Uhhh... because they want to end the Elder Scrolls franchise?

I really don't get that. Their endgame is to erase reality. Not simply reset it as Alduin would have, but completely erase the potential for the mundus to have existed. Why does anyone want to join the faction that wants to end the Elder Scrolls franchise? I understand that even less than people wanting to joint the Enclave. At least those jackboots don't want to erase reality...

Having a Thalmor option wouldn't need a Thalmor victory. They could have designed quests where you help the Thalmor, more an 'in the shadows' doing tasks that help them. Hunting down prominent people with Talos worship sympathies and making them disappear, hunting out artifacts to stop the Empire getting their hands on them, sabotaging Empire plans to make sure they don't win the war and keep getting ground down. A small questline with tagged on radiant quests similar to DB or thieves guild ones could have given people the opportunity to go down that path if they wish and still do the MQ and other quests. You'd be an agent working for them undercover, so your race wouldn't matter. They had a good opportunity in the existing story with the Thalmor not out to conquer (yet) but to consolidate their position by covertly undermining the Empire. It could have been a lot of fun having something like that in the game. Bethesda should learn that a lot of players want to play the bad guys sometimes.

(yeah I know the DB and thieves guild aren't good guys, but they tried to make them seem not that bad and they're standards they have to include - not the people they're pitching as big baddies in the game)

We can blame that on incompetent writing.

Has any Elder Scrolls game allowed you to join a faction intending to destroy the world?

Does it matter? Just because it wasn't done in the past does not mean it can't be done.

You couldn't in FO2 either, and the Remnants hardly qualify as an Enclave faction.

Nope. In Arena, it was "save the emperor." In Daggerfall, it was to choose which of the factions gets the Numidium (all of whom did not seek total domination of the world or unmaking reality). Morrowind had you against the 6th house no matter what. Oblivion was against the Mythic Dawn. And Skyrim is against the Thalmor and Alduin's forces.

We can Blame that on Incompetent writing.

because the thalmor will uncreate mundas if you let them lead a dimi-god (All player charatcer so-far have been beyond mortal but not actual gods and dovakiin could be the strongest yet) around by the nose? i swear, you people must be insane, if you want your character to die, fine, but do not take the entire everything with it. not to mention every big event that happens in-game is cannon so they would have to mess with lore again like the warp in the west or just stop making any more TES games.

The Thalmor aren't trying to destroy the world, they are trying to rule it. The end of time is a religious aspiration on a long-term timescale. They have nothing to do with Alduin.

It's like the Soviet Union. Ideologically, they wanted to topple every capitalist government. But their policies were geared towards developing their own country and its strategic position.

From the little I know of lore the goals of the Thalmor are to undo mundus and re-create the God-like state that existed before there was Nirn. Alduin just has the responsibility of destroying this version of the world so a new version will rise. So it's no world existing at all, or ending the world in order for a new world to be created. Two different things, and I think what the Thalmor wants is the more insidious and just-plain-wrong goal.

I had a strong feeling you'd say that. I do not and would not ever join the Thalmor; I kill their 3-person teams on the roads whenever I see them actually. As for the Gissur thing, you may be right, but I certainly didn't mean I'd have a character join them.

Obviously, an evil ending will never be canon, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be included. It would be cool if all TES games allowed you to side with the bad guys, but it's not gonna happen.

Because it would be like working with Jagar Tharn in Arena, (I've got nothing for Daggerfall), joining the Sixth House Cult in Morrowind, or joining the Mythic Dawn in Oblivion.

You have to raid the Thalmor embassy just to get vital intel in beating Alduin. Even if you could join them, you'd be their most wanted head on a plate after that.

If you are on pc you can sort of play as Thalmor, you can probably even put your character in the Thalmor faction. It would make a lot of sense if the Dov was a Thalmor, since dragon blood is bestowed by Akatosh. He is pissed because the Nords are all Talos crazy and he is starting to loose influence. The Thalmor aren't godless completely they just wanted to outlaw Talos not all the divines.

As I already said in this thread, I don't think the Thalmor recognize the existence of the kalpa cycle. It is a religious Nordic concept, and the Anuic, linear-minded Altmer wouldn't worry about it any more than the British worried about slain Indian rebels reincarnating.

Asking to join the Thalmor is the equivalent of asking to be part of the alien invasion forces in Crysis or wanting to be a Collector or Reaper in Mass Effect.

Major TES questlines have always had single. definite endings, presumably so the lore stays relatively intact (ignoring the whole Numidium thing); only Fallout has had both good/bad endings, and to be honest, I like it that way.

Not quite. Talos reinforces the concept of the Mundus, because Talos (the god, not the emperor) was made in the same manner. As the Towers have been falling Talos is the only thing holding the world together. The Thalmor want him out of the picture so the Mundus will unstablize enough to be unmade.

Same reason why you can't join the Sixth House in Morrowind, or the Mythic Dawn in Oblivion.

As it should be. Of course from the Mer point of view they were liberating their land from Nord invaders. The Mer in effect are still waging a war of liberation against human oppession.

Here is something to think on. In Daggerfall you were the emperor's special agent, a super 007 spy (loved playing Daggerfall that way). In Morrowind you became a member and took orders from the Blades, again the emperor's spy network. During the time of Oblivion you still worked with and possibly joined the Blades, The same clandestine spy operation from Morrowind with the added responsibility of being the emperor's personal guard. So a very valid question arises. If you are always acting in a clandestine role why not be able to join (infiltrate) all factions in order to destroy them from within?

Why in oblivion would you join the Thalmor, you milk drinker?.