I think Bethesda failed to look more than a few steps ahead when making the Civil War questline. I mean, think about it: The end result of the questline is going to have some SERIOUS long-term repurcussions on Elder Scrolls continuity!

In the next game, how is Bethesda going to write it in what happened in the Skyrimian Civil War? Did the Empire win, or did the Stormcloaks win? In the sixth game, Bethesda is going to have to decide who won, if for no other reason than, to decide whether or not Skyrim is part of the Empire. Even if they were to retcon one side's victory by suggesting that the other side restarted the rebellion and won, how are they going to incorporate that into the history of Nirn?

Now, all of this may seem irrelevant, but imagine the disappoint that some players are going to feel when they hear that they went with the "wrong" side.

Also, a Zelda-like timeline split is out of the question. How are they going to explain it? Time travel? Ok, there are so many problems with that that it's not even funny.

-Time travel took no part in the Civil War.
- It had a very brief part in the Main Quest, but even then, you couldn't interact with the past world, so it was more like the memories from Harry Potter and thus shouldn't have caused any ripples in the spacetime continuim
- even if it had an effect, that time travel had nothing to do with the Civil War, so it would be a rather weak explanation for two timelines
- The split timeline theory is hard to believe because you can actually visit both timelines, even before the time travel portion of the main quest.

All the events of the previous games usually had pretty straightforward consequences. In official Elder Scrolls continuity, Valen Dreth was killed by the Dark Brotherhood. The Septim dynasty was permanently cut off, bringing an end to the third era. There was little you could do to change these things, short of out-and-out hacking the game.

Even in Skyrim, a lot of these things are pretty easy to accept. Alduin gets defeated by the Dragonborn. Fair enough. Even if you choose to ignore the main quest, it's easy to accept that it happened without you seeing it. Titus Mede II gets assassinated by the Dark Brotherhood. Well... even if we were to assume that you chose to destroy the Dark Brotherhood instead of join it, we could still argue that either some leftovers (like Bebette, who must have been away on a mission when you leveled the sanctuary) or some other branch in some other part of Tamriel (like, say, Cheydinhal) still carried out the contract.

But, once you complete the Civil War questline, the victor is clear cut. There's no going back, there. Even if Bethesda retconned and allowed for some sort of negotiation, they would first have to acknowledge that the other side won initially.

So maybe you're thinking that Skyrim is the last of the timeline, and that all future games will just be prequels. Well, that would tick off a lot of fans. I, personally, want to see what happens next in the history of Nirn.

So yeah, Bethesda put themselves in a pickle, as far as canon is concerned.

They could just call it a draw. The civil war isnt the main quest so its not essential to complete, they can tell the story that tension was building but the return of alduin brought about peace thru a common enemy...dragons

They're calling a Warp in the West, I bet. Remember the last time? I was quite annoyed.
A dumb compromise, and I don't think that can work again. Though they can rely on the Dragon Break, with the war ending in a ceasefire.

I daresay that the 'official' version of events is a Stormcloak victory. I'm glad that they gave us options, and I understand that, from a lore perspective, there can only be one ending.

Season Unnending would be an ideal official version I suppose, it wouldn't make any side mad. Or maybe they will resolve it like how they resolve Dagerfall ending problems. Either way there's plenty of way that could be taken.

I suspect they'll dodge it by using vague references and having something much bigger happen to dwarf it and render it a moot issue.

Hey guys, remember when the Nerevarine and the CoC got detailed books written about what happened to them in later games?


Yeah, something going to happen that makes the civil war pale in comparison(That something likely being the battle against the dominion) and the history writers won't know for sure what happened in skyrim. Like usual.

By the time the next game comes out I'll have done both sides of the quest and forget all about it but I'd imagine that whichever side wins there would eventually be a treaty where skyrim nords are allowed to worship whoever they want and the empire will still have their presence there.

Except maybe for people who choose to successfully complete both the the CW and MQ without ever needing to negotiate a ceasefire.


Nevertheless, even if you win the war for one side or the other, it's made pretty clear afterwards that the other side hasn't quite given up the fight yet. So in that sense it *is* left hanging, with the possibility of the other side regrouping under a different leader and continuing to fight for independence/reunification.