To understand the rise of the Aldmeri Dominion, we must go back in time, to the Oblivion Crisis.ĭuring the Oblivion Crisis the Summerset Isles were being overrun by Daedra emerging from the Oblivion Gates. The Thalmor, the chief political party of the third Aldmeri Dominion, an alliance between the provinces of Elsweyr, Valenwood, and Alinor (commonly known as the Summerset Isles), engaged in war with the Third Empire of Man, otherwise known as the Septim Empire, which controlled the provinces of Hammerfell, Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and High Rock.

The Emperor rejected the ultimatum, marking the beginning of the Great War. This ultimatum included several terms, such as the disbandment of the Emperor's Guard, the Blades, tributes, the ceding of large sections of Hammerfell to the Dominion, and the outlawing of the worship of the Divine known as Talos.

It began on the 30th of Frostfall, when the Thalmor delivered their ultimatum to the Empire. The Great War began in 4E 171, thirty years before the events of the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which took place in 4E 201.

Great war elder scrolls