He's saying that the races of Tamriel have always had varying degrees of hatred for one another, in different ways.

You can choose one side based on your personal values, but role-playing as your character in the world would allow for a bit of leeway.

I don't personally perceive Ulfric and the Stormcloaks to be racist - he is to some degree, but many of his followers aren't. They're fighting for a good cause - to end religious persecution via Thalmor corruption in their nation - and whose to say what the end result will be down the line.

I don't see much motivation for joining either side.

The Khajit caravans aren't allowed in the cities.Simple explanation racism.
It might be possible they are not allowed in because the merchants in the towns do not want the competition.
It might be possible that since the Khajit are very impressed with the Thalmoor for bringing back some moons they could very possibly be the eyes of the Thalmoor in Skyrim.

The Dumner in the grey quarter are treated like crap.Simple explanation racism.
It might be possible a long and bloody history exist between the Nords and Dumner and that may color the reaction of some on both sides.

In the long run it does not matter.An independant Skyrim is the best hope for the race of man.

Best case scenario as I see it:
Eslif named high queen of an independant Skyrim allied with the remnants of the Empire
This will give both the Stormcloaks and the Empire most of what they want.
The Empire will have a queen they trust and trade between the two can continue.Nords who wish to join the Legion will be allowed to.(the only ones who would complain are the Thalmoor but who cares what they think)
The Empire now has one less fire to deal with and the legion(s) in Skyrim can bolster the remaing provinces.
Stormcloaks will be happy they are free from an Empire they see as weak.

An independant Skyrim can now send troops to Hammerfell to bolster their (hopefully) new allies.

Or you could side with the Empire and fight a long hard war with the Stormcloaks and play right into the Thalmoors plans because you know Ulfric is racist.

They are the best force to fight the Thalmore. The empire became great because of their ideals. They are the roman empire without slavery... whats not to love?

The Thalmore are just as weak if not weaker than the empire; they could not take Daggerfall even when they had been abandoned by the empire! People OVERESTIMATE the Thalmore waayyyy to much.

If the Stormcloakes were to beat the imperials they would only weaken the empire to the point where the Thalmore would walk all over them. Unity is a MUST. The Stomrcloakes if they won would never be able to truly expand... their ideologies are of Nordic supremacy... it would be very hard to recruit other races to fight with them... why would an Argoninan fight for leader who does not consider them equals? The Stormcloakes would never survive in the long run.

The Empire are united they are able to consolidate the races into a powerful force.

whoa, i knew almost nothing on the lore of TES, and all of this was a good history lesson lol. good points on the imperials though, seems like the best choice.

The empire believes it has the right to sacrifice its citizens to pay its debts. It abandons anything not politically expedient to its goals and has no qualms about allowing foreign agents to abduct and torture its citizens. There were innumerable Redguard and Nord Imperial Legionaries who fought off the Aldmeri Dominion alongside their Imperial comrades in the Great War. How was their blood and sacrifice repaid? The empire cuts Hammerfell loose when they refuse to recognize the terms accepted by an emperor who only sought to appease the wolf at his door by giving their lands to that same enemy. In the land of Skyrim where worship of Talos, or Ysmir as he is known in the north is very important to its citizenry, is banned outright. His priests are now heretics, his shrines now targets for the Thalmor. What do you expect your complicity in the empire’s crimes to buy you? Silence never won rights. Freedom is not handed down from above; it’s forced by pressures from beneath.

Storms are like caesars legion new Vegas. Bad news.

Cheers

Ohhh, because the Imperials say the Stormcloaks believe in only Nords in Skyrim, then they all believe it? Tell me a Stormcloak who says that. And not just Ulfric, because there are several Stormcloaks who don't like Ulfric himself. You guys need to learn what "propaganda" is. It's in TES lore, you need to have in eye for it if you want to know anything.

Stormcloaks:

+ Don't give away information, like troop location, to the enemy.
+ Are not racist. The racism is only present amongst the population of Windhelm. And even there it's only directed at the Dunmer and Argonians.
+ Free Talos worship, Mundus lives another day.
+ Are capable of concentrating their forces if they ally with another nation, rather than forced to protect the Imperial City.
+ Plans to fight the Thalmor, rather than giving them time to recover.
- Ulfric
- Brutal
- Windhelm, the center of their government, is racist.

Empire:
+ The Imperial Legion
+ Titus Mede II
+ Tolerant soldiers
- Protects only itself, forcing others to die for them
- Allows Thalmor to kill Talos worshipers.
- Considers sheepish underground worship to be freedom.
- Allows Thalmor to see their troop locations.
- No longer considers Talos a god (try talking to Imperials who aren't connected to the Legion)
- Non-Legion population is racist.

The Empire is an Empire. It's not an alliance. It's an Empire. That means whilst Skyrim is burning, the Empire has the power to force you to defend Cyrodiil. Because it's an Empire, and Cyrodiil is more important than "Skyrim filth".

Certainly not gonna side with anyone who does not want to see "Soul Brothers"(and sisters) in Skyrim. I too play as a Redguard.

Crimson they don't want either side to win.

I find them more likeable than the Stormcloaks, which is enough of a reason for me to choose the Imperials.

The Imperials are Thalmor bootlickers. I choose the Stormcloaks. They treated me (a Breton) fine. I expect to lead Ulfric's army to victory over the Thalmor pronto.

Ulfricc doesn't give a damm about Tamriel, if he wins he is going to turtle in Skyrim until the Thalmor conquer the rest of the country and steamroll him.

The imperials ARE racist, in fact, arguably they are in some ways more racist than the stormcloaks.

For sure the stormcloaks are kind of backwoods, xenophobic, and stupidly, naively nationalistic....however the stormcloaks didn't conquer most of the known world and force it to adopt their customs and laws...if that's not truly, deeply racist and authoritarian i'm not sure what is.

High elves have taken some provinces from the imperials already. Siding with stormcloaks = empires loss of Skyrim. No Skyrim = weaker imperial empire therefore more easily assimilated by the High elves.

High elves are my worst favourite race as they are a bunch of arrogant slave drivers; and I'd rather keep the empire as strong as possible to slow the high elf take over. Of course thinking this far ahead has no effect on what happens in the next Elder scrolls instalment, but the idea of a full high elf take over is a disgusting thought.

I'm sure this one way Rome used to extort it's conquered people's into towing the line of the empire too.."do it, or else the REAL bad guys will win, your only choice is them or us"...typical of an empire!

Play Morrowind

If the Empire was really trying to ram it's customs down peoples throats they didn't do a very good job.

I did play Morrowind...The Empire invaded Morrowind, acquired their natural resources, and forced them to submit at least somehwat to imperial law, with concessions like allowing some slavery etc...the fact that they allowed the people to keep a bit of their culture means little..again, this is typical of empires throughout history. They operate on economics, not ideology or customs.

What you guys are missing in the plot is self determination....

He only cares for power, I think he will not stop with Skyrim, if he has the chance he will try to expand an empire of his own.

Morrowind got more rights than other provinces because they had a treaty with the Empire. Other provinces got smacked harder, to the point where worshiping the Alessian Divines is considered the traditonal religion in Skyrim.

So first you criticise the empire for racistly forcing its culture on people, then say it matters little to your point that it actually didn't?

I doubt the Empire would have smacked down and persecuted Skyrim seeing as the founder of the empire was a nord.
The empire way of life was probably just seen as more cosmopolitan and easier than the traditional way.

Of course they have qualms about it, but they didn't feel like they had much of a choice, not when it was them who were in the Thalmor's crosshairs. The Nords didn't speak up like the Redguards (who, I may add, got what they wanted without actually fighting the Empire), not until the Thalmor realized they weren't doing enough and orchestrated the Markarth Incident.

Half of this is embellishment and speculation biased towards making the Legion look evil and making the Stormcloaks look heroic. Personally, I think either side could organize an effort to defeat the Thalmor, because both the Stormcloaks and the Imperials have good reason to loathe the Thalmor (the Imperials only agreed to the Concordat because it was their province the Thalmor were trashing, and at the time they didn't think they could defeat them. The Redguards proved otherwise but as they say, hindsight is 50/50). But I feel that a unified Cyrodiil and Skyrim defeating the Thalmor would have a better long-term political and economic outcome than defeating the Thalmor as embittered allies of circumstance.

As I recall, it was a Nordic warlord who conquered Tamriel.

It's forced it's laws and at least part of it's social organization, as can be seen by the fact that house Hlaaluu is beginning to pattern themselves after imperial ways, that counts at least somewhat as 'customs'.

Also as I read the plot, the empire is not the only force to stand against theThalmor..in fact they signed the concordat which is essentially a really disgusting form of appeasemant - outlawing a native religion, and there seems to be little reason to count on the empire to protect it's own given that.

Morrowind had a lot of freedom because of this treaty, Morrowind was not conquered they signed a deal with the empire and was assimilated in the empire and they was allowed their freedoms.