfully, the moons returned two years later,

4:47 with the Thalmor taking credit for their restoration.

4:50 Scholars today still debate whether or not this was true,

4:54 or a clever bit of Dominion Propaganda,

4:56 but either way, enough Khajiit believed it, so in 4E 115,

5:01 the Thalmor easily launched a coup to take control over the whole province,

5:05 spitting it in two by reviving the old

5:08 borders of the ancient Kingdoms of Anequina and Pelletine.

5:11 By Fourth Era 171, the Thalmor launched

5:15 the culmination of their long-term goal to end

5:17 the ages of men and lead Tamriel into a new Merethic Era, an age of Elves.

5:23 The Great War with the Thalmor shook the Empire to its foundations,

5:28 and although it managed to survive, just barely,

5:30 it did so at the cost of the White-Gold Concordat,

5:33 a humiliating treaty which banned the worship of Talos-Tiber-Septim,

5:37 its founding Emperor-turned-God.

5:39 Refusing to acknowledge a punishing treaty which would have

5:43 forced them to cede away huge swathes of their homeland,

5:47 the Redguards of Hammerfell seceded from the Empire,

5:50 choosing to fight on against the Thalmor alone.

5:52 Unable to bare the prohibition on the worship of their hero-god Talos,

5:57 a certain Ulfric Stormcloak challenged the pro-Imperial

6:00 High King Torygg of Skyrim to a duel, shouting him to death with the mighty

6:06 thu’um and initiating a rebellion against Cyrodiil.

6:08 As of the 201st year of the Fourth Era,

6:12 the fate of Tamriel is perched upon a dangerous precipice.

6:15 With no more dragonblooded Emperors to guide them

6:18 and the threat of a second Thalmor invasion looming,

6:22 the future of the races of men appears highly uncertain,

6:26 while the rise of the High Elves and their allies seems increasingly inevitable.

6:30 Yet is there more to the current trajectory than meets the eye?

6:34 Let us examine each province of Tamriel,

6:37 and make our predictions on what the future has

6:39 in store for the cultures and peoples who live within them.

6:43 Skyrim We will begin our region by region survey

6:45 of Tamriel’s future in a land almost everyone is familiar with.

6:49 There is only one canon ending to the main story of the Elder Scrolls V,

6:55 in which you, the player, destroy the dragon-king Alduin,

6:58 punishing the world-eater for straying from his duty to facilitate

7:01 the kalpic cycle and thwarting his attempt to dominate over the world.

7:05 Yet as of the current point in the Elder Scrolls timeline,

7:09 the civil war between the Empire

7:11 and the Stormcloaks rages on, and it remains unknown

7:14 which side will canonically come out on top

7:17 by the beginning of the next mainline game.

7:19 Rather than flip a coin ourselves,

7:22 let us explore how both potential outcomes might impact Skyrim’s trajectory.

7:26 In the event of an Imperial victory,

7:28 it seems most likely that the Empire will take

7:31 a conciliatory policy to the peoples of its freshly pacified province.

7:35 Indeed, it will not be lost on General Tullius and other members of Legion high

7:41 command that their victory over Ulfric Stormcloak

7:44 was not won by an invasion from Cyrodiil, but by the loyalist Nords of Skyrim.

7:49 Thus, we should not expect the Empire to implement widespread

7:52 crackdowns on the Nords as if they were a conquered population.

7:56 The worship of Talos, while still outwardly banned,

7:59 will likely go as unenforced as possible.

8:02 If the final words of Legate Rikke to Ulfric

8:05 Stormcloak are anything to go by, then the Empire

8:08 is fully aware that even the most loyal

8:10 of their Nordic subjects are still secret Talos worshippers,

8:13 and that the Nords serving in the Imperial legion did so under the implicit

8:18 expectation that the fight will next be taken to the Thalmor, and without delay.

8:23 In the event of a Stormcloak victory,

8:26 we can probably expect a newly independent Kingdom of Skyrim

8:29 to maintain a diplomatic and military entente with Cyrodiil.

8:33 Although animosity between High King Ulfric and his former

8:37 Imperial overlords will no doubt be smoldering,

8:39 the man is not stupid, and understands who the true enemy is.

8:43 It is incredibly hard to envision a timeline where a Stormcloak-ruled Skyrim

8:48 ignores the plight of Cyrodiil in the event of a second Thalmor invasion.

8:52 Hatred for the Elves is baked into the ancestral DNA of the Nords,

8:57 with Skyrim itself founded on a mountain of Snow Elven bones.

9:01 Ulfric will no doubt recall how, thousands of years past,

9:05 the First Empire of the Nords allied with the Slave Queen Alessia

9:09 to free the ancient human tribes of Cyrodiil from the tyrannical Ayleid Elves.

9:14 For a man as obsessed with glory and reputation as Ulfric,

9:18 the prospect of emulating his ancestors by coming to Cyrodiil’s aid

9:22 against an existential Elven threat may be a compelling one indeed.

9:26 Overall, as the dossiers found in the Skyrim Thalmor embassy suggest,

9:30 it is not in the Aldmeri Dominion’s interest

9:32 for either side to win the Skyrim civil war,

9:35 as the conclusion of hostilities will inevitably result

9:39 in the prioritizing of some form of anti-Thalmor partnership.

9:43 However, it remains unclear whether the depleted armies of Skyrim and Cyrodiil

9:47 will be able to defeat the Thalmor in a second head-to-head conflict,

9:51 even with their differences put aside.

9:54 High Rock Let us now move on to the province of High Rock,

9:56 a region often dismissed as little more than an expansion pack to Cyrodiil.

10:00 It is true that the homeland of the Bretons has

10:03 historically been among the least problematic provinces of the Septim Empire.

10:08 The Bretons fought loyally alongside the Imperials

10:11 during the Great War against the Aldmeri Dominion,

10:13 and although they are possessed of Elven blood,

10:16 the magically gifted descendents of the Nedes and the Direnni stand

10:19 on the side of humanity in the eternal Ehlnofic rivalry between Man and Mer.

10:25 Even Tiber Septim himself was probably a Breton.

10:28 With that said, as the war-ravaged Cyrodiil’s political capital

10:32 continues to hemorrhage away in putting down the Skyrim rebellion,

10:37 the ambitious rulers of client-Kingdoms like Daggerfall,

10:40 Camlorn, Evermore and Jehanna may well

10:42 take the opportunity to secure greater autonomy,

10:45 rights and privileges under Imperial rule, if not outright secede.

10:50 Indeed, the Bretons have successfully triumphed over Cyrodiil in the past,

10:54 with their ancestors repulsing the hordes

10:56 of the Alessian Empire in the First Era,

10:59 and even attempting to invade Cyrodiil in the second

11:01 era as part of the Daggerfall Covenant.

11:04 While it seems most plausible that the Bretons

11:07 will continue to fight against the Aldmeri Dominion,

11:09 being unlikely to want to return

11:11 to the Elven overlordship of their Nedic ancestors,

11:14 we also cannot simply assume that High Rock will remain a sleepy,

11:19 obedient Imperial Province as the Empire continues to struggle and decline.

11:23 Another people in this general neighbourhood are the hardy Orsimer,

11:27 or Orcs, one of the most resilient cultures on Tamriel.

11:31 Their homeland of Orsinium is a moving one,

11:34 with warfare against the neighbouring Bretons and Redguards

11:38 resulting in its destruction and relocation several times over.

11:42 Interestingly, it was the 7th and 15th

11:45 Legions of Cyrodiil that protected the Orcs

11:47 and helped them establish a new Orsinium between

11:50 Skyrim and Hammerfell after the most recent sacking.

11:53 For that reason, we can expect the Orcs to be loyal

11:56 to the Empire in the next bout against the Aldmeri Dominion.

11:59 Hammerfell Sailing now across the Iliac Bay,

12:02 we come upon the arid coasts and rugged deserts of Hammerfell.

12:06 Having seceded from the Empire after

12:08 refusing the terms of the White-Gold Concordat,

12:11 which obliged them to relinquish large

12:13 tracts of southern Hammerfell to the Dominion,

12:15 the Redguards have fought the Thalmor to a standstill,

12:18 forcing the Elves to depart from their lands.

12:21 The Redguards’ pyrrhic victory over the Altmer forms

12:24 the thesis for critics of Emperor Titus Mede II,

12:26 who point to the warriors of the Alik’r as proof that he

12:30 was wrong to capitulate to the signing of the White-Gold Concordat.

12:34 With that said, for the Redguards, the price of freedom has been steep.

12:38 Hammerfell is now a desert in more ways than one,

12:42 wartorn, desolate and depleted.

12:44 Moreover, the Thalmor withdrawal from the region

12:47 can be assumed to be only temporary.

12:50 The Thalmor certainly feel entitled to the tracts

12:53 of southern Hammerfell promised to them in the White-Gold Concordat,

12:56 and consider the land to be theirs by ancestral right.

12:59 After all, High Elf clans were among those slaughtered by the ancient ancestors

13:04 of the Redguards when they first arrived from their sunken homeland of Yokuda.

13:10 Moreover, Thalmor agents can be expected to exploit

13:13 the ancient rivalry between the Crowns and Forebears,

13:16 the two prevailing political factions in Hammerfell

13:18 whose feuding stretches back to old Yoku.

13:21 When the second great war against the Aldmeri Dominion comes,

13:24 there is no doubt that Hammerfell will once more be overrun.

13:28 With that said, given that Hammerfell is

13:30 the most likely location for the Elder Scrolls VI,

13:33 the Godhead may well provide the Redguards with a nameless,

13:37 faceless prisoner destined to save their world.

13:40 Perhaps this hero will be a reincarnation

13:42 of the ancient sword saint Frandar Hunding,

13:45 wielding upon their curved blade the forgotten Ra Gada art of sword singing,

13:50 or perhaps bare the soul of Sura-do-Hega.

13:53 Whoever they are, their potential to reshape

13:55 the history of the Redguard people will be immeasurable.

13:58 Cyrodiil Moving eastwards into the center of Tamriel,

14:02 we reach the heart of the land of Dawn’s Beauty.

14:05 While the Cyrodiil depicted in The Elder Scrolls IV:

14:09 Oblivion was the flourishing cosmopolitan center of a continent spanning Empire,

14:13 the Cyrodiil of Fourth Era 201 has been blackened by two centuries of conflict.

14:19 The Imperial City, once the glittering jewel

14:21 rising from the waters of Lake Rumare,

14:24 still bears the scars of its brutal sack at the hands

14:27 of Aldmeri forces in the Great War thirty years prior.

14:30 With the dragonfires extinguished, the Septim line spent,

14:34 provinces hemorrhaging away and another great war

14:36 with the Thalmor looming over the horizon,

14:39 can the crippled Empire survive the storm to come?

14:43 To be honest… probably not.

14:45 In the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind,

14:47 the player can encounter a mysterious old legionary named Wulf,

14:51 widely considered to be an avatar of the deified Tiber Septim.

14:55 On the subject of the Empire he founded, Wulf has this to say:

14:59 “The Emperor and the legions have held

15:01 the Empire together for hundreds of years.

15:04 It's been a good thing, by and large.

15:06 But maybe it's time for a change.

15:08 Time for something young and new.

15:10 What?

15:11 No idea.

15:12 Because I'm old.

15:13 Old dog doesn't get new ideas.

15:16 But maybe young folks like you should try some new ideas.

15:20 I don't know.

15:21 Could be messy.

15:22 But change is never pretty.” Perhaps Wulf is right,

15:25 and the Empire has lost its Mandate of Aetherius, so to speak.

15:29 Does this mean that the Thalmor will overrun Tamriel

15:32 and usher in an age of High Elf domination?

15:36 Not necessarily.

15:36 Known to the Cyrods as Shezzar and to the Nords as Shor,

15:40 the trickster god Lorkhan is the creator of mortal Mundus and guardian of men.

15:45 Legend has it that, throughout the ages,

15:48 he has appeared before his mortal children in various forms,

15:51 leading humanity to victory against the Ayleids as Pelinal Whitestrake,

15:55 and to world domination as Tiber Septim.

15:58 Perhaps he will appear again in the Fourth Era and lead mankind

16:02 in a period of transition from an old world into a new one.

16:06 Aldmeri Dominion We move south now to the deserts and jungles of Elsweyr,

16:10 the primordial forests of Valenwood, and the emerald isles of Alinor,

16:14 the three provinces which make up the Aldmeri Dominion.

16:18 The trends of the last two centuries are clear.

16:21 The Thalmor are the rising power of Tamriel,

16:24 and although they were ultimately thwarted

16:25 in their first attempt to conquer Cyrodiil,

16:28 they emerged from that first great war with the undisputed upper hand.

16:32 Everyone on the continent understands that another war between

16:35 the Empire and the Dominion is close at hand,

16:38 and with the legions still recovering from the heavy losses

16:41 of the first conflict and bleeding yet more good men in Skyrim,

16:45 it seems that a new Merethic era of elven domination is an inevitability.

16:50 Yet for as invincible as it may seem,

16:53 the Aldmeri Dominion is not without its vulnerabilities,

16:56 nor is the Thalmor’s grip on power as solid as they might hope it to be.

17:02 Extensive clandestine purges were committed by Thalmor agents

17:05 to ensure the loyalty of the Bosmer and Khajiit,

17:08 yet such methods could easily come back to haunt them.

17:12 Resentment brews among the subject peoples of the Dominion,

17:15 and should important figureheads like a member of the Bosmeri

17:18 Camoran Dynasty or a new Khajiiti Mane resurface,

17:21 then the Thalmor could have a major insurrection on their hands

17:24 that would make the Skyrim Civil War look like a slapfight.

17:28 Even among the High Elves there is no

17:30 doubt an undercurrent of resentment towards the ruling party,

17:34 as several prominent strata of Altmer society were

17:37 purged to ensure the Thalmor’s rise to power.

17:40 While the Aldmeri Dominion’s conquest

17:42 of Tamriel seems like a likely possibility,

17:44 it is equally likely that its authoritarian rulers collapse under

17:48 the weight of their own tyranny before that conquest can begin anew.

17:53 Eastern Tamriel Moving further eastwards, we arrive upon the murky wetlands

17:57 of Argonia and the ash-caked wastes of Morrowind.

17:59 When it comes to the future of the reptilian Argonians,

18:02 there really is not much to say,

18:04 other than that they can be expected to sit tight in their swamp,

18:08 lick their tree sap, and mind their own Hist-damned business.

18:11 This may be a surprising assessment to some,

18:14 as the Argonians of the Fourth Era are fresh off

18:17 an invasion into Morrowind and, before that, an invasion into literal hell.

18:21 However, the lizard folk have always been the fantasy

18:25 version of the snake on the Gadsden flag.

18:27 Their historical acts of aggression, such as the invasion of Morrowind,

18:31 the counter-invasion of Oblivion and the potential bioengineering

18:34 of the Knahaten flu have always been responses to external threats.

18:38 If the rest of Tamriel leaves the Saxhleel alone,

18:42 then their isolationist An-Xileel rulers will no doubt

18:45 be content to leave them alone in turn.

18:47 This attitude may well also be the one taken by the Dunmer of Morrowind.

18:52 Out of all the races of Tamriel in the Fourth Era,

18:55 it is perhaps the Dark Elves who have had it the roughest.

18:59 Thankfully, the worst is likely behind them.

19:01 House Redoran has repelled the Argonian invasion, and under their leadership,

19:05 the other Great Houses of Morrowind have

19:07 begun to recover from the cataclysmic Red Year.

19:11 The Dunmer are survivors,

19:13 their ancestors having weathered the brutality of the ancient Nords,

19:16 the wars against the Dwemer, being cursed by Azura,

19:20 and the invasions of the Empires of Cyrodiil.

19:22 With the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion too

19:25 focused on one another to pay attention to Morrowind,

19:27 the Dark Elves will take their time out of the spotlight to slowly

19:31 reclaim that which was lost to the ash and rebuild their society.

19:36 Conclusion With that, we conclude our survey of Tamriel and what

19:39 the future has in store for each of its major races and nations.

19:43 What do you think of our assessment?

19:45 Let us know in the comments below.

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