Lore:Brief History of the Empire v 3

he   of this series told in brief the story of the succession of the first eight Emperors of the  , from   to  .  The  '' described the   and the six Emperors that followed its aftermath, from   to   I.  At the end of that volume, it was described how the Emperor Cassynder's half-brother   assumed the throne of the   of  .  

It will be recalled that Uriel IV was not a Septim by birth.  His mother, though she reigned as Empress for many years, was a   married to a true Septim Emperor,  .  Uriel's father was actually   I's consort after Pelagius' death, a   nobleman named  .  Before taking the throne of Empire, Cassynder I had ruled the kingdom of  , but poor health had forced him to retire.  Cassynder had no children, so he legally adopted his half-brother Uriel and abdicated the kingdom.  Seven years later, Cassynder inherited the Empire at the death of his mother.  Three years after that, Uriel once again found himself the recipient of Cassynder's inheritance.  

Uriel IV's reign was a long and difficult one.  Despite being a legally adopted member of the Septim Family, and despite the Lariat Family's high position -- indeed, they were distant cousins of the Septims -- few of the   could be persuaded to accept him fully as a blood descendant of Tiber.  The Council had assumed much responsibility during Katariah I's long reign and Cassynder I's short one, and a strong-willed "alien" monarch like Uriel IV found it impossible to command their unswerving fealty.  Time and again the Council and Emperor were at odds, and time and again the Council won the battles.  Since the days of Pelagius II, the Elder Council had consisted of the wealthiest men and women in the Empire, and the power they wielded was conclusive.  

The Council's last victory over Uriel IV was posthumous.   , Uriel IV's son, was disinherited by vote of Council, and a cousin more closely related to the original Septim line was proclaimed   in  .  For the first nine years of Cephorus II's reign, those loyal to Andorak battled the Imperial forces.  In an act that the Sage   called "Tiber Septim's heart beating no more," the Council granted Andorak the   kingdom of   to end the war, and Andorak's descendants still rule there.

By and large, Cephorus II had foes that demanded more of his attention than Andorak.  "From out of a cimmerian nightmare," in the words of Eraintine, a man who called himself the   led an army of   and undead warriors on a rampage through  , conquering kingdom after kingdom.  Few could resist his onslaughts, and as month turned to bloody month in the year  , even fewer tried.  Cephorus II sent more and more mercenaries into   to stop the Usurper's northward march, but they were bribed or slaughtered and raised as undead.

The story of the Camoran Usurper deserves a book of its own.  (It is recommended that the reader find Palaux Illthre's   for more detail.)  In short, however, the destruction of the forces of the Usurper had little do with the efforts of the Emperor.  The result was a great regional victory and an increase in hostility toward the seemingly inefficacious Empire.  

 , Cephorus II's son and successor, swivelled opinion back toward the latent power of the Empire.  Turning the attention of Tamriel away from internal strife, Uriel V embarked on a series of invasions beginning almost from the moment he took the throne in  .  Uriel V conquered   in  ,   in  ,   in  , and Esroniet in  .  In  , he embarked on his most ambitious enterprise, the invasion of the continent kingdom of  .  This ultimately proved a failure, for two years later Uriel V was killed in Akavir on the battlefield of  .  Nevertheless, Uriel V holds a reputation second only to Tiber as one of the two great Warrior Emperors of Tamriel.  

The last four Emperors, beginning with Uriel V's infant son, are described in the   volume of this series.