What are you suggesting? Killing anyone who could possibly become discontent with the High King? You know what that'll breed? More discontentment. Which in turn increases the likelihood of someone trying to kill the High King.

And besides, Alduin isn't trying to destroy the world. He's trying to rule it.

One thing that puzzles me is how the elder scroll ended up in a dwemer ruin.

It wouldn't have mattered if there was a civil war or not. If the civil war wouldn't have happened then the prophecy ON THE SCROLL would have changed to accommodate that. the prophecy written on the wall was carved when the scrolls said there was a civil war so that is the only one that the people would read (as none of them can read the actual scroll). The elder scrolls pretty much exist outside of time and that is why they can predict the future, but nothing in them is set in stone until the event is passed then it can never be changed. the only thing they cant record are dragon breaks because they are things that mess with the timeline.

They didn't need to take place, they were just said to take place. If they hadn't, the prophecy would simply have been inaccurate, but Alduin would still return.
Besides, prophecy isn't necessary. The Hero is, so ultimately it's your fault for playing the game, really

There's not a single elder scroll... These artifacts surface every now and then. A large collection of them is secured into the imperial library guarded by the Moth priests. Who knows how many of them are still in the wild waiting to be discovered or rediscovered?

What? No he's not. He's the world eater. His job is to literally eat the world so that a new cycle of creation can begin.

I think the OP's suggestion that Ulfric deliberately tried to bring about the end of the world is kind of silly. He doesn't strike me as the apocalyptic sort. I just assume the prophecy was not widely known. I mean, it took finding Esbern and using the blood of a dragonborn to open a sealed temple for you to find it out. Though people knew about Alduin as worldeater from legend.

Alduin's abandoned his role as World Eater though. He didn't try and destroy the world when he first came to Mundus. Instead, he and his dragons took over and were worshipped as gods.

All that was pretty much yesterday for Alduin, since he was flung forward in time, so I don't think he's suddenly decided to fulfill his role as World Eater.

That's part of why Paarth rebelled. Alduin wasn't doing his job. Hence the dragon priests worshipping the dragons, the tales of oppression, and etc. For whatever reason he decided to show up early and rule over mankind.

That's it - there's the answer: because it's in the script.

Hm. I had assumed he was "acting out" because Talos holds the current kalpa in stasis, which is why he picked Skyrim to wreak havoc in, so as to bring Talos down. No?

Alduin's reign predates Talos. At least I'm pretty sure. Tiber Septim ushers in the Third Era, and I don't think "Talos" existed until Tiber Septim's accession into Divinity.

Well, Talos is a manifestation of Lorkhan, but the issue is not that he was around before as that he's the one who's preventing the normal cycle of world destruction/ re-creation from happening.

Oh, I thought you were talking about when Alduin first came to Mundus as the "acting out," since that's when he wasn't fulfilling his duties.

lol, i laught and the ending part

*laughing* "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with mustard...."

Quite personally, I think it was Ulfric Stormcloak's Destiny to do what he did.

If you look at it the way I look at it, you'll probably be able to agree.

You see, it was a PROPHECY. The way I see it, Ulfric's Destiny was to cause an uprising, thus causing Alduin's return, thus bringing in the Dovahkiin, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Let's assume that this was indeed Ulfric's Destiny, and that Ulfric did NOT fulfill his Destiny and never formed the Stormcloaks. That means that a Civil War would have never broken out, and Alduin would have never returned, and the Dovahkiin would have not been needed and thus could not fulfill his own Destiny... the whole Prophecy would have been broken.

They could have just abolished the position of High King and replaced it with something else if that exact event had to happen for Alduin to return.

I'm pretty sure that Alduin returned because the Dragonborn got to the point where he/she was about to start becoming powerful. Maybe there have been other Dragonborn up until now that just never realized their power or were killed before they had a chance. Now that a Dragonborn is about to realize their power, Alduin returns.

Either that, or it's just Akatosh getting bored. Akatosh is said to be the one who chooses the Dragonborn, so maybe he just finally decided to choose one so that Alduin would return and a epic battle would ensue.

These games are set up so that each player can choose to think however she likes, without any problem still playing and enjoying the game. No, I'm not going to agree with you, but I'm perfectly fine with you feeling that way in YOUR game, since your game has nothing to do with mine.

Now that you mention it, what happened to the Elder Scrolls when White Gold Tower was sacked by the Thalmor? Surely they could recognize one or two?

As for the topic:
No, I can't agree. Alduin's Wall can only be seen by a dragonborn, seeing that you need to spill your blood to even open the gate, not to mention you need Akaviri translation notes in order to read it.

And he couldn't know about Alduin's return. Nobody else in Skyrim possess the knowledge of the prophecy, even the history maniac Esbern didn't now the full details

So, sorry OP, but your take on making Ulfric look bad has failed

One of the in-game books about the Elder Scrolls denotes that they don't exist "in countable form." Basically, after the theft of the Elder Scroll in Oblivion like you mentioned, the author of this book tried to account for every scroll that the Cult of the Ancestor Moth had access to so that they'd not lose the potential knowledge. What he found was that the scrolls appeared and disappeared for no discernible reason.

Even though Ulfric is a horrible person, I have to disagree to the OP. Yes he started a civil war that would weaken Skyrim with the Thalmor knocking on their door. Yes he rebelled against the Empire which was created in Skyrim, therefor is more of a "son of Skyrim" than him. Yes he treats the Dunmer as lesser-class citizens. But did he want to bring about the apocalypse? I think that might be stretching it.

What did the Ulfric have to do with the return of Alduin? The return of Alduin was but the power of the Elder Scroll sending him forward in time on the Throat of the World.

Huh. Now, me, I took his post as being in Ulfric's camp from the word go.... Interesting. I guess everyone reads things in their own "slant". Though I do have to say that rereading his first couple of posts now, it seems I didn't get his slant at all.... Must've been a bad night....

The issue here is that OP didn't seem to get that Alduin's return coincides with the Civil War by the Elder Scrolls, and what's written in the Scrolls is absolute in Tamriel lore. So he figured if Ulfric knew that, he could just not start the Civil War. But since reading the Elder Scrolls requires an immense amount of training and it still renders you blind, there's obviously know way for Ulfric to have known that.

Okay Im very Anti-Stormcloak...But this is a little far-fetched...