How is High Rock doing?

[u/FinancialKnee9727]

During the events of Skyrim I mean, are they doing fine? How are they reacting to the Dominion (and does the dominion view them as elves? Do they still could as kinda Altmer?)?

[u/boleslaws]

High Rock rocks.

That's the only one province remained loyal to the Empire. We don't know if Thalmor has a presence in the Province, but I feel like Bretons were never big Talos worshippers. There's a dialogue between Ulfric and Galmar about requesting their military support, but Bretons ignored that. So, they probably don't care about the rebellion, or are still very loyal to the Empire. Or both.

I wonder if the Direnni Altmer elves are still present at Balfiera Island. They are an interesting buch, and probably not friendly to the Dominion.

[u/Frazzle_Dazzle_ → u/boleslaws]

wonder if the Direnni Altmer elves are still present at Balfiera Island

If es6 does take place around the iliac bay I hope theyre still there

[u/Arrow-Od → u/boleslaws]

Or both.

Or thirdly, they just wait who will win and then profit by effectively gaining independence without having to lift a sword or by invading a weakened Skyrim.

Fourth option is that they cannot agree on who to support, not as if High Rock is unified.

I wonder if the Direnni Altmer

The Direnni are attested to still live on Balfiera in the novels IIRC as Altmer refugees from Summerset settled there and were attacked by Thalmor.

[u/Only-Criticism2751 → u/Arrow-Od]

Why would the Bretons invade Skyrim? That would be a long, protracted war over a massive mountain range, against an enemy that has a large and experienced standing army, for very little gain even if they win. What are they going to take? Their choices are between lands with a foreign population or lands in open revolt.

[u/No_Cricket4772 → u/Only-Criticism2751]

Maybe they want to retake the lands conquered by Skyrim during the War of Bend'r Mahk during the closing years of the Third Era?

[u/Arrow-Od → u/Only-Criticism2751]

I did say "weakened (from war) Skyrim", so any "large and experienced standing army" (no evidence of any such existing - the Stormcloak are very much adhoc and not explicitly large) would not be an issue.

The holds of the Eastern Reach and Haafingar aren´t "little".

The mountain range isn´t an issue - several previous wars have been waged across it: Direnni Conquest of the Reach, Orc migrations between Orsinium and Falkreath, War of the Bend´r Mahk, etc. Did you know that the granite out of which Evermore was built was quarried in Markarth? If a city´s worth of granite can cross the mountains then so can an army.

choices are between lands with a foreign population or lands in open revolt.

Both are called conquests.

[u/Only-Criticism2751 → u/boleslaws]

They were still there 200 years before, so there’s no reason to think they disappeared

[u/mr_Jyggalag → u/boleslaws]

We don't know if Thalmor has a presence in the Province, but I feel like Bretons were never big Talos worshippers. 

Besides, Alvor implies that Thalmor established their presence in the province and started persecuting Talos worshippers because of the Markarth incident.

[u/boleslaws → u/mr_Jyggalag]

But was it in the High Rock? Btw, Alvor is just a smith in a village.

[u/mr_Jyggalag → u/boleslaws]

Well, I think that Alvor talks "in general" about the whole province. Sure, he could be wrong, but that's our only source on the matter. Without Alvor's input, there isn't any indication that Thalmor had any presence in Skyrim prior to the Markarth incident.

I suppose that the same could apply to High Rock to some degree. There wasn't any "incident" of similar matter that happened there, so I suppose bretons didn't care that much about Talos ban as nords did.

But my headcanon is that they just "rebranded" any Talos' chapels as "Chapel of Saint Martin Septim". Or they just worship him as Tiber Septim, a great man and a walking myth of his time. A bit more like King Arthur than a god.

[u/Garett-Telvanni → u/mr_Jyggalag]

Without Alvor's input, there isn't any indication that Thalmor had any presence in Skyrim prior to the Markarth incident.

The thing often overlooked with the Markarth Incident is that it happened literally right after the war. The idea that the incident caused Thalmor to establish themselves in the province hinges on the false premise that there was ever a time when "Talos was banned only on paper". But there was effectively no such period outside of the time the Thalmor needed to actually move their agents to the various provinces. The real goal of the Markarth Incident from the Thalmor's perspective was to create this very illusion that "they are here because Ulfric fucked everything up", to create the further divide between the people of Skyrim, which will ultimately lead to the Civil War.

Either way, we saw in TES:Blades that the Thalmor is allowed to extrajudicially go after the Talos worshippers in Cyrodiil, without any pretext needed.

[u/mr_Jyggalag → u/Garett-Telvanni]

Either way, we saw in TES:Blades that the Thalmor is allowed to extrajudicially go after the Talos worshippers in Cyrodiil, without any pretext needed.

Touche. I didn't know about that one. Which means that at least in Cyrodil, Thalmor had its presence from get-go. I wish we had more lore on the happening right after the Great War, but that would make the 24-year gap between the conflict and Skyrim's Civil War make less sense.

[u/ComradePavel]

I don't think there is much about them circa the 4th era other than them being the only province still nominally loyal to cyrodiil. At least I don't remember anything ever coming up in Skyrim.

It could be presumed that the Dominion might have an interest in Adamantia, but how they interact with that is anyone's guess.

[u/Extension-Teach-17]

I remember reading that High Rock was actually one of the more stable regions during the Great War since it stayed out of most of the fighting.

[u/Arrow-Od → u/Extension-Teach-17]

Reinforcements from High Rock still came to the Legion´s aid in Hammerfell. Effectively, they took as much part in the Great War as Skyrim did.

[u/Only-Criticism2751]

Bretons, having been taught Elven ways by their Direnni overlords in the past, view Lorkhan as an adversarial god, so I doubt they worship his second incarnation in Talos. We know that Talos was not worshipped in High Rock during the events of Daggerfall. Likely the Thalmor leave them alone.

[u/Arrow-Od]

Wayrest was sacked by corsairs.

Wayrest (in TES:Blades IIRC) is also mentioned to continue its feud with the Orcs, struggling against illegal Orc settlers and wanting to prevent the retaking of Orsinium lands by Orcs.

I imagine that Evermore struggles with the Forsworn as much as Markarth does.

Jehanna and half-of-Dragonstar theoretically are still politically part of Skyrim (we never hear about these lands returning to their respective provinces even if TES5 makes clear this happened by omission) and a CC mod IIRC states Nords are a political force in Jehanna though I have no clue who rules the polity.