The Dawn Era,
The Septum Dynasty,
the Oblivion Crisis.
Timeline of Tamriel
The Elder Scrolls series follows much in the vein of Tolkien's Legendarium
and that it features an expansive mythos in history filled with Gods,
lesser deities, the forming of various continents, and
multiple Eras of Civilization.
Also, like Tolkien's works, it would be impossible to cover the full timeline of events and individuals within the elder scrolls series
within the length of this video.
Therefore this video will serve as a general overview of the entire history of Tamriel and its creation; and we will continue to look into
specifics in future videos
In the time before time, there was only the void: dark and limitless.
Two brothers entered into the void,
Anu and Padomay.
With Anu representing light, order and stasis
and Padomay representing chaos and disorder
The two opposites created conflict and out of this came another being known as Nir.
The two brothers both loved Nir, but Nir was pregnant with Anu's child and she only loved him.
Padomay beat Nir in his rage, causing Anu to cast him outside of time.
Nir died from her injuries but not before giving birth to the Twelve worlds of creation.
Anu hid himself in his grief and slept.
As time went on, life flourished on the twelve worlds, but eventually Padomay was able to return;
shattering the Twelve worlds in his anger
Anu attempted to save creation by gathering the splinters of the world into one, known as Nirn
Padomay fought once again with Anu and the two were pulled out of time together.
With Padomay's blood remaining behind as entities, known as Daedra, Anu's blood became the stars.
The blood between the two that mingled became entities, Adrià.
The beings on Nirn that survived this period eventually became men and Mer, also known as, elves
The land of Mer was known as Tamriel and it is here where most of the events of the Elder Scroll series takes place.
This was an extremely simplified version of the creation myth, meant for children and we'll discuss the creation myth properly in a future video.
At the end of the Dawn Era in the beginning of recorded history,
Tamriel is largely populated by elves with the other three continents of the world inhabited by men.
The ancestors of the Nords were the first men to properly settle in Tamriel;
colonizing the cold Northern regions of the continent.
Also living on Tamriel are the beasts folk:
sentient animals that would become various races such as the Khajiit,
Argonians, Goblins, and even the dragons
The technologically advanced elves drove the beast folk into the jungles, marshes, and mountains of Tamriel.
The Chimer, who would become the dark elves,
settle in the harsh land of Morrowind, and the Dwemer, also known as deep elves or dwarves,
built underground cities in the mountains near Morrowind.
Other elves settled in the forests to the southwest and became the Bosmer, or wood elves.
Elves that settled in the center of Tamriel were known as Aylieds, also known as wild elves, and
built an Empire in the lands known as Cyrodiil.
A certain population of elves are corrupted by a daedric prince and become the Orsimer, or, Orcs.
The elves that most closely clung to their ancestors stayed on the Summerset Isles off the coast of Tamriel and
became known as the Altmer.
Settling in the Northern regions of Tamriel known as Skyrim,
were the snow elves, who for a short time lived alongside the humans dwelling there.
This peace was broken however, by the elves during an event known as 'The Night of Tears' when the snow elves slaughtered nearly the entire
population of a human town,
supposedly as a pre-emptive measure due to the growth rate of the humans.
Another theory suggests a powerful artifact was uncovered by the men and the elves desperately wanted it.
Regardless the humans came back in force and waged war against the snow elves eventually leading to their downfall.
During these early Years known as the Merethic
Era, the various races and communities of elves would continue to respect in -varying degrees-
the king on Summerset Isles where the Altmer lived, and where many of the original elves had landed on Tamriel.
This began to change however, when a king of the wood elves
managed to unite his divided people into a unified Kingdom and declared at the Camorin Dynasty.
Along with this he marks the year the beginning of the First Era of history.
Herald, in the North manages to conquer all of skyrim becoming the first high king of the Nords.
Another group of humans that were enslaved by the elves of Cyrodiil managed to revolt against their oppressors and took control of the region,
giving greater power to the race of men.
In the region of High Rock to the Northwest, the elves also kept humans as slaves,
but years of intermingling led to an assimilation between the two races,
giving the descendants of the humans, known as Bretons, an affinity for magic.
For a while the Nords of Skyrim continued to grow in power and over a period of nearly 200 years
the Nords conquered much of High Rock,
Morrowind, and portions of Cyrodiil.
Unfortunately for them, an
assassination of their king, who also wished to conquer the realm of the wood elves,
lead to a period of disharmony while they scrambled for leadership.
The elves of High Rock took back their lands as well as some of Skyrim and
an uneasy alliance between the elves living in morrowind the Chimer and Dwemer allowed them to force the nords back.
This uneasy alliance was shattered fairly quickly however, as the two races of elves disagreed heavily and religion and
war began that ended with complete disappearance of the Dwemer race from Tamriel.
Also, during the first era the region to the west, that would come to be known as Hammerfell, was considered the most inhospitable region of
Tamriel:
containing a massive desert and monstrous beasts.
The region was uninhabited for quite some time,
until the humans living on the continent to the west abandoned their home as it was magically sinking and traveled to Tamriel.
As they were already used to living in a harsh environment, the humans managed to settle in Hammerfell and were known as the Redguards.
During the second half of the first
era, a magical plague originating from a slug-like race that lived to the west of tamriel managed to wipe out roughly half the
population living on the continent.
Valenwood, the region of the wood elves, was devastated by the plague,
eventually allowing the empire of Cyrodiil to conquer them and abolish the Camorin Dynasty.
The Empire of Cyrodiil would also conquer Black Marsh; home of the beast folk, Argonians, and
control high Rock and Skyrim as part of a unified Cyrodiil.
They would then set their eyes on Morrowind,
launching a war against the elves there that would eventually end with the assassination of an emperor and the end of the First Era.
The early parts of the Second Era saw many dragons; hunted and slain, leading to their eventual disappearance for many centuries.
This period would also bring rise to the Mages, Fighters, and Thieves Guilds, as well as the forming of the Dark Brotherhood, a
league of secretive assassins.
Due to constant civil wars, the Empire of Cyrodiil was thrown into turmoil without a proper leader for centuries.
Overall the Second Era is largely comprised of various wars between the regions and races of Tamriel
Among them the 'Three Banners War' ,that saw various factions aligning with one another;
either to conquer Tamriel or to keep it a free continent.
The Second Era would come to a sudden close as an individual that would come to be known Tiber Septim,
began conquering Tamriel as a general while serving the king of a small part of Cyrodiil.
Tiber was a dragon born, a powerful individual containing the blood and soul of a dragon, and
used his might to eventually unite all of Tamriel under a single banner.
He was crowned Emperor and ushered forth the third Empire of Cyrodiil as well as the Third Era of history.
The Septim Dynasty would not be without struggles however, and over the next hundred years the empire would see six new
emperor's, as the throne is racked with assassinations and turmoil.
Many of the other regions of Tamriel begin to demand a growing level of Independence from the troublesome empire.
Towards the end of the Third Era, three hundred and sixty eight years after Tiber Septim was crowned emperor,
Uriel Septim the seven assumes the title as the twenty first emperor.
Roughly twenty years after he takes the throne, he is imprisoned in another dimension by his imperial mage, who begins to impersonate him.
He's finally rescued ten years later by an individual who had come to be known as the Eternal Champion.
Also, during the third age one of the greatest heroes of the Chimer elves of Morrowind, Nerevar, is
reincarnated by the Aedra for the purpose of righting the wrongs that a group of Chimer leaders had committed during the First Era.
Several years afterwards, the Oblivion crisis would occur,
Bbeginning with the assassination of Uriel septim the seventh and involving the invasion of Tamriel by the Daedric prince
Mehrunes Dagon and his army.
Martin Septim is crowned emperor for a short time before he sacrifices himself to Banish Dagon and end the crisis.
Thus also ends the Third Era and begins the fourth.
Tamriel begins to rebuild itself after the oblivion crisis, but the Empire of Cyrodiil is left in the worst shape,
damaged and without an emperor.
A conglomeration of elves, known as the Thalmor, go to war in an effort to abolish the empire and return elves to power.
The war did not go well for the failing empire and a treaty was signed that heavily favored the elves.
Notably, the people of the empire are forbidden from worshipping Talos the ascended form of the emperor Tiber septim to godhood.
The elves believe this was blasphemy, but many humans had embraced Talos as a core part of their religion.
In Skyrim a civil war broke out between the Imperials, who wished to maintain order and unity in the empire
-partly by enforcing the ban on Talos worship- and the Stormcloaks who wish to secede from the empire.
Also, during this time the dragon crisis broke out in Skyrim when Alduin, a dragon deity that the Nords believed would bring the apocalypse,
returned to Skyrim and resurrected many of the dead dragons.
Alduin is finally slain by another dragon born ending the crisis and saving Skyrim.
And that pretty much brings us up to the current point on the Elder Scrolls timeline. If
you're ending this video still highly confused about the overall history of Tamriel don't worry,
we'll be looking further into many of the things mentioned in this video, and then attempt to more reasonably educate you on the series lore.
For those wondering where the games fit in, Elder Scrolls Online is the earliest game, in the timeline taking place during the Second Era.
Elder Scrolls Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion all take place during theTthird
Era with Morrowind and Oblivion only a few years apart.
Finally,, the events of Skyrim take place 200 years into the Fourth Era being the most recent game chronologically.
The lore of the Elder Scrolls franchise is massively convoluted, featuring thousands of years of history,
dozens of different races,
countless wars, and even magical events that warp time.
All of this added up has made it one of the most beloved and endearing fantasy series of modern times.