you got fucking kings, Torygg, Helseth, living gods of the Tribunal… under an “Emperor”? who puts some garrisons around but does… what exactly?

theres an “East Empire Trading Company”? whats that do?

it kinda seems like a holy roman empire, kinda seems like a regular roman empire. they’ve got knights, dukes, but a Legion…

yes i know the answer is technically “these jackoffs just made it up as they went” and don’t care a lick about political theory but this is exactly the kind of excercise that makes fun speculative historiography

  • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Doesn’t the Septim bloodline have some magical powers to keep Daedra at bay? Nobles and such would want a figurehead around for practical as well as symbolic reasons. This ended in Oblivion, leading to their decline.

    Come Skyrim and Imperial nobles will hire Dark Brotherhood to assassinate an Emperor they dislike.

    They were in decline during the second era due to Molag Bal invading Nirn, but that was before Tiber I believe. They were prominent before the second era due to them obliterating the elves of Cyroriil and establishing the Empire in the first place.

  • Teekeeus [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    doesn’t the empire barely function anyway? I’m pretty sure the provinces do whatever the fuck they want in practice, don’t they even tend to war with each other when they’re theoretically under the same wider empire?

    Maybe something like the spring and autumn period (I think)?

    • Dolores [love/loves]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      this is precisely the contradiction. how we got an “empire” that seems to have a negligible effect on its subjects that is also omnipresent in the setting?

      • booty [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        imagine if jesus was a warlord who conquered europe and called himself the roman emperor. so that even after he was long gone and the empire collapsed there was still a lot of inertia in favor of his empire

        its basically that.

        • Dolores [love/loves]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          so the empire is the caliphate :thonk:

          wait unironically this makes the most sense. the emperors are religious authorities. and even deified (this is not okay in islam fyi), but most the continent shares this religion, theres a feudal state attached… Imperial City is Baghdad, the Septims are the Umayyad and the Medes are Abbassid or Fatimid :galaxy-brain:

        • TerminalEncounter [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          Also, he acquired a giant walking brass golem whose skin is made from a dead race that can “NOPE” things into non-existence. Why the tribunal agreed to give it up, I dunno.

      • Teekeeus [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        exactly, doesn’t make sense that the imperial authority should be able to accomplish much in any province outside cyrodiil (except maybe skyrim since they willingly joined at the start)