Ten years ago, the Oblivion Crisis ended - Mehrunes Dagon was defeated in his bid to invade Tamriel and vanquished by the sacrifice of Martin Septim and the Amulet of Kings. With one horrifying chapter ended, another is soon to begin. High Chancellor Ocato, now Potentate, takes the reigns of the Empire alongside the Elder Council.
He inherits a crippled Empire: a steady string of disasters and treasons.
Five years ago, Red Mountain erupts, devastating Vvardenfell and parts of mainland Morrowind. Dunmer refugees flood into Cyrodiil and Skyrim.
Three years ago, Black Marsh secedes from the Empire. Elsweyr follows within months. The Empire is powerless to respond and its Legions shamefully withdraw back to Cyrodiil with no contest.
Two years ago, the Argonians invade Morrowind. It takes a native force to drive them out, and now Morrowind, too, hangs on the precipice of open secession. Throughout all this, the Council is in disarray, seemingly powerless to act in any meaningful capacity.
Three weeks ago, Potentate Ocato was found dead. Murdered by as-of-yet discovered assassins. His commitment to a peaceful restoration of order to Cyrodiil and the other provinces dies with him.
Any semblance of unity is shattered.
The Elder Council dissolves into infighting.
Civil war breaks out.
Across Cyrodiil, countless factions take up arms - either to keep the peace or to seize the Ruby Throne for themselves. In an Empire with no Emperor, anything goes and anyone may rise.
The remaining provinces, still crippled from the Oblivion Crisis and without standing armies of their own, wait in grim anticipation for a new Emperor to be crowned.
A powerful storm rocks the Imperial City, its eye bearing down on White Gold Tower.
The Stormcrown Interregnum
“Following the Oblivion Crisis, the Elder Council could not find a suitable heir to the throne, and so High Chancellor Ocato reluctantly agreed to become Potentate.
His assassination in 4E 10 led to the Stormcrown Interregnum.
The Elder Council fractured, leading to years of ruthless in-fighting, plots and backstabbing. Many tried to claim the Ruby Throne. Violent, unnatural storms reportedly lashed the Imperial City several times during this anarchy, always with the eye of the storm looking directly down upon White Gold Tower.”
The Elder Scrolls: Stormcrown is set in the midst of the succession crisis that rocked the Empire in the early years of the Fourth Era. With Imperial power at an all time low, many warlords rise to seize the throne of the Empire for themselves. You can be one such warlord, or perhaps someone else entirely. With the Empire in disunity, land and power is ripe for the taking. All one really needs is the capacity to take it.
Players will be given the opportunity to take control of an Imperial Legion and an Elder Councilor, and use both to seize power and influence in Cyrodiil. You could be a pretender to the Imperial throne - or perhaps you just want to own lands for yourself. Whatever your goals, the lapse in Imperial power presents a tantalizing opportunity: take whatever you want for whatever reason you want.
How This Will Work
This roleplay will be primarily character driven. Although this is posted in nation roleplay, the main focus will be on your characters and their movements. Think of this like Paradox Interactive’s Crusader Kings II: character oriented, but with elements of grand strategy.
There will be two spheres you need concern yourself with: the political and the military.
The political sphere consists of the internal politics of the disjointed Elder Council: the deal-making, the conspiracy, the intrigue. Councilors from foreign provinces and Cyrodiil will be willing to back your cause if you're willing to back theirs. Players will be prompted to navigate this volatile political sphere, brokering agreements with various factions of Councilors to push through legislation and increase their network of allies.
The military sphere is concerned with control of Cyrodiil's territory, usually as it pertains to areas controlled by different Legions. Players will be prompted to use their own Legion to seize control of various areas, building up their power base for an eventual attempt on the Imperial City itself... Or perhaps you have a different end goal in mind?
You can ignore one or both of these spheres at your peril and do your own thing, though your odds of success in the grand scheme of things may be somewhat... Hampered.
As far as my role will go, I will mostly be focused on determining the success of certain player actions and playing DM for NPC forces your character encounters. Success and failure will more or less be determined by your writing, your PC’s favored attributes, and a small amount of dice rolling.
Everything else, like the actions of the Elder Council’s political factions and the types of enemies you encounter, will more or less be determined entirely by dice rolling. Dice rolls will be public in the Discord.
If two players come to blows, it is up to them to roleplay out the conflict until satisfied with the outcome. I will only intervene if there are problems OOC and no one is willing to concede.
Notes on the Setting
This roleplay will obviously not be on a 1:1 scale with TES IV: Oblivion. It should be assumed the major settlements on the map have populations between 20 to 80 thousand depending on their prosperity. The Imperial City itself has a population of over 100,000.
There are also more towns in Cyrodiil than on the map. Players are free to make up new settlements to be within the hexes they conquer or as passing mentions, but they should never have a population higher than a few thousand. Landmarks such as Ayleid and fort ruins should still be considered present in their respective locations.
It should be assumed that all of the major questlines (Thieves’ Guild, Mages’ Guild, Fighters’ Guild, Knights of the Nine) were completed by different individuals. The Hero of Kvatch themselves vanished from Tamriel in 4E 3 through a mysterious door in the Niben Bay.
With the Hero of Kvatch gone, his extensive hoard of Daedric Artifacts has also vanished, ready to be redistributed to worthy champions once again.
All other events up to this point can be considered to have proceeded as normal.
Things You’ll Need
1) A willingness to sustain casualties and face setbacks. 2) A working knowledge of the lore and world of The Elder Scrolls. 3) A Discord account, to facilitate easy communication with other players. 4) The ability to access google documents, where most of the juicy details and mechanics will be stored, and a willingness to read these documents.
What Comes Next?
This actually didn't get enough interest, plus I suddenly became terribly sick! So I'm shutting it down! The whole thing! Sorry!
Might be interested if this happens to get off the ground. I'm relatively new to Elder Scrolls RP though, but I know enough about the lore I think I can make it work.
