Its too early to include this in the docs for various mods so I'll share it with you know. 4th Era lore found in the Cyrodiil Upgrade mods current and future is based on scraps of information coming from official sources and is far from complete.

As a result, once you enter the 4th ERA, your entering "BEST GUESS LORE" territory. We know a new emperor is crowned, we know his name, the person he beat to become emperor but not how or why. We know the mages guild disolved and 2 new guilds named the College of Whispers and Synod replaced it but we do not know why or how or any other details. So a great deal of artistic license has been applied to the mods.

Since Synod means gathering, council etc, it is unlikely to be College of Gathering or College of Council and is more likely to be a Council of Mages since it deals with mages. So thats one assumption being made just so you can see the thought processes involved here.

The chances are we will never know the details because beth are not big on background lore, and if we do find out, it will be in some book found in the Elder Scrolls 5. So between now and then we are playing guess what they intended and that means we are leaving the strict law path in order to create these 4th era events. 

Prior to the 4th era, it as loreful, after that, its guess work based on scraps of info beth throw out way.

So I have a tip for everybody, if your a strict lore fan and wish these mods to remain strictly loreful, do not do the "Empire under siege" quest in The Elder Council mod because thats the trigger for all 4th Era stuff except the Kvatch Rising 4th Era stuff. So providing you avoid that quest, nothing unloreful will appear in your game. 

Origin of the mages guild 4th Era features need you to complete the Elder Council Empire under siege quest too. Without it, you will never see the 4th era features. So its kind of a "thunderbirds are go" switch that lights fuse to the 4th Era new years party you might say :)

So be sure to tell all your friends about this because that is your opt out option. 

Time to show you some of the designs for robes and logos that will be appearing in Origin of the mages guild 7.0. First the Synod Logo. If any other modder needs a logo for Synod given that we do not now anything about them yet other than they replace the mages guild. Feel free to use this one, consider it a modders resource. I have the psd file here in 2048x2048 pixal ratio for anybody that wants it. Just ask on the forum.

Small version of the Synod Logo.

Version of the Synod Logo seen on clothing and armour.

(Thanks goes to Alien Slof who has allowed me to use her robes for years, as you can see I have started making my own now and just as slof let me use hers, these robes will be modders resources too after release. Only the esp and esms are hands off as per usual)

Synod Robe

College of Whispers Necromancer Robe.

New mage trying to look cool robe.

College of Whispers Conjurer Robe

This week with the new Emperor in place I have rushed through the mages guild quests to get a set of new saves to use for Origin of the mages guild v7.0. 7.0 is going to be a big release since it deals with the disbanding of the mages guild in the 4th era.

Revisiting the planning that went in to OMG 2 years ago revealed just how much I have learned since that mod was first made. I found my self cleaning up some of the scripts and quests so they worked better as part of the planning and design phase. Which is odd because that is not part of planning and design :)

After spending a week throwing ideas around for the mages guilds transition in to 2 new guilds and coming out with some pretty cool but very complicated ideas, I eventually settled on the simply is best solution and try not to edit anything that I do not need to edit. As a result, I have a working quest to transform the enclosed AU in to more of a mages village up and running already, complete with off switch. So I can turn off the quest when I want to play oblivion and turn it on when i want to test ideas. Any idea that works, gets left in the mod.

The initial problem of how to divide the mages guild in to 2 new guilds not only involved working out what Synod was, but also what a college of whispers might be but a little research in to both revealed its basically an Arcane university 2.0 with the ruling body removed. Since the Synod is a council of mages and is not directly liked to the college of whispers, I came to the conclusion its an imperial establishment designed to watch over all groups of mages to ensure they conform to imperial law without any mages guild bias causing a war with the necromancers again.

The actual meaning of Synod more or less describes it as such anyway so thats not going to be far from the truth. 

That meant, to make the archmages tower in to a Synod building and divide it from the teaching side of things. All I had to do was remove the door between the Ancient studies department and the Knights of the lamp barracks so they become totally separate unconnected areas.

Then planting new buildings around the AU to take the new content for the college of whispers left me with out a need to edit the existing rooms at all. The not editing something is a good way to achieve compatibility :)

The end result is I have the ground work laid for the big changes after 1 week of planning and research and have cleaned up some other areas as a bonus. Also since some of the ideas can in theory work from the start of the game. Some additions for the 4th era will be available the moment you get access to the AU, where as other parts will become available later in the 4th era.

The work of planning what i want in the College of whispers now starts but the end result I want to achieve is a village of mages effect so I have my minds eye vision of what I am aiming for. I just need to mark out the route to it. 

We know a few things about the 4th Era now, for example we know a new Emperor is crowned and the empire starts to crumble. We know who he had to beat to claim the thrown but not  alot else but it is enough to get me started on some cool 4th Era quests.

Empire Under Siege is a new quest set in the 4th Era after the lose of various provinces. It places the player and the Elder Council in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between 2 of the Empires greatest Generals. One is a great leader of men and has the legions full support, the other a great politician and administrator and has the support of the nobles and the Elder Council which is made up of Nobles.

One general is marching back to the Imperial to try and save the Empire from total collapse after the loss of Vallenwood and Blackmarsh. The other lives in the Imperial city and supports the Councils efforts and is content to leave things as they are.

Both Generals hate each other and would rather see the empire burn than let the other gain more power in it. 

Which is unfortunate because the two of them are the primary choices Ocato has to choose between for the next Emperor.

And one of them is about the force the issue......

The Empire Under Siege Quest is complete and will be released as part of TEC 2.3 as soon as I record some additional lines for the new Emperor.

The crowning of a new Emperor will lead to a var being updated in the CURP Controller that tells the other CU mods to switch to 4th Era mode. Events that are destined to take place during the early part of the 4th era will be enabled after the  Empire Under Siege quest has been completed, so its going to be a key quest to complete. That quest becomes available shortly after you collect your dragon armour and finish the "Wild Hunt" quest in The Elder Council but not exactly when that happens, I have added a bit of a delay.

Plans to dissolved the Mages guild in the 4th Era after the player becomes archmage and completes various OMG quests are also intended and will become available after the Emperor takes charge. Since the lore surrounding the mages guild in the 4th era says it gets desolved and 2 new colleges appear to replace it. No further information is available but I must assume it is linked to the breaches of the Guilds Charter under Traven and the war with the Necromancers within Cyrodiil and will be assuming the divide is either a College of mages and a Council of Mages or a direct split between those who support Necromancy and those who do not. I am currently leaning towards the former. 

I must now carefully plan how to do that without breaking too many other mods. The events will take place as part of Origin of the mages guild and will see the Arcane university and the mages guild buildings around cyrodiil transformed in to 2 unique guilds. 

Though to remain compatible with other mods, I may end up having to use some smoke and mirrors and create the illusion of 2 new guilds. Leaving the old one hidden underneath for compatibility reasons. 

This is currently under consideration during what I call my "planning and design" phase of modding and I hope to have most of the issues worked out before I start work on that idea. 

So the 4th Era lore we already know about introduces a lot of big changes to the game and the process of planning to mod those changes in to the game in as friendly and compatible manner as possible has begun in TEC 2.3.

Forum threads about these 4th era events will be posted later today.