And also, while the Stormcloaks might not care that much about the Bosmer plight, I'm sure they'd be more than willing to stur a rebellion in Valenwood, if only to stretch out whatever forces the Dominion does have.

Who ever goes after the Thalmor do not need to invade Sumerset.All they have to do is "eliminate" the Thalmor leadership.

Try to fire up some Altmer who may be on the fence by spreading rumors that the Thalmor aided the Daedra in destroying Crystal like law(I believe that is the tower that was destroyed)There were rumors in Oblivion about Dadra worship on the rise in Sumerset try to pin it on the Thalmor.If undoing things to a point where the Altmer are divine again taking down the towers that support this reality is something that would be in thier interest.Plus isn't there at least one account of a winged Daedra rescuing the Thalmor general hung up on White Gold Tower.

Sure 99.99% may not buy it but you only need one ally in Sumerset to help in identifying who gets whacked.

Thalmor : ....Or is there something you wish to confess?

My High Elf : Yeah....I can worship whoever I damn well want! just like my various friends can worship whoever THEY want....you dictator!

Thalmor : .....And so you will die a herectics death...traitor!

(violent fight ensues.....I win)

Me : And so you die an arrogant, "i'm better than you", thugs death...hmmm, I wonder if this raise corpse spell works?

OP, I have just this to say:

You are awesome. Brilliant post about why Stormcloaks are better than the Empire's way.

You deserve one of these:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzDOpvukhNo

Kinda makes the civil war seem pointless then. I agree that the empire signing the WGC was stupid but the stormcloak uprising is just as dumb imo maybe if they would have waited just a bit longer than maybe the empire would have taken action eventually and I dont believe Titus Mede to be the "weak" emperor people make him out to be.

Too late, the Empire already did that. And lost a good deal of imperial agents.
I disagree with your view points, The Thalmor are extremely powerful, they have some of the best mages in all of tamriel.

That is just a biased comment.
Theres no better or worse her, its A dark and grey war, both have major faults and strengths, No side is better then the other.
It depends on your Ideology which side you choose.
"Darkness wars against darkness..."

They tried that back when the Dominion still had a good deal of its forces and had just freshly invaded Valenwood. Nowadays it would be quite a bit harder for the Dominion to stop a resurrection occurring, even without external prodding.

And no, the Thalmor are not extremely powerful. Not in the slightest. And mages can only go so far.

Why I support the Stormcloaks? Simple. The empire is in decline and no longer supports Skyrim. Look at the ruins, roads and so on. It's a joke. It's like Mercia 200 years after Rome fell.

lol wut?

Aww, now you're making me feel all fuzzy and warm inside XD

@ajz8922

That is the whole point of the civil war. It was why the Thalmor released Ulfric from captivity. They hoped he would start a rebellion and he did. As long as there is a civil war, neither Skyrim nor the Empire is an apparant threat to the Thalmor, giving them time to build up their resources. The Thalmor consider Ulfric an 'asset' because of the civil war. Regardless of who wins, the victor of the civil war is a threat to the Thalmor, so neither victory is good for them.

If I hear correctly in Falkreath theres a Ex-Thalmor mage, when I talked to him he said something about feeling dead for "Tearing threw a legion of soldiers" During the great war....
Also we know that that the Thalmor managed to have Ulfric stormcloak on there "Leash" for a good deal of time, as some one said before me the Thalmor have a massive "Tactical" Advantage over both the Empire and the Stormcloaks.

The Bretons also have some of the best Mages in Tamriel.They also(I believe) have a larger population on which to draw from so Thalmor magic supremacy is not uncontested.

I know that im just saying that since you say the thalmor have no decent army left that the civil is pretty much pointless because both sides could have just gone to summerset and tear [censored] up over there or at least fortify the borders and kick all the thalmor out of imperial provinces.

What kind of 'Ideology' would someone have to make them side with the Empire?

Stormcloaks "We're sick of bleeding for an Empire that won't bleed for us. We will fight for our beliefs and freedom from the puppets of our Elven oppressors."

Empire: "We are protecting Skyrim and holding it's best interests. Without us, Skyrim will be helpless and get annihilated by an Aldmeri Onslaught. But actually we're just doing what they say in hopes to save our own ass."

Alinor is still probably well-defended. But it is apparant that the Dominion isn't capable of launching successful invasions. To be able to they would have to sacrafice a great deal of their defensive forces, giving opportunity for a successful counter attack. Besides that, the Empire is still believes that the Thalmor are extremely powerful and could easily crush them. Shame.

People like Sybille Stentor, the Court Mage of Solitude, show that just because Altmer are more magically adept than humans does not mean that humans cannot surpass them.

Stormcloaks: "We do this for Barbaric and tribes-like honour, we do it because we blindly follow a mentally unstable, power hungry, oath-breaking, fool. We do it to Kick out the lesser races from skyrim, Long live Ulfric Stormcloak."

Empire: "We do it because its are jobs. We are men of the legion and we do what we are ordered to, we do this not for honour, but it is are duty to follow are commanding officer and the Emperor, Long live Emperor Titus Mede II"

Depending on my Character, I follow the Empire for different reasons, One follows them because its his duty and dosent care about the politics, ANother does it because he personally is loyal to the Medes.

Last time I checked, about half of Skyrim supported staying with the Empire. They're not being misled or deceived, they know what happened, and what's going on, yet they remain with the Empire rather than side with Ulfric. This war isn't Skyrim vs Cyrodiil. It's half of Skyrim vs half of Skyrim with some aid from Cyrodiil.

1. You're poking fun at Nordic Culture.

2. How is Ulfric a "mentally unstable, power hungry, oath-breaking, fool?"

If Ulfric doesn't want the crown, why did he commit regicide? Why did he not appeal to Torygg? If Sybille is anything to go by, he would have followed Ulfric. But no, he kills the high king in a duel that is only "honorable" by insistent terminology, a duel where Ulfric abused the Thu'um by violating the Graybeard's edict of Speaking Only In True Need. A king that abuses power and kills to set examples... not the kind of king I would want to have.

If "Skyrim for the nords" isn't a racist call to arms, why are all the nords in Windhelm and Winterhold (*especially* Windhelm) racist towards anyone not a nord?

Ulfric wants to invade the Summerset Isles? With what army? The Legion barely matched the Thalmor the last round, and as you said they were just as bloodied by the Great War as the Legion was. And he thinks he can invade with his "Stormcloaks" which is an oversized militia? The largest professional military in Tamriel barely withstood the onslaught, what is the militia of one province gonna do against the Thalmor? Also, what about the Aldmeri navy? The Summerset navy was legendary in the Septim Empire times, on account of having to be sharpened against the constant raids by the Maormer.

To be brutally deconstructive, the Stormcloaks are whining. Skyrim got off easy from the Great War. The fighting in Skyrim was light (if any?), while Cyrodiil and Hammerfell got burned pretty bad. Sure, they lost a lot of their native sons and daughters, but guess what? So did Hammerfell and Cyrodiil. And if they had just shaddap about the Talos worship ban, the Empire would have been content to pretend that the Nords weren't worshipping Talos in the closet. The Legion would not have had to be detained from recuperating by the Stormcloak rebellion (or if it succeeds, have its back broken by the rebellion), and would have been ready for Round Two sooner.

Realistically, the Stormcloaks winning should have sealed the fate of all the races of men to doom. But seeing that Beth has to play nice and make winning possible with the Stormcloaks... that's not gonna happen.

And this isn't bias? lol

1. I poke fun at it for good reasons, "Oh Because we were attacked by the Falmer, we must regain are Honour by driving them Underground and turning them into monsters"

2.He is mentally untsable due to the fact that he was BROKEN By the Thalmor, He was tortured tricked into believing he was the reason why the Imperial city fell, He swore a oath to the the Emperor when he joined the legion, He broke that oath at least 100 times, Its stated numerous times from jarls and others that Ulfric dosent really care about skyrims independence and only wants power.

I have said this On a number of different threads, Your view is your own, This is my view, the only thing you can do is attempt to sway people to your view, You can nothing more.

Hold guards don't occupy the forts. A Nord isn't directing the fight against the Stormcloaks. Other than Whiterun, the other cities don't have to be sieged. The Stormcloaks garrison forts and other buildings and say "The Stormcloaks will now occupy your hold." And it is not necessarily Half of Skyrim vs. Half of Skyrim, the Stormcloaks replace the Imperial Jarls with locals who support the Stormcloaks. Of course, this could go either way, but it is essentially: The Stormcloaks vs. The Imperials.