How the Fuck does the Empire of Tamriel (Elder Scrolls series) work
you got fucking kings, Torygg, Helseth, living gods of the Tribunal.... under an "Emperor"? who puts some garrisons around but does.... what exactly?
theres an "East Empire Trading Company"? whats that do?
it kinda seems like a holy roman empire, kinda seems like a regular roman empire. they've got knights, dukes, but a Legion...
yes i know the answer is technically "these jackoffs just made it up as they went" and don't care a lick about political theory but this is exactly the kind of excercise that makes fun speculative historiography
this is precisely the contradiction. how we got an "empire" that seems to have a negligible effect on its subjects that is also omnipresent in the setting?
imagine if jesus was a warlord who conquered europe and called himself the roman emperor. so that even after he was long gone and the empire collapsed there was still a lot of inertia in favor of his empire
Also, he acquired a giant walking brass golem whose skin is made from a dead race that can "NOPE" things into non-existence. Why the tribunal agreed to give it up, I dunno.
wait unironically this makes the most sense. the emperors are religious authorities. and even deified (this is not okay in islam fyi), but most the continent shares this religion, theres a feudal state attached... Imperial City is Baghdad, the Septims are the Umayyad and the Medes are Abbassid or Fatimid :galaxy-brain:
Drewmora recently did a lore video on Tiber Septim/Talos where he pointed out that the whole "stormcloak"/Thu'um mythos surrounding him may have been a calculated lie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGdNhEVU13E
Broseph is going to get hit with the "Aldmeri Dominion State Media" flair on YouTube.