OMG..I was sooo not expecting this...
Luckily I have a saved game before any of this happens ,but here's my dilema:

I get the Jagged crown, I take the axe to whiterun's jarl, I go back to ulfric and then he suddenly wants to invade Whiterun!!
I go to whitrun and the battle is underway, they want me to lower the drawbridge(which I couldn't figure out) so they can invade the city!!

WTF?!?!

Whiterun has been my base of operations the whole game, I can't let this happen...questions:

1) is this part of the main storyline? do i HAVE to do this??
if so..
2) what happens to my allegiance to the Companions? am I going to have to fight them?
3) what happens to my home there??
4) will Lydia stil be my follower? will I still be Thane of Whiterun??
5) I 've already sworn my allegiance to the Stormcloaks, so I'm at wits end about what to do!!

help!!!
I was NOT expecting this to happen...and I don't know what to do!!!

1) No, but it's part of the civil war questline. If you want to finish that, then Whiterun is involved. (On the Empire side, you defend it instead, but it'll still get trashed).

2) Nothing, and no.

3) Nothing. It's still yours.

4) Yes. And yes, although the new Jarl will mention becoming thane again, or at least he did in my game. I ignored it.

5) Not much you can do, other than revert to an earlier save.

There are some changes in Whiterun after - new Jarl and people in the palace (Grey Manes) - the old Jarl and his men will leave for the Blue Palace (after expressing disappointment in you). The priest of Talos will be happier but the Battleborns will complain of being robbed. Some building will have damage to them. Stormcloaks will replace the town guard. That's about it.

1) No this is not something you have to do it is not Main Quest related and even the Main Quest isn't something you have to do in this game...

2) Nothing will happen to your friendship with the Companions...

3) Nothing will happen to your home there though the town will be a bit worse for wear once you finish that quest...

4) Yes Lydia will still be your Housecarl and won't leave you over your choice to invade the town...

5) If you don't want to fight for the Stormcloaks you can go back and join the Imperial Legion if you've got an earlier save...

Actually if you Side with the Imperial Legion Whiterun doesn't get trashed... Or at least it didn't in my game...

It did in my game. I noticed that the structure around the Gildergreen was damaged and so was Heimskr's House.

If you stay away a few days things should get back to normal. Only the outer walls should bear some marks of the recent attack.

Oh btw, did someone actually saw the catapults shown in one of the trailers? I completed the civil war quests from both sides and I just saw the flaming projectiles raining down from the sky. Were they removed as well?

The damage is minimal. There's some change of personnel at Dragonsreach, but other than that the city goes on much as before, and you are still thane. Lydia is still munching sweetrolls at Breezehome when you return after the quest.

Yes you have to do it in order to complete the civil war quest line.

The Companions sit this one out.

Oh no! I really quite like whiterun. It's my 'retirement home' when things get a bit too weird or vampirery in other cities. I liked the fact that whiterun generally stayed out of all the silly civil war drama going on.

Thanks for the responses in this thread everyone, I was having worries about this also!
I wouldnt want to fight the companions either, having seen one werewolf slap a dragon into submission..

I was concerned about a possible glitch occurring with Aela, where she disappears when accepting the quest. Well, I accepted, and the moment the drum beat and the quest objective displayed, Aela turned round and jogged for the palace door. I ran after her, through Windhelm, out the gate and all the way to Honningbrew Meadery! I once dismissed Lydia in Riften and followed her home. She got confused by the terrain around the meadery, and sure enough, so did Aela. Funny thing, a short distance from the bridge near there a thief was waiting. Aela ran right past him, and he came straight for me. I had to dispatch him solo. Aela and I did get separated for a time, but as I neared the gates she was blazing away at the guards until she drained every staff I had given her, then switched to her bow. She was upbraiding the Whiterun forces all the while, too.

I've seen that on my friends game who sided with the stormcloaks but it hasn't happened in my game... Maybe that's because the racist Stormcloak scum never even made it to the drawbridge on mine...

My friend can prove against that... He's got a year in game time passed since completing the Civil War and Whiterun still looks like the battle just happened yesterday... It's kind of annoying as it really should go back to normal... I see no reason that people wouldn't want to repair it once the war was over at least...

Well seeing that the city was being hammered by catapults, I think it is more realistic for the place to be damaged, whether the cloaks made it past the bridge or not. As for the place being rebult/refreshed, I think the game forgets to do that now and then.

I see catapults in my game, during the battle.

The new guy does the Generic Thane thing with you and you get a "Blade of Whiterun" to og with your axe. It'll break (or well, make annoyingly difficult) any active quests for Avenicci, Balgruuf, his family, or Farengar.

Just another reason not to join the Stormcloaks.

You can do all this, before you side with the Stormcloaks.

Either way, finishiing the Civil War questline can break lots of quests involving previous Jarls or Jarls to be.

this is one of the prime reasons I didn't like the stormcloaks campaign. I disliked replacing the Jarl with... Vignar. [censored] hate Vignar.

Whiterun is not destroyed, mostly your wife/husband and your champion Lydia will be ok. We're warned all the time that it's possible to die in Skyrim and so there's always the chance that they could be dead when you got home, anyway. Mine have both always lived.

(There's a path up the back side of the bridge that you can hop hop into and lower the drawbridge, or you can run and hop the broken walls in the front and go right up to it, if you're better at hopping than me, it took me like 5 minutes and I was feeling the pressure of people dying all around the walls while they waited for me.)

Whiterun is going to be attacked no matter which side you're on.

my only complaint about the stormcloaks is that now there are 2 lousy Jarls... Riften could have had Black-Briar, she's corrupt but she's a hard woman and she knows precisely how to lead and what she wants... the other girl is a muppet. Then we get stuck with the bride of a leader in another city... yargh. suppose it suits the future high king's agenda to have them easily manipulated... still. Someone has to lead back home while Ulfric is taking the battle to the Aldmeri Dominion.

When my character visited Ulfric he was talking to his right hand man. The talk included taking out Whiterun. It is one of the reasons I haven't picked a side.

I doubt he'll be doing this in hurry. He'll first have to conquer Cyrodiil & Hammerfell.

By Talos, we sacked Whiterun and it was a glorious battle! hahahaha (That's my Nord character speaking)

My Imperial toon will defend Whiterun and my Breton could care less about civil war, she is impartial and kills everyone equally hahahaha

But yea, it's a rush of adrenaline attacking Whiterun. However, like always, there are no great consequences. Power positions will change or not, depending which side you chose. Like others said, there are a few structural damages, but that's it. Whiterun will still be Whiterun lol

I actually think the house in Riften is a much better retirement home! It's by the lake and has a porch!

Why would he have to do that? They can ally with one another as free nations. It won't be easy, of course, but if humanity wants to survive they're going to have to swallow past differences.

So whats stoping Ulfric from stoping the civil war against the Imperial supporters of Skyrim now?

because after the civil war no matter what side ur on, with the replacing of the Jarls EVERYONE is on the same page and not divided. Ulfric dosent have to go thru the other countries for the fact that Nords are excellent "navy" boat fighters and are gonna sail from Skyrim to the Thalmor's island itself to fight...dotn have to go thru any countries to do that.