Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-10993011-20130618024431/@comment-25035274-20161207100702

The way Beth have the story set up, my expectation is that regardless of who wins the civil war, the Septim Empire is at an end. It will not pull itself back together; it's just lost too much territory and has become too fractured.

Depending on how many of MK's ideas for the future Bethesda choose to pick up and run with, it's possible the Aldmeri Dominion will remain a major power broker until Nirn's very end. That isn't guaranteed, however, and they could very easily set the next game around the idea of ousting the Thalmor and shattering their power structure. We just really don't know.

Whether they do or not, however, we've probably seen the end of the Empire we've known and loved since Arena. There'll probably be an Interegnum, and maybe there'll be a new empire to rise up down the road.

'course, Beth could completely surprise me and choose to have the Mede dynasty (or its successor) manage to pull the Empire back from the brink of destruction.