#naarifin

"Well, well. The emperor himself. Come to - what? Duel me? You think you can stop me, is that it? Fool. Look around you! The Culling has begun. I will unleash the fires of Oblivion tonight - after I've added your body to the pyre!"

So, my initial speculations on the Thalmor of the 4th Era is that they are founded by vengeful Ayleids, because Altmer abhor Daedra and we know that a Thalmor general was chummy with them, like the Ayleids were.

Then I started paying more attention to the dates in The Great War by Legate Justianus Quintius:

On the 30th of Frostfall, 4E 171, the Aldmeri Dominion sent an ambassador to the Imperial City with a gift in a covered cart and an ultimatum for the new Emperor. The long list of demands included staggering tributes, disbandment of the Blades, outlawing the worship of Talos, and ceding large sections of Hammerfell to the Dominion. Despite the warnings of his generals of the Empire's military weakness, Emperor Titus Mede II rejected the ultimatum. The Thalmor ambassador upended the cart, spilling over a hundred heads on the floor: every Blades agent in Summerset and Valenwood. And so began the Great War which would consume the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion for the next five years.

Within days, Aldmeri armies invaded Hammerfell and Cyrodiil simultaneously. A strong force commanded by the Thalmor general Lord Naarifin attacked Cyrodiil from the south, marching out of hidden camps in northern Elsweyr and flanking the Imperial defenses along the Valenwood border. Leyawiin soon fell to the invaders, while Bravil was cut off and besieged.

Frostfall in Nirn is a month that is 31 days long, and “within days” would be more than two days, but less than a week, so 2-6 days later Lord Naarifin does the unexpected and actually takes over a Cyrodilic city while Lady Arannelya, who has been allocated the lion’s share of the Aldmeri army, is going to Hammerfell.

The month after Frostfall is Sun’s Dusk.

The 2nd of Sun’s Dusk is the Summoning Day of Boethiah, the Daedric Prince of Plots, the Deceiver of Nations and He-Who-Destroys and She-Who-Erases, and, well, it should be difficult to get Daedric support after Martin Septim had that bad case of heartburn two centuries ago and became a giant statue that may or may not keep up the barrier against Oblivion...

(Reive, the right hand of Naarifin, a daedra of the dremora type, wielding Goldbrand, the Daedric artifact of Boethiah, a few years after Naarifin took Leyawiin.)

"Well, well. The emperor himself. Come to - what? Duel me? You think you can stop me, is that it? Fool. Look around you! The Culling has begun. I will unleash the fires of Oblivion tonight - after I've added your body to the pyre!"

Basically, onto the missing Avatar of Akatosh and false Temple of the One after the Great War is the reason why the Daedric Princes are able to once more play around on Nirn in TESV: Skyrim when Oblivion, and its inhabitants, should have been locked away.

Barbas being able to manifest and smack talk the Dragonborn on his way back to Clavicus Vile. Dervenin wandering the streets of Solitude and Sheogorath’s connection to the Pelagius Wing of the Blue Palace. Sanguine taking the Dragonborn on a night to (not) remember and then the Dragonborn easily entering and leaving one of his Myriad Realms of Revelry. Vaermina giving everyone in Dawnstar nightmares. Molag Bal being able to lock that door in the abandoned house so that it is impossible to leave. Hircine manifesting in Falkreath’s forests in one of his aspects. Everything Hermaeus Mora does...

It all should have been impossible (to my understanding) if Martin Septim’s, the Avatar of Akatosh, sacrifice blocked Oblivion from Nirn as it is supposed to.

And that is, I think, the real reason why the daedra aided Lord Naarifin in his conquest of the Imperial City. Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that the Thalmor, in their attempt at hiding the fact that it was Martin Septim, and not they, who ended the Oblivion Crisis, ended up making a second Oblivion Crisis possible.

So, we all know the theory that Thalmor “wants to destroy the world by using/destroying the Towers”-theory, right? Well, it’s just a fan theory that got popular and isn’t really based on anything, so I don’t particularly like it (but if it reaches enough consensus in fandom it might end up being turned into canon by Bethesda. Canon in Elder Scrolls is kind of influenced that way).

So with that out of the way, I will present to you my current favorite Thalmor Theory:

The Thalmor were founded by Ayleids.

And not just any Ayleids, but the Alessian Ayleids who aided in the slave rebellion against their kin, only for the humans to turn against them and forcing them to either die or run away and hide in provinces other than Cyrodiil.

Now, understandably, these Ayleids weren’t happy with being run out of their homes for daring to help humans by humans. The ones who survived to other lands were also powerful, probably mages, and as such very long-lived (and thus probably one or two or maybe even three survive well into the 4th Era and the Dragons’ return).

A large number ends up in Summerset. Where they lick their wounds and work on getting over their traumas and whatnot to salvage what life they can. They might marry Altmer and have children and families and friends and things look up.

And then Tiber Septim rolls in and commits genocide against the Altmer until the Altmer king/queen bends the knee to the Empire. And then the Empire forces the Altmer to worship Tiber Septim as the god Talos.

The Ayleids and their descendants, having lost family and friends on a massive scale once more to the Empire, has had enough. They found the Thalmor, but because it is a very Ayleidic in its undercurrents, they have trouble attracting pure Altmer, and in combination with bending the knee to their oppressors, the Ayleids starts to dislike the Altmer as well. They start to pick part-Ayleids as future spouses to preserve the Ayleid way/genes instead, which is what they really mean with “purebred” (most Altmer does not know this and think they’re breeding pure Altmer with their arranged marriages).

Ayleids, unlike Altmer, were also known to worship daedra, which was how they knew how to make it look like they saved the world from the Oblivion Crisis, on top of that, they have Ayleidic cousins among the Boiche to help them incorporate Valenwood into their new Dominion.

And, of course, Lord Naarifin had a dremora right hand wielding the artifact of Boethiah, while using the Orb of Vaermina, and then being carried away by winged daedra (winged twilights?) from his imprisonment after he lost the Imperial City.

It should also be noted that in Legends (after Oblivion), the Imperial City is shown with the Temple of the One and not the petrified Avatar of Akatosh.

I believe that Naarifin (an Ayleid, or part-Ayleid, Thalmor leader) had the Avatar of Akatosh removed, pending destruction, (if it maintains, or in any way supports, the liminal barrier against Oblivion, it would be in both Boethiah’s and Vaermina’s, and, indeed, all daedra’s, interest to destroy it. Or it might be the key to reopen the barrier), and the Temple of the One rebuilt. Because the Avatar is the symbol that Martin Septim, not the Thalmor, had ended the Oblivion Crisis (and the Temple of the One would have been mentioned many times in literature, and changing it to giant dragon statue in millions of books is harder than getting rid of said statue and rebuilding the Temple), and would have cost them most of their Summerset support.

And it could have been payment to the daedra the Thalmor are allied with for their artifacts and underlings, alongside the Culling (which, without the Avatar, might have reopened the barrier by number of souls alone, many of them daedra worshipers in this City of a Thousand Cults, going to the Planes of Oblivion).