User blog comment:Aleksandr the Great/Making a Dragon Sandwich: The Sound of Skyrim/@comment-3062372-20111105030039

Pause the video on the actor's script and you can read her lines, which surprisingly hold a lot of cool imformation. Apparently there was a great war... The Great War... which was the Empire vs the Thalmor (High Elf Government) but it ended thirty years before the game when they both signed the "White Gold Concordat" which is a fancy name for the peace treaty. It kinda seems like the empire was losing the great war. Also, the Thalmor made the Empire ban Talos Worship because of this treaty. Makes sense if you know your lore.