The Empire was forced to become ally with the Thalmor, otherwise the Empire of man would have been in ruins now because of the Great War. The Empire choose peace so they can fight another day.

Lore suggest it is definitely the Thalmor with the upper hand. To me it seems more like the Legion are trying to hold on to the power they have left in the hope to regain but in the meantime lost control and their true motives ;(.

Imperials do not serve the empire..... they serve their fellow imperials and Cyrodiil itself. For this Empire is no longer ours....it was stolen by the thalmor. Now we will go to Skyrim and fight to forge a nation of true men that will never give into these mer. And one day soon we will march in the name of Talos to Cyrodiil and take back what was stolen from us. Then the thieves shall be punished. We will BURN crystal tower to the ground.


Imperials we will not fight for this Empire but for the values it once represented!

And just who are you to make such promises? Only your puppet emperor could utter those words with the authority their veracity would require. And he clearly doesn't have the spine for it. You may have the spine, but you lack the authority. You can't just direct the empire however you wish, unless you're the emperor, which you're not.

Your words sound pretty and comforting, but like chocolate cake, they lack any real substance.

I am Dovakiin, Talos reborn, and I will NEVER serve an empire that kneels before the wicked Thalmor. Rebels, to WAR!

Sorry but... Who are the thalmors?

Government of the Altmer and Bosmer, they were never conquered y the Mede Empire and forced them into a peace agreement that has made the empire the Thalmor's puppet.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-aldmeri-dominion

The Thalmor = bad elves that want to wipe humans off the face of the earth. They have conquered the Empire and forced them to stop worshiping Talos (or at least make it illegal), which helps them to take a step toward erasing mankind. It has to do with belief BEING reality in Tamriel, which you'll need some smart lore junkie to explain to you.

Not sure if the Thalmor is quite that crazy hundreds of years after that book was written, (or that that book is accurate, considering it was written by an imperial who is biased and has no way of knowing half that stuff) But yeah, the Thalmor are at least elf supremacist.

Summerset isle has its own political unrest, with groups like the Psijic order coming back and young altmer terrorist

They believe they are direct decedents of the gods (more particularly, Aruie-el, their version of akatosh) and that the mortal world is bad and they should be gods. Their goal is to erase all of man and return to being gods. If you want major details i'd go to the lore section and ask the lore buffs.

So wait, the Altmer believe they're descended from Disney's The Little Mermaid? How'd they get rid of the tails?

@Jeckel: Yep, they're still that crazy after a mere 200 years. Remember, they've been on this warpath for multiple eras, plus some Altmeri sorcerers can live to be 1,000 years old. It's not like the crazy ones die off after 100 years like humans.

The Imperials are more of like at peace with the Thalmor, so technically they are allies, but not because either of them want to be allies, rather they chose peace over continuing the war because of the deadly toll of the war. (Probably more deadly for the Empire)

I am pretty sure that once one of them gains enough power, they will continue the war. The Thalmor probably could have won the war, and a still trying to win it, albeit in a more covert way, seeing as how the banning of Talos worship leads them one step closer to their eventual total victory. If the Empire manages to regain some power (once Skyrim returns to their side, maybe?) they would probably continue the war with the Thalmor, and then Talos worship might not be banned anymore.

One thing is for certain though. The Thalmor want Mankind gone, and to do that they will have to eventually destroy the Empire or whatever is left of it if it collapses. Their anti-Humanism is pretty clear, and I am sure the Empire knows of it. With this, I cannot see the peace between these two powerhouses of Tamriel lasting very long.

Wow, that really makes me not want to play an elf of any sort. It even makes me feel a bit guilty for wanting to play as a Breton. Hmm... What to do...

The Dunmer dislike the Thalmor, and Eastern Valenwood probably does as well. I don't think the Bretons support them either. Considering that their main goal leads only to Altmer ascension, I don't think any one, even elves, like them besides the Altmer themselves. Safest elves to play as would probably be the Dunmer though.

Most young Altmer don't like them either, hence why political dissidence is on the rise, and the Thalmor has had to let in some, foreigners are now allowed to come to the summerset isles.

Heres my take on the situation. The Rebels are fighting for the old values that the Septim empire had where man was king and talos was their divine. The new Mede empire in skyrim is a puppet of the Thalmor empire (They killed the blades, Outlawed Talos, they arrested you even though you were not on the list). All those who still serve the "Empire" are traitors to the Septim line and traditional values of the empire. The Rebels just want their freedom and not to be ruled by another race such as elves. The Mede Empire will be in ruins after i finish with.

General Tuallias is a [censored] who needs to be decapitated and the Mede king aswell.

That appears to be the way many people from these forums see it, from what I've seen. However, I don't believe in this.

Man is still king now, in the Empire at least. Talos worship was sacrificed as part of the Concordat of White Gold in order to preserve the lives of men. Without the Concordat of White Gold, the Thalmor would have continued to win the war. The Empire would have fallen and not even Skyrim would be able to stop the Aldmeri Dominion.

These thoughts that the current Empire is a "traitor" to the Septims are exactly what forced it to go against the Septims. Just because they did things differently from the Septims, they get criticised and seen as usurpers, imposters and traitors. That is why they had to remove the legacy of the Septims, so that they can do things their way without becoming betrayers. They betrayed no one, they simply came up with a new way of doing things. Septim loyalists refuse to accept this new way and this causes political dissent in the Empire and that threatens the stability of the Empire as a whole.

Looks like it is time for my Altmer to kick some Thalmor ass for making all elves look bad.

Would just like to mention they killed most of the blades long before the war with the thalmor.

even if it was just a political move, banning the worship of talos to separate the septims from the new "empire" is a very very BAD move. Talos is the patron god of humankind, he's the one that protects the race of men, in a world where belief is reality this is the worst thing the human emperor could do.

any man and elf among the ranks of the new empire that still believes in talos i will try to persuade to rise up against this emperor as well.
a new empire must be made, one that honors talos and under a new dragonborn ruler.

better to amputate this rotten limb before it infests the body.

I agree that banning the worship of Talos is the worst thing a human Emperor could do, but he had no choice. If the Thalmor had demanded the banning of Talos worship as part of the Concordat of White Gold, the Empire was in no position to argue; they were losing the war. If they had not agreed to it and the war had continued, the Thalmor would crush the Empire, and that's not just Cyrodiil. With Valenwood, Cyrodiil, Hammerfell and High Rock under the Aldmeri Dominion, I don't think Skyrim will be able to hold out against the Thalmor for long.

The Concordat of White Gold kept Cyrodiil, Skyrim, Hammerfell, High Rock and maybe even Eastern Valenwood free of the Aldmeri Dominion. Thus, it allowed for the survival of Mankind and thus they can strike back against the Thalmor at a later date. Had the Empire fallen, Talos worship would have been banned by the Thalmor invaders anyway, and along with that all of mankind would have fallen, leading to Thalmor victory. The Empire banned Talos worship, but in return for the survival of Mankind. Thus they denied the Thalmor their true victory, in which the destruction of humanity is key.

even so, in this world banning the worship of one of the major deities is going to have a larger effect that you'll imagine. the thalmor probably demanded for this condition for a very specific reason other than just furthering the destruction of humanity. alduin being the dragon god of time and them doing this to talos seems pretty specific in regards to timing. they've prepared this, probably for hundreds of years. if the emperor had instead strenghtened the belief on talos reaching out to the other countries not as emperor but as fellow man and for men and mer's survival the unison of the countries against them could have been possible. we can't say who would have won, as he didn't even try.

He tried, but the Empire was losing the war. It was evident that they were going to lose the entire war soon, that's why they had the Concordat of White Gold.

True that banning of the worship of a god has a huge effect in the world of TES, but the effect is on the God. According to one of the books in Oblivion, not sure if it was Gods and Worship or some other book, the Gods themselves don't often interfere in the events of mortals. If the Emperor was a Septim then things might be different, because the Septims were blessed by the Divines. The loss of Talos may have strengthened the Thalmor, but it didn't weaken the Empire much. It's not as if Talos worship was the factor that held the Empire together; neither was Talos doing anything to help the Emperor because he isn't a Septim. There just isn't any evidence that Talos was helping the Empire in any way.

However, it might be possible that strengthening Talos worship might increase his power to a point where he can create an incarnation of himself to help the Empire win the war. Maybe this is the Dragonborn in Skyrim. Maybe there isn't such an incarnate. However, you should be able to see how huge a threat to the current Emperor an incarnate of the greatest Emperor ever to exist appeared; everyone would prefer that incarnate on the Throne.

The Wall of Alduin said nothing about the banning of Talos worship; thus it was probably not part of the prophecy predicting Alduin's return. The civil war, however, was part of the prophecy. If anything, perhaps the banning of Talos was a factor which the Thalmor used to ignite the Civil War in Skyrim.

a good leader does his best for the good of the people, not the good of the throne.
if that means he should step down in order for the empire and its people return to its former glory then that is what must be done.

i don't hate the empire nor its citizens, just its current management.

Yes, but that's politics. It led to the fall of the Roman Empire and basically every other Empire, Kingdom or country. Politics started the civil war in Skyrim. Dunmer politics caused disunity in Morrowind.

It's a bad thing, but one that can't be avoided. The day an Empire finds a ruler benevolent enough to forgo politics for the sake of the people is the day the Empire will succeed. But that is also the day that marks the beginning of his downfall as he will leave himself exposed to assassins and usurpers. Thus, successful Empires can't last forever, unless you have an immortal and benevolent Emperor at the helm, which isn't really possible.