I don't see a Thalmor DLC coming. Yes, it's something that would be really really cool to see. Obviously something is going to happen in-universe, soon. But it's probably going to go down between TES V and VI, not during V. There's just too much in the way of it.

I'll start of from a gamewide perspective-
A Thalmor war?! Holy crap! Sweet! But, how do I start it? When? And.... Come to think of it, me and what army? Everybody is busy with a Civil War. And Dragons. Wouldn't I have to finish the Civil war to do this? Geez, those are some big possibilities for it to take in. A story for an Ulfric leadership? Story for an Elisif/Tulius leadership? Shouldn't I deal with the Fire-Breathing winged apocalypse that wants to eat the universe before I take sides in this war?

Think about it, too many variables and to much "when". It makes sense for a war to start, but when? Ulfric could mobilize and go to war immediately, yeah... But he's not even king of his own country, yet. And Tulius might have the resources and orders.... Soon? If the Empire wants to go back to war, sure! But it's hinted that the hold back due to lack of resources. I mean, peace in Skyrim would make it easier, but I don't think things would be peaceful IMMEDIATELY after an Imperial victory... C'mon now. There just isn't really a good moment to set it up, and the story would be awkwardly timed for concurrent questlines. Now, maybe it could be a Lonesome Road deal, where it's an option all the time but only makes sense if you do everything else first. But even then.... That doesn't sound all too sensible. I just can't find any good timing.


Now from Bethesda's perspective-
HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY MAKE SO MUCH WORLD-CHANGING STUFF FOR A GAME THAT IS LESS WORLD-CHANGING THAN THE STUFF?!
A THALMOR WAR. That's a massive undertaking. You'll need out-of-country territory. Lots of it, because battlefields are big. A lot of battlefields, too. Cities to take. Officers to serve and kill. Weapons to use. Spells to cast. Enemies to spawn. This DLC, to be coherent, Needs stuff. SO MUCH STUFF. Even in Skyrim's scaled-down reality (Whiterun? A Major City? HAHA OH WOW), battles of this much canonical magnitude will be HUGE undertakings. I'd guess that a war would probably travel down to mid-Cyridiil, with Imperial City being the southernmost location. End things there, right? That'd a lot of space. I'm probably way off, but that sounds like almost as much territory as Vanilla Skyrim itself! Sheesh! You really expect that out of Bethesda? Maybe around Shivering's time, I would too. But think about how relatively puny DG, DB were... Yeah, half a country isn't happening. There's no way we'll get that much content.

Plus, how can you end it? A war? Obviously you can't end things with a Thalmor victory. But a Thalmor defeat means a lot of change. No more Concordant, Elenwyn and her Justiciars have to leave, we can worship Talos freely... Hey why were the Viking and Roman dudes fighting again? Something about a Boot or Loot or something? Can we go home to our families now?

You just can't end a war with the Thalmor conclusively... Which is exactly what we all WANT. Chase them out of Skyrim, who cares Ulfric was going to do that anyway? Out of Cyrodiil, they had mostly left already anyway. Now, march into Alinor and destroy the Nazi Elves in their home turf? Yes please! That's exactly what we want. But... What next? What happens next? Too many questions, too much to follow. It can't happen in-game. And Beth won't have the guts to disappoint players leaving them hanging on a border between Aldmeri land and Empire land.


Finally, The Geopolitical Climate-
Summerset Isle and Skyrim are far, far apart. This game, and it's story, is about the province of Skyrim. It's about the people of this land, and their lives. It's about it's organizations and deep dark secrets. It's about saving the world from Strangely-Slavic Dragons and magical screaming. The Empire is there, as always. But it is not about the Empire. The Empire isn't the Continuing Story of TES, it's just a longstanding presence. If there is a story to be told about the Cyrodiilic Empire, it will be told in a game about the Cyrodiilic Empire. The dominion will probably fall, but more than likely it will fall in-between games.


Even so, there's too much Marketing to be done with the Thalmor to kill them off so soon. TESO will have a Dominion. I can easily see these becoming a long-term "Big Bad" for the series. They already have an established style- Symetrical, feathery Black/Gold designs with maybe a hint of red in there, and Eagle motiffs all over the place. Too much style to throw away. I'd bet a hundred bucks they'll be as aesthetically established as the Dwemer, Orcs, and Empire by TES VI.

I completely agree. Aside from the points you made, I see it as the Thalmor war was really the civil war with the Imperials as the Thalmor stand ins. It was a puppet action. The Thalmor don't really have that large of a presence in Skyrim, all things considered. They were merely pulling the Imperial strings to serve their own ends. I believe the Dominion is more of a storytelling device to introduce us to a much darker and grittier Tamriel than we left in Oblivion. I can see a dlc offering more to do with the Dominion, but the war everyone wants will most likely only occur in the lore, much as the Great War did in the 200 years since the Oblivion Crisis. Not to mention from the backstory, Tamriel isn't ready for the conflict. The Dominion holds sway in nearly every province, and Skyrim being the only one capable of fielding resistance at the moment. And that's if you completed the CW on the side of the Stormcloaks.

First off they could easily make a DLC that finishes the war, you are underestimating Beth. They have had many big DLCs and they won't stop now. Ending the war in TES VI would make Skyrim incomplete, the story has to finish in the present game. Also if the Thalmor lost that doesn't mean NO more Thalmor, they could have scripted stragglers like after the Civil War with Stormcloaks / Imperials. They could easily make the finale in Cyrodiil or Summerset Isles as an Expansion. Cyrodiils landmass is already hinted within Skyrims coding and you can see it going out of border with PC. Skyrim is still a top selling game and the price hasn't gone down yet, it still has alot of potential even if you don't see it. Don't really expect TES VI to come out soon either, no need yet, Skyrim still has many empty spaces to fill.

I would love a Thalmor centric dlc. It would be awesome

He isn't saying Skyrim has no more potential. He's saying that the Dominion as an entity has too much potential to be handled by dlc.

I think saving the Thalmor storyline for a new protagonist is a terrible idea. It's like the Champion of Cyrodiil taking a side trip to Mournhold to kill a certain demigodess instead of helping Uriel VII and Martin stop the Oblivion Crisis.

Edit: The current metaphysical trend for the Dragonborn character is that he (or she) is mantling Talos. One of the things Hjalti/Tiber is notorious for is using the Numidium to rolfstomp the Thalmor into subjugation. So I'm in favor of the Dragonborn uncovering a Numidium 2.0 and pragmatically using it to rolfstomp the Thalmor into subjugation.

We saw Red Mountain outside the borders of Skyrim before Dragonborn.

While you could not get to Red Mountain, it was present as a background force in Skyrim.

Likewise, there's White-Gold Tower in Skyrim, though poorly rendered, its rendered for whatever purpose. So we'll at least see a DLC that has White-Gold tower in the background. I think Bethseda will allude that the second Great War will begin if they release a Thalmor DLC, and then in Elder Scrolls VI the Second Great War is in full swing in whatever province.

Precisely. This is a whole new game's worth of storytelling.

As we play the game- we are at war with the Thalmor.

It's TES's version of the "Cold War." The Thalmor are trying to weaken defenses and alliances.
Simply put, I don't see us fighting a full on "World War" in a DLC, but a continuation of a silent war? Yes.

Not really. The Thalmor are the Dragonborn's foes.

If they can do the Shivering Isles, they should do the Thalmor killing game.

This.

Why? At best, the Thalmor are a tertiary group, of overall less interaction and importance to Skyrim (as we play it) than the guild questlines! Of importance there are: The Main Quest, the Civil War, The Guild Questlines/DLC Main quests, and THEN the Thalmor stuff.

We are required to interact with the Thalmor ONCE. We can do it FIVE times. Most of these are one-off deals (sidequests and such.) In fact, the only story in Skyrim where the Thalmor are of any overt importance is in the College of Winterhold... and even then, it can be argued if they're actually of any importance or just the one Thalmor just got a bit too power-mad.

Only because we are forced to be. We should get a choice in the matter. I'm sure lot of us out there would love to knock off the blades for the Thalmors.

Thalmor DLC is very likely in Skyrim, and the continued after war should just go to lore like all wars have in TES history. You are pretty much saying you want TES VI to continue where Skyrim left off, there are 2 plotlines in Skyrim, Dragon invasion and Stormcloak rebellion. The story will be finished in Skyrim. Like all TES games TES VI will have a completely new plot with new content. No reason Beth should change now, it has been this way for 15+ years.

For RP purposes, maybe... But joining the Thalmor is like choosing to kill Urdnot Wrex. You can do it, but..... Why would you do that? That's so mean and coldhearted. Thalmor=Elf Gestapo.

I'm not saying that. This isn't picking up where Skyrim left off. Nobody left off or picked up anything. The Great War happened between games, and ended between games. Skyrim occurs post-war, and thus is subject to it's aftermath. Until we actively begin fighting Thalmor for a reason other than random encounters, there is nothing to leave off.