Board Thread:Future TES Titles/@comment-1600847-20160722143441

Preface
With the sad announcement that TES VI isn't being worked on yet, I felt like writing a fan-fic thread about what I would like to prelude to the game to be. Without further ado:

A new Emperor
When Titus Mede II was assassinated by the Dark Brotherhood in 4E 201, most would have assumed his eldest son Varius would take his place. However, Varius was killed in a tragic (some would say convenient) hunting accident outside Chorrol the week before Titus Mede's assassination. So, in 4E 202, Titus' second son Attrebus was crowned Emperor Attrebus Mede II, at thirty-one years of age.

Attrebus knew full well that his father and brother's deaths had been arranged by the Elder Council. In fact, Attrebus had been the one to suggest the plot to the Council. He thought his father too weak to lead the Empire into a second war with the Dominion and his brother a spoiled and vain man who cared more for his own leisure than for governance. Attrebus was not content with how his father had ended the Great War and had been planning for years. Before the Red Dragon Crown was even on his head, Penitus Occulatus agents were already riding out from the Imperial City with secret messages: one for Queen Genevieve of High Rock, one for High King Thassad IV of Hammerfell, one for Grandmaster Hairan Redoran of Morrowind, and lastly one for Ulfric Stormcloak of Skyrim. These letters were to be delivered to the person in question and none other.

The letter was a request for a meeting in the city of Bruma in Cyrodiil, one of the few cities to escape the Great War untouched, to discuss an invasion of the Dominion.

Compromise: where no one's happy
Several weeks after his coronation, Emperor Attrebus headed to Bruma to, officially, visit his childhood friend Count Marius Carvain. Unofficially, leaders from several provinces were gathering in secret. In Castle Bruma they met with the Emperor, and the talks immediately soured as Thassad and Hairan began to make demands in exchange for their armies joining the invasion of the Dominion. Thassad demanded the Empire pay ludicrous sums of gold in reparations for the Empire expelling Hammerfell. Hairan wanted the Imperial Legions to assist Redoran forces in reclaiming southern Morrowind from the Argonians, or else "No Dunmer will set foot outside of Morrowind". Ulfric demanded that the White-Gold Concordat be immediately rendered void and Talos worship be restored.

Thus the bargaining began. It continued into the night, and the next day, and the next night, until near midnight. Finally, after much yelling, cajolling, flattery, and a thrown water jug, everyone was in grudging agreement, though no one was close to satisfied.

To Thassad, Attrebus agreed to lower taxes and pay several hundred thousand Septims (though nowhere near the millions Thassad had begun demanding), and Attrebus would marry Thassad's daughter Marya. In exchange Hammerfell would return to the Empire as a province, though under the same terms Tiber Septim had accepted at the Treaty of Stros M'kai centuries earlier. This meant Hammerfell was closer to a partner than a subject.

To Hairan, Attrebus agreed to open negotiations with the An-Xileel of Argonia to attempt to restore southern Morrowind to the Redoran. Only if negotiations should fail would the Imperial Legions assist Dunmer forces in an invasion.

To Ulfric, Attrebus agreed to render the Condordat void once the invasion was underway, and to restore Talos worship at that time. Additionally, Ulfric was to be crowned High King of Skyrim, and the province would henceforth be allowed to maintain a provincial army that would answer only to the ruler of Skyrim. In exchange Ulfric would be pardoned for his rebellion, and Eastern Skyrim would return to the Imperial fold.

Now, with everyone more or less on the same page, the planning of the invasion could begin.

Plans for invasion
At the start it was agreed that Valenwood and Elsweyr would not be the targets of the invasion, since the bulk of the Dominion forces were already stationed there. Instead, Ulfric's suggestion of striking the Summerset Isles directly was decided upon.

The invasion force would gather in Hammerfell at the port city of Rihad. The Imperial navy was to have the task of ferrying the troops, and the Redguard navy would be tasked with defending the transports should they be intercepted by any Dominion ships. The fleet would sail west, sticking close to the peninsula of Hew's Bane, before putting in for supplies and Stros M'kai. From there it would sail southwest before striking east and landing near Alinor, the Dominion's capital city, conveniently located close to the sea.

The landing would take place in three locations. Northeast of Alinor would be Ulfric and the Skyrim Legion. East of Alinor would be the Cyrodiil and High Rock Legions under Attrebus' command. General Thoda would command the Redguard army to the southeast of Alinor. Then the forces would strike at the city directly, where the Thalmor leadership of the Dominion lived in seclusion, believing themselves too important to live among the "lesser" Altmer.

The Morrowind Legion and the Redoran army were to remain in Cyrodiil, both to protect the border and to ensure the Dominion didn't suspect the Empire was deploying its forces elsewhere. That, and Hairan didn't want to stray to far from Morrowind lest the Argonians attack the province again, and wouldn't agree to leave the mainland no matter what Attrebus offered.

Furthermore, double agents in the Dominion leaked false information that the Empire was gathering for an assault of Valenwood, to begin in Sun's Dawn 4E 203. This lead to more Dominion forces being transfered from the Summerset Isles to the mainland.

And so in Mid Year of 4E 202, a combined military force of the four human provinces and Morrowind prepared to face the Dominion in the Second Great War. <ac_metadata title="Prologue to TES VI"> </ac_metadata>