the high king could have been a very bad king.

Or he could have been a benolevent King!

Well, at least the Stormcloaks are mainly Human. The Thalmor's aims are clearly the utter destruction of all mankind, and the Empire is ruled by Men. I'm pretty sure if the Thalmor had the chance they would have killed more than just the High King, they would have killed the Emperor and then every single other human.

all things considered...

the empire working with the thalmor

the banning on talos, nord made divine, protector of men

and most of all, not even giving me a fair trial and trying to kill me.

the nords will have their skyrim back, that i assure you. after that is done...maybe i shoud pay a visit to cyrodill and kick the emperor off his perch, restituting the empire to its rightful ideals

Or maybe will kill All of you stormcloak Scum

For a Mer lover like me I am extremely happy to hear this .

Wow, I was totally on the side of the Empire... But this changes everything. Death to the empire and their Elvish fiends... I mean, friends!

Whats wrong with the Thalmor we do not even know both sides of the story yet... I think bring them in the game just going to make it even more better

I already said some weeks ago that the empire is a shadow of what it was. It's not even protecting the race of men now but accepting the demands of the elves. It has to fall so that another empire is reborn.
And If the stormcloaks killed the high king is because he was supporting the empire. How do I know? because he is dead and not leading the rebellion, it's as simple as that. Joining the stormcloaks is the good fight if you want to protect the race of men!

That's what it's looking like.

Damned, and I thought I'd be fighting for the Empire again...

Well, I have decided that I will be siding with the Empire anyway. I cannot believe that the Empire would allow themselves to fall under the control of a faction that wants to eradicate Mankind, since the rulers of the Empire are Humans themselves.

I'll take it as the Empire is just using the Thalmor as allies due to their peace treaty (Concordat of White Gold) with the Aldmeri Dominion, but either way I'm going to kill the Thalmor in Skyrim, ally or no.

The Thalmor are the group of xenophilic elves that want the aldmeri to rise up again right? Well as I am playing as a Nord and am probably going to marry a dunmer, I AM TORN!
The Stormcloaks have awesome armor though... Damn you Bethesda! Your complex decisions make everything so hard!

who's to say that the empire didnt manipulate the thalmor into becoming involved in skyrim as a ploy to weaken them elsewhere? maybe the thalmor feel that they're seizing some advantage in the north but the empire might just have gotten them to dedicate too much strength there in an easily manipulable situation. give the empire some credit here.....until we know otherwise.

Maybe the Empire is using the thalmor pretending to be friends with them.

Don't worry, the Dunmer hate the Thalmor as well, from what I know anyway. The Thalmor are more pro-Altmer than anything. The Dunmer will be the only Elves I don't kill because I like them too.


Maybe. Apparently the Empire has their own spies within the Thalmor as well, so this is possible. Perhaps the Thalmor agents are being used as allies by the Empire due to some agreement as part of the Concordat of White Gold.

dunmer and thalmor(altmer) are on opposite ends in terms of beliefs. no problem now right?

Thalmor are just pretending to be friends with the empire to use them to their advantage then destroy them!

This could be true, but so could the opposite (that the Empire is using the Thalmor). I have a feeling this Empire-Thalmor thing will lead up to something after the events of Skyrim, perhaps a DLC, a book or even the next Elder Scrolls game.

This.

The whole Talos banning makes more sense in light of this.

But surely a rich and pompous gentleman such as yourself must unite with the empire and strike down those rebel rapscallions?

lol

It looks like the "new" empire is run by an usurping and probably distrusted potentate. Facts:

-They're banning the cult of Tiber Septim
-Blades are outlawed
-Aldmer agents are helping the empire taking care of rebellions despite it is not in the best interest of a foreign power which was recent at war with the empire.

All this leads to:

A ) Stormcloaks, who are indipendentist and probably distrustful of Aldmers and new empire motives
B ) Septims supporters, who are worshipper of Talos; among them Blades and who knows still loyal to the old empire
C ) New empire and agents of the Dominion who try to build a new world order

Probably at some point A+B will make an agrrement to combine forces against C. Player, as a Dragonborn, will be a pawn in the grand scheme of things.

I'm sure the new Empire banned Tiber Septim and outlawed the Blades because of their connection to the Septims. They don't want people to worship the Septims because they want to be recognised as the new rulers and not constantly be under the shadow of a previous dynasty.

Now, the Thalmor helping the Empire is not necessarily not in the best interests of the Empire. If the Thalmor can be used as allies and they serve their purpose, they would be helping the Empire and that would be good for the Empire, so long as he Empire makes sure they don't sabotage them or anything.

Excuses and you know it.

i am back The empire is probally using the thalmor as AGENTS....There just takeing advantage of the thalmor which is Good!

As the Thalmor are mainly Altmer biased and as Altmer view themselves as the greatest race ever though still accepting somewhat to other Mer then I could see this as the Altmer attempting to regain Tamriel for the Mer again. Banning Talos is taking away the human god and weakening Skyrim. I could see the Empire as being played and systematically breaking apart all Human races maybe?

I don't believe this is the Empire using the Thalmor as its the Empire on the backfoot and why would the Empire ban Talos if there was not anti human influence? The fact Altmer see themselves above everyone they would only be in the Empire if it was for their own benefit.