Treshcore wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

ESO takes place in the Interregnum. Prior to this game, this lore was that this period was basically remembered as a time of chaos, wars, and many pretenders to the Imperial Throne. Keep in mind that there are 200+ years between ESO and the next era of peace and stability for Nirn when Tiber Septim becomes the next Dragonborn Emperor. Then add on 400 or so years before the Third Era TES games, and 200 more years before Skyrim.

That's a lot of chaos and war, in which the Three Banners War is ultimately inconsequential, no matter how important it seems to us right now. Nor does Tiber Septim particularly care about making sure that history records our exploits 200+ years later. He wants to make himself look good, as the Emperor who restored the peace. Rather than being erased from the timeline, it's more like our events weren't well-recorded. This is pretty normal for Tamriel historical records, judging by other games, and particularly where Heroes are involved. The Nerevarine hardly gets a mention 200 years later in Skyrim, and they might even be still alive.

As for the other folks who should remember the specifics like the Daedra, the Tribunal, the Psijics, or the College of Sapiarchs...well, my personal explanation is that most of them are pretty embarrassed that they got beat by or needed the help of the Vestige, and so they don't preserve our history for the general public.

The lack of recordings about Three Banners War can simply be explained that our character ignores them. Third Era began to finish all this chaos, to make it outdated, unimportant.
Especially when we're talking about Three Banners War. You know, all of the alliances' leaders are not a**holes, but history doesn't really like good people... At least if they're not between other a**holes. Joruun the Skald-King, Queen Ayrenn, High King Emeric - all of them are decent, charismatic people who don't pursue such things like racial segregation, vengeance and other ugly things. They want to create their own Empire on the whole Tamriel, unite it. Of course no one will care about them!

Sadly, these political theories still have nothing to do with the game's broken continuity. Three Banners War is just a reason to make Cyrodiil a PvP zone, nothing more.

My point was more that there's nothing nefarious about there not being a set winner to the war, because in the grand scheme of Tamriel, it just doesn't matter. There won't be a legitimate ruler on the Ruby Thone until Tiber Septim, something the lore and the Imperial City questline make clear.

As odd as it seems that stuff like the Ebonheart Pact becomes unimportant in light of future events, the restablishment of an Empire in charge of most of the currently independent nations really is a sea change in Tamrielic politics that handily explains why we don't hear about the 2nd Era in any great detail. The last thing Tiber Septim or later Septims want is the Bretons reminiscing about that time they nearly wound up running the Empire, or the Altmer scheming to put an elf on the Ruby Throne.

If I may, just a "quick" note regarding Dragon Breaks.

Dragon Breaks, in lore, are essentially when Akatosh loses control of time for a period, resulting in multiple timelines/possibilities occurring at the same time. When the Dragon Break ends, Akatosh regains control of time and the timelines are corrected in some manner. The times it has appeared in lore usually deal with mortals messing with Divine matter beyond their usual control—separating the Auriel/Akatosh aspects from each other, messing with the Heart of Lorkhan, etc.

The only instance of a Dragon Break occurring in-game (and the reason they were invented in the lore at all) was in TES:II Daggerfall, when in alignment with the faction of their choice, the player used the Mantella for that faction. In this action, any of the following endings involved the player giving the Totem of Tiber Septim to that faction to help them achieve their goals: Daggerfall, Wayrest, Sentinel, the Empire, or Orsinium consolidating power, or Mannimarco becoming a god. This meant that for players of Daggerfall, there were 6 different endings. This also meant that when Bethesda had to determine the way the lore would move forward, they had to reconcile all those endings. Hence, the Dragon Break.

During the Warp In the West (the localized Dragon Break in the Iliac Bay in the 3E), the multitude of kingdoms shrank to those of Daggerfall, Wayrest, and Sentinel as they consolidated power and nearby kingdoms, Orsinium remained, all kingdoms swore fealty to the Empire, and Mannimarco underwent apotheosis. It essentially allowed Bethesda to get around their multiple endings without having to choose just one.

Which is the key when dealing with Dragon Breaks, is that their primary use in lore is to reconcile different world altering player options, when there is no other way that they could be reconciled. They have been integrated in other facets in order to make them less of a one-off kind of thing, but the primary game-focused purpose remains.

Since ESO hasn't had any choices the player can make on the level of world-altering possibilities as were present in TES II (and not even really as big as the choice at the end of the "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" quest), the likelihood of a Dragon Break being involved are quite low. Especially since there is technically an official timeline to follow, and there is technically an in-game lore explanation for how the Vestige is able to experience the other alliance quest lines. Yes, changes made since then have loosened up adherence to that timeline and lore, and the result has been confusion. But that is less about a multitude of options regarding how the events that can affect the world, and more about a gameplay mechanic/choice that allows more freedom in player movement through the world. Confusion inducing, potentially yes. Multiple timelines involving reconciliation through the breaking and un-breaking of the timeline, no.

You can read a book in any order of the pages or the chapters. You can watch a movie in any order of the scenes. That doesn't mean that there is no timeline and no continuity in the book or in the movie. It is just your choice as a story consumer to consume it in your own order.

ESO is the same. There is a timeline. There is a continuity. There are quests that happen before and quests that happen after. It is a choice of a player to follow the order or to consume the story in another way.