Tamriel is a mess. If you’ve spent any time wandering the frozen peaks of Skyrim or the mushroom forests of Morrowind, you know the feeling of picking up a random book and realizing the history of this world is basically a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces were cut by a madman. It’s not just a linear sequence of events. Honestly, the timeline of Elder Scrolls is a series of "Dragon Breaks" and metaphysical reboots that make most fantasy lore look like a children's bedtime story.
Most people assume the timeline starts with the first game. Wrong. By the time we see the world in Arena, thousands of years of recorded history—and a lot of unrecorded chaos—have already happened. We’re talking about a universe where time itself isn't always a constant. It’s a literal god that sometimes breaks.
The Beginning That Wasn't Really a Beginning
Before there were years, there was the Dawn Era. This is where things get weird. You can’t really map this on a calendar because time didn't exist in a linear fashion yet. It’s the period of the Ehlnofey and the Hist. Basically, the gods were figuring out how to build a reality without it collapsing instantly.
Lorkhan, the "Missing God," convinced (or tricked, depending on who you ask) the other et'Ada to create Mundus, the mortal plane. This is the bedrock of the entire timeline of Elder Scrolls. Without Lorkhan’s gamble, there’s no Nirn. There’s no Empire. There are no sweet rolls to steal. But this creation came at a price. The gods lost their power, some fled, and others were "crystalized" into the laws of nature.
When people talk about the "Convention" at the Adamantine Tower, they're talking about the moment time actually started moving in one direction. It’s the oldest structure in Tamriel. You can still see it in the Iliac Bay. That's where linear history kicked off.
The Merethic Era: When Elves Ruled Everything
The Merethic Era is basically the era of Elven (Mer) dominance. It’s counted backwards, like BCE. ME 2500 is older than ME 1.
During this time, the Aldmer left the sinking continent of Aldmeris and landed on Summerset Isles. They eventually spread out, becoming the Chimer, the Dwemer, and the Ayleids. If you’ve ever explored a ruin in Oblivion, you’ve seen the leftovers of the Ayleid Empire. They were elegant, powerful, and—to be blunt—total jerks. They enslaved the early humans (Nedes) in Cyrodiil.
Meanwhile, up north, Ysgramor and the 500 Companions were fleeing Atmora. They landed in Hsaarik Head and started a massive war with the Snow Elves. This is the origin story of the Nords. It’s bloody, it’s messy, and it’s why there’s so much racial tension in the games even thousands of years later.
Eventually, the humans got tired of being slaves. St. Alessia, with the help of the "bull-man" Morihaus and the cyborg-warrior from the future Pelinal Whitestrake (it’s a long story), overthrew the Ayleids. This ended the Merethic Era and started the First Era.
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The First Era: The Longest Grind
The First Era lasted 2,920 years. That is a massive chunk of the timeline of Elder Scrolls.
So much happened here that it’s hard to keep track of, but a few things changed the world forever:
- The Rise of the Tribunal: In Morrowind, the Chimer turned into the Dunmer (Dark Elves) after the Battle of Red Mountain. This is where Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil took their godhood.
- The Disappearance of the Dwemer: One minute they were fighting the Chimer, the next... poof. Gone. Every single one of them. They tried to build their own god (Anumidium) and it backfired spectacularly.
- The Alessian Order: A religious cult that basically ran the Empire for a thousand years and tried to "scrub" the Elven elements out of the God of Time. This caused a 1,008-year-long Dragon Break called the "Middle Dawn." People lived through a millennium where time didn't work. Imagine waking up and it's Tuesday, but it's also 300 years later, and also you’re a bird. That’s the Middle Dawn.
The First Era ended when the Reman Dynasty fell. The Tsaesci (snake people from Akavir) started acting as Potentates, leading us into the Second Era.
The Second Era: Chaos and the Three Banners War
If you play Elder Scrolls Online, you are living in the Second Era. Specifically around 2E 582.
This era is often called the Interregnum. There was no central Emperor for a long time. Everything was fractured. The "Three Banners War" saw the Daggerfall Covenant, the Ebonheart Pact, and the Aldmeri Dominion beating the snot out of each other for control of the White-Gold Tower.
But the biggest moment in this part of the timeline of Elder Scrolls happened at the very end. A guy named Hjalti Early-Beard—better known as Tiber Septim—showed up. He used a giant brass golem (the same one the Dwemer built) to conquer the entire continent. He became Talos. He became a god. He started the Third Era.
The Third Era: The Games We Know
This is the era of the Septim Bloodline. Most of the "mainline" games take place in this relatively short window of 433 years.
- The Elder Scrolls I: Arena (3E 389)
- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (3E 405)
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (3E 427)
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (3E 433)
The Third Era is defined by the Septim Emperors trying to keep the Empire from falling apart. It culminates in the Oblivion Crisis. Mehrunes Dagon tried to merge his plane of Oblivion with Nirn. Martin Septim sacrificed himself to stop it, ending the Septim line and the Third Era simultaneously. No more Emperors with the Dragon Blood. The barriers to the Void were permanently sealed, but the political fallout was catastrophic.
The Fourth Era: A Dying Empire
This is where Skyrim happens. By 4E 201, the world is a grim place.
The Empire is a shadow of its former self. The Thalmor—high elven supremacists—rose to power in Summerset, renamed it Alinor, and started the Great War. They nearly wiped out the Empire. The White-Gold Concordat was a humiliating peace treaty that banned the worship of Talos.
When you start Skyrim, you’re walking into a world that has been bleeding for two hundred years. The dragons coming back? That’s just the cherry on top of a very bad historical sundae.
Understanding the Dragon Breaks
You can't talk about the timeline of Elder Scrolls without mentioning Dragon Breaks. They are the ultimate "get out of jail free" card for the writers, but they’re also a fascinating piece of metaphysical lore.
A Dragon Break occurs when Akatosh (the Dragon God of Time) loses his grip on reality. Multiple timelines happen at once. When the break ends, all those conflicting timelines are "re-jigged" into one narrative.
The most famous example is the "Warp in the West." At the end of Daggerfall, there were six different endings. In one, the Orcs got a kingdom. In another, the King of Worms became a god. In another, the Empire won. Because of a Dragon Break, all of them happened. People remember seeing six different things, but the world moved forward as if they were all true. It's messy. It's confusing. It's quintessentially Elder Scrolls.
Common Misconceptions About the Dates
People often get confused about how much time passes between games. It feels like a lot, but usually, it's not.
Between Morrowind and Oblivion, only six years pass. That’s it. You could realistically have the same character (if they’re a long-lived race like an Elf) present for both. But between Oblivion and Skyrim, there is a massive 200-year gap. This was a deliberate choice by Bethesda to show the decline of the Empire.
Another big mistake is thinking that the "Eras" are set lengths. They aren't. An Era ends when a major historical shift happens. The Third Era was short because the Septim line ended. The First Era was long because the Alessian/Reman systems stayed somewhat stable for ages.
Actionable Insights for Lore Hunters
If you want to actually master the timeline of Elder Scrolls, don't just read the wikis. The wikis are great, but they sanitize the "unreliable narrator" aspect of the games.
- Read the In-Game Books: Specifically The Monomyth and Before the Ages of Man. These give you the "academic" view of how the world started.
- Compare Conflicting Accounts: Read the Khajiiti creation myth versus the Altmeri one. They describe the same events but with completely different "facts." This is how you understand the nuance of Tamrielic history.
- Watch the Skies: In Elder Scrolls, the planets are actually the corpses of the gods. The moons (Masser and Secunda) are the split halves of Lorkhan. The "stars" are holes in reality left by the spirits who fled creation. The geography is the history.
- Check the Dates in Documents: Whenever you find a note or a journal in Skyrim or ESO, check the date header. It tells you exactly where that moment fits in the broader chaos.
The history of Tamriel isn't a straight line; it's a circle that’s been stepped on. Understanding the timeline of Elder Scrolls requires accepting that some things are true, some are lies, and some are both at the same time. That’s what makes it the best lore in gaming.
To get the most out of your next playthrough, try roleplaying a character who actually knows this stuff. A Dunmer mage who remembers the fall of the Tribunal will look at the world very differently than a Nord warrior who only cares about the current civil war. Context changes everything.