Keep in mind the Dark Brotherhood questline. How can the Empire lead a war when it is in a power struggle?

I am sure a lot of thought went into balancing the two sides. It seems to have been well done. One can chose either side with excellent reasons.

The Wilson comparison is only adequate in the fact that Wilson segregated the military and the federal government. Woodrow Wilson has made many racist comments.

Woodrow Wilson was an internationalist. He wanted to be in the League of Nations but the Congress would not let him. (Heny Cabot Lodge)

Ulfric is clearly a nationalist.

So, overall, Bethseda has made a story with no right answer.

Most people with a mind agree that what the Nords are being deprived of is an unjust action. So rebelling is a must.

With a revolution in progress, it will first lead to Stormcloak victory. But that victory is bittersweet. As they dug their own grave. Stormcloaks are no match for the Thalmor. Neither are the empire ALONE.

Like I said, the Thalmor have already won, the empire and stormcloaks are already at war. It's inevitable that one is going to exterminate the other. Ultimately leading to Thalmor victory. The Empire is too gullible and the Stormcloaks are too arrogant to negotiate.

Both factions are put in awkward position. From most standpoints, the Empire is indeed a puppet for the Thalmor. But their are two kinds of puppets. The first one is the one that admires the hierarchy so much, that they do anything they request.

The second puppet is the Empire type. Where they are being scared and forced into ...what..yep...depriving the nords of their freedom. What does Talos have to do with the Thalmor? It's just a manipulation that is driven into the brains of the nords making them revolt. But heres the ender, because the Thalmor are playing it so secretly, most of the population does not know of the Thalmor politically. While they are sticking to their shadows, they still have a leash on the Empire. This is where, they make the Empire deprive the freedoms, ultimately leading to the Nord hate of the Empire.

I would of thought revenge against the mer for being stupid enough to make them disappear for a very long time is a perfectly good reason. That and the fact that every race has been pillaging their buildings for so many era's.

Most allegations of war crimes in history....were sadly true.

The markath incident is a sad fact.

History is full of charismatic, interesting, but murderous leaders

(null)

Devs confirmed the fate of the dwarves a while back. They aren't coming back. Unless they want to contradict themselves again.

Great post. Now I'm convinced my Redguard made the right decision in siding with the Stormcloaks.

Didn't Hammerfell succeed because the Legion generals left quite a number of their troops there on the pretext of sick leave?

I also find it funny when people go on about Nords and Ulfric, as though all Nords are so eager to sign up with the Stormcloaks. The Jarl of Whiterun is easily the most reasonable man in the game, and he doesn't side with Ulfric. There are countless Nords who side with the Empire.

There's been a bit of editing, and one or two posts that were responding to removed text went away.

Let's do make sure to stay away from controversial subjects or discussion of real-world politics.

Thanks.

Sigh, seems like people STILL believe the Dominion even has a decent army, very much less one that could invade Skyrim.

They have whatever army Bethesda wants to give them. I don't know what that is, but it is certainly not going to deduced from reading something in lore or whatnot or theorizing from Woodrow Wilson.

People ought to read http://www.imperial-library.info/content/rising-threat

Particularly

When the thalmor are in a bad spot, they puff up and (try to) appear intimidating. The empire's fallen for it every single time.

Except Beth already gave them an army, and it isn't worth [censored]. For one, its still dealing with the massive losses it incurred during the Great War (and the 5 years afterwords they spent wasting men on Hammerfel). Two, it was never that great to begin with, as it's initial success was only due to cloak and dagger (which they'll never be able to pull of again unless they get an extra 250 years or so to do it. IE, 10x the amount of time they've had so far) and it then went on to be mostly destroyed when it was forced into a direct ground war.

The initial invasion force for Hammerfel (which was their intended target during the Great War mind you, and as such their invasion force there was what they believed was going to be necessary to take that province) couldn't defeat a single Legion of the Imperial Legion that was left behind to defend Hammerfel, and was stuck fighting them in a stalemate for 5 years until the Dominion gave up and left.

And because of how Altmer reproduce and age, they'll be at a massive disadvantage if they have to go to war within a year of the Civil War ending as 25 years isn't enough for what was primarily an Altmer army to recoup the massive losses they sustained, whereas for a human army its more than possible. Its a difference of 3-4 generations resupplying the Empire/Skyrim and 1 generation (possibly) resupplying the Dominion. And they can't count on Valenwood nor Elsweyr for reinforcements, as Valenwood is on the verge of Civil War (and only half or even a quarter of that province actually supports the Dominion) and if Elsweyr was willing to go to war for the Dominion it would have done so when it was busy fighting Hammerfel.

The Aldmeri Dominion had smaller numbers than the Empire. The only reason they were able to win as many battles as they did was because they're sneaky elves. Allowing them free and unrestricted access throughout the Empire is only going to allow them to pull all the same strings as before, so Cyrodiil isn't any better off than Hammerfell.

Skyrim would be able to at least drive out the Aldmeri Dominion. They have some of the greatest warriors in all of Tamriel (along with their Orcish "friends" -- well, they hate the Thalmor more than they hate the Nords) and, if all else fails, the Greybeards. I don't think they could lead a successful invasion unless Hammerfell were to help them.

The next High King might even want to ally Skyrim with the Empire under a new treaty and fight off the Aldmeri Dominion -- which is a far better route than essentially half of Skyrim "rejoining" the Empire.

Driving the Thalmor out of a man-controlled province is one thing. Driving them out of Valenwood or Elsweyr is another. Invading Alinor would be even more difficult, unless the Psijics intervene.

They have to have at least a moderate sized army left or at least something up there sleeve that would make a thalmor invasion more brutal and serious, I am expecting to see at least skyrim under emperial control again or cyrodill under thalmor control for the next elder scrolls game.

Couple problems.

1. Valenwood is already on the verge of driving the Dominion out by itself. Or at least working towards it. An Empire and/or Skyrim backed Valenwood rebellion would be the best course for Valenwood being rid of the Dominion
2. Elsweyr isn't occupied by the Dominion. Do learn what client state is. And chances are one of the two kingdoms (or possibly even both) could probably be persuaded to go against the Dominion or if nothing else cease any support they might give them.

Now you do have a point on Alinor, but the invasion of Alinor isn't likely going to happen until Valenwood and Elsweyr are taken care of.

I've still not heard of any problems in Valenwood. It was my understanding that those purges that some mer are upset about happened a long time ago and aren't a problem now. And while Elsweyr was never taken over by the Thalmor, they would still have Thalmor. Heck, if there are Thalmor in Skyrim, there are Thalmor in Elsweyr.

Edit: And there's one other small problem with Valenwood and Elsweyr: the only man-controlled province that borders them is Cyrodiil.

How could the Empire even try to fight the Dominion? As you and I have said, they do not have a massive, powerful army. Their main strength comes from tactics, planning, espionage. The notion that the Summerset Isle would be able to raise an army able to conquer the Empire due to its sheer mass in inconcievable. With 25 years to do whatever the hell they want within the Empire and the Empire not being able to do a damn thing about it, they Thalmor have surely integrated themselves into the Imperial Government. If Skyrim remains part of the Empire, it will remain part of the government and decisions. When the Empire tries to fight the Dominion again it will have too much internal conflict, trying to avoid things like moles leaking intelligence, sabotage attempts etc, to even be able to focus on actually fighting the Thalmor. Skyrim Hammerfell and maybe High-Rock? Different story.

Pretty sure that Bosmer hate the Thalmor more than anyone else, I'm sure if Valenwood was invaded it would be a perfect opportunity for the Wood Elves to stage a coup to overthrow the Thalmor government. Elsweyr, who knows.

If the Khajiit were convinced that the Thalmor were not responsible for ending the Void Nights, than maybe. I like to imagine that the Thalmor knew about the Void Nights because they had captured a Dunmer Oracle/Prophet of Azura.

I dont think Valenwood will be driving out the thalmor soon weren't the few imperial/valenwood resistance crushed? and I dont think a stormcloak ruled skyrim would care for the for the cause of elves.

With the reproduction rate of Elves, no, not by a longshot. Their armies in Cyrodiil were completely destroyed. They didn't have the resources to continue waging a war against the independant province of Hammerfell. They probably don't have much of an offensive military. If anything, they'll be forced (or have been) to divide their defensive resources.

Valenwood was taken without almost any resistance. The Empire abandoned it. A full-scale revolution in Valenwood alone might be able to overthrow the government. A revolution along with invading human forces, almost indefinitley.

The purges are still going on in Valenwood. You have to remember that Valenwood was never fully for the Dominion. What happened was that a few Thalmor supporting families worked with the Thalmor to overthrow the government there, and since then they've been purging families who not only resist Thalmor rule, but also just don't plain agree with it. The Thalmor already did this in Alinor when they seized power, and they have been repeating the same with Valenwood.
Because of this, its only logical to see that Valenwood is on the brink of civil war. Either that or a mass immigration of Bosmer into the rest of Tamriel, which would probably be just as beneficial.


The Thalmor might be present there, but not in a military capacity. And given Elsweyr's past actions it is far from likely that we'll see a Khajiit army riding up to Skyrim's doorstep. Nor even the Empires for that matter.


More than likely depending on how far the rabbit hole the Elder Council and the rest of the Empire's upper echelons have gone, it will either be the Legion staging a coup or the Legion saying screw you to the Empire and acting on its own. However, all will depend on whether the Legion wins the Civil War. If they do win, then they have some smidgen of a chance. If they don't, well, we've already been over what would happen then.