Board Thread:Online Discussion/@comment-72.77.73.35-20140329181532/@comment-50.159.59.136-20141117172923

^^ this. The fact that your character "resets" and becomes a member of all the factions one by one can only be explained in one of two ways: 1) Video game logic (i.e. "just don't think about it, it's not supposes to make sense"), or 2) each of these "resets" represents another timeline in the Dragon Break. The fact that the Dark Anchors continue to exist, even after you have defeated Molag Bal and ended the Planemeld, is the best evidence I can think of that you have actually "gone back in time", or more accurately, "started over at the beginning of a different timeline in the Dragon Break."

Indeed, this game's plot seems to align perfectly with what we know about Dragon Breaks. It is easy to imagine that the failed ritual undergone by the Companions, the one that resulted in the Planemeld, could have triggered a Dragon Break - recall (in the lvl 5 Main Story quest when we witness these events) that the last thing we hear Varen scream before we fade to white is "Akatosh! Forgive us! Have mercy on our souls!" I believe that in that moment, when the light blinds our screen, we are bearing witness to Akatosh responding to Varen's prayer as he instates a Dragon Break - one that lasts however many years it takes for Varen to become the Prophet, for the Vestige to be sacrificed by Manimarco, and for him/her to ultimately defeat Molag Bal, at which point our screen fades to white again (before Meridia snatches you off to her realm). Perhaps that is the point where the Dragon Break ends, the point at which all the timelines reunite. Yet for the Vestige, the story is far from over.

The Vestige seems to have the unique fate (curse?) of reliving the events of the Planemeld from millions of differing perspectives, each one being equally real and effectual via the mechanism of the Dragon Break. Thus the Vestige was a Covanent Argonian Rogue, an Aldmeri Breton Warrior, an Ebonheart Orcish Sorceress, etc. Each players' character(s) all inhabit a different timeline of this Dragon Break in which they are the protagonist, the one who will bring about the Break's end and restore order to Mundus.

Or, if you think "millions" of timelines is just too aesthetically messy, you must concede that there are at least 3 timelines to this Dragon Break: one in which the Vestige was a citizen of the Pact, one in which he/she was a citizen of the Covanent, and one in which he/she was a citizen of the Dominion. The player experiences each of these timelines in sequence, first by clearing their chosen alliance, and then via the Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold quest lines.

In any case, the Elder Scrolls universe has a very unique literary mechanism in the Dragon Break, and I think there can be little argument against the fact that ESO's plot and structure invoke this unusual dramatic device.