Who wins the Three Banners War?

Knowledge

I'm curious as to what the opinion or general consensus is regarding the Three Banners War victor.

If we look into the lore we can see there is a Second Aldmeri Dominion. Could that mean that they survive the three banners war?

I've heard that Ebonheart Pact could be the victor but they are the most unstable of the three banners. It just seems unlikely to me from a lore perspective. You'd think the alliance with the most internal struggle would have issues cohesively fighting against its enemies.

What are your thoughts?

Iago

It is really up in the air for me as each alliance has its own strengths and weaknesses. If I had to take a stance I assume the imperials will rally at some point and retake Cyrodiil themselves l, although they may get help to do so from one or more of the current alliances.

I expect that Imperials will retake Cyrodiil themselves as they seem to be in charge of it.in the third era.

Natjur

I thought no one won the Three Banners War. A bigger issue came along and all three alliances collapsed before the conquest of Tiber Septim.

Vunter

Someone will come riding a giant robot and conquering all Tamriel.

Iago

Vunter wrote: »

Someone will come riding a giant robot and conquering all Tamriel.

I thought Numinidium was out of service

Naor_Sarethi

Zenithar-max. He made this war and he'll damn well see some profit !

Runefell

None of them. After this, Tiber Septim, aka Talos, swoops in and unites all the lands under him, creating the Empire.

The Covenant doesn't survive after Emeric's death, the Pact pretty much disintegrates and the Dark Elves re-enslave the Argonians, who in turn attack and massacre Dark Elves, whereas the Dominion falls apart due to the Veiled Heritance.

Check out the videos by ShoddyCast on Youtube for some awesome lore background. There's a whole series that's worth a watch.

WraithAzraiel

Then the Thalmor rise up and rule everything, utilizing the Imperials as a puppet government.

Knowledge

See, there's still some missing content between Tiber Septim and the Three Banners War.

Can we really definitively say who won?

Tabbycat

This is the extent of what we know: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/second-era

Knowledge

Tabbycat wrote: »

This is the extent of what we know: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/second-era

I don't know if I like the place they chose to put this story. I'd rather it be based on more recent events IE after skyrim, it's not so exciting knowing what happens.

bloodenragedb14_ESO

no one wins, or rather everyone loses. Talos comes along in a few centuries and makes them all his ***

bosmern_ESO

*spoiler*Abnur tharn forms the alliance under one banner, He takes the Amulet of Kings and returns to the imperial city at the end of the story in ESO. From what we know, Talos ends the war and pretty much expands the alliance under one banner so there is no more faction, only the governments (the reason why you see Aldmeri dominion and other factions in later games.) Can only assume that abnur tharn used the amulet of kings with Talos so he can ascend and become the Ninth Divine

drschplatt

The short answer is that no one wins. The empire kicks everyone's butt and the various Aldmeri groups that come later on in the history of the game have very little if anything to do with the first Aldmeri Dominion.

Even the Aldmeri Dominions that come later get dominated.

Rust_in_Peace

Runefell wrote: »

None of them. After this, Tiber Septim, aka Talos, swoops in and unites all the lands under him, creating the Empire.

The Covenant doesn't survive after Emeric's death, the Pact pretty much disintegrates and the Dark Elves re-enslave the Argonians, who in turn attack and massacre Dark Elves, whereas the Dominion falls apart due to the Veiled Heritance.

Check out the videos by ShoddyCast on Youtube for some awesome lore background. There's a whole series that's worth a watch.

The last 5 minutes of that video are just cringeworthy.

WhiskyBob

Population Lock exploit wins.

AngryNord

In the end: The Imperials and Tiber Septim. But not for a couple of hundred years.

Chuggernaut

Its all a dream, and before the servers go down for good the last players will be treated to a video of a child waking up. My father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate who works at ZeniMax told me

runagate

Whichever faction has the most ERP vampire guild events scheduled on weekends.

Rylana

The First Aldmeri Dominion gets the closest to capturing all of Cyrodiil. The Daggerfall Covenant falls apart internally, and the Pact gets crushed by Tiber Septim first.

So AD is the last one standing, but they too get driven out. (and are the only faction to remain intact for any period of time, falling apart shortly after Tiber takes the ruby throne)

The Second Aldmeri Dominion (the remnants of the First, with the Khajiit as allies via treaty and not as members) would defy Tiber Septim and hold the SW quarter of the continent for quite some time before they were finally conquered.

The Third Aldmeri Dominion would return a few hundred years later and successfully take Imperial City for a short time, but were again defeated. Its also worth noting that the Khajiit were actually enemies of the Altmer and Bosmer in this particular war, their lands occupied and puppeted instead of allied.

Danikat

Knowledge wrote: »

Tabbycat wrote: »

This is the extent of what we know: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/second-era

I don't know if I like the place they chose to put this story. I'd rather it be based on more recent events IE after skyrim, it's not so exciting knowing what happens.

I think they want to save after Skyrim for TES VI and they chose this period because they wanted to have large scale PvP so it had to be some point when all of Tamriel was at war. It also helps that there's no clear winner (which might bias people towards that faction) and the details aren't clear, which gives them relatively freedom to add events and storyline with DLC/expansions, whereas if they'd chosen something more well known like Tiber Septims conquest of Tamriel they'd have to stick relatively closely to the pre-written version. (Sure there are details that are unclear or debated in lore but something big like Molag Bal trying to take over or....dragons appearing in Cyrodiil or an invasion from Akavir would be completely off the table.)

Also they couldn't go too far back or you'd start to run into issues like the Dunmer not being in Morrowind, the Orsimer not being transformed, the Ayleids still being around etc.

MorHawk

We used to debate this a lot back in beta, and a common argument was "EP wins because Tiber was a Nord".

My perspective is that I'd define 'winning' as having achieved the goals of that faction. EP wants autonomy for each province. AD wants an elven empire. DC wants a human empire.

Remind me what actually ended up happening? Oh, a human empire, right. DC wins.

nimander99

The Imperials do.

Enodoc

I'm inclined to believe they all collapse some time before 2E 800, and I can't see them being sustainable much beyond the deaths of their respective leaders; Emeric and Ayrenn seem to be integral to the success of DC and AD, with only EP having the potential to outlast them due to their Great Moot not relying on any leader in particular. None of them will win the Three Banners War though.

BBSooner

MorHawk wrote: »

We used to debate this a lot back in beta, and a common argument was "EP wins because Tiber was a Nord".

My perspective is that I'd define 'winning' as having achieved the goals of that faction. EP wants autonomy for each province. AD wants an elven empire. DC wants a human empire.

Remind me what actually ended up happening? Oh, a human empire, right. DC wins.

Considering Tiber's rise came at the cost of both an invasion of Morrowind against the Dunmer as well as an invasion of Hammerfell over the Redguards I'd say neither EP nor DC had their interests served.

Septim ends up leading the Colovian Estates (another human empire but directly at war with DC), meaning, as far as the game is concerned, the NPCs essentially win the war. I would be hard pressed to say DC won for him conquering them (or EP for that matter).

More likely all the alliances collapse before Tiber's rise.

MorHawk

BBSooner wrote: »

MorHawk wrote: »

We used to debate this a lot back in beta, and a common argument was "EP wins because Tiber was a Nord".

My perspective is that I'd define 'winning' as having achieved the goals of that faction. EP wants autonomy for each province. AD wants an elven empire. DC wants a human empire.

Remind me what actually ended up happening? Oh, a human empire, right. DC wins.

Considering Tiber's rise came at the cost of both an invasion of Morrowind against the Dunmer as well as an invasion of Hammerfell over the Redguards I'd say neither EP nor DC had their interests served.

Septim ends up leading the Colovian Estates (another human empire but directly at war with DC), meaning, as far as the game is concerned, the NPCs essentially win the war. I would be hard pressed to say DC won for him conquering them (or EP for that matter).

More likely all the alliances collapse before Tiber's rise.

Erm, Tiber invaded basically *everything*. Hence the whole 'empire' thing.
Yes, I'm sure we're all aware that none of the alliances won in the end, but the point is that it was DC's *goals* that were met, in the end. I'd even go so far as to assume that the Covenant had been dissolved prior to Cuhlecain making his move out of Falkreath, or the doors of Sancre Tor would have been thrown wide open to receive him.

BBSooner

MorHawk wrote: »

BBSooner wrote: »

MorHawk wrote: »

We used to debate this a lot back in beta, and a common argument was "EP wins because Tiber was a Nord".

My perspective is that I'd define 'winning' as having achieved the goals of that faction. EP wants autonomy for each province. AD wants an elven empire. DC wants a human empire.

Remind me what actually ended up happening? Oh, a human empire, right. DC wins.

Considering Tiber's rise came at the cost of both an invasion of Morrowind against the Dunmer as well as an invasion of Hammerfell over the Redguards I'd say neither EP nor DC had their interests served.

Septim ends up leading the Colovian Estates (another human empire but directly at war with DC), meaning, as far as the game is concerned, the NPCs essentially win the war. I would be hard pressed to say DC won for him conquering them (or EP for that matter).

More likely all the alliances collapse before Tiber's rise.

Erm, Tiber invaded basically *everything*. Hence the whole 'empire' thing.
Yes, I'm sure we're all aware that none of the alliances won in the end, but the point is that it was DC's *goals* that were met, in the end. I'd even go so far as to assume that the Covenant had been dissolved prior to Cuhlecain making his move out of Falkreath, or the doors of Sancre Tor would have been thrown wide open to receive him.

Even still, Tiber conquering the jarls and kings of Skyrim and High Rock doesn't make any faction a retroactive winner based on what their goals were, considering the nation's they were during his rise were conquered along with everybody else.

Besides, I'd say their goals - more than a human empire - would be that of a Breton emperor. Otherwise before the collapse they would have aligned themselves with the Colovians and attempted to put the imperials back on the throne if the only prerequisite was that "a human" be in charge.

MorHawk

Okay, so let's just say that they won *more* than the others. Better?

BBSooner

MorHawk wrote: »

Okay, so let's just say that they won *more* than the others. Better?

Winning more of nothing is still nothing. So, sure?

Mikoto

BBSooner wrote: »

MorHawk wrote: »

BBSooner wrote: »

MorHawk wrote: »

We used to debate this a lot back in beta, and a common argument was "EP wins because Tiber was a Nord".

My perspective is that I'd define 'winning' as having achieved the goals of that faction. EP wants autonomy for each province. AD wants an elven empire. DC wants a human empire.

Remind me what actually ended up happening? Oh, a human empire, right. DC wins.

Considering Tiber's rise came at the cost of both an invasion of Morrowind against the Dunmer as well as an invasion of Hammerfell over the Redguards I'd say neither EP nor DC had their interests served.

Septim ends up leading the Colovian Estates (another human empire but directly at war with DC), meaning, as far as the game is concerned, the NPCs essentially win the war. I would be hard pressed to say DC won for him conquering them (or EP for that matter).

More likely all the alliances collapse before Tiber's rise.

Erm, Tiber invaded basically *everything*. Hence the whole 'empire' thing.
Yes, I'm sure we're all aware that none of the alliances won in the end, but the point is that it was DC's *goals* that were met, in the end. I'd even go so far as to assume that the Covenant had been dissolved prior to Cuhlecain making his move out of Falkreath, or the doors of Sancre Tor would have been thrown wide open to receive him.

Even still, Tiber conquering the jarls and kings of Skyrim and High Rock doesn't make any faction a retroactive winner based on what their goals were, considering the nation's they were during his rise were conquered along with everybody else.

Besides, I'd say their goals - more than a human empire - would be that of a Breton emperor. Otherwise before the collapse they would have aligned themselves with the Colovians and attempted to put the imperials back on the throne if the only prerequisite was that "a human" be in charge.

Technically Talos is a breton but it depends on what you believe.

Obscure

Question:
Who wins the Three Banners War?

Answer:

TALOS