Brief History of the Empire , Book III Summary . There are versions of the books in ; although the overall content is the same , they are not identical to the others . There is a quest item version for with the added ' _ oh ' to the item ID . Series . This book is part of a four part series on the history of the Empire . Contents . The first volume of this series told in brief the story of the succession of the first eight Emperors of the Septim Dynasty , from Tiber Septim I to Kintyra II . The second volume described the War of the Red Diamond and the six Emperors that followed its aftermath , from Uriel III to Cassynder . At the end of that volume , it was described how the Emperor Cassynder ' s half - brother Uriel IV assumed the throne of the Empire of Tamriel . 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 Dark Elf married to a true Septim Emperor , Pelagius Septim III . Uriel ' s father was actually Katariah ' s consort after Pelagius ' death , a Breton nobleman named Gallivere Lariat . Before taking the throne of Empire , Cassynder had ruled the kingdom of Wayrest , 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 Elder Council could be persuaded to accept him fully as a blood descendant of Tiber . The Council had assumed much responsibility during Katariah ' s long reign and Cassynder ' 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 Septim 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 . Andorak Septim , Uriel IV ' s son , was disinherited by vote of Council , and a cousin more closely related to the original Septim line was proclaimed Cephorus II in 3E247 . For the first nine years of Cephorus II ' s reign , those loyal to Andorak Septim battled the Imperial forces . In an act that the Sage Eraintine called " Tiber Septim ' s heart beating no more , " the Council granted Andorak Septim the High Rock kingdom of Shornhelm to end the war , and Andorak Septim ' 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 Camoran Usurper led an army of Daedra and undead warriors on a rampage through Valenwood , conquering kingdom after kingdom . Few could resist his onslaughts , and as month turned to bloody month in the year 3E249 , even fewer tried . Cephorus II sent more and more mercenaries into Hammerfell 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 The Fall of the Usurper 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 . Uriel V , Cephorus II ' s son and successor , swiveled 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 3E 268 . Uriel V conquered Roscrea in 271 , Cathnoquey in 276 , Yneslea in 279 , and Esroniet in 284 . In 3E 288 , he embarked on his most ambitious enterprise , the invasion of the continent kingdom of Akavir . 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 fourth and final volume of this series .