After trapping Emperor Uriel Septim VII in an alternate plane, Imperial Battlemage Jagar Tharn assumes the Emperor's identity, and rules without care as the provinces wage war. The ghost of Ria Silmane frees a hero from the depths of the Empire's dungeons and guides his search for the Staff of Chaos, a potent artifact which Jagar Tharn has broken in eight parts and hidden. The hero journeys to eight well-defended citadels in eight different provinces, recovering the Staff's pieces. Then, armed with the reforged Staff, the hero confronts and defeats Jagar Tharn in the labyrinths beneath the Imperial Palace, and the Emperor is returned to the throne.

"During the 10-year rule of the Impostor Jagar Tharn, the provinces were shattered by four devastating wars, and the political policies of the Imperial administration fell into shambles. But for the Restoration, there would be no Empire today." -- from Niso's LIVES OF THE EMPERORS"