Yes they did, Ysgramor and his 500 Companions drove them to near extinction so they hid underground with the Dwemer, and you know the rest....

Lets see.

The Empire is only taking away freedom of religion and the right of self rule from the Nords.
The legal system may be a little shaky atm.Due process is overated
but at least they will keep a foreign power from detaining the citizens...oh wait.

So my little Dumner friend remember
When the empire turned its back on Hammerfell I said nothing
When the empire turned its back on the Nords I said nothing
When the empire turns its back on the Dumner there will be no one left to talk to

Hmm yeah , after reading several threads and your posts in this topic , i realize having called the Stormcloacks nazis was kinda silly , my apologies
Perhaps the Thalmors fit this adjective better , does anyone have informations about how other races are treated in the Aldmeri dominions ?

I don't think Thalmor and Stormcloaks are all that different, in some respects. They both have members who think religion and their racial superiority is the center of everything and act fanatical about it.

In the aldmeri dominion anyone not a "pureblood"(Pureblood meaning altmer that agree with the thalmor goals) altmer is purged(Read: Killed) or in the case of the bosmer that support them, used as a servant. Unless they saw a possible use for them(Such as how they were going to use Ulfric as leverage against his father before he escaped), all prisoners taken during the great war were tortured for info and then killed.

Wat. The Thalmor want to erase humanity from the possibility of existence and collapse Mundus entirely. The Nords want to rule themselves and put back a few mead.

....

I suppose it is possible that maybe in the future, Ulfric will make things better for the Dunmer in Skyrim. As things stand, however, it's at best speculation, at worst wishful thinking.

Thanks for answer Cecil , wow that looks very bleak , the Thalmors are even worse than i imagined ...

But if that is true , i suppose that in the event of a war with the Empire , the majority of Bosmers and actually of non-High elves would fight against the Thalmors or at least wouldn't side with them then ?

That's true.. I'm only making a comparison with their respective idealism and how they see others as a threat to their way of life.

Thalmor OTOH take the cake. "Man" - and the world itself - is a threat to their progress. Therefore it must end.
The Nords merely see progress by isolating themselves. Which is I think is still pretty weak, if I had to choose a playthrough. I've always liked the Imperial presence in TES games. Warts and all. It's kind of what sets it apart from other fantasy series. I've no interest in joining some army named after one guy, and the Elder Scrolls turning into "Nord world". It's cool for one game, but the implications of joining the Stormcloaks are lame.

What do the Bosmer and Khajits think about that ?
I ask cause i read they are aligned with the Aldmeri dominions , i'm curious to know how they can concile being more or less allied with the Altmers knowing that Thalmors want to end the world

No one says that Skyrim will be isolated. They want to rule themselves. Plenty of nations rule themselves but have diplomatic and trade relations with their neighbors.

The ES world is not going to be a "Nord world," I'm sure. The next game will be somewhere else. The empire is on its way out no matter what you do.

Think about it this way- the Dunmer have been in Skyrim for 150 years, and that's all been under imperial rule. People complain about Ulfric keeping the status quo. He's not out actively persecuting the other races. It's true that his replacement wants to revamp the Grey Quarter, but there's no guarantee that he'll be a better ruler, especially in a time of war. Resources are stretched thin and will be even more so if Skyrim is to prepare for war with the Dominion.

The Altmer and Bosmer share a common heritage and ancestery. However, the Bosmer lack the savvy, complexity and diabolically subversive nature of thier Altmer kinsmen. This could imply they're easily manipulated by the Altmer. This bit of lore might help:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Bosmer

check out the Bosmer's history section and especially the last sentence in the history section:

"...Since then, the Bosmer have become more isolationist, traditionalist, and distrusting of central authorities, and this political weakness has led to significant losses of territory to their neighbors..."

Same sort of rebellious mindset with the Khajiit. The only book that offers the best insight into the Khajiit's nature is the Cats of Skyrim. You find a copy of this book at the Mage's College.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Khajiit

With the Empire disintegrating from every corner in Tamriel, it's this sort of independent mindset which most likely allowed the Altmer to successfully reform the 2nd Thalmor Dominion. Given the longer life span of the Elves, all the Thalmor need do is sit back and patiently wait for the critical moment to strike.....

I'd like to thank some of you guys for objectively filling in the lore blanks for me personally , proving some of my assumptions and ruining others as necessary. This is my first ES game and it's pretty fascinating and rich.

It's not just the Stormcloak policies of forcing them to live in the Gray Quarter: Ulfric shows clear favoritism of Nords over other races. One of the Dunmer even mentions that things have gotten worse since Ulfric took over.

They've always lived in the Grey Quarter- according to Niranye, that's because they choose to do so. Skyrim is in turmoil, so sure life is getting harder. It's getting harder for everybody.

You have to listen to everyone, not just one side. There are Dunmer who do nothing but sit around in their club and complain about their situation. There are others like the shopkeeper and the Hlaalus who are doing just fine and making a good living, even employing Nords, or the farm worker who says his family gives him grief because he works for Nords. The Dunmer are not innocent lambs. They've helped to create the conditions they're living in.

We'll see, I guess. I kind of lament that. There's still a lot of cool settings to tap into, but somehow it doesn't feel like Elder Scrolls without the Empire floating around a bit. I wonder what it'd morph into then.

Hmmm...I think you're all missing something obvious in this debate. The question is not "Will a Dunmer ever join the Stormcloaks?", the question is "Would Ulfric ever allow a Dunmer to join his army, let alone make them an officer and trusted comrade?". For that matter would Ulfric even allow a Dunmer into his Palace, let alone make them a Thane?

Now there's food for thought.

I doubt it. Even a wannabe Nord like Athis in the Companions kind of seems like he brushed aside. I mean, he seems like he's been there for awhile, and pissed that he's not in the Circle. He's just sits around like that drunk Nord, and is told to "train", while my character becomes the Harbinger within days. Also, he gets beat up by Nord girls.

I imagine a dunmer would be pretty unsympathetic to the Imperials due to past events:

-Imperials invade Morrowind, establish rulership there and destroy much of dunmer culture.
-Red Mountain explodes/Argonians invade. Imperials do nothing to help fight against them.
-Imperials make peace treaty with the Thalmor, which I'm sure any velothi dunmer would be against.
-Orsinium is sacked by the redguards & bretons, all the Imperial legion does is just help a few refugees.

And what would happen to Skyrim if Tulius 'deals' with the thalmor? legions of nords will be taken and skyrim all but forgotten.
Places will be sacked by opposing powers (like the forsworn), for all the imperials care about is the imperials at the end of the day.
Any dunmer should see this and hope to not allow history to repeat itself once again.

People often say that an elf shouldn't side with the Stormcloaks because Ulfric Stormcloak is racist to the dunmer.
I disagree to that thought, for I believe Ulfric Stormcloak has his reasons for turning a blind eye to the Gray Quarter.
One could be his past torture with the thalmor is effecting his judgement of elves in general, or he thinks the dunmer need to become independant.

Become independant in skyrim, yes, as in: less being pitied upon by the nords. They'd fight for what they should gain and rightly reward themselves.
Which I believe is Ulfric's sort of clever way of converting the dunmer over to nordic beliefs of honour, determination and independance at all costs.
So yeah, he might have to put up with a little revolt in the future- but what he'd gain from it is more so called 'true sons and daughters of skyrim'.

But anyway, to summarise this: a dunmer character can have many reasons why they would choose to join a faction.
Hell- a dunmer could join the Stormcloaks solely to speak more with their friend Ralof or just to get a few more coin in their pocket.
It's not what other dunmer think that matters, it is what your character thinks that matters and with that- their backgrounds and stories.


(Holy wackamoley, I was only going to type two sentences and it turned into that philosophical wall of text, heh. )

Well given that you can in game with Ulfric giving his approval even, and Galmar even addresses you as one when you join...yes.

Ulfric will accept anyone that's useful to his cause. Saying that he wouldn't flies in the face of the two racists in the town and Ulfric himself. (Why don't you dunmer help us out?)

I know this reply is late, but the whole "Nords hate all," philosophy stems from how Dunmer are treated in Windhelm. But I will say not all of the Nords [censored]-baggery is uncalled for, some accept outsiders who come in and work like everyone else ect. it's just Ulfric seems to be a jerk, ignoring bandit raids on other races in his hold, but if it's a Nord village then he rally's the men!

Also the Argonian Assemblage. Argonians are simply not allowed to live in the city, and are treated like crap by their employers, who support Ulfric. I always play an Argonian, so that right there was enough to shift my sympathy towards the Empire.

And my last case, is Ulfric's Lieutenant guy. If you try to join as anything other than a Nord he's like, "LOL Why does a LIZARD/ELF/CAT want to fight for Skyrim?" Sure, he's not saying no, and he doesn't want a sellsword, but obviously there are underlying opinions of others races that he has. As compared to the Empire, who don't question your race/intentions, and accept you as if you'd been an Imperial born and raised in Cyrodiil.

SPOILZ FOR IMPERIAL CAMPAIGN***

After you take over Windhelm and kill Ulfric for the Empire, all the non-nords in the city are very happy that he's gone.

Yeah, in game, I know I could come up with a decent story for it, but atm... it's hard to. I tend to look at things narratively, not just what mechanics allow. Like, if this was a novel or TV series, then a Dunmer in this kind of situation would seem implausible, at first glance. Like, if there was a scene where they're sitting, drinking some mead, talking about Nord freedom, it'd be a WTF? moment.

Oh, I don't dispute that these things can and does happen for a Dunmer PC. My question is would Ulfric, being who he is, do these things if he had a real choice? Does it not seem out of character?

Actually, I got it, it'd really work if you dressed up your Dunmer in Jester clothing everytime you were around Ulfric. No more wtf moment. It'd just be comedy.