The collapse of the alliances

Narvuntien · June 2017

I am just having lore musings. This seems like the right forum to post these. Plus if I am wrong on any of these points someone will correct me. This is like my own extention of existing lore.

So we know that very little is written in larger ES lore about this time period and the only allance that has any staying power name reconition is the Aldmeri dominion. Why is this?

I believe the answer is simply that these alliances quickly collapse after the defeat of Molag Baal and the imperial threat. So I am thinking about how this might happen.

Starting with the easiest one. The ebonheart pact, this is unstable from the start between old enimies. It is currently held together by two important things. Johruns force of personality and the goodwill from the defeat of the Akaviri. Veterans of this war are currently in leadership positions and incharge of foriegn policy. This will just not be the case for the next generation of leaders it the alliance can't last even a whole generation.
Prince Inskar is shown to be quite the hot head without his fathers personality and deft diplomacy, trying to be better sure but I think the task is too great.
The second issue is that... slavers are going to slave... Dumner simply wont be able to help themselves from taking argonian slaves again. Telvanni never accepted it, Dres take non argonian slaves still (I think) and not happy about not being allowed to. I am thinking that ambitious House Halalu will break first. They will at first take slaves Illegally but as the pact starts to break they will be more defiant that will make it 3 to 2 of slavers and it will all tumble down. Why? profit... they will do it for money. Redoran is too honor bound to break and oath and Indoril too pious.
Argonians are in this pact with optimisim that they will prove themselves and keep thier freedom but when people start dissappearing from thier villages and the dumner authorities do nothing they will see that this is no the dream freedom they wanted.
The veterans of the akaviri wars will die off and the old issues will resurface and down it will come.

Second the daggerfall covenent. Again there is a comming together of old enemies. Particularly odd for the Orcs. Emeric has exemplifed himself in years of repeated wars first the invasion of the reach and then ransers war and made a name for himself in a difficult time with the loss of the Gardener dinasty.
There is a big issue with this allance. That it is based on a marriage to a forebear princess. Fahajada mentions the issues with in his own kingdom with crowns looking for any weakness. Now the redgaurd prince got captured twice. All it would take is him not being as warry and careful and the balance of power in Al'kir can flip to the crowns. With that Emeric and any children with the princess would lose the redgaurds from the allance. The breton kingdoms are fiecely independant, they have bounding together to avoid the kind of invasion they faced with the reach, but that is recent memory but any weakness from wayrest and they will start exterting indepedance again. Now I am not sure how racist bretons are but I am not sure how they'd like a mixed race king, If Emeric has any children at all do we know. There is the story of Wrothgar the deals with the orcs and thier place in the convenent.

We know there is serious tensions within Altmer society with regaurds to the allance. Wood elves are just so friendly and accepting that I think that it is hard to see them breaking with the alliance particularly with its capital being thier capital. It seems remenants of the civil wars are just too weak. I think with the new silvenar the will just not be looking to break the alliance. The Khajit however are know for shifting loyalties and I don't think they will take Altmer dismissiveness of thier talents well, the Khajit are proud of thier skill. Simiply there is tension between Altmer and Khajit here. I feel just like the other allances the alliance leader is too much of a linch pin in the whole thing. Take them out and it can be hard to see how it can last.

Anyway I should sleep tell me why I am wrong or speculate yourself about how the alliances fall.

Korah_Eaglecry · June 2017

The Alliances arent built around the Molag Bal threat or the 'Imperial threat'. Each one has its own backstory separate of the Soulburst and the collapse of Cyrodiil.

The Daggerfall Covenant is the oldest, born out of a trade agreement that was modified into a military alliance/nation due to King Ranser of Rivenspire attacking Wayrest. The Orcs are likely the first chip to come unglued as its leaders whole point of joining the DC was to regain control of his peoples homelands.

The Ebonheart Pact is the second oldest and has been around for approximately 10 years as of the events of the game. While its not really addressed properly in game there is a lot of tension between the Dunmer and the Argonians. Thousands of years of slavery....and a decade is not going to rectify all that mistreatment. Its likely theyll fall apart due to Dunmer being Dunmer and Free Argonians coming to the realization they dont need to take it.

The Aldmeri Dominion is the youngest and the most fragile. By the end of the story its quite apparent that the majority of the AD getting along is Aryenn willing it to happen. Many of her Kin, nobility of the Altmer turned on her during the Veiled Heritance Crisis. And not all of Elyswyr is behind the Mane. If anything happens to the Mane...Its likely the entire alliance will come apart as the old rivalries between the Bosmer and Khajiit will bubble to the surface and the Veiled Heritance will make a return.

None of them hinge on Molag Bals defeat or the Imperials disappearing. In fact all three alliances would be better off without either of those threats around. As resources have had to have been diverted to deal with both in all three alliances. Where they come apart and why is something that hasnt been shared with us up to this point.

Maybe well get a lore book on it in the next TES Single Player game.

Emothic · June 2017

Also to note that the Aldmeri Dominion of the 2nd era (this game) and that of the 4th era (ES:Skyrim) are not the same. They are both idealogical and politically different, the only thing they share in common is the name. But other then that, they are two completely different type of factions. Though the AD of the 4th era was inspired by that of the 2nd era. The Political, Economic, and Miltiary ideology of the two are completely different.

So they AD of the 2nd era colapsed along with those of the Daggerfall Covenant and Ebeonheart Pact. Even if they didn't fall at teh same time as the DC and EP factions. The AD would of fallen at the end of the 2nd era when Talos, or Urial Septem, conquered all of Tamerial and started the 3rd era.

SilverIce58 · June 2017

Hlaalu would never be the first to break. That house is the MOST imperialized of all the Great Houses, in fact according to the book "Great Houses of Morrowind", "Hlaalu still honors the old Dunmer ways -- the ancestors, the Temple, and the noble houses -- but has readily adapted to the rapid pace of change and progress in the Imperial provinces." They'd be the last ones to take slaves and break the Pact.