Brief History of the Empire, Book II

Brief History of the Empire, Book II is a book in , , , and .
==Series==
This book is part of a four-part series on the history of the Empire.
*Brief History of the Empire, Book I
*Brief History of the Empire, Book II
*Brief History of the Empire, Book III
*Brief History of the Empire, Book IV
==Locations==
===Daggerfall===
*Random locations
===Morrowind===
Click to show
*Ald'ruhn, Arobar Private Quarters
*Ald'ruhn, Codus Callonus: Bookseller (x2)
*Ald'ruhn, Ald'ruhn Mages Guild
*Ald'ruhn, Pellecia Aurrus's House
*Balmora, Dorisa Darvel: Bookseller
*Balmora, Balmora Mages Guild
*Caldera, Verick Gemain: Trader
*Dagon Fel, Andre Maul's Tower
*Ebonheart, Imperial Commission (x2)
*Gnisis, Temple
*Holamayan Monastery (x3)
*Indarys Manor
*Indarys Manor, Manor Services
*Rethan Manor
*Seyda Neen, Census and Excise Office, on a shelf in the first room
*Suran, Garothmuk gro-Muzgub: Smith
*Tel Aruhn, Tower Entry
*Tel Mora, Upper Tower
*Tel Vos, Central Tower
*Tureynulal, Kagrenac's Library
*Vivec City:
**Curio Manor
**Hall of Justice Secret Library
**Jobasha's Rare Books
**Library of Vivec
**Office of the Watch
**Redoran Records
===Tribunal===
*Mournhold, Ignatius Flaccus' House
*Mournhold, Llethan Manor (3x)
===Oblivion===
*Cheydinhal in Mach-Na's Books.
*Chorrol in Renoit's Books.
*South of Chorrol, in Fort Carmala.
*Market District in the First Edition bookstore.
===Shivering Isles===
*Duke's Private Quarters, at Sheogorath's Palace.
===Skyrim===
*Abandoned Prison
*Angeline's Aromatics, Solitude, on a bookshelf in one of the bedrooms on the upper floor.
*Can be bought from Urag gro-Shub in The Arcanaeum.
*Bards College in Solitude, on a bookshelf in one of the bedrooms.
*Blue Palace, Solitude
*Bryling's House, Solitude, on a stack of books in a table in an upstairs bedroom.
*Castle Dour, Solitude, on a bookshelf.
**Another in the Castle Dour Dungeon, on a bookshelf on the upper level.
*Dragonsreach, Whiterun, on a table at the bottom of the staircase that leads down from the kitchen.
**Also in the Dragonsreach Jarl's Quarters, on a bookshelf.
*East Empire Company Office, Windhelm – All four volumes can be found here after completion of the quest "Rise in the East."
*Erikur's House, Solitude, on a bookshelf on the upper floor.
*Faldar's Tooth – Behind a Novice-locked door adjacent to the room with the wolf cages and the wolf corpse on the table. Another is in the hallway after the dining area and the sleeping quarters, in the toilet room.
*Every volume is available in The Frozen Hearth, in Winterhold.
*Hall of the Dead, Whiterun, in Andurs' room.
*Helgen Keep, Helgen – in the torture room.
*House of Clan Battle-Born, Whiterun, atop a bookshelf on the upper floor.
*House Gray-Mane, in Whiterun
*Jorrvaskr, Whiterun, on a bookshelf in the main hall.
**Another copy is available in the Living Quarters, in Skjor's bedroom.
*Aboard The Katariah during or after the quest "Hail Sithis!," on a shelf.
*Radiant Raiment, Solitude
*Rimerock Burrow, on a bookshelf
*Temple of the Divines, Solitude, on a ledge halfway up the northwestern staircase.
*Thalmor Headquarters, Solitude, on a bookshelf in the first room.
*Uthgerd's House, Whiterun, on a bookshelf near the fireplace.
*Vittoria Vici's House, Solitude, on a bookshelf.
*The Winking Skeever, Solitude
*The full series can be found in Fort Snowhawk.
==Contents==
Volume I of this series described in brief the lives of the first eight Emperors of the Septim Dynasty, beginning with the glorious Tiber Septim and ending with his great, great, great, great, grandniece Kintyra II. Kintyra's murder in Glenpoint while in captivity is considered by some to be the end of the pure strain of Septim blood in the imperial family. Certainly it marks the end of something significant.
Uriel III not only proclaimed himself Emperor of Tamriel, but also Uriel Septim III, taking the eminent surname as a title. In truth, his surname was Mantiarco from his father's line. In time, Uriel III was deposed and his crimes reviled, but the tradition of taking the name Septim as a title for the Emperor of Tamriel did not die with him.
For six years, the War of the Red Diamond (which takes its name from the Septim Family's famous badge) tore the Empire apart. The combatants were the three surviving children of Pelagius Septim II-Potema, Cephorus, and Magnus-and their various offspring. Potema, of course, supported her son Uriel III, and had the combined support of all of Skyrim and northern Morrowind. With the efforts of Cephorus and Magnus, however, the province of High Rock turned coat. The provinces of Hammerfell, Summurset Isle, Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Black Marsh were divided in their loyalty, but most kings supported Cephorus and Magnus.
In 3E127, Uriel III was captured at the Battle of Ichidag in Hammerfell. En route to his trial in the Imperial City, a mob overtook his prisoner's carriage and burned him alive within it. His captor and uncle continued on to the Imperial City, and by common acclaim was proclaimed Cephorus I, Emperor of Tamriel.
Cephorus' reign was marked by nothing but war. By all accounts, he was a kind and intelligent man, but what Tamriel needed was a great warrior -- and he, fortunately, was that. It took an additional ten years of constant warfare for him to defeat his sister Potema. The so-called Wolf Queen of Solitude who died in the siege of her city-state in the year 137. Cephorus survived his sister by only three years. He never had time during the war years to marry, so it was his brother, the fourth child of Pelagius Septim II, who assumed the throne.
The Emperor Magnus was already elderly when he took up the imperial diadem, and the business of punishing the traitorous kings of the War of the Red Diamond drained much of his remaining strength. Legend accuses Magnus' son and heir Pelagius Septim III of patricide, but that seems highly unlikely-for no other reason than that Pelagius was King of Solitude following the death of Potema, and seldom visited the Imperial City.
Pelagius Septim III, sometimes called Pelagius the Mad, was proclaimed Emperor in the 145th year of the Third Era. Almost from the start, his eccentricities of behaviour were noted at court. He embarrassed dignitaries, offended his vassal kings, and on one occasion marked the end of an imperial grand ball by attempting to hang himself. His long-suffering wife was finally awarded the Regency of Tamriel, and Pelagius Septim III was sent to a series of healing institutions and asylums until his death in 3E153 at the age of thirty-four.
The Empress Regent of Tamriel was proclaimed Empress Katariah I upon the death of her husband. Some who do not mark the end of the Septim bloodline with the death of Kintyra II consider the ascendancy of this Dark Elf woman the true mark of its decline. Her defenders, on the other hand, assert that though Katariah was not descended from Tiber, the son she had with Pelagius was, so the imperial chain did continue. Despite racist assertions to the contrary, Katariah's forty-six-year reign was one of the most celebrated in Tamriel's history. Uncomfortable in the Imperial City, Katariah traveled extensively throughout the Empire such as no Emperor ever had since Tiber's day. She repaired much of the damage that previous emperor's broken alliances and bungled diplomacy created. The people of Tamriel came to love their Empress far more than the nobility did. Katariah's death in a minor skirmish in Black Marsh is a favorite subject of conspiracy minded historians. The Sage Montalius' discovery, for instance, of a disenfranchised branch of the Septim Family and their involvement with the skirmish was a revelation indeed.
When Cassynder assumed the throne upon the death of his mother, he was already middle-aged. Only half Elven, he aged like a Breton. In fact, he had left the rule of Wayrest to his half-brother Uriel due to poor health. Nevertheless, as the only true blood relation of Pelagius and thus Tiber, he was pressed into accepting the throne. To no one's surprise, the Emperor Cassynder's reign did not last long. In two years he joined his predecessors in eternal slumber.
Uriel Lariat, Cassynder's half-brother, and the child of Katariah I and her Imperial consort Gallivere Lariat (after the death of Pelagius Septim III), left the kingdom of Wayrest to reign as Uriel IV. Legally, Uriel IV was a Septim: Cassynder had adopted him into the royal family when he had become King of Wayrest. Nevertheless, to the Council and the people of Tamriel, he was a bastard child of Katariah. Uriel did not possess the dynamism of his mother, and his long forty-three-year reign was a hotbed of sedition.
Uriel IV's story is told in the third volume of this series.
==Trivia==
*There is a version of these books in . While the overall content is the same, they are not identical to the others.
*There is a version of called Odral's History of the Empire 2 with an added _oh at the end of the item's ID, used in the "Books for Vala" quest.
==Appearances==
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cs:Stručná historie Císařství, část druhá
de:Geschichte des Kaiserreichs (2)
es:Breve historia del Imperio, Segunda parte
ru:Краткая история Империи, т. 2
fr:Brève histoire de l'Empire, vol. 2
Category:Shivering Isles: Books
Category:Morrowind: Quest Items