The Great War

So the Great War is a war between the Third Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire of Tamriel. The Thalmor also refer to it as “The First War with the Empire”.

When Titus Mede II became emperor, his empire was greatly weakened. There were no more Septims, due to the Oblivion Crisis and the Mythic Dawn. The Black Marsh hadn’t been part of the Empire since the Oblivion Crisis, Morrowind hadn’t yet recovered from the Red Mountain, Elsweyr and Valenwood were ceded to the Thalmor, and Hammerfell was fighting. Only High Rock, Skyirm, and Cyrodiil were at peace in the Empire. Titus had only a few years to strengthen his Empire before a very deadly war.

The Mythic Dawn assassinated Uriel Septim VII’s children and Uriel Septim himself. The only one that survived was Martin Septim, who sacrificed himself during to end the Oblivion Crisis.

So one Thalmor dude went to Titus Mede, with a gift that was covered, and went “Hey buckaroo! How you doin? JK fam, I don’t care. Give my government your land and stop worshiping Talos. And you know what? Disband the Blades, we don’t want the fellas getting in our way”. Titus was like “Begone thot” and he sent the messenger back. His generals had told him that the Empire’s army was very weak, and that they shouldn’t fight the Thalmor, but Titus still said no. Before the messenger left, he spilled the gift on the floor. Over one hundred heads of the Blades fell on the floor. Thus begun the Great War.

After only a few days, the Aldmeri Dominion attacked both Cyrodiil and Hammerfell at the same time. Leyawiin was attacked by the Dominion, and taken over, and Bravil was cut off and surrounded by the Dominion. On the western side of Cyrodiil, the Dominion marched to Hammerfell.

Due to the lack of military strength in Hammerfell, there was very little resistance in the southern sides. The military that was there retreated through the Alik’r Desert, in the March of Thirst. After the incredibly small resistance, the Dominion thought the Empire was weaker than they had previously thought. Their main goal from then on was to take over the Imperial City.

In the next years, Bravil and Anvil fell to the Dominion, as they marched further in to Cyrodiil. The Dominion also took over a large amount of southern Hammerfell, which was part of what the messenger asked.

The survivors of the March met in northern Hammerfell and met with the Empire forces in High Rock. More legions from Skyrim came to the Imperial City. At the end of the year, the Imperial City was surrounded by the Dominion by three sides. The Bruma end was the only one not surrounded.

The Dominion was trying to figure out how to win the war, they knew that they would have to take over the Imperial City. They attacked the City, with it surrounded. Titus Mede was made the decision to fight their way out of the City. He did so and managed to survive, but the Dominion had the City in the end.

One year later, the Empire tried taking the city back over, them doing so is known as The Battle of Red Ring.

This battle took place during the Great War in 4E 175. The Battle was named after the Cyrodilic road, the Red Ring Road.

One year before the Battle of Red Ring, the Aldmeri Dominion had conquered the Imperial City. The Battle of Red Ring gave the Empire a chance to get the Imperial City. The battle was a success for the Empire, and they got the Imperial City back.

Both sides of the battle had very heavy losses. The Empire lost most of their men, and the Dominion lost all of theirs.

After the Dominion took over the Imperial City, they thought that the surrender of the Empire would happen soon after. The Emperor Titus II knew that the Dominion, and let them think that until the Battle of Red Ring. One of the Imperial Generals, on his way back from Hammerfell, took over the Colovian Highlands outside of Chorrol (my favorite city in the ES games). And even though they took over that area, they were still undetected. Since they were undetected, they were able to make a surprise attack on the Dominion. The battle lasted five days, as the Empire was pushing forwards, and were trying to meet the general that took over the Highlands and his garrison.

Before the battle, the Emperor was injured by a group of assassins. He was in too bad shape to lead his army, so an unknown hero took his armor and lead the army in the Emperor's place.

The Empire still managed to win, even though the Dominion had reinforcements from Bravil and Skingrad.

The unknown hero picked up Goldbrand from a fallen daedric minion.

This battle marked the end of the major battles in the Great War, it ended in the Dominion's favor. While some believe that they should've kept fighting, others believe that they didn't have enough troops to continue the fight.

The White-Gold Concordat was the treaty signed to end the war. The treaty gave large amounts of Hammerfell to the Dominion. The Redguards were very angry about this, and waged their own war on the Dominion. Their war came to a standstill, and they signed their own treaty with the Dominion. Another part of the treaty was the outlaw of Talos. Many Nords decided to secretly worship him. The White-Gold Concordat was one of the main factors in the Civil War in Skyrim.

After the treaty, there was still some struggle between the Imperials and the Dominion.