The Arcturian Heresy Content . With his god destroyed , Wulfharth finds it hard to keep his form . He staggers out of Red Mountain to the battlefield beyond . The world has shaken and all of Morrowind is made of fire . A strong gale picks up , and blows his ashes back to Skyrim . Wulfharth adopts and is adopted by the Nord s then . Ysmir the Grey Wind , the Storm of Kyne . But through Lorkhan he lost his national identity . All he wants the Nords for is to kill the Tribunal . He raises a storm , sends in his people , and is driven back by Tribunal forces . The Dunmer are too strong now . Wulfharth goes underground to wait and strengthen and reform his body anew . Oddly enough , it is Almalexia who disturbs his rest , summoning the Underking to fight alongside the Tribunal against Ada ' Soom Dir - Kamal , the Akaviri demon . Wulfharth disappears after Ada ' Soom is defeated , and does not return for three hundred years . It is the rumbling of the Greybeards that wake him . Though the Empire has crumbled , there are rumors that a chosen one will come to restore it . This new Emperor will defeat the Elves and rule a united Tamriel . Naturally , Wulfharth thinks he is the figure of prophecy . He goes directly to High Hrothgar to hear the Greybeards speak . When they do , Ysmir is blasted to ash again . He is not the chosen one . It is a warrior youth from High Rock . As the Grey Wind goes to find this boy , he hears the Greybeards ' warning : remember the color of betrayal , King Wulfharth . The Western Reach was at war . Cuhlecain , the King of Falkreath in West Cyrodiil , was in a bad situation . To make any bid at unifying the Colovian Estates , he needed to secure his northern border , where the Nords and Reachmen had been fighting for centuries . He allies with Skyrim at the Battle of Old Hroldan . Leading his forces was Hjalti Early - Beard . Hjalti was from the island kingdom of Alcaire , in High Rock , and would become Tiber Septim , the First Emperor of Tamriel . Hjalti was a shrewd tactician , and his small band of Colovian troops and Nord berserkers broke the Reachman line , forcing them back beyond the gates of Old Hroldan . A siege seemed impossible , as Hjalti could expect no reinforcements from Falkreath . That night a storm came and visited Hjalti ' s camp . It spoke with him in his tent . At dawn , Hjalti went up to the gates , and the storm followed just above his head . Arrows could not penetrate the winds around him . He shouted down the walls of Old Hrol ' dan , and his men poured in . After their victory , the Nords called Hjalti Talos , or Stormcrown . Cuhlecain , with his new invincible general , unifies West Cyrodiil in under a year . No one can stand before Hjalti ' s storms . The Underking knows that if Hjalti is to become Emperor of Tamriel , he must first capture the Eastern Heartland . Hjalti uses them both . He needs Cuhlecain in the Colovian Estates , where foreigners are mistrusted . It is obvious why he needs Ysmir . They march on the East , the battlemages surrender before their armies , and they take the Citadel . Before Cuhlecain can be crowned , Hjalti secretly murders him and his loyalist contingent . These assassinations are blamed on the enemies of Cuhlecain , which , for political reasons , are still the Western Reach . Zurin Arctus , the Grand Battlemage ( not the Underking ) , then crowns Hjalti as Tiber Septim , new Emperor of All Cyrodiil . After he captures the Imperial Throne , Septim finds the initial administration of a fully united Cyrodiil a time - consuming task . He sends the Underking to deal with Imperial expansion into Skyrim and High Rock . Ysmir , mindful that it might seem as if Tiber Septim is in two places at once , works behind the scenes . This period of levelheaded statesmanship and diplomacy , this sudden silence , heretofore unknown in the roaring tales of Talosian conquest , are explained away later . ( The assassination story is embroidered — now it is popularly Talos ' own throat that was cut . ) The human kingdoms are conquered , even Hammerfell , whose capture was figured to be an arduous task . The Underking wants a complete invasion , a chance to battle their foreign wind spirits himself , but Tiber Septim refutes him . He has already made a better plan , one that will seem to legitimize his rule . Cyrodiil supports the losing side of a civil war and are invited in . Finally , the Empire can turn its eyes onto the Elves . The Underking continues to press on Tiber Septim the need to conquer Morrowind . The Emperor is not sure that it is a wise idea . He has heard of the Tribunal ' s power . The Underking wants his vengeance , and reminds Tiber Septim that he is fated to conquer the Elves , even the Tribunal . Arctus advises against the move but Septim covets the Ebony in Morrowind , as he sorely needs a source of capital to rebuild Cyrodiil after 400 years of war . The Underking tells him that , with the Tribunal dead , Septim might steal the Tribunal ' s power and use it against the High Elves ( certainly the oldest enemies of Lorkhan , predating even the Tribunal ) . Summerset Isle is the farthest thing from Tiber Septim ' s mind . Even then , he was planning to send Zurin Arctus to the King of Alinor to make peace . The Ebony need wins out in the end . The Empire invades Morrowind , and the Tribunal give up . When certain conditions of the Armistice include not only a policy of noninterference with the Tribunal , but also , in the Underking ' s eyes , a validation of their religious beliefs , Ysmir is furious . He abandons the Empire completely . This was the betrayal the Greybeards spoke of . Or so he thinks . Without the Underking ' s power , all ideas of conquering Tamriel vanish . Would ' ve been nice , Septim thinks , but let ' s just worry about Cyrodiil and the human nations . Already there is a rebellion in Hammerfell . Pieces of Numidium trickle in , though . Tiber Septim , always fascinated by the Dwarves , has Zurin Arctus research this grand artifact . In doing so , Arctus stumbles upon some of the stories of the war at Red Mountain . He discovers the reason the Numidium was made and some of its potential . Most importantly , he learns the Underking ' s place in the War . But Zurin Arctus was working from incomplete plans . He thinks it is the heart of Lorkhan ' s body that is needed to power the Numidium . While Zurin Arctus is raving about his discovery , the prophecy finally becomes clear to Tiber Septim . This Numidium is what he needs to conquer the world . It is his destiny to have it . He contacts the Underking and says he was right all along . They should kill the Tribunal , and they need to get together and make a plan . While the Underking was away he realized the true danger of Dagoth - Ur . Something must to be done . But he needs an army , and his old one is available again . The trap is set . The Underking arrives and is ambushed by Imperial guards . As he takes them on , Zurin Arctus uses a soulgem on him . With his last breath , the Underking ' s Heart roars a hole through the Battlemage ' s chest . In the end , everyone is dead , the Underking has reverted to ash , and Tiber Septim strolls in to take the soulgem . When the Elder Council arrives , he tells them about the second attempt on his life , this time by his trusted battle mage , Zurin Arctus , who was attempting a coup . He has the dead guards celebrated as heroes , even the one who was blasted to ash . . . He warns Cyrodiil about the dangers within , but says he has a solution to the dangers without . The Mantella . The Numidium , while not the god Tiber Septim and the Dwemer hoped for ( the Underking was not exactly Lorkhan , after all ) , it does the job . After its work on Summerset Isle a new threat appears — a rotting undead wizard who controls the skies . He blows the Numidium apart . But it pounds him into the ground with its last flailings , leaving only a black splotch . The Mantella falls into the sea , seemingly forever . Meanwhile , Tiber Septim crowns himself the First Emperor of Tamriel . He lives until he is 108 , the richest man in history . All aspects of his early reign are rewritten . Still , there are conflicting reports of what really happened , and this is why there is such confusion over such questions as : Why does Alcaire claim to be the birthplace of Talos , while other sources say he came from Atmora ? Why does Tiber Septim seem to be a different person after his first roaring conquests ? Why does Tiber Septim betray his battlemage ? Is the Mantella the heart of the battlemage or is it the heart of Tiber Septim ? Tiber Septim is succeeded by his grandson , Pelagius Septim . Pelagius is just not of the same caliber . In truth , he ' s a little nervous with all these provinces . Then an advisor shows up . “ I was friends with your grandfather , ” the Underking says , “ He sent me to help you run the Empire . "