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Hello all,
I am currently working on a big map for Age of Wonders 3, the huge thing will encompass the whole of Tamriel. I'm pretty far in the geographical creation but am now running into some lore problems. I figured this would be the best place to find people interested in particular obscure political and historical details from across the continent, maybe even some Age of Wonders 3 players.

My plan is, once I finish the basic set-up, to make at least two versions. One taking place around the end of 3E, either just prior or after the Oblivion Crisis. And another taking place during Skyrim's events. I'd love to do others, like Tiber Septim's conquest, the Battle for Red mountain and the Great War or even things like Merethic Era situations, but I'll first get to these and see from there on out.
I would love to link some screenshots but I am not allowed to as for now it seems. For now you can look up my uploaded screenshots of AOW3 on steam; account Artfactial.
High Rock, Skyrim, Morrowind and Cyrodiil are pretty far along, with the other provinces being a bit more bare lacking concrete canon locations. I have been using ESO information, but don't play it myself so am somewhat limited.

The main problem right now is rulership, mechanically the game is bound to a max of 8 players, so there will always be at least one country that is either independant (unplayable) or merged into an empire.
The choice of which countries will be playable in a most lorefriendly and interesting way will determine the gameplay. With that I come to the rulers. It's furstrating how little appears to be known about contemporary rulers outside of the focused settings. We get big governing bodies but even the Thalmor don't appear to have a known leader figure.

For the ~4E 201 version I'm thinking this set up for the start game. This is taking into account that the Stormcloack rebellion has already started, altough a pre civil-war situation might be easier.

1-The Empire (including Cyrodiil and High Rock): Emperor Titus Mede II- As far as I can gather, High rock is loyal but troublesome. There is no High King/Queen and the only ruler we know of might be Queen Barynia of Wayrest which may or may not still be in corsair hands. Some High Rock cities might be independant.
Human-Warrior class
Peace with all, except in Aliance with Skyrim and at war with the Stormcloacks.
This gives the Empire the largest direcly controled starting territory but stretched thin recourses.

2-The Altmeri Domion (Summerset Isles): -Some old Thalmor elf-
Elf-Theocrat class
Peace with all, except in Alliance with Valenwood and Elsweyr maybe an alliance with the Stormcloaks. This way the alliance as a whole is as supreme as it should be but requires coordination.

3-Skyrim (Empire minded holds): Ruled by either Elesif or Sybelle Stentor
Human-Warrior class
Peace with all, Alliance with The Empire, War with the Stormcloaks. This will give this player the option to side with either side with the Empire, the stormcloaks or defect and rule their own country.

4-The Stormcloaks (Stormcloak holds): Ulfric Stormcloak
Human-Warrior Class
Peace with all, exc. at war with Skyrim, maybe alliance with The Dominion. Not giving the alliance would probably mean a harsh short game for this player. This, of course, forms the catalyst for a Dominion-Empire war; which I don't want to force.
From here on out things get iffy.

5-Elsweyr(including Annequina and Pelltine): A Mane, assuming a new one has been appointed since the assassination. Any news on that?
Tigran-Rogue class
Peace with all, exc. alliance with The Dominion and Valenwood.

6-Valenwood: Is there a Cammoran on the throne again? Is there an indication of a clear devide in Thalmor support?
Elf-Archdruid(even has a comparable Wild Hunt skill!)
Peace with all, exc. alliance with Elsweyr and The Dominion.

7-Hammerfell: Probably a Lhotunic with some cities being independent where Forebears and Crowns hold is firm. Do we know any leaders of any of these factions?
Human- Warrior
Peace with all.

8-Argonia (Black Marsh and former House Dres cities): An An'Xileel official-Do we have a name? Archwarden Qajalil from Lord of Souls pops up in places?
Draconian-Archdruid
Peace with all.
Here is a nagging problem: I would love to have a Dunmer-Sorcerer player with Redoran holdings in N-W Morrowind. It would be a fine oppurtunity to start to rebuild the land (something many players would like, I think); but more importantly it would put a damper on the Argonian player to not take half the continent without relative oposition.
For this I would have to remove another player. This would either be Skyrim (merging it into the Empire) or the Stormcloacks (making them an independent faction in control of the holds). Either way both the Dunmer or Stormcloacks will be a hard game to play.

Allright, this post is getting long so, if you came this far, thank you, and some questions:
-What do we know of the conteporary rulers of the provinces?
-Any sugestions for this or other era's? Maybe another one would be easier to implement?
-The class variety is quite low as of now, I'd love to have some more; especially a Sorcerer. Suggestions from AOW3 players as to which players might have a class change.
-Indedpendant cities; any suggestions? I've got the latest Orsinium between Elinhir and Dragonstar. Maybe Orcrest. Probably some High Rock cities.
-Any lesser know locations in the provinces that ought to be excploited?
Any suggestions that might make for fun/interesting play are welkom. I'd love to hear what you have in mind!

I would not have an independent Valenwood, Anequina, or Pelletine for the same reason you don't separate High Rock from the Empire. They are all under the Dominion, so any puppet Valenwood king or Khajiiti religious leader are rather irrelevant.

From an empire-wise perspective, absolutely. But, from a game-play perspective it would both make the dominion way too powerful and strip a lot of the cultural divergence (inherent traits of the ruler). The option for players to decide for themselves if they should stick with the Dominion or the Empire or not is also a good one to have.
You would however keep Skyrim as a separate player? How would they differ from the somewhat reluctant Valenwood and divided Elsweyr?
And to clarify, in no way would they start out independent. They start out as part of the alliance with heavy Thalmor military presence.
That being said, blending those empires together would make room for the implementation of the smaller provinces. Playable Dunmer and Orcs would be a lot of fun, although they'd really have a hard time in meaning something on the grander scale of things. But I suppose that is how it is and that kind of balance isn't a concern in this scenario.

Edit:
So more reading though pages have given me tidbits that the Highrock-Empire relations are even more strained than I though. There appears to be very little communication between them?
As for the Dominion; the Bosmer are, traditionally and culturally, most aligned with the Thalmor, so merging those into the whole would be acceptable.
My point is to provide more of a grand strategy idea with as many factions as possible than to provide a Tamriel world war scenario that always boils down to Empire vs. Dominion

I've decided to, for now, go with Valenwood being controlled by the Altmer player and High-Rock by the Imperial player. This frees up a player slot for the Dunmer-Sorcerer.
Furthermore, I'll probably change the Stormcloak class to Rogue as they have to resort to cloak and dagger tactics, contrary to their warrior culture.

If non of you are interested in the concept I'll stop bothering here though.