To my understanding, the Aldmeri Dominion conquered both Valenwood and Elsweyr, and then moved into Cyrodil and Hammerfell, and after some success - the Aldmeri Dominion was eventually pushed out of Cyrodil by the Empire and that White-Gold Concordat was signed.

Okay... so now what? Are the two factions still in a war? Are they going to be in a war? Who do you think will win and what do you think will happen to the Empire?

To make a small correction, the Empire pushed the Aldmer out of the Imperial City and 'most' of Cyrodiil, then signed the White-Gold Concordant. Hammerfell refused to honor the concordant, and carried on a second war with the Thalmor, which they eventually more or less fought to a stalemate and won their independence from both the Empire and the Dominion.

The factions are no longer at war (Cold War maybe) and there are Thalmor agents and spies throughout the Empire who are legally able to kidnap and imprison/torture/execute people who still worship Talos as though they live in a police state. This one of the big motivations behind why Ulfric is trying to secede from the Empire. Personally, I think the terms of the White-Gold Concordant aren't very believable. For one, when it was signed the Empire had just won a great victory, though they were very battered. I just can't believe that anyone would sign over the rights and freedoms of their citizens to the complete, unfettered discretion of a foreign power - especially from a position of strength. Clearly since Hammerfell went on to basically kick the Thalmor out on their own, surely had the Empire continued the war the combined might of High Rock, Cyrodiil, Hammerfell, Skyrim, and others could've beaten the Thalmor back to their home turf entirely, and not had to sign such a humiliating and unrealistic treaty.

As for the future, it's hard to predict. I really don't like the lore surrounding the war, and can't reasonably project what will come if things like the White-Gold Concordant (silly, unrealistic terms) can happen.

hey, if it doesn't work, Beth will just ignore/rewrite/reinterpret it!

I can agree that the Empire signed the Concordat in an unreasonable state like you said... but maybe they were just trying to delay the inevitable. Maybe they knew they could not win, so they signed the Concordat in an effort to be in a peaceful state so they could rebuild there power.

Whether they thought they could win or not should have made no difference.It was a dishonourable peace.

The empire basically threw away the lives of their soldiers in the battle at the imperial city only to give the Thalmor what they wanted in the first place.All that so the emporer could keep his crown.

Too high a price to pay imo.

The empire was at its knees, its last powers gone, and the thalmor were basicly holding a gun to the emperors head. It was either the concordat or death to choose between. Thats why the empire agreed. Why the thalmor even offer d the treaty, who knows?

I dont know if the Thalmor want to go to war again with the Empire in my game. I am sure the spies have reported that the civil war in Skyrim was decided with the aid of the Dragonborn and Odahviing.

That was true when the Thalmor overran the Imperial City and seemed in control of most of Cyrodiil. But the peace was signed after the successful counter attack that drove the Thalmor from the capitol, and liberated most (or at least a lot) of Cyrodiil from occupation. As someone else mentioned, what was the point of winning the battle if you were just going to concede the war on the same terms anyways? It seems that with the morale boost from their victory, and the Thalmor in retreat the Empire could've carried on with its momentum and at least gotten an honorable, white peace. Clearly it was physically possible because, as I said earlier, Hammerfell was able to do the same thing on their own, why wouldn't we think that Hammerfell + the rest of the Empire could've done even better?

Edit: Read the part of this article featuring the Great War, particularly about the Battle of the Red Ring. It states that the Aldermi Army in Cyrodiil was 'completely destroyed', and that critics of Mede observe that the terms Mede obtained were almost exactly the same as the original terms offered at the outset of the war http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Great_War#The_Great_War

So again, the lore surrounding the war, and the way it was written just don't feel right to me. None of it really seems to make much sense unless there's some hidden factor that we haven't been told about yet. Even then...

The treaty in my firm opinion was just a means to divide the empire and it's provinces, after all if they'd finished them off then they'd have three(maybe four) hostile former imperial provinces to deal with. mind you i doubt those provinces could have beaten them but i doubt the dominion would have beaten them either. On a side note i doubt the emperor wanted a war of attrition in cyrodil as to why he signed.

I would love to be a fly on the wall when Bethesda tries to write an Official version of what happened in Skyrim for ESVI.
The imprisonment of Citizens and property by Dominion Agents apparently did not happen until ten or so years after the WGC, but the Empire signed its own death warrant by allowing this to still happen after Hammerfell proved the signing of the WGC was a mistake.
The Colovian areas of Cyrodill are where the next Civil War will probably take place, because they do have a border with Hammerfell and Skyrim, and so far the outcome of either choice for a character still leaves a large army that would be willing to side with a rebellion outside of Skyrim.
Both sides of the Civil war would unite if the Dominion were caught doing something subversive against another province (Adamantine Tower).

They were both holding a gun. Mede blinked first.

I think he wanted to spare his people from more fighting. What if had not given up, and then been beaten later? It was not worth the gamble. From Medes view at that point in time giving in was the best option. How was he supposed to know that Hammerfell would hold the line? With his tired army he would at best been able to hold the border, and not for long since the altmer would send a new army and this time lay waste to Cyrodill entirely.

So lets get one thing straight currently the empire is at a "so called" peace with the thalmor under the terms of the White-Gold Concordat.

Hints from both Generall Tulius and Ulfric Stormcloak make it seem likely that a "Second" great war will happen. One I hope the dragonborn will get to have a say in. And I have thought that the thalmor are afraid of the dragonborn. Spoiler: they did try to assasinate you in Riften.

In the first great war it was Summerset Isle, Valenwood, and Elsweyr vs Hammerfell, Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and High Rock. What I dont understand is why Skyrim and High Rock didnt hardly contribute anything until the thalmor were knocking on their front door. Morrowind at this time gets excluded because they are in a reconstruction period.

So what if Morrowind turns into a considerable military power by the time the second great war arrives, while Black Marsh and Hammerfell are also convinced to rejoin the empire, and taking back Elsweyr by political means. The Empire then could crush the Thalmor out of Summerset Isle.

Trouble is the Empire had lost its entire intelligence service and had no way of knowing how strong the Aldmeri Dominion was
It knew it was in no state to continue the war (over 50 % losses in some Legions) but had no idea how strong the AD was

Its been bothering me to if you read the grate war book you find in the game it says the entire thalmore army in cyrodill was destroyed abit like what happened with the German 6th army at Stalingrad. Now the elves arnt exactly vast in number from at there hight being the most populous race in Tamriel now they inhabit the fringes of the continent. Surely a loss so grate would hurt the Aldmeri Dominion alot more than it would the empire. There are alot more humans in tamrel than elves. Abit like the Battle of kursk in world war 2 the Germans and Russians had about same casualties but the Russians had the man power were the Germans didn't.

On one hand I think that though the Thalmor and Dominion is being represented as exclusively High Elf in the game, I can't imagine that there aren't a significant number of Bosmer and Khajiit in their armies as well. This might make explain why Summerset Isle is able to take on most of the rest of Tamriel, because the Aldmeri Dominion is actually like three provinces, vs the Empire's four (Morrowind being desolated and Black Marsh having seceded by this point).

But still, Drynwhyl makes the point I was trying to make earlier. You know you've destroyed the bulk of the Thalmor army at the Imperial CIty. The Blades still exist, they were just wiped out in the Aldmeri provinces and even if they didn't you'd still have legion scouts, rumors from refugees, if a significant concentration of Thalmor soldiers remained in Cyrodiil after the Battle of the Red Ring I'm sure the Imperials would've known about it. As far as I can tell, there was nothing stopping them from reoccupying the rest of Cyrodiil, and then negotiating from a strong position to get a white peace.

Instead, Titus Mede won a great victory, and then surrendered the next day. If he was worried about the Thalmor having more armies to deploy, why not wait until one actually showed up, gauge whether or not it could defeat your forces, and then sue for peace on unfavorable terms then? It just makes no sense.

Though I think having Titus Mede II being gone now might be a turn for the best seeing that he was a cautious and wary leader. It is possible to have an assurtive leader like Ulysses S. Grant who has the numbers to take on a battered force and just keep hammering away at the aldmeri dominion till they cant handle it.

The empire can replace its losses much faster than the Thalmor.
Signing the WGC is allowing the empire to rebuild its legions, the Thalmor know they will be outmatched and thus have started things like the Skyrim civil war and the Talos ban to try and break the Empires will for another war.

If that's true, what was the point of retaking the Imperial City?

Day One: The Thalmor have occupied the Imperial City and most of Cyrodiil, plus the southern portions of Hammerfell. They offer you a full withdrawl of their forces from Cyrodiil, and they keep what the occupy in Hammerfell. Also you must disband the Blades, and cease Talos worship. Both of which would be humiliating, and a form of castration. Furthermore, the Thalmor have the right to cruelly enforce the ban on Talos worship within the Empire's borders - the most humiliating and degrading of all the terms.

Day Two: Titus Mede risks the entire remaining strength of the Empire to reclaim the Imperial City. If he loses the battle, there will be no Empire because the Legions will have been decimated, the Thalmor might decide to just walk in and take the entirety of Tamriel now that the major force of resistance is destroyed. But luckily, Titus Mede's gamble pays off - he wins the battle and liberates the Imperial City, destroying the Thalmor Army in the process.

Day Three: Titus Mede sues for peace. The Thalmor offer him a full withdrawl of their remaining forces from Cyrodiil, and they keep what the occupy in Hammerfell. Also you must disband the Blades, and cease Talos worship. Both of which would be humiliating, and a form of castration. Furthermore, the Thalmor have the right to cruelly enforce the ban on Talos worship within the Empire's borders - the most humiliating and degrading of all the terms. He accepts the same peace terms, with no apparent revisions, as he received two days ago when he was in a considerably weaker position.

Day Four: Hammerfell stands alone against the Thalmor, abandoned by their Empire. Alone they manage to push back the full might of the Thalmor, retaking the parts of Hammerfell occupied by the Thalmor. They sign a separate peace treaty, and end up an independent nation with all or most of their pre-war land.

So...no more arguments about anything else. This hinges on why Day Two and Day Three had to happen, and how Day Four proves that the Thalmor weren't an insurmountable military obstacle. If you can't explain this, I want to point out in the strongest possible terms that I feel any other argument or rationalization for the Empire's actions is null.

Disclaimer: Obviously these events didn't occur over the span of four days, I just used the timeframe as a simple, easy way to order events in chronological order.

If thats true then it would be more in the interest of the empire to continue the war it may take the empire couple of years to rebuild there forces to full strength again. But the aldmeri dominion would not be able to replace the man power they lost in that time they would need to draw off a larger proportion of there population for there man power pool which means inferior fighting men. Now 25 years after the war they would have recovered to there pre war levels.

The Thalmor were not "driven out of Cyrodiil" they were driven out of Hammerfell. They were annihilated in Cyrodiil. There's a difference. If they were driven back they would still have the ability to retaliate. Either the Thalmor don't have an army anymore, or barely have enough men to launch another invasion. Accounting for the Aldmeri Dominion's military power at that point, was either equal to or even weaker than the Empire's. From what we know, all the Dominion had left was Lady Arannayela's army in Hammerfell, which was the largest Aldmeri Army, and also the one which failed to defeat an Independant province.

Surrendering, depending on who you ask, was an understandable decision on Mede's part, but proposing the same exact treaty to your enemies when you just won a critcial battle and clearly seemed to have the upperhand was a big mistake.

Titus Mede - Good general, poor politician.

25 years are atleast two new generations of able-bodied soldiers. I don't think an Altmer can even reach what is considered advlthood for them in that time. Yes, the Empire will recover much faster than the Dominion. This is why the Thalmor are so focused on continuing the Civil War in Skyrim, because it distracts the Empire and slows down its restoration process.

I don't think the Dominion necessarily has Bosmeri and Khajiit armies at their disposal. Elsweyr is not part of the Dominion, it only supports them for supposedly stopping the Void Nights, which occured over a century ago (in-game timeline). We do know that the Thalmor hire Khajiit spies and assassins. We don't know what they do with Bosmer. Valenwood may be part of the Dominion, but I don't see Wood Elves fighting for it, seeing as how Valenwood is on the verge of its own civil war with all the purges that are happening.

We don't know if they hired Khajjit as spies? Then why did .(Spoiler) Dragonborn was jumped by a Khajjit woman who happened to be a thamor spy in Riften?.

The WGC is an armistice. Another war is inevitable. Provincially, the Great War was the Aldmeri Dominion vs. The Empire (Hammerfell and Cyrodiil). Skyrim and High Rock did not commit many forces because the Thalmor were not knocking on their door step, and Hammerfell was caught in the midst of a Civil War between the Crowns and Forbears (two, powerful Redguard factions). Morrowind is only nominally part of the Empire, most of it is either barren ash or controlled by the Argonians. I don't see Morrowind becoming a prominent military power, it has never really cared for the Empire before, and abandoning all your provinces isn't a good way to change that. Argonia won't join the Empire, either. We don't need Black Marsh or Morrowind to drive the Thalmor out of Tamriel's mainland, just the committed forces of Hammerfell, Skyrim, High Rock and Cyrodiil (not necessarily united).

I don't see Summerset being invaded or conquered for a while, though. Not without some heavy assistance. Perhaps an attack led by the Dragonborn, Odahviing, and the other Dov who have sworn their alliegence to him/her.