The Elder Scrolls — Five Main Games

The Elder Scrolls: Arena

The game's setting begins in Tamriel on the 389th year of the Third Era when Emperor Uriel Septim VII summons his advisor and Imperial Battlemage Jagar Tharn over concerns of betrayal from within the court. His concerns are justified when Tharn is revealed to be the traitor, magically trapping the Emperor and his general, Talin Warhaft, in another dimension.
When Tharn proceeds to magically disguise himself as Emperor to usurp the throne, his conspiracy is witnessed by mage apprentice Ria Silmane, whom he murders before she can warn the Elder Council. Tharn then summons demon minions to replace the Emperor's Guard. In his disguise, he sends the player character, a court official and subordinate of General Warhaft, to die in the Imperial dungeons.
After her death, Ria uses magic to take an incorporeal form. She holds herself together long enough to inform the imprisoned player of Tharn's betrayal and instructs them throughout their escape from the infamous dungeons. Past that point, she lacks the power to manifest physically and appears to the player during dreams. She creates a key to allow the player to escape the dungeons and teleports them to a different province through a mystical Shift Gate.
The player is informed that the only way to stop Tharn is to get hold of the Staff of Chaos, which holds his life force. Tharn has split this staff into many fragments throughout the continent of Tamriel. Each time one is found, Ria appears to the player the next time they rest to provide the general location of the next fragment. At the end of the quest in 3E 399 (a decade after the start of the game), the player finds the final piece and reassembles the staff. This, however, does not release the Emperor, as all of the staff's power has been drained into the Jewel of Fire, an oversight by Ria. The player travels to the Imperial City to confront Tharn's minions, the player finds the Jewel of Fire and touches it with the Staff of Chaos, this destroys both the jewel and the staff as well as releasing the Emperor. The jewel also turned out to be where Tharn had stored his life force, and the destruction of the jewel resulted in his death. As a token of respect and gratitude, Uriel Septim grants the player the title of Eternal Champion, and Ria Silmane finally enters the afterlife.

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

Daggerfall is set in the Iliac Bay, between the provinces of High Rock and Hammerfell. The player is sent here at the Emperor's request, in the year 405 of the Third Era. He wants the player to do two things: First, the player must free the ghost of King Lysandus from his earthly shackles; Second, the player must discover what happened to a letter from the Emperor to the former queen of Daggerfall. The letter reveals that Lysandus's mother, Nulfaga, knows the location of the Mantella, the key to resurrecting the first Numidium, a powerful brass golem created by the long-lost dwarves. Tiber Septim, the founder of the Empire, previously acquired the Numidium from the dark elves of Morrowind and used it to halt the aggressive expansion of an elvish faction in the distant past.
Seeking to return the Numidium to the Empire's control, the emperor wants his spy to force Nulfaga into revealing the location of the Mantella so that the Blades can finish the reconstruction of the machine. Through a series of mishaps and confusions, the letter fell into the hands of an orc named Gortworg. Not knowing what the Mantella is, Gortworg consults Mannimarco, the King of Worms (the leader of the Necromancers). During this time, the Underking, who originally destroyed the first Numidium because of its misuse by Tiber Septim, is recuperating deep within a tomb of High Rock after expending so much energy destroying it the first time. For the player to give the Mantella to anyone, the player must kill King Lysandus's murderer and put his ghost to rest. After accomplishing this, the player must steal the totem of Tiber Septim from King Gothryd of Daggerfall and free the Mantella from its prison in Aetherius. Following this, the player has six choices regarding how to deal with the Mantella.
Daggerfall has several endings:

If the player gives the Mantella to the Underking, he absorbs its power, passes into eternal rest, and creates a large "magicka-free" area around himself.
If Gortworg is victorious, he uses the Numidium to destroy the Imperial forces and the "Bay Kings," the rulers of the several provinces of the Iliac Bay. The Underking arrives shortly thereafter to destroy the first Numidium, losing his life. Gortworg then succeeds in creating Orsinium, a kingdom of Orcs.
If the Blades are victorious, they succeed in recreating the first Numidium and use it to defeat the Bay Kings and the Orcs, as well as unite all the provinces of Tamriel under the empire once again.
If any of the Bay Kings win, that king will use the first Numidium to defeat all the other kings just before the Underking destroys him and itself.
If Mannimarco receives the Mantella, he uses it to make himself a god.
One more ending, as described in the strategy guide The Daggerfall Chronicles and elsewhere, was planned by Bethesda, but is not achievable in-game: if the player activates the Mantella while in possession of the totem (the controlling device of the Numidium), the Numidium will slay the player, go out of control, and be destroyed by Imperial forces.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

While Morrowind contains many quests and storylines, the central plot revolves around the Tribunal, a triumvirate of god-like beings ruling over Morrowind and their struggle against a former ally: the demigod Dagoth Ur and his Sixth House – a cult of followers stretching out from Red Mountain, the volcanic center of Vvardenfell. Dagoth Ur has used the Heart of Lorkhan, an artifact of great power, to make himself immortal and now seeks to drive the Imperial Legion occupiers from Morrowind using his network of spies, as well as Akulakhan, an enormous mechanical golem powered by the Heart of Lorkhan.
Morrowind's events take place in the 427th year of the Third Era, 22 years after the events of the previous game. After a storm and a strange dream vision, the player character begins in a town called Seyda Neen. Fresh off a boat from a mainland prison, they have been freed by the string-pulling of the current ruler of the Tamrielic Empire, Emperor Uriel Septim VII. The player is given the task of meeting Caius Cosades, a member of the Blades, a secret group of spies and agents working for the Emperor and the Empire.
Cosades inducts the player to the Blades on the Emperor's orders and sets them on various quests to uncover the mysterious disappearances and revelations that the citizens of Vvardenfell have experienced, particularly the Sixth House and the Ashlander prophecies of the Nerevarine. It is later revealed that the induction under Cosades, and the player's release from prison, was due to the Emperor's suspicion that the player might be the Nerevarine – a reincarnation of the legendary Dunmer hero Indoril Nerevar – or at least someone who would make a convincing impostor to use for political gain. The player is tasked with uncovering the prophecies regarding the Nerevarine and to fulfill them to finally defeat Dagoth Ur and his Sixth House cult.
Prophecies from the nomadic Dunmer people living in the Ashlands, the Ashlanders, predict that Nerevar's incarnate will fulfill a set of seven prophecies. The first two prophecies are that the Nerevarine will be born on a certain day to uncertain parents, and will be immune to Corprus disease, a Divine disease created by Dagoth Ur. The player has already fulfilled the first. The player then becomes immune to Corprus by contracting the disease and surviving an experimental cure. Fulfilling these, the player seeks to complete the third prophecy: finding the Moon-and-Star, the symbolic ring originally worn by Nerevar which has the power to instantly kill anyone who tries to wear it. Upon finding and equipping the ring, the player receives a vision from Azura, the ancient Daedric Prince of the Dawn and Dusk, who confirms that the player is Nerevar's incarnate. The Nerevarine completes the fourth and fifth trials, which are to rally the Great Houses of the Dunmer and Ashlanders of Vvardenfell under one banner. After receiving the support and being declared "Hortator" by every Great House and "Nerevarine" by all nomadic Ashlander tribes, the player is officially called "Nerevarine" by the Tribunal Temple, who normally persecutes anyone to death who claims to be the Nerevarine.
The Nerevarine is invited to the palace of the poet god-king Vivec, one of the three deities that form the basis of Morrowind's religion known as the Tribunal, to discuss the assault on Dagoth Ur's stronghold in the heart of Red Mountain. Vivec presents the player with the gauntlet 'Wraithguard', an ancient Dwemer artifact that allows the use of the tools Sunder and Keening. These ancient weapons were created by the Dwemer to tap into the power of the fabled Heart of Lorkhan, which they found beneath Red Mountain - and these same tools have been used by the Tribunal and Dagoth Ur to reach their god-like status. The tools can also destroy the fabled Heart of Lorkhan, but without having the Wraithguard equipped, they will deal a fatal blow to whoever wields them.
The player travels into Red Mountain to Dagoth Ur's citadel. After talking with Dagoth Ur, who attempts to sway the player to his side with the claim that he is merely following Nerevar's final orders, the player and Dagoth Ur fight. Besting Dagoth Ur, the Nerevarine soon discovers that while the Heart of Lorkhan is still intact, Dagoth Ur remains immortal and he soon returns from death. Making his way to the heart of the mountain, the Nerevarine finds the Heart of Lorkhan and destroys it, severing Dagoth Ur from his power and ultimately killing him. Akulakhan's Chamber, where Lorkhan's heart resided, is destroyed in the process as the cavern collapses and in turn, Red Mountain is cleared of blight and The Sixth House falls. Upon escaping from the chamber, the Nerevarine is congratulated by Azura who comes to reward the player's efforts of fulfilling the prophecy.
The game does not end upon the completion of the main quest, but the game world Vvardenfell is affected in many different ways. The Blight Storms cease to plague the land and the weak-minded followers of the Sixth House are reawakened, remembering nothing of their ordeal. The Dreamers who harassed the Nerevarine fall silent and the Nerevarine becomes widely known as the savior of Vvardenfell. The quintessential consequence of defeating Dagoth Ur was the destruction of the Heart of Lorkhan. Due to their immortality linked to the heart, Vivec and the Tribunal become mortal again, leaving Vivec's future in question and up to the player to determine his fate. The loss of divinity among the Tribunal is the main plot point of the game's first expansion, Tribunal.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

=== Setting ===
Oblivion is set in the year 433 of the Third Era, six years after the events of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, although it is not a direct sequel to Morrowind or any other game in the series. The game is set in Cyrodiil—a province of Tamriel, the continent on which all the games in the series have so far taken place.
Cyrodiil has been the capital of three human empires throughout Tamriel's history. In the distant past, the original empire, known as the Alessian Empire, was founded when a human slave named St. Alessia led an uprising against the Ayleids, an elven faction that at one point held dominion over Tamriel. The Ayleids were devout worshipers of the Daedra, magical creatures from Oblivion, a dangerous realm that is in another dimension. The Daedra are largely sadistic and selfish beings that desire to manipulate and cause chaos throughout Tamriel, and are the antithesis of the Nine Divines, Tamriel's religious pantheon of deities. Blessed by the Divines, Alessia was given the power to drive back the Ayleids and sever their connection to the Daedra by forging a covenant that kept the Daedra out of Tamriel via a mystical barrier. So long as a being of royal blood sat on the throne, the covenant would remain and the Empire would prosper.
In the centuries after Alessia's rule, two different incarnations of the Empire would arise that would continue to follow this covenant, with rulers handpicked by the Divines taking the throne in order to maintain it. Alessia's successor, the Reman Dynasty, rose to power in the aftermath of a war between the Empire and a feudal hegemony from the neighboring continent of Akavir. The Reman Dynasty would pave the way for Tiber Septim, a human warrior, to rise to power and unite the other races and provinces of Tamriel under a single banner. The Septim Dynasty, ruling over the Empire's third and current incarnation, has produced a number of heirs to the throne since Tiber Septim's death and ascension into the hero-god Talos.

Plot

The story begins with the player imprisoned in a cell for an unknown crime. Emperor Uriel Septim VII (voiced by Patrick Stewart), accompanied by Imperial bodyguards known as the Blades, arrives in the prison when fleeing from assassins who have murdered the emperor's three sons and are now targeting him. The emperor and the Blades reveal that the player's jail cell contains a secret entrance to a part of the city's sewer that functions as an escape route. Pardoned by the emperor, the player follows the group into the sewer where they come under attack by assassins. The Blades' captain is cut down during the fighting that ensues. Knowing he is destined to die by the hands of the assassins, Uriel Septim entrusts the player with the Amulet of Kings, worn by the Septim emperors of Tamriel, and orders the player to take it to Jauffre (voiced by Ralph Cosham), the grandmaster of the Blades. Immediately afterward, one of the assassins kills the emperor. The player escapes the sewer and heads out into the open world of Cyrodiil.
The lack of an heir for Uriel Septim has broken St. Alessia's covenant, allowing the Daedra to access Tamriel from Oblivion. Multiple gates to Oblivion open and an invasion of Tamriel begins by the Daedra killing and destroying anything in their path. Jauffre tells the player the only way to close the gates permanently is to find someone of the royal bloodline to retake the throne and relight the Dragonfires—with the Amulet of Kings—in the Imperial City. There is an illegitimate son named Martin (voiced by Sean Bean) who is a priest in the city of Kvatch. Upon arriving at Kvatch, the player finds that the Daedra have destroyed the city with very few surviving. A massive Oblivion Gate is obstructing the main city entrance and the player must venture through the gate into the Deadlands—one of the planes of Oblivion—in order to close it from the inside and allow access to the city. After closing the gate, the player enters Kvatch and takes it back from the Daedra with the assistance of surviving guardsmen. Martin has survived, and the player persuades him to come to Weynon Priory.
The player, now recognized as the Hero of Kvatch, returns to Weynon Priory with Martin, finding that it has come under attack by assassins and that the Amulet of Kings has been stolen. The player escorts Jauffre and Martin to Cloud Ruler Temple, the stronghold of the Blades in Cyrodiil. Martin is recognized as the emperor and is given command of the Blades. The player is optionally entered into their ranks and sets off in search of the amulet. After gathering information, the player learns that the group responsible for Uriel Septim's assassination and the theft of the amulet are the Mythic Dawn, a cult dedicated to the worshiping of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Destruction. The cult believes Dagon is the true creator of the world and wish for him to "cleanse" it of all impurities. Killing the emperor and thus removing the barriers to Oblivion was the first step in realizing this. The player attempts to infiltrate the secret meeting place of the cult in the hopes of retrieving the amulet. When the player does so, the cult's leader Mankar Camoran (voiced by Terence Stamp) escapes through a portal, taking the amulet with him. The player takes the book that had opened the portal to Martin, who deduces a way to reopen the portal. The player seeks out three key artifacts necessary to recreate the portal: a Daedric artifact, The Blood of the Divines, and a Great Welkynd Stone. With all three retrieved, Martin reveals that a final ingredient is needed: a Great Sigil Stone from inside a Great Gate similar to the one that devastated Kvatch. Martin and Jauffre decide to allow the city of Bruma to be attacked by Daedra so that a Great Gate would be opened. Once it is, the player obtains the Stone and closes the Gate, also saving Bruma.
A portal is created at Cloud Ruler Temple and the player is sent through to Mankar Camoran's created realm of Paradise. After bypassing Daedra, Mythic Dawn members and obstacles, the player confronts Camoran and kills him. The player returns the Amulet of Kings to Martin and they subsequently travel to the Imperial City with the Blades to relight the Dragonfires, and end the Daedric invasion. They find the city under attack by Daedra and an enormous avatar of Mehrunes Dagon himself. The player and Martin fight their way to the Temple of the One. There, Martin laments that they are powerless against Dagon's avatar and explains that they can only defeat him one way. He bids farewell to the player and shatters the Amulet of Kings, merging himself with the spirit of Akatosh, the Dragon-God of Time, thus becoming Akatosh's avatar. After a battle, Akatosh casts Dagon back into Oblivion and lets out a mighty roar before turning to stone. Martin, whose soul was consumed by the amulet, enters the afterlife to join his forebears. In a telepathic monologue to the player, he sheds an optimistic light, explaining that while the Amulet of Kings is destroyed and the throne again lies empty, the gates of Oblivion are now shut and the future of Tamriel lies in the player's hands. The Empire's high chancellor sincerely thanks the player for their service during the crisis and proclaims them as the seventh Champion of Cyrodiil.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

=== Setting ===
Skyrim is set in the year 201 of the Fourth Era, which started just after the upheaval of the so-called "Oblivion Crisis" from the previous game. Skyrim is a cold and mountainous region in the north of the continent of Tamriel. It has traditionally been divided into nine administrative sections, called "holds", each governed by a jarl from a larger town. Of these settlements, Solitude, Windhelm, Markarth, Riften, and Whiterun are larger and more powerful. The landscape is littered with forts, camps, and ruins, some of which were built by the now-extinct race of the Dwemer, or Dwarves. The Nords, one of the human races, view Skyrim as their homeland, though members of other races populate Skyrim as well. Most ubiquitous are Dark Elf refugees from the neighboring land of Morrowind, which was devastated by a volcanic eruption; and the Reachmen, a tribal faction of barbaric savages that occupy a large western portion of Skyrim known as the Reach. Various Orc strongholds are also located throughout Skyrim, having been allowed to settle in the region at the behest of the Nords.
Skyrim is a province of the much larger Empire, which at one point comprised all of Tamriel. The Empire has recently fought a war with the elvish Aldmeri Dominion, who believe that they are racially superior to humans. While the conflict, known as the Great War, ended in a military stalemate after a hard-fought battle at the imperial capital, the greatly weakened Empire was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty called the White-Gold Concordat. This treaty led to the Dominion annexing the Bosmer province of Valenwood. Large parts of Hammerfell, home of the Redguards, was also to be given to the Dominion as part of the Concordat, but the native Redguards promptly seceded from the Empire in response and drove the Dominion out, becoming an inward-looking rogue state. The Argonians of the Black Marsh, having lost faith in the Empire as an institution, seceded as well and established their own nationalist faction that took control of Tamriel's southeastern territories. By the game's events, the Empire is a vestigial organization which only maintains control over Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and the northwestern province of High Rock.
While most of Tamriel worship a religious pantheon of eight deities, the Nords of Skyrim are accustomed to worshiping a ninth god, Talos, the deified human general who founded the Third Empire. The Dominion, led by the intolerant Thalmor sect, rejects this notion and its implication that a man became greater than any elf. They instituted a clause in the Concordat forbidding Talos worship in the Empire. Motivated in part by this condition, Ulfric Stormcloak, the jarl of Windhelm, leads a rebellion against Imperial rule, with the holds divided between the two sides.
In the ancient past, dragons ruled over vast swaths of Tamriel. Their hegemony was overthrown when three human warriors threw the dragon ruler, Alduin, forward in time using an Elder Scroll, a powerful and mysterious artifact. When Skyrim begins, the survival of the last known dragon, the sage Paarthurnax, is a secret kept by an order of monks called the Greybeards. Within their monastery atop the Throat of the World, Skyrim's highest mountain, the Greybeards dedicate their lives to the Way of the Voice, a discipline founded by Jurgen Windcaller for the Thu’um (dragon shouts).
A line of heroic "Dragonborn", gifted by the god Akatosh with the ability to learn shouts intuitively by absorbing the souls of dead dragons, is long thought to be dead. Ancient prophecy maintains that Alduin will return to consume the world, and a "Last Dragonborn" will defeat him. Many Nords believe this will come true, though there are just as many skeptics.

Characters

The player character is the mythic Last Dragonborn and is typically referred to as such. The Dragonborn can be male or female, from one of ten races. Each of the ten races has, in addition to a bonus for certain skills, a power specific to their race – for example, Nords start with a bonus to several martial skills, and the ability to intimidate enemies for a short period. The player can recruit one NPC at a time as a follower, who can travel and fight alongside the Dragonborn; there are forty-five available followers in the base game, with thirteen more added in the downloadable expansions.
Outside of followers and Alduin (the primary antagonist), NPCs prominent to the plot of Skyrim include Balgruuf the Greater, Jarl of Whiterun, a city in the center of Skyrim; Arngeir, the leader of the Greybeards; Delphine and Esbern, two of the last members of the Blades, an order of warriors sworn to help the Dragonborn but nearly wiped out after the Great War; and Paarthurnax, the last surviving dragon and grandmaster of the Greybeards. Also notable are General Tullius and Ulfric, who command the Imperial Legion and Stormcloaks, respectively. During the course of the game, the Dragonborn can join and assist either side to gain victory in the civil war. Other factions that the Dragonborn can elect to join include the Companions, a noble order of warriors; the College of Winterhold, an institution dedicated to the mystic arts and magic; the Thieves Guild, a league of burglars who have fallen on hard times; the Dark Brotherhood, a fellowship of assassins; and the Bard's College, a group consisting of bards, poets, writers, and public speakers.

Plot

Imperial soldiers have captured Ulfric Stormcloak and are preparing to execute him, along with the player who was caught up in the skirmish and mistakenly identified as a rebel. The executions are disrupted when the dragon Alduin appears and attacks the imperial outpost. The player escapes and warns Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun of the dragon attack. When another dragon attacks and is slain, the dragon's soul flows into the player character, causing the nearby guards to call them "Dragonborn." The Greybeards summon the Dragonborn to the Throat of the World with a deafening shout, where the Dragonborn begins training in the Way of the Voice.
Delphine, a member of a secret society called the Blades who were known as dragon hunters, intercepts the Dragonborn on a training quest and arranges for the Dragonborn to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy in Solitude, on the (mistaken) suspicion that the Thalmor are responsible for the dragon attacks. There, they learn that Esbern, a Blades lore master obsessed with the prophecy of Alduin's return, is alive and hiding somewhere in Riften. The Dragonborn rescues Esbern in Riften as Thalmor agents also try to capture him. Esbern leads them to an ancient Blade temple and a massive engraving depicting Alduin's prior defeat. Esbern deciphers that the ancient Nords used a special shout that forces a dragon to land and experience the concept of mortality, thus rendering Alduin and any dragon weaker, unable to fly, and vulnerable.
Arngeir does not know the shout, which is called Dragonrend and violates the Way of the Voice. Arngeir sends the Dragonborn to Paarthurnax at the summit of the Throat. Paarthurnax reveals that no one living knows Dragonrend, but theorizes that the Dragonborn could learn it by looking through time at the throat of the world, the site of Alduin's banishment. To do this, the Dragonborn retrieves the Elder Scroll used in the banishment from a massive subterranean lost city. The Dragonborn returns to the summit and learns Dragonrend by witnessing the events of Alduin's prior defeat where he was not defeated but only cast forward in time. After returning from the vision, the Dragonborn is attacked by Alduin and uses Dragonrend to fight him. The Dragonborn is successful and Alduin is forced to flee.
The Dragonborn's allies hatch a plan to capture a dragon at Whiterun. The Dragonborn helps negotiate a truce in the civil war to prevent either side from capturing Whiterun – whose Jarl has remained neutral in the conflict – during this delicate operation. The captured dragon, Odahviing, questions whether Alduin deserves lordship over dragons. He reveals that Alduin has gone to recover his strength in Sovngarde, the Nord afterlife, where he feeds on the souls of the dead. Since the portal to Sovngarde cannot be reached on foot, Odahviing bargains for his freedom in exchange for flying the Dragonborn there. Entering Sovngarde, the Dragonborn meets the three heroes who had once defeated Alduin long ago. With their help, the Dragonborn kills Alduin and returns to Skyrim.