...as spies and torturers, you mean.

If the empire intends to allow free worship of Talos, why are they putting out propaganda to discount his divinity? And how soon is "as soon as they're able," when they've done the opposite for some 30 years, to the point that they will let the Thalmor help them subdue Skyrim?

Have you ever done the peace treaty negotiation? Tullius insists that Elenwen is "part of the imperial delegation" and protests her being thrown out. That sure looks like an empire about ready to thrash the Dominion. /sarc

Pfft.

Milk Drinker.

i fought with him and he used a maxed out unrelenting force (idk if it was actually maxed out, i know that he used it though)

holy cow look at the storm cloak vs empire thread above me lol

The Empire is also pissed about the Talos / Tiber Septim ban, but they're taking it underground and biding their time. Many of the Imperials still worship Tiber Septim. And if you talk to Tullius after they win the Civil War, he openly expresses his disgust for the Dominion. And you talk to other Imperials, and they tell you that the Empire was there keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim. They both really have the same goals, but the Stormcloaks are so blind by their hate of anything non-Nord that they fail to see it and go rushing to war (and potentially causing the end of the world in the process by feeding Alduin).

There are better ways of dealing with powerful threats than BLEEAARRGHH I'LL GAAARVE YOU INTO BIIIEEECES!! The Stormcloak defeat was best for all of Skyrim, the Nords, and for those who worship Talos / Tiber Septim. The defeat of the Stormcloaks was best for the Stormcloaks.

Are you high?

They are not in my game. One does not need to use Skooma to see this...

Long hours after completing all of this my imperial is starting to regret his decision I still run across random thalmor toting a random talos worshipper away. I did not fight for the empire to cow down to an extremely violent enemy of man. I find the imperial ending , if you go looking around , to be the worst letdown ever. I can only excuse their cowardice as being smart and sneaky for so long. But when they actualy allowed the removal of the only human divine ever to have been , well , it kinda makes you feel like wtf , are we just going to the choppin block anyway? What was the point of all that if you're just going to give it all up. Divines have an actual effect I like to believe in this world , not to mention this is freaking Tiber Septim himself hero to ALL man not just skyrim.

Stormclaoks , racist yeah. Everybody else , racist yeah. Empire doesn't seem racist to you right now , they're not exactly in the best position to be honest about ANYTHING. A warm body swinging a sword or slinging a spell takes precedence over honor for them right now. It starts giving you the impression they're just sliding deeper into the pit of cowardice. You say the stormcloaks aren't in a position to wipe out the thalmor you're correct , right now. But that sword swings both ways , let them come and attack a unified skyrim with the dragonborn in the front lines , let them try. I for one like the more pragmatic decision of ,"If it must be , then I'm going out on my feet fighting for all that is mine." This super-sneaky empire crap I personally used to justify some of it , but ironically it's exact public show of weakness and betrayals thats making the empire lose its freinds. I'd rather fight by the side of a good freind whois going to appreciate my pound of flesh and gallon of blood , not look around to see them cowering in the corner looking for a piece of paper to sign. Screw everybody over just to live , there's more to life when you grow old and lose the ability to right your your wrong-doings , so not making them and dying young wouldn't be half the tragedy you think it is.

So blind that they let any race join them. So blind that they genocided every single non nord in their holds. So blind their plans after the war is done don't involve attacking IC at all.

How exactly are the stormcloaks feeding alduin? The empire isn't keeping anyone out of skyrim. The Thalmor Mission is a Dominion base, the thalmor justicars are dominion soldiers. You can act obtuse about it all you want, but saying they're keeping the dominion out of skyrim is a blatant lie. The empire had no reason to surrender. They've had 2 terrible leaders in a row. If you're siding with the empire it better be to reform it.

What the stormcloaks did is MUCH better than letting a threat that relies on subterfuge and spying freely roam your lands sowing strife and gathering intel on you.

In the meantime he's openly working with them, cooperating with them, and allowing them to kidnap and torture imperial citizens on his behalf. I'm not sure how anyone can stomach working with such slime. At best, he's a hireling thug who cares nothing about Skyrim or its people. He's there to do a job and get out, despises the Nords, and shows more tolerance for the Thalmor than the people he's claiming to "save." The opening scene with him standing together with the Thalmor while you're taken to the block to be executed should tell you all you need to know.

The imperials are the ones setting up the Dominion to win, by weakening Talos. Whatever their claims, they are actively working to lessen Talos worship. They are even writing the Thalmor's propaganda for them, asserting that Talos was never divine.

im wondering why Skyrim should pay lip service for an empire thats pretty much on its deathbed. remember the Empire NEEDs Skyrim more than Skyrim NEEDS the Empire. Also whoever wins wether Empire or Stormcloak will have the ENTIRE country behind them not the ragtag rumble they had whiel fightign the war , so u have all the Jarls on ur side plus th epublic who will follow whoevers in charge so u have an unified country no matter who wins. Also id Stormcloaks win, they alrdy start working on assulting the thalmor in their own HOME ISLAND. Thay aint waiting for the elves to build back up. Also cmon, whenever the High Elves came along with a doomsday plan, there alwasy rose up a NORD that went over to them and kick their hindends against impossible odds.

BUT really it alls falls down to this, what does Skyrim get from being under a crumbling Empire? they get food from their merchants....thats about it, and TBH if Stormcloaks win they will still have those merchants becasue thye gonna go where the money is. What does the Empire get from skyrim? they tax the land for the silver and reourses for thier armys, they gat a majority of thier fighters form the Nords, AND they have a way thru to thier other ally, if Stormcloaks win they lose all of that. they will even lose thier Ally fom high rock becaus eall they gotta do is look at the other countrys the Empire was supposed to protect and know whats gonna happen to them.

Also dont say that the thalmor wasnt cracking down on talos worshipping until ulfric made a big deal about it. Hell the whole rebellion started because an Empire controlled Jarl hired Ulfric to retake a city from the Forsworn in exchange for a safe haven to worship talos. the thalmor got a whiff of it, and the Empire's Jarl reniigged on their deal to offfer a d\safe haven and protrction and ratted and betrayed Ulfric to the thalmor to prevent another war with the Thalmor. Ulfric started the rebellion because the thalmor was alrdy persecuting peopel for the worshipping AND more along the lines that the Empire was weak that it wouldnt even stand up for its own agreements.......it was weak.