Oblivion - Why is The Hero in Prison at The Beginning? Lore, Analysis, Theory EXPLAINED

I think we already got an answer in game, it was for necrophilia. Not only does your character know the fine for the first offence, but they also know the punishment is more severe for re-offenders.

"why are you in prison" could be the start of a character creation line of questions.

Considering the jail cell had a skeleton but was otherwise clean my vote it was a "scared straight" situation where a misbehaving kid (who'd say, got in a drunken brawl the night before) was thrown in across the way from a foul mouthed prisoner to try and get him to see the error of his ways.

As with all of the other games (except for Elder Scrolls: Redguard), I don't think a single detail about the player character's backstory before the start of the game is set in stone. Bethesda made it intentionally ambiguous so that the player could write their own backstory, not hunt for answers that were never intended to exist. But that's just one eldritch horror's opinion.

Maybe, the character was a drunk and thrown in jail for that, but the people who processed them are off-duty, because it was last night.

I’d always assumed that “lesser men” referred to the emperor being Dragonborn, rather than societal status. Uriel and Martin were both descendants of the dragon blood after all, and from what we’ve seen in Skyrim, Dragonborn are capable of some pretty incredible things.

Uriel Septim Not being able to see your death also could be related to the fact you become Sheogorath the daedric prince.

"Stand up... there you go. You were dreaming. What's your name?"  The simple answer is its just a great way to open an rpg. The question of how your character wound up in prison could be answered endlessly in a variety of ways. It gives your complete freedom in deciding who and what your character is. It lays the foundation for creating a story for your character.

Seeing as the Emperor can partly see your fate, he says your crime is not what you will be remembered for. If you didn’t commit a crime and were falsely imprisoned, I would think he would know you were innocent of any wrongdoing and not say that

I like to use a mod that delays the main quest ("Main quest delayer") until you commit a crime and get arrested. The way I get "arrested" is by taking part in the corrupt guard quest in the Imperial City, only instead of reporting him to another guard, I confronted him myself. Of course, him being corrupt, he used my accusation as an excuse that I "attacked" him and arrested me and then the main quest began with me being unjustly imprisoned.

Another idea: - The Hero was a criminal who committed a serious or a petty crime. This is another plausible explanation, as the Elder Scrolls games allow the player to choose their own moral alignment and actions. The Hero could have been a murderer, a thief, a bandit, a smuggler, a spy, a forger, a traitor, or any other type of criminal who broke the law and was caught by the guards. The Hero could have also been a necromancer, a vampire, a werewolf, a daedra worshipper, or a practitioner of any other forbidden or illegal magic or religion. The Hero could have even been a necrophiliac, as some fans have jokingly suggested, based on the fact that the Hero knows the fine for necrophilia in Cyrodiil is 500 gold.

Baurus' comment about "lesser men" was not referring to strength of character or ones station. But literally that the Septims are on a higher standing than everyone else. They are recognized by the Divines to be the ones to rule Tamriel. And for asking the Emperor himself why you are there. That's the beauty of the writing. It could be that the PC doesn't know why they were imprisoned. It could be that they do know, but don't think they should be. It could be pre-determinism, that they were always meant to be there in that exact moment. It could be that they were magicked into being there, either teleported or being created. Are they amnesiac, self-righteous, indignant, a manifestation of the Divine's will? The Emperor doesn't know, but the player does, because it's whatever you want it to be(within reason(or not)).

I like to think Audrns Avidius imprisoned the Hero of Kvatch, it just makes a little too much sense to me that maybe you looked at him and he took it the wrong way or you couldn't pay his made up fine or maybe you accidentally bumped into him. Just some pre determined misunderstanding that the corrupt watchman took advantage of and hastily put you into the first cell in the Prison where the escape happened to be

Emperor Uriel Septim VII, sometime after ordering the guards to unlawfully arrest you: "Hmm, what's this prisoner doing in this super specific cell? How strange!"

there's a flimsy - but interesting theory that Sheogorath put you there to test your worth to see if you can take his mantle later on. but that was only made after the expansion came out (as said, its a flimsy theory) there used to be a mod where you could start out elsewhere in the game, but the moment you got arrested and agreed to go to jail (in the imperial city), that's when the story mission would kick off. the mod wasnt around for long, but i miss when i had it downloaded. it kinda made the intro make more sense

The Emperor literally tells you it doesn't matter, you are the Hero of his Dreams now. Whoever you were before is done. Even if you were a murderer, thief, and you imagine your player character wants to continue doing those things their reasons are now different

This is a interesting theory. I'd like to add that Shezzar/Lorkhan might also be behind the divine intervention. This comes from the Knights of the Nine DLC where the player takes up the same title as Pelinal Whitestrake, famous knight who also battled Daedra and their worshippers (the Ayleids). Pelinal is often called a Shezzarine, essentially an avatar of Shezzar who does his bidding. If true (which is highly unlikely) then that puts the player on the list of potential Shezzarine candides but that's to deep a rabbit hole for a Youtube comment.

I like your theory I think the Dark Brotherhood set you up for a murder. in the mission we had to kill the dark elf the prison and they knew you were in that prison 2

There is only one game in the Elder Scrolls series that you do not begin the game as a prisoner. Daggerfall, the second game in the series, does start you in the very first dungeon, Privateer's Hold, but if the player decides to look at the journal to read their character's backstory they would find that there are some choices during CharGen that actually have the character vary in background from being childhood friends of the emperor all the way up to the usual thing of being a prisoner who is summoned by the Emperor to that meeting experienced in the intro cutscene. However, that cutscene will ALWAYS have Uriel state that you are his friend. "I ask this as your Emperor. And your friend." My experience with the first game, Arena, was very brief and I downloaded it when they were offering it on their website as a free download before they released the Anthology with all five games in one boxed set. Argonians were some green human model in that game and that threw me off and I never touched the game again.

Considering the hero of kvatch knows the fine and penalties for Necrophilia I think we know why they’re in prison