The Elder Scrollsis a series with an impressive amount of background lore. The games themselves take place across one thousand years, with the history ofThe Elder Scrollsuniversestretching back several millennia.
The Elder Scrollsgames also tend to focus disproportionately on the affairs of Tamriel’s human residents. This might make some fans curious about what races like the High Elves think about Tamriel and thehistory ofThe Elder Scrollsuniverse.
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Origins of the High Elves
Most ofThe Elder Scrolls’ High Elves, or Altmer, hail from the Summerset Isles, sometimes called Alinor. However, their origins stretch back to before the mortal world even existed. The Altmer believe they descend from the Ehlnofey, descendants of the Adric gods. Furthermore, the High Elves believe that the trickster god Lorkhan manipulated the Adra, deceiving them into sacrificing their power to create the world. This also severed the Ehlnofey’s connection to the spirit world, costing them their immortality.
Altmer myth describes how their chief god Auri-El led the Ehlnofey in a great war against the trickster god. Auri-El won, killed Lorkhan, then helped the remaining Ehlnofey establish the kingdoms of Atmora and Aldmeris before ascending back into the cosmos. The Atmorans became the first humans, while the inhabitants of Aldmeris became the Aldmer, the first elves.
Arrival in Tamriel
The Aldmer eventually had to abandon their homeland for unknown reasons. Many High Elves believe Aldmeris sank into the sea as a side effect of losing their immortality. However, all the Aldmer’s descendants know for sure is that their ancestors fled their homeland to escape an unknown crisis.
One group of Aldmer refugees were blown off course by a storm and stumbled upon the shores of Auridon, the smaller of the two main Summerset Isles. The High Elves have minimal recorded history from this time, but they likely fought multiple wars with goblins, the slug-like Sload, and other races lost to history. However, the High Elves eventually succeeded in conquering the islands.
The Aldmer eventually grew curious about Aldmeris’ fate and sent out three ships to search for their lost homeland. Two of the vessels would never return. However, the third was led by the explorer Topal the Pilot, who discovered mainland Tamriel and mapped Cyrodiil’s Niben River. There, he found a now-extinct race of Bird Men. Legends say that Topal taught the Bird Men to speak and write in exchange for the islands in Lake Rumare. These would be the future site ofthe White-Gold Tower seen inThe Elder Scrolls: OblivionandThe Elder Scrolls Online. In time, the Aldmer would map the rest of Tamriel’s coast and establish colonies across the continent.
This period was not without conflict, however. Religious, cultural, and political strife would eventually see multiple waves of Elves leave the Summerset Isles for the untamed wilderness of mainland Tamriel. These groups would become the ancestors of the Bosmer, Dunmer, and Orsamer, also known asThe Elder Scrolls’ Wood Elves, Dark Elves, and Orcs.
Those who remained eventually becameThe Elder Scrolls’modern High Elves. The called themselves Altmer, meaning “cultured people.” The Altmer came to see themselves as the only “pure” descendants of the Aldmer and the most civilized of all the races in Tamriel. During this era, the Aldmer also constructed the Crystal Tower. It would become Tamriel’s greatest institution for magical learning until Cyrodiil’s Arcane University thousands of years later.
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The First and Second Era
The rise ofThe Elder Scrolls’ Wood Elf Kingdom of Valenwoodweakened the Altmer’s influence on the continent, their colonies in Cyrodiil breaking away to form independent kingdoms and city-states. However, this also insulated the Altmer from the conflicts across mainland Tamriel. The islands still faced several small internal wars and repelled multiple invasions from the Sload and the Maormer Sea Elves, who split from the Aldmer before Aldmeris disappeared. Despite these conflicts, the Summerset Isles remained a bastion of relative peace and stability. The High Elves would eventually fall under the nominal control of the Second Empire based in Cyrodiil, but remained mostly independent.
However, the collapse of the Cyrodilic Empire in the late Second Era threw the continent into chaos and allowedThe Elder Scrolls’ Daedric Prince Molag Balto invade Tamriel. Seeing this, the Altmer Queen Ayrenn established the First Aldmeri Dominion as an alliance between the High Elves, Wood Elves, and Khajiit. Believing that humans could not be trusted to rule Tamriel, the Dominion sought to unite the continent under Elven rule, setting the stage for the events ofThe Elder Scrolls Online.
The First Aldmeri Dominion never achieved permanent control over the Imperial City, and the alliance eventually dissolved. However, the High Elves would have another chance when civil war broke out over the throne of Valenwood. The Altmer used this war as a pretext to invade Valenwood, making it a vassal state and establishing the second Aldmeri Dominion. The Khajiit and Maormer later joined voluntarily.
This brought the Dominion into conflict withThe Elder Scrolls’ Tiber Septim, who sought to unify all of Tamriel under the Third Empire. After several indecisive border conflicts, Tiber Septim conquered Valenwood, and the Summerset Isles with the aid of a massive Dwarven golem called the Numidium. The Maormer later turned on their former allies and invaded the Summerset Isles. This forced the High Elves to turn to their human overlords for protection, much to the Altmer’s embarrassment.
The Oblivion Crisis and Fourth Era
The final years of the Third Era saw the emergence of the Thalmor, an Elvan supremacist movement named for the bureaucratic and law enforcement arm of the Aldmeri Dominion. Initially ignored, their opportunity came duringThe Elder Scrolls 4’s Oblivion Crisis, when the forces of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Destruction, invaded Tamriel. Many High Elves perished during the invasion, and the ancient Crystal Tower was destroyed.
The Thalmor took credit for saving the Summerset Isles and used their newfound popularity to depose the Altmeri monarchy. The Thalmor then took advantage of the Empire’s instability to overthrow the King of Valenwood and manipulate the Khajiit of Elsweyr into joining the Third Aldmeri Dominion. Not all High Elves supported this new Dominion, but The Thalmor’s brutal crackdowns proved effective at securing their rule.
After decades of preparation, the Dominion was finally ready to invade the Empire during the Great War. And while the Thalmor did not achieve all of their demands, the terms of the peace treaty - whichElder Scrollsfans know as the White-Gold Concordant- would prove to be a massive blow to the Empire. This leads to the events ofSkyrimandThe Elder Scrolls’ present day.
The Elder Scrolls 6is in development.
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