I'm on the fense over whether I should support the Imperials or Stormcloaks. Here's my rationale so far:

Pro-Imperial:
1) I'm Altmeri and from what I understand the Stormcloaks are racist against all other races.
2) I'm married to an Imperial, Marcurio.
3) Both me and my husband are Mages, and the Nord are not fond of our kind.
4) I'm Arch-Mage of Winterhold College, and have to look out for the interests of my school.
5) The Rebellion is weaking the Empire which could lead to the Second Aldmeri Dominion invading and Skyrim falling to them anyways.

Pro-Stormcloaks
1) The Nord should have the right to self-governance.
2) The alliance with the Thalmor could lead to further persecution of the people of Skyrim.
3) It's probably the "right" thing to do.

I guess I have more self-interested reasons for supporting the Empire, but is it the right thing to do?

Well your the arch mage of winterhold and the imperial jarl that replaces the stormcloak one wants to open relations with the college. While the stormcloak one wants to drive you lot out. So i would say imperial if you want to put the college first before anything else since you are arch mage.

Honestly I think the game should prevent certain races from joining a side... like in reality Ulfric would not let an Altermi join his ranks.

Nords are not against mages... even Ulfric has a court wizard.

Ulfric is not racist and there is no proof he is per say. Its all hearsay.

The imperials winning or the cloaks winning will weaken Skyrim when you consider how many lives are lost. However the Nords simply because they forced the empire out, are not prepared to sit idly by the war with the thalmor. They fully expect that with their show of strength to drive out the empire, the thalmor will turn a more direct attention to them. Ulfric even says at his victory speech in Solitude that dark days are ahead and they need to strengten their armies at the coast.

I'm pro Stormcloak so I'm going to say join them and their cause. Its more noble then you would thing. Deep with honor and tradition. The imperials are just trying to suppress the freedoms of the nords, forcing them to accept that their family will get carried away in the night and look blindly on the thalmor walking about doing as they please.

True nords will die free even if it means they need to fight for it. The imperials do not have that drive in suppressing the uprising. All they are looking at is a bigger picture that does not exist.

Join Ulfirc. Even if its against your race... its good to rise about what people expect of you simply because of what you are.

Here is the problem his character is arch mage. The stormcloak jarl of winterhold wants to drive out the mages it seems kinda counterproductive for the leader of the college to join the side of the people who want to drive them out. While the imperial one wants to have more relations with the college.

Since to me looking at the OP character being arch mage is a big part of his/her character.

I lol'd at this. Nords and their honor.....

Reading about OP character, it does make sense to join the legion

Pff the dominion is just gonna exploit it its how this civil war started in the first place. If the dominion wants to fight dirty I will as well. Boethia likes skyrim but she/he does not like nords because of their sense of "honor" and I agree.

Well i can see an imperial/stormcloak dicussion coming on from the horizon so yeah..... OP just do what you feel is best people can only give you their opinion.

Both side's have their pros and cons.

One of the stormcloaks con's in my OPINION is the fact that the jarl of winterhold wants to drive out the mages.

He knows that the Mages didn't cause the Great Collapse. Why would Mages want to destroy a city that the College is at? What would they gain? That Jarl is just blowing hot air.

The Nords can die with their honor when the Aldmeri come back. They will die by the thousands without the Legion by their side.

Still I would rather want someone who wants to open relations than one that just blows hot air all the time.

As a mage myself, I sided with the Empire, purely as the only thing me and Tullius might ever agree upon, is that the fighting over Skyrim is just Thalmor tactics to further break up the Empire.
That and I personally find Nords are too stupid and ignorant to rule themselves and Ulfric is a child dreaming of grandeur and ignores the needs of his people so he can focus on a war HE started.

Rikke and Tullius are still enormous tools, and I gladly threw my Imperial armor into the river after we took Windhelm, and returned to my adventuring ways, washing my hands completely of the matter.

You do know he only helps Nord caravans, right?

As how it should be. We got to be careful though, the Colonel might pop up at any minute and spread the glorious truth of the Nords and their divinity.

well, the stormcloaks arn't racist, nords prefer and honor melee warriors but they dont hate mages, the dominion will invade again anyways and skyrim would actually be stronger if ulfric's plans comes to fruition* and, afaik, marcurio is neutral in the war

*he plans on making alliances before doing anything, most notably with hammerfell, a province that beat the dominion on their own while the empire stuggled

I'll probably take my leave of the thread when that occurs. It's time to bow out when too much chest thumping starts occurring.
Now, after the Civil War...I went to meditate on a mountain with a Dragon, and that was that. And life was good. Except for those fools in Windhelm. And then there was that matter with Vampires...and Solstheim was having issues...And then I built myself a clubhouse, that was fun.

You could almost say I joined the Empire side purely because I DIDN'T care about the Nords, and just wanted to get the Civil War over with.