Skyrim fans love to hate the Aldmeri Dominion. Between the events of Oblivion and Skyrim, the Empire fractured with one main faction arising as top dog when the Thalmor, elven supremacists, took over the Summerset Isles. This began a war of secession with the Empire which ends in the White-Gold Concordat, and many Elder Scrolls fans will be wondering what became of the Dominion by The Elder Scrolls 6.
Lucky for those fans, not only did the Aldmeri Dominion have a big role to play in Skyrim, but there's a lot to suggest that they could play an even more prominent role in The Elder Scrolls 6. With the next game's time period and location still up in the air, here are a few key reasons the Dominion could still be central to the plot.
The Third Aldmeri Dominion
The Concordat stipulated that the Empire ban the worship of Talos, among other extreme requests that are eventually forced upon the Mede Dynasty in a humiliating defeat. As a result, the Thalmor appear in Skyrim as the furthest outreach of the Aldmeri Dominion’s secret police, kidnapping and torturing Talos worshipers. Their sinister influence is a huge reason for Skyrim’s Civil War, and another reason that so many players find their sympathies lying with the Stormcloaks despite the central role of the Empire in previous games.
The Aldmeri Dominion is set up in Skyrim as one of the main forces of the 4th Era and a direct result of the end of the Septim Dynasty in Oblivion. Although The Elder Scrolls Online established that different Dominions have risen up over Tamriel’s history, the Third Dominion gives players one of the first hints that Tamriel is not as politically static as it can at first appear.
Indeed, the new and threatening force of the Thalmor in Skyrim is a great way to make the player feel small compared to the events around them. It implies that there are political forces way beyond their control, even beyond the Civil War, and at once makes the Stormcloaks more sympathetic while raising the counterpoint that a divided Tamriel could fall even more subject to Dominion rule. The stakes and setting established makes infiltrating the Thalmor Embassy one of the most fun main quests in the game.
Though the Thalmor’s tendrils extend to the far north, their effect on Tamriel has naturally been most extreme in the south. The Concordat demanded that the Empire give the south of Hammerfell to the Dominion, but when the Redguard continued to fight, the Empire had to release Hammerfell as an Imperial Province entirely, while also rendering its legionaries “invalid” to allow them to continue fighting.
The Dominion in Hammerfell
The Redguards managed to fight off the Dominion, but the lower half of Hammerfell was left devastated by the years of conflict. This ended with the Second Treaty of Stros M’kai, signed around 30 years before the events of Skyrim. This could make Hammerfell the perfect setting for The Elder Scrolls 6, if its time period is set after Skyrim.
Both the Redguard forces and the Aldmeri Dominion have reasons to continue to fight an underhanded war in the region, with fighters and agents on both sides being disavowed by official powers while also being tacitly supported. Furthermore, the political alignment of those Redguard who live in southern Hammerfell, at once despising the elves but equally infuriated at the Empire for abandoning them, could make for some extremely interesting choices in the next game.
The Dominion are clearly an evil force, but Bethesda should give players some good reasons to side with them as well, such as the inability of the province to sustain itself without the Imperial Legion. The Elder Scrolls should not make both sides morally equal, but in order to make moral decisions have real weight, both choices need to come with sacrifices. Indeed, it could be the elves who have the resources – or magic – to revitalize southern Hammerfell. Furthermore, the "Rising Threat" book series in Skyrim hints that many elves themselves fled the Dominion, despising its authoritarianism.
The Aldmeri Dominion were one of the best additions to Skyrim’s political landscape, almost as fun to hate as they are to infiltrate. Even if The Elder Scrolls 6 isn’t set in Hammerfell, players are likely to see the Dominion's power creeping slowly over the continent, and, no doubt, will have some big decisions to make if they want to stop it.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.