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!
Twi'lek Aren't Even That Attractive Anyway - Episode I
"We are not. Invading. Christophis."
Zothustro's cane impacted the ground at each period, attempting to emphasize his point.
"Oh, come on."
"I mean it, Dellso." Zothustro he raised his voice, Geonosian clicks and whistles echoing through the spacious war-room. His face tendrils (characteristic of elderly Geonosians) quivered with fury. Pol Dellso was a relative to the better known Gizor Dellso, albeit Pol was more apt a politician than an engineer like his brother. Both brothers seemed to share ridiculous ambitions nonetheless.
"It's the single most densely populated planet in our little niche of space. We can take it. The Retail Caucus is having a lot of problems, I hear."
The Retail Caucus was the primary governing authority on Christophis. It had formed early on in the Clone Wars, consisting of a decent amount of retailers operating out of the planet. They had held a sizable droid army before the Republic pulverized them. By the end of the war, they were dissolved, but had since come back. Nowhere near as influential off-system as they had been before, but they held considerable sway over Christophis. Sway that was presently being challenged by a variety of movements on the planet. Thirty-eight billion people were bound to have a great deal of different ideologies thrown into the mix. Now they were about ready to duke it out while the Caucus tried to keep order.
Taking the system when tensions boiled over would be easy. That wasn't Zothustro's chief concern.
"It's not a question of just taking the planet, you imbecile. It's a question of holding it. Do you have any idea how many assets we would have to divert? A logistical nightmare. Besides, I'm not convinced those scoundrels on Ryloth don't have it in for us."
Dellso waved a hand dismissively. "I assure you, your grace, the Twi'lek have no designs against us. They wouldn't dare. Their paltry desert kingdom is no match for our machines."
"Do you listen to the utter nonsense you spout half the time? We know they sent a delegation to Hypori. They'll be in bed with each other before long."
As one could reasonably expect, governments focused on maintaining a trade surplus and a powerful economy were bound to run afoul of each other in their pursuit of trade. Galactic economics were a dreadful affair. Taking a manufacturing juggernaut like Hypori and forcing it into competition with the economic powerhouse that was the Archduchy of Geonosis could only result in a trade war. No shots were fired, but relations between the two were chilly at best. It was only a matter of time before one of the powers opened fire first. Zothustro had intended to simply let the trade war continue until Geonosis emerged victorious. He was having second thoughts now that they were potentially looking to partner with Ryloth.
Ryloth's negative disposition to the Geonosian Archduchy was of the historic variety. Zothustro had the deceased Wat Tambor to thank for causing that, after the Skakoan had raped the planet of innumerable treasures in an effort to satiate his own greed. Pol Dellso didn't see what the big deal was. He thought it was funny. Since the Twi'lek had erroneously decided to blame the Archduchy for past crimes it had nothing to do with, Pol privately fantasized about pillaging the planet of treasures just as Tambor had done. Only this time it would be done correctly- and without a Republic to meddle in the process.
From the sound of it, he would have to settle, though.
"So we'll sack Hypori, then?" Pol ventured, a bloodthirsty glint more than evident in his eyes.
"Don't be ludicrous. They're too well entrenched."
"Then what?"
"Hypori's trade partners aren't as well defended. We'll start with them."
"Oh, please," Pol begged with a renewed sense of hope. "Can we sack Ryloth first?"
"They're the weakest of the bunch. At least, they will be once their delegation finalizes the details."
Member
