by Jack Road » Sun Mar 26, 2017 5:27 pm
I've always been an Empire man myself, regardless of what thinly veiled retelling of the history of Rome I'm currently playing. I just really like large powerful hierarchical structures. Always have, in and out of fantasy, I'm attracted to them. They make me feel safe and secure and give me a sense of purpose and belonging that I really crave. That being said, nobody besides me ever thinks living in the thousand year long stretches of stable empires is appealing. They always want to jump in when things are going to shit. And oh, boy, are things going to shit here.
I actually structure the entire game around the idea of my character as an Imperial who has always wanted to serve the Empire. Right out of the gate I mod the game so that instead of starting at Helgen, I start at my parent's farm, as a young man. One day I pack up all my stuff and head to Solitude to join the Legion. I heavily mod the way the ranking structure works and how the war goes down. I only discover I am the Dragonborn during the course of this adventure, and not right out of the gate the way the vanilla game presents it. Although I am not very good at modding myself, and am limited by what other people have done, I like to think that I eventually use my status as Dragonborn to grant legitimacy to the Empire once more, as the one true Empire of Akatosh.
But to me the Empire per the vanilla game lore is in significant trouble. A Concise Account of the Great War Between the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion states that "Although victorious, the Imperial armies were in no shape to continue the war. The entire remaining Imperial force was gathered in Cyrodiil, exhausted and decimated by the Battle of the Red Ring. Not a single legion had more than half its soldiers fit for duty. Two legions had been effectively annihilated, not counting the loss of the Eighth during the retreat from the Imperial City the previous year."
In addition to that, the peace treaty signed by the Emperor was a substantial blow to the sovereignty of the Empire. The White-Gold Concordant's final terms were the outlawing of the worship of Talos in the Empire, formally disbanding the Blades, and delivering a large portion of southern Hammerfell into the control of the Aldmeri Dominion. Implicit in this agreement was also the understand that the Thalmor could move unhindered through Empire territories.
The first and last of these terms were likely intended specifically to cause strife between the Empire and its territories by the Thalmor, as postulated by Legate Justianus Quintius. And they did cause strife, everyone lost Hammerfell when the Redguards revolted and took it for themselves, and almost the same thing happened or could happen in Skyrim. But far more devastating, in my opinion, was the disbandment of the Empire's eyes and ears while allowing the Thalmor's eyes and ears to run willy nilly across the land.
Finally, it cannot be discounted that this is a land where gods are real, and have a real impact and presence. In that sense, the Empire has always prospered because it was the chosen Empire of Akatosh, a blessing lost at the end of the Oblivion crisis. Now, the Empire has lost that blessing before and regained it. But with this iteration they have lost a lot in the past era.
So I like the Empire, but I don't think it is going to make it to a Fifth era in its current state.