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Emperor Uriel Septim IV
Race Breton/Dunmer Gender Male
Born 3rd Era
Died 3E 247
Resided in Imperial City
Wayrest
Reign 3E 202-
3E 247
Previous Ruler Cassynder Septim
Next Ruler Cephorus Septim II

Uriel Septim IV (born Uriel Lariat)[1] was the fifteenth emperor of the Septim Dynasty, ruling the Third Empire for forty-five years, from 3E 202 to 3E 247. He was preceded by his older brother, Cassynder, and was succeeded by Cephorus II.[2]

BiographyEdit

Uriel Lariat was the son of Empress Katariah and her Imperial consort, a Breton nobleman named Gallivere Lariat.[1][2][3] Uriel had an older half-brother, Cassynder, whose father was Pelagius III.[1][3] By 3E 193, Cassynder, the King of Wayrest, was in poor health, so he abdicated in favor of Uriel, whom Cassynder had legally adopted.[1][2] In 3E 200, Katariah was killed in a skirmish in Black Marsh, and Cassynder became Emperor of Tamriel.[1][3][4]

In 3E 202, Cassynder died childless, so the Ruby Throne passed to Uriel, and he assumed the throne as Uriel Septim IV.[1][2][4] Uriel IV did not possess the dynamism of his mother, and his forty-five-year reign was a difficult one and a hotbed of sedition.[1][2] The Elder Council did not accept the Emperor as a blood descendant of Tiber Septim, despite the Lariat family being distant cousins of the Septims and Uriel IV being a legally adopted member of the Septim family.[1][2] Nevertheless, the Elder Council and the people of Tamriel reportedly viewed Uriel IV as a bastard child of Katariah.[1] Uriel IV and the Elder Council were in conflict with one another throughout his reign, but time and time again, the council won their battles with the Emperor.[2] The Elder Council assumed much responsibility during the reigns of Katariah and Cassynder, and a strong-willed monarch like Uriel IV found it impossible to gain their fealty.[2] Since the days of Pelagius II, the Elder Council had consisted of the wealthiest men and women in the Empire, and the power they wielded was overwhelming.[2] During his reign in 3E 246, the Elder Council, in an attempt to clear up some questions of property rights in Skyrim and discourage absent and foreign landlords, decreed that any man without a liege who occupied a castle for more than three months would be granted the rights and titles of that estate.[5] Uriel IV died in 3E 247.[2][4][6]

Uriel IV designated his son Andorak as his successor, but the Elder Council disinherited Andorak, and instead they proclaimed Uriel IV's cousin Cephorus emperor.[2][6][7]

ReferencesEdit