In a few decades, the provinces would be reunited once more under his Third Empire, and this outsider to Cyrodiil had become the symbol of the whole realm. When Cuhlecain was assassinated in 2E 854, Tiber Septim assumed the throne. He routed all of Cuhlecain's enemies who would face him and his armies on the battlefield, quickly reuniting Cyrodiil. Ironically, it would take a Nord to reunite the Imperial Province: Tiber Septim was appointed general of the forces of Cuhlecain, a petty Colovian king. The Imperial Province devolved into a collection of warlords squabbling over a no-man's land of cultural stagnation. The Akaviri Potentates would rule until 2E 430, but eventually assassinations and poor leadership would make the Empire crumble, leading to the Interregnum: for four hundred years, petty states all over Tamriel quarreled with each other, especially Cyrodiil. The events surrounding the attempted conquest of Morrowind led to the end of the Reman emperors, and the First Era, in 1E 2920: the Akaviri Versidue-Shaie, who had earned a position as a trusted advisor, took control following the deaths of the Remans and the disastrous Four-Score War. Soon the Second Empire controlled every province of Tamriel except Morrowind. The Akavir had devastated many human lands, and Reman feared invasion from the Summerset Isle, so he allowed the remaining Akaviri to live and fight for him against the elves. The eastern Nibenay Valley region and the western Colovian Estates developed distinct cultures, but still united under the Colovian Reman I to repel an Akaviri invasion in 1E 2703, creating the Second Empire. The Alessian Empire united Imperials and pursued campaigns in other provinces, but when the Colovian west broke away, the resulting civil war in Cyrodiil ended the Empire. They were subjugated by a race of Aldmer, the Ayleids, but a rebellion against them formed under the guidance of Saint Alessia in 1E 242 would prove so successful that Ayleids were driven to extinction (though they left behind many treasures). The Imperial race emerged out of the original Nibenese tribesman, Nedes and Cyro-Nords in the Merethic Era.