Title: Brief History of the Empire, Part II
Author: Stronach
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Price: 352
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Content:


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[/center]A Brief History

[/center]of the Empire

[/center]Part II



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[/center]    Volume I of this series described in brief the lives of the
first eight Emperors of the Septim Dynasty, beginning with
the forebear Tiber Septim and ending with his great great
great great grandniece Kintyra II. Kintyra's murder in
Glenpoint, while in captivity, is considered by some to be
the end of the pure strain of Septim blood. Certainly, it
marks the end of something.    Uriel III not only proclaimed
himself Emperor of Tamriel, but also proclaimed himself
Uriel Septim III, taking a surname as a title. In truth, his
surname was Uriel Mantiarco from his father. In time, Uriel
III was deposed and his crimes reviled, but the tradition of
taking the name Septim as a title for the Emperor of Tamriel
did not die with him.    For six years, the War of the Red
Diamond tore apart the Empire. The combatants were the three
surviving children of Pelagius II, Potema, Cephorus, and
Magnus, and their offspring. Potema, of course, supported
her son Uriel III, and had the support of all of Skyrim and
northern Morrowind. With the efforts of Cephorus and
Magnus, High Rock turned. Hammerfell, Sumurset Isle,
Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Black Marsh were divided, but most
kings supported Cephorus and Magnus.    In 3E 127, Uriel III
was captured at the Battle of Ichidag in Hammerfell. En
route to his trial in the Imperial City, a mob overtook his
carriage and burned him alive within it. His captor and
uncle continued on to the Imperial City, and by common
acclaim, was proclaimed Cephorus I, Emperor of Tamriel.   
Cephorus' reign is marked by nothing but war. By all
accounts, he was a kind and intelligent man, but what
Tamriel needed was a great warrior, and he was that. It took
an additional ten years of constant warfare for him to
defeat his sister Potema. The so-called wolf queen of
Solitude died in the siege of her city-state in the year 137.
Cephorus only survived his sister by three years.     Cephorus
never had the time during the war years to marry, so it was
his brother, the fourth child of Pelagius II, who assumed the
throne. The Emperor Magnus was elderly, and the business of
punishing the traitorous kings of the War of the Red Diamond
drained much of his health. Legend also accuses Magnus' son
and heir Pelagius III of murder, but that seems very
unlikely. For no other reason, Pelagius was King of
Solitude, following the death of Potema, and seldom visited
the Imperial City.     Pelagius III, sometimes called
Pelagius the Mad, was proclaimed Emperor in the 145th year of
the 3rd Era. Almost from the start, his eccentricities of
behavior was noted. He embarassed dignitaries, offended his
vassal kings, and, on one occasion, marked the end of a grand
ball by attempting to hang himself. His long-suffering wife
was finally awarding the regency of Tamriel and Pelagius
III was sent to a series of healers and asylums until his death
in 3E 153 at the age of thirty-four.     The Emperess Regent of
Tamriel was proclaimed Emperess Katariah I upon the death of
her husband. Some who do not mark the end of the Septim
bloodline with the death of Kintyra II consider the accendancy
of this dark elf woman as the true mark. Her defenders assert
that though Katariah was not descended from Tiber, the son she
had with Pelagius, was, so the chain does continue.    Despite
the racist assertations to the contrary, Katariah's
forty-six year reign was one of the most glorious in
Tamriel's history. Uncomfortable in the Imperial City,
Katariah travelled extensively throughout the Empire, such
as no Emperor ever had since Tiber's day. She repaired much
of the damage the broken alliances and bungled diplomacy
had created. The people of Tamriel came to love their
Emperess far more than the nobility did. Katariah's death in
a minor skirmish in Black Marsh is a favorite source for
conspiracy-minded historians. The sage Montalius' discovery
of a disenfranchised branch of the Septim family's
involvement with the skirmish was a revelation indeed.    When
Cassynder assumed the throne at the death of his mother, he was
already middle-aged. Only half-elven, he aged like a Breton.
In fact, he had left the rule of Wayrest to his half-brother
Uriel due to poor health. Nevertheless, as the only true
blood relation of Pelagius, and thus Tiber, he was pressed
into accepting the throne. To no one's surprise, the Emperor
Cassynder's reign did not last long. In two years, he was
dead.    Uriel Lariat, Cassynder's half-brother, the child of
Katariah I and her Imperial consort Lariat, left the
kingdom of Wayrest to reign as Uriel IV. Legally, Uriel IV
was a Septim: Cassynder had adopted him into the family when
he had become King of Wayrest. Nevertheless, to the Council
and the people of Tamriel, he was a bastard child of
Katariah. Uriel did not possess the dynamism of his mother,
and his long forty-three year reign was a hotbed of sedition. 
  Uriel IV's story is told in the third volume of this series.













 
