Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-11345660-20130908095939/@comment-3186827-20130913094501

SajuukKhar wrote: I would actually be more likely to be editing pages to remove nonsense like "Serana predates the Alessian Empire"....... which she doesn't.

Serana's rather famous "Cyrodiil is the seat of an Empire" line is labeled BackgroundTimeSeptims by the CK. Meaning she was talking about not knowing about the Septim Empire's existance. We discussed this on the Serana talk page and we can agree that the writing isn't solid and there are some inconsistencies - Have you read some of the other points I listed? When I wrote the line, it was largely based on the Cyrodiil line.

You make a good point however with the BackgroundTimeSeptims ID in the CK. I didn't know about this.

That and Serana makes mention of Harkon having 1,000 years to dwell on the prophecy. 1,000 years before Skyrim being between the Reman and Septim Empires..... coincidentally at the time Molag Bal, the creator of vampires, and who gave Serana's family vamprisim, is invading Tamriel in the events of TESO. But remember, Harkon didn't discover the prophecy the second he became a vampire. He says he searched for a long time before finding out about it - this can mean he discovered the prophecy in the 2nd Era - 1000 years before Skyrim: "For centuries I searched for an answer to this problem. I found an old prophecy written by a Moth Priest, those scholars who read the Elder Scrolls."

This however presents another problem if we believe the Cyrodiil line - if he became aware of the prophecy in the 2nd Era - then that mean Serana was entombed after this event. If this is the case she should have known about the Alessian Empire. But if we go with your CK info, then she can't have known about the Septims as she was pre-Tiber. Problem with this however is it conflicts with her dialogue about the Dwemer ruins below.

That and Arch-Curate Vyrthur, the creator of said prophecy, did so became he was turned into a vampire, something that happened sometime around when the Falmer attacked the sanctuary.

The same Falmer who were fighting a war with the Dwemer for their freedom, known as The War of The Crag, which only ended in 1E 700 when the Dwemer vanished.

Vrythur did become a vampire when the Falmer attacked the chantry - it was before that when he was infected by one of the initiates on Auri-El. This happened no doubt before the fall of the Snow Elf race, which dates the event around the Late Merethic Era.

When she is in a Dwemer Ruin, she says: "''Is this a dwarven city? I can't believe they'd let it get so run down." ''This strongly suggests she was around when the Dwemer cities were functional - i.e. Before the Dwemer dissapeared in 1E 700.

The timeline could be seen as this:

At this point, given all the problems and inconsistencies, I'm thinking the line should be changed to something like: "Due to contradictory evidence her exact age cannot be determined, but she probably predates the Alessian Empire from the early First Era. This would place her at around 4000 years old; however, some dialog implies that her age might be measured in centuries, not millenia."
 * Late Merethic Era: Vrythur becomes vampire while Snow Elf race is still prosperous. Creates prophecy some time after.
 * Late Merethic Era: Night of Tears, Snow elves enslaved.
 * 1st Era: Harkon makes the pact with Molag Bal.
 * 1E 243: Alessian Empire formed.
 * 1E 700: Dwemer dissappear.
 * 1E 700+: Falmer attack Chantry.
 * Mid 2nd Era - Harkon discovers the prophecy. (1000 years of searching dialogue)
 * Mid 2nd Era+: Serana entombed (Big inconsistency here if we go by her radiant dialogue)