Lore:Third Empire

The   (also called the Septim Empire,  Tamrielic Empire,   and Holy Cyrodiilic Empire of Tamriel)  was declared by   in   after the chaos of the  , and was forged through a decades-long conflict to unite   known as the  .  It lasted throughout the whole of the   and two centuries into the  , when it began to decline.

Septim Dynasty
thumb|right|Emperor Tiber Septim
The   was founded by Tiber Septim upon using   to conquer the whole of Tamriel, after which he declared the start of a new era,  .  His rule of 38 years was prosperous and relatively peaceful. His grandson   succeeded him, and was poised to continue the golden age, until he was assassinated by the   after less than 3 years.  Pelagius was the first and only direct descendant of Tiber Septim to rule, as he was an only child and had no children himself. Thus, the Ruby Throne passed to Tiber's niece,  , in  . Kintyra and her son,  , were successful rulers who achieved a level of unity within the Empire that would not be equaled for centuries.   , who took the throne in  , had his 18-year reign blighted by plagues and insurrections, and accomplished little during his rule. Instead, he left many problems, and a great deal of debt, to  . In response, Pelagius dismissed the entire   and allowed only those who paid a princely sum to return to their seats. While this tactic brought some prosperity back to Tamriel, it ended when Pelagius was poisoned in  , purportedly by a disgruntled former Council member.  His son,  , was more interested in debauchery than politics, known across the Empire as a womanizer even before taking the throne. His reign was marred by civil war and other conflicts, and the province of Summerset was almost lost to invading   in  . Antiochus died ten years later, leaving the throne in the tenuous grasp of his 15-year-old daughter,  . The succession was contested by Antiochus' siblings and would lead to civil war. 

In  , Kintyra II was imprisoned by  , the infamous Wolf Queen of Solitude, and murdered two years later. This triggered the  , a civil war between Potema and her son   on one side, and Potema's brothers   and   on the other. The armies of the brothers were eventually victorious and the succession continued.  

The Empire gained and lost power and land unpredictably during the next century until the rise of  . The first (and only) Elven ruler of the Empire, Katariah was the first in 100 years to secure a steady, iron grip over most of Tamriel, save  . Ultimately, this would be the Empress' undoing, as she died in   in a minor skirmish in Black Marsh. 

Another civil war broke out after the   voted to disinherit  , the eldest son of  , and offer the Imperial crown to his cousin   instead, as they considered Cephorus to be more closely related to the true Septim bloodline. The war lasted nine years until Andorak was mollified by the offer of the throne of   in  .

In  ,   began his invasion of  . This one invasion dominated his reign, and ultimately ended it. His life was cut short in 3E 290, and again the Empire began a slow decline.     was unable to take the throne until  , due to his young age at the time of his father's death, and his mother Thonica's attempts to stay in power as Regent. When Uriel VI fell from his horse and died in  , his half-sister came to power as  . Uriel VI had left his sister with rebellious vassals and malcontent citizens to deal with. Nonetheless, she acted decisively and by the end of her reign in  , Tamriel was nearing a sort of unity. Her nephew,  &mdash;though struggling at first&mdash;brought the Empire closer to unity than it had been in over 300 years, since the days of Uriel I. 

 , son of Pelagius IV, came to power after his father's death in 3E 368. In  , Uriel VII's battlemage,  , managed to imprison the emperor in a dimension of Tharn's own creation. For ten years, later known as the  , Jagar Tharn ruled in Uriel's place, but showing none of the latter's wisdom. Before Tharn could entirely drive the Empire into the ground, Uriel was rescued and restored to the throne in  . 

During Uriel Septim VII's reign, which lasted 65 years, he united the Empire for the first time in centuries. By the end of the  ,  , and  , the Empire was even closer to unity than at the end of Pelagius IV's reign. After his assassination, his son,  , ended the  , the Third Era, and&mdash;with no more heirs&mdash;the Septim dynasty.

The Empire recovered from Tharn's deceit, but the Septim Dynasty ended when Martin Septim sacrificed himself in a successful bid to seal the rift that had been opened to  's plane of Oblivion.   became Potentate Ocato when no candidate to replace Martin could be found. Ocato kept the Empire more or less intact in the tumultuous years after the Oblivion Crisis, but was assassinated in or around  , which ushered in the seven-year  . 

Mede Dynasty
thumb|right|Emperor Titus Mede II
At some point in the seven years following Ocato's assassination, a Nibenese witch-warrior named   was crowned Emperor, although he was not well liked by the people, the Elder Council favored him over  , a   warlord who sought the throne. Eventually, in 4E 17, Titus Mede captured the   from Thules and crowned himself the first Emperor of a  , eventually persuading the Elder Council to accept him as a liberator rather than a conqueror.  

During his rule, the province of Hammerfell was reclaimed, alongside the city-states of Leyawiin and Bravil. Under later events, Elsweyr was also reclaimed.  

In 4E 168, Emperor   ascended to the throne. The Empire was at that time a shadow of its former glory.   and   had been ceded to the   , and Black Marsh had been lost to Imperial rule since the Oblivion Crisis.   had yet to fully recover from the eruption of Red Mountain, and had ceased to be an Imperial territory at some point prior to  .        was plagued by infighting between the   and   factions. Only  ,  , and   remained prosperous and peaceful. 

In 4E 171, the Great War began when armies from the Aldmeri Dominion invaded the Imperial provinces of Hammerfell and Cyrodiil after Titus II rejected an ultimatum to make massive concessions to the Thalmor. An army led by Thalmor general Lord   emerged from hidden camps in northern Elsweyr and assaulted southern Cyrodiil, flanking Imperial defenses along the Valenwood border.   fell to the invaders, and   was surrounded and besieged. Simultaneously, an army under Lady   crossed western Cyrodiil, bypassing   and   and entering Hammerfell. This army was joined by smaller forces landing on Hammerfell's coast. Imperial troops were forced into retreat across the  . The   was besieged, and fell after the Emperor fled with the remnants of his army to Skyrim. The war ended a year later with the liberation of the Imperial City after the  , and with the subsequent Imperial acceptance of the  . This treaty contained terms almost identical to those rejected before the war, specifically the outlaw of   worship, which became one of the major causes of the   in Skyrim. Hammerfell seceded from the Empire and worked to combat   forces on its own, gaining its freedom in 4E 180. This left the Empire in a diminished and less stable condition, though it retained control of the provinces of Cyrodiil, High Rock and Skyrim. 

In  , the Stormcloak Rebellion broke out in Skyrim. The belligerents were the  , led by  , who fought for the independence of Skyrim, and the Imperial Legion, led by General  , with the intention of holding the Empire together in the face of growing political tensions between them and the Thalmor.  
Rulers


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