Why an empire?

[Daemos Avetorii]

I hope this is the place to put this.


Something I never understood is why the imperials conquered the other lands?
I mean if they started as slaves to the ayleids then they more than anyone else will know how it sucks to be a slave. Why then brutally conquer all the other provinces? why?

[Br3admax]

Whatchu talkin bout? Tiber Septim didn't brutally conquer Tamriel. Also, he only did it because he had to. Prophecy is prophecy and as Martin said, "No man should run from his destiny."

[Daemos Avetorii]

what prophecy (noticing that I am lacking in tes lore knowledge) x.x
Can someone enlighten me?

[philfredobob]

I hope this is the place to put this.


Something I never understood is why the imperials conquered the other lands?
I mean if they started as slaves to the ayleids then they more than anyone else will know how it sucks to be a slave. Why then brutally conquer all the other provinces? why?

because they could?

[Daemos Avetorii]

Can someone tell me more about this prophecy thing?

[OblivionDuruza]

Re: prophecy

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.

Tiber Septim didn't brutally conquer Tamriel.

I would tend to disagree. We know Tiber conquered multiple provinces, most significantly, the Aldmeri Dominion with the use of the Numidum. The fact that the two Eastern provinces, Morrowind and Black Marsh are regarded as provinces that were never fully conquered, what with the Treaty of the Armistice in the case of Morrowind, and Black Marsh's generally unfavourable climate and terrain, we can assume that other provinces were conquered, such as Elsweyr, what with its violent resistance movement.

Still, I guess 'brutally' is the key word.

[Daemos Avetorii]

What I don't get is.. Why did the cyrodilians (sp) even take land from the other ones. Why make an empire? o.o I doubt that elseweyr or blackmarsh ever tried to take cyrodiil for example so why did those land grubbing imperials do it?

[OblivionDuruza]

Why does anyone do it? I guess power is attractive for those within whose grasp it lies. I don't think there's any special reason, although Tiber may have thought he was brining peace to Tamriel by unifying its races under his rule.

[Daemos Avetorii]

So the freedom and independence of the other races meant nothing to him?

[Mr.Argonian]

I always just though he wanted a stronger and unified Tamriel to bring peace, and so they could be fight against any invasions from Akavir togethor.

[OblivionDuruza]

I guess not, would be one way to look at it. Most of the races of Tamriel had a degree of autonomy during the Septims' reign though, so I guess it could have been worse.

[cybrxkhan]

So the freedom and independence of the other races meant nothing to him?

The world of TES isn't modeled after our 21st century ideals. Their world is similar to basically the world before the modern era, where might makes right and its survival of the fittest. You want something? If you can get it, then you get it. That's how empires worked in our world too. Actually, even nowadays, there's still arguably hints of that, it's just subtler and not as much in your face.

[Br3admax]

I always just though he wanted a stronger and unified Tamriel to bring peace, and so they could be fight against any invasions from Akavir togethor.

No, Tiber Septim had to do, prophecy had to be enacted.

"When misrule takes place at the eight corners of the world...."
To rule eight corners, and then have it misruled, you must first have eight corners. There are more than one prophecy that concerns Tiber Septim ruling a united Tamriel. Here are two of them.

Now, since it's in an Elder Scroll, it will most likely happen. It can change, but more often than not, it will happen in some form of fashion.

[Dark Spark]

I hope this is the place to put this.


Something I never understood is why the imperials conquered the other lands?
I mean if they started as slaves to the ayleids then they more than anyone else will know how it sucks to be a slave. Why then brutally conquer all the other provinces? why?

Who understands the desire for power better than a slave?

[DikaSmausha]

What I don't get is.. Why did the cyrodilians (sp) even take land from the other ones. Why make an empire? o.o I doubt that elseweyr or blackmarsh ever tried to take cyrodiil for example so why did those land grubbing imperials do it?

Because the could. Look at the Roman Empire, there are so many empires throughout history. They do it because they have the power.

[Daemos Avetorii]

Thanks for your replies all. ^_^

But now the Empire is weaker. Thalmor intervention, lost blackmarsh and elsweyr, hammerfell relations dropped. Trouble in Skyrim. etc

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

Just saying, people who get bullied are very likely to become bullies themselves.

[Emzi 43]

Also, General Talos began his conquests during the interregnum, a time of chaos, he probably just thought "Hey, I bet this would be a lot more structured if someone actually controlled it! And I can!" This could be true heresy or otherwise.

[TheOogyBoogyMan]

There are the prophesies telling of things that will come to pass but as far as motivation, I would think they would want some sort of protection or strength to prevent them from falling back into the Ayleids control or something similar, and to do it peacefully they would have to convince all the surrounding nations to unite for their cause. Something easier said than done and would no doubt be met with resistance from time to time but even then, it's doubtful the Imperials ever meant to enslave the other nations as they once were and maybe never saw it as "conquering" at all.

[Daemos Avetorii]

Did they succeed to conquer because of real strength or because the divines had something to do with it?

[OblivionDuruza]

A number of factors. Tiber was a fairly competent general, and had a fairly efficient military behind him. However, I doubt he would have succeeded had it not been for the Treaty of the Armistice, whereby he was able to avoid going to war with one of his greatest challenges, the Dunmer, and also obtain the power to defeat his greatest foes, the Numidium and the Aldmeri Dominion respectively. Keeping in mind that he didn't really ever conquer Black Marsh, and that he had allies in Skyrim and High Rock, the biggest part of his conquest was Hammerfell against the already weakened Crowns (due to his alliance with the Forebears in the wake of the death of the King of Hammerfell) and the Heartland. The rest was mainly moping up, really. Still, that does seem a bit glib, there is no understating his tactical and political genius.

[cybrxkhan]

A number of factors. Tiber was a fairly competent general, and had a fairly efficient military behind him. However, I doubt he would have succeeded had it not been for the Treaty of the Armistice, whereby he was able to avoid going to war with one of his greatest challenges, the Dunmer, and also obtain the power to defeat his greatest foes, the Numidium and the Aldmeri Dominion respectively. Keeping in mind that he didn't really ever conquer Black Marsh, and that he had allies in Skyrim and High Rock, the biggest part of his conquest was Hammerfell against the already weakened Crowns (due to his alliance with the Forebears in the wake of the death of the King of Hammerfell) and the Heartland. The rest was mainly moping up, really. Still, that does seem a bit glib, there is no understating his tactical and political genius.

In a way that makes him not too dissimilar from Genghis Khan the historical Mongols, who were in the right place at the right time - many of the states they attacked were in decline or beset by internal infighting, and they capitalized on that. That doesn't diminish their accomplishments in any way, though, given that a lot of people don't have the brains to capitalize on those sort of advantages to begin with, and even then they were still tactical and political geniuses in a sense too. So similarly I see Tiber Septim as the same as well - a rare person who is able to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

[Br3admax]

Or just about anybody with a large Empire. Tamriel is Rome, in a nutshell to keep it simple. Tiber Septim is Augustus Caesar.

[DikaSmausha]

That is simply what it is based on.

[Dunmerdude]

In a way that makes him not too dissimilar from Genghis Khan the historical Mongols, who were in the right place at the right time - many of the states they attacked were in decline or beset by internal infighting, and they capitalized on that. That doesn't diminish their accomplishments in any way, though, given that a lot of people don't have the brains to capitalize on those sort of advantages to begin with, and even then they were still tactical and political geniuses in a sense too. So similarly I see Tiber Septim as the same as well - a rare person who is able to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

Not only did he take advantage of opportunities when they came, he was able to unify a continent with relatively little bloodshed and oppression and brought years of peace to Tamriel. Even if he had to be underhanded sometimes.