The Elder Scrolls series started out in 1994 with Elder Scrolls: Arena. There have been five total entries into the main series with a sixth one announced, a handful of spinoff games, a popular MMO, and even a collectible card game. The world of Tamriel is vast, deep, and has a very long history behind it.

With that much real-world and in-universe history behind it, it’s no wonder that there are elements of the timeline that can get more than a little confusing. It doesn’t help that Skyrim introduced its own apocalyptic prophecy that involved a little bit of time travel. All of this is to say that today, we’re going to look at the 10 most confusing parts of the Elder Scrolls timeline.

10 The Timeline And Scope Of The History

The age of Mundus, which is the plane of existence upon which all of the Elder Scrolls games take place, and Nirn, the planet upon which it all takes place, is very hard to discern. Linear time didn’t really exist for much of the earliest activity. The first era is called the Dawn Era, and it’s the timeless void in which Mundus and the planets within are created by the Aedra.

Time becomes measurable in the Merethic Era, which is sort of like the B.C.E of our history. It counts backward from 2500 until the First Era, which is when the years begin counting forward. Between the year 2500 of the Merethic Era and 201 of the Fourth Era (when Skyrim takes place), there are 7,101 years of time.

9 Alduin And Skyrim Retconning Dragons Into All Of It

Speaking of Skyrim, that game complicated a lot of things. As it’s mentioned by several characters in the game, dragons didn’t exist for much of the Elder Scrolls canon. Skyrim retconned Alduin and the dragons into the Merethic Era. Alduin convinced the Altmer and men of Skyrim to worship dragons with the help of the Cult of Dragon Priests.

Eventually, a few Nords rose up against Alduin with the help of Paarthurnax and conceived of the Dragonrend Shout. Then, of course, Alduin and the dragons returned in time for the events of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

8 The Elves And How They Fit Into Everything

The Elves are a long-lived people and, especially in Skyrim, the High Elves take pride in their long history and how old their civilization is. So how old is High Elf society?

Well, the first writings and buildings from the Altmer date back to the Middle Merethic Era, so sometime between 2,000 and 1,000 M.E. They allegedly arrived from a lost continent known as Aldmeris, or Old Ehlnofey. This is before anything recorded by humans, though there is evidence of Khajit and Argonian civilization even before the Altmer’s arrival.

7 The Dwemer

The Dwemer were another race of Mer, or Elves, that have been lost to the centuries. They built technological marvels and lived deep within the ground, like the dwarves of other fantasy series.

Skyrim in particular has the player explore several Dwemer ruins throughout the game, which would lead one to wonder how old are the Dwemer? Well, evidence of the Dwemer race actually dates back to the Dawn Era. The height of their civilization was in the Merethic Era and early First Era. However, in 1E 700, the Dwemer Kagrenac began toying with forces of creation to make the Dwemer immortal. He attempted a spell during the Second Battle of Red Mountain (which was between the Dwemer and Chimer, the latter of which were ancestors of the Dark Elves), but the spell went awry, causing all Dwemer to mysteriously disappear.

6 Solstheim And Red Mountain

Speaking of Red Mountain, many who played both Morrowind and Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC may be wondering what happened to make Solstheim so desolate in the latter. It is revealed in the Dragonborn expansion that Red Mountain erupted sometime after the events of Morrowind and annihilated much of the Dunmer province.

To make things worse, established firmly when Red Mountain erupted. Based on the timeline as it exists, it must have happened before 4E 5. Given that there’s no mention of Red Mountain erupting in Oblivion, that means that Red Mountain must have erupted within the first four years of the Fourth Era.

5 The Conflict Between The Empire And The High Elves

The Great War between the Aldmeri Dominion and the Third Empire of Tamriel took place some time in the early Fourth Era, after the Oblivion Crisis. The causes aren’t clear, but it ended with the White-Gold Concordat. The exact time frame of this hasn’t been established yet, which of course adds to the confusion.

This gave the Thalmor government some strong leverage over the Empire, as is seen in Skyrim. All we know for sure about the timing is that it must have occurred sometime in the Fourth Era, likely before 4E 200.

4 The Daedra And The Planemeld

The Daedra are demonic beings that hail from the realm of Oblivion. In the Elder Scrolls, they are of a greater race of entities called the Et’Ada. They helped form Mundus. They also staged a large-scale invasion during the Second Era in an event called the Planemeld. This was a war between the Daedra and all of Tamriel that was ended by Tiber Septim when he united the land against the Daedra. This event would go onto influence pretty much every Elder Scrolls game.

Their exact origins are unclear, whether they are Aedra, or gods, that were cast down, offspring of the primordial being of chaos and change known as Padomay, or if they are simply Et’Ada that come from Oblivion. In any case, their existence dates back to the Dawn Era.

3 The Aedra

The Aedra are also Et’Ada that partook in the creation of Mundus in the Dawn Era. They are believed to have come from the primordial being, Anu, who represents light, stasis, and order.

Aedra hail from Aetherius and many are believed to have returned there after creating Mundus. The others are believed to have died, became the primordial forces of reality, or became the “Earthbones,” which are believed to have been the ancient ancestors of the Elves.

2 Talos And The Eight Divines

Finally, we come to the Eight/Nine Divines. The Nine Divines are the basis of the primary religion of Tamriel and dates back to the establishment of the Alessian Empire of the First Era. The religion comes from Cyrodiil, home of the Imperials. The original Eight were Akatosh, Arkay, Dibella, Julianos, Kynareth, Stendarr, Zenithar, and Mara. Each one is based upon a star visible from Nirn. There are another three added by the Imperials in Morihaus, Reman, and Shezarr, but they aren’t technically a part of the Divines.

Talos entered the picture when Tiber Septim helped defeat the Daedra in during the Planemeld and united all of Tamriel under his Empire. He is said to have ascended to godhood as Talos, which is disputed by the Altmer and is the reason his worship is banned under the White-Gold Concordat by the time of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

1 The Very Concept Of A Dragon Break

To make everything all the more ridiculous, we have the concept of a Dragon Break. This is an occurrence in which the timeline shatters, causing nonlinear time and allow things to happen simultaneously in a way that could not otherwise happen. The “Dragon” of it is a reference to Akatosh, the God of Time who is thought to be a dragon. There isn’t an agreed-upon number of Dragon Breaks in The Elder Scrolls canon, however, one of the most egregious examples would be The Warp in the West.

In the final Dragon Break, aka The Warp in the West, the player-character of Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall uses a Numidium to (canonically) bring peace to the Iliac Bay region by bringing the four kingdoms of Orsinium, Daggerfall, Wayrest, and Sentinel under the Empire by essentially giving them what they wanted. It also brought several smaller kingdoms to heel under these four kingdoms. This all involved what were actually six separate Numidiums, and it created noncanonical alternate timelines — one of which led to the early collapse of the Septim Empire.

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