So I haven't steeped myself in TES lore. I played through most of oblivion and get what happened there. How much time has past and what happend during the "great war" I keep hearing about. Is there any place I can read up on current events. I'm starting to feel like a fish out of water talking with all the NPCs

Thanks,
-Louden2

Google the Imperial Library, there's alot of lore there and they have a decent account of events preceding up to Skyrim

The book you want to find is "The Great War". It gives a detailed account of exactly what happened starting from the Oblivion Crisis and going through to 4E 180 with its detailed account of the reasons and events of the Great War. Trust me, it is awesome for us lore junkies.

Track down a copy of that book in Skyrim and it will get you up to speed.

I wanted to add a comment and consequently bumb this thread for people who may have gotten the game a bit later than release date.

"The Great War" is an absolutely essential book to read for role playing even if you do not normally read the many books in TES games. It explains how Tamriel has evolved in the nearly two hundred years since the Oblivion Crisis. Most importantly, you will learn the current sociopolitical status of thee various provinces and races in Tamriel, including why viewpoints about various topics such as the Nord civil war are as they are. This info is critical for developing the backstory for almost any character, and how you came to be in your current situation, as well as the relations between various NPCs (e.g., how certain races are viewed in Skyrim, why they are viewed this way, etc).

Much of the atmosphere of the world didn't make any sense to me until I read this book, and after I read it, suddenly everything was quite obvious. Beth really offered everyone a chance to play in an era when the Empire is facing a great deal of unrest and change, unlike prior TES games (really, I don't think any of the prior games have this much unrest taking place on such a massive scale).

I didn't know about the war either but I read a book in-game about it (which was actually pretty interesting) and it pretty much goes over what happened. I assume as you play more and more it becomes more obvious too

Basically the Thalmor are the High Elf army of Summerset Isles (their homeland to the far south), and they basically did an invasion of Tamriel and Cyrodill. A great war happened, and ended in a peace treaty. However this peace treaty is at a cost - Thalmor still occupy some territories, most notibly in southern Hammerfel (Redguard Homeland, which is an issue that comes up a few times in the game with a quest or two), the empire is very weak, and the empire must outlaw the worship of Talos, which is the main Deity of the imperial religion. This causes the civil war in Skyrim, because the Stormcloaks see the empire as weak for not having a backbone and banning their own religion, so they rebel against the empire.

Basically its a [censored] world to live in during these times.

http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Great_War

This site has a pretty large wealth of lore, It is pretty slow right now from heavy traffic though.

Folks, we are avoiding spoilers on this forum, you know?