see now someone here is thinking dragonborn = amulet of kings wearer = emperor = awesomeness!!!!

like u said its been thirty years. if he would have tried to rebuild his army the thalmor would have known. they have spies. how u think they wiped out the blades tamerils secret service. and hammerfell wasnt basiclly destroyed the dominion didnt get that far inland to destroy the capitals and take over major cities. thats why there in cyrodil and skyrim and not hammerfell. plus the dominion has more land and better defenses then the empire. the empire can only defend not attack. going into dominion territory would be suicide. especially going through valenwood treacherous forests.to get to summerset. and they will spot the empire a mile away by see too. but i dont support the domonion. and if hammerfell was in such bad shape, why would they send those redguards to skyrim to find the redguard women?why would they worry about one person when they got an enemy at their door step? i know why cause they dont have to worry about the dominion right now.plus you think blackmarsh is going to give up their occupation of morrowind(something they have been wanting to do for decades) so easily just to help a dying empire thats going to make them give it back? i think not

My opinion is that people should side with the Imperials. Sure, sure they tried to chop your head off in the beginning of the game but you really shouldn't judge them for that. You ( The Dragonborn) tried to cross the border while a war was happening. I'm sure the Imperials were not going to take any chances with a Stormcloak starting a uprising in Cyrodiil. Ulfric Stormcloak is a brainwashed power hungry racist. He wants to stop the Thalmor, but doesn't realize he is aiding them by destroying the Empire. If the Stormcloaks were to take over Skyrim, Cryodiil would lose a route to High Rock, which would damage contact with them. High Rock would probably be Independent like Skyrim, leaving Cryodiil to stand alone. The Thalmor would probably make there move, and would easily destroy all armies. Then the true enemy would win.

I decided to do both sides of the war and my mind was made up
Tullius's dying words involved the dominion wanting stormcloak victory...

thats why I want a "truce" DLC where you unite forces from around tamriel to aid the empire and destroy the dominion
you get to visit a smapp part of every province and convince their leaders to help your cause

If this were any other Imperial province I'd be of the conviction that if anybody wants to defeat the Thalmor they have to stand united, and ceding from the Empire is not going to help things. Skyrim is very defensible though, and very harsh on people unused to the conditions. And Nords are strong warriors and proud people too.

And there's always the dragons, of course... I doubt the Thalmor have a Dragonborn up their sleeve.

ive also thought of if vivec and the other tribunal were still here, what and who would they side wit. i think vivec would have sided wit the empire and held morrowind against the argonians. the tribunal would have been great allies during the war, but the neverine put an end to that 200 years ago

Good riddance, the Tribunal was crumbling anyway. And in fact, Vivec doomed Morrowind anyway when he dissapeared. The Tribunal's power wasn't theirs and they never deserved to have it.

yeah he did wiped the ciity of vivec off the map lol

Who puts a temple in a giant unnaturaly floating space rock anyway?

You suggested that the Stormcloaks could've joined the Legion and done their thing which isn't possible in the Legion. The only way the Thalmor are directly fought is by an independent Skyrim.

Most of the arguments on here are about how Ulfric is racist and he shouldn't have killed the High King, even if we took him out of the equation someone else would just step up to the task of freeing Skyrim and her people. People should get over Ulfric and look at the Stormcloaks as a whole, even if Ulfric was eliminated the civil war will rage on.

Exactly... Any side the Dragonborn is on is going to win. Unless the Thalmor have a mythical demigod warrior; but in that case we would just kill him.

Just laugh that people ignore this.

Well the emperor could have just easily said he was rebuilding to keep the imperial territories in check and that they weren't violating the white gold concordant, plus the it's not that hard to do stuff in secret without the thalmor knowing, they can't patrol every inch of the empire 24/7 now can they? Also your saying hammerfell is fine because they can afford to send 10 guys to skyrim. Also read this book http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Great_War_(book) it specifically states that southern hammerfell was devastated after the war. And who says the argonians would give up morrowind. I doubt they would even join the war unless they were attacked by the thalmor, and if they happened they wouldn't care if they had to join with the empire to get back at the elves.

Honestly, the whole war is a lose-lose situation. If the empire wins the war, Ulfric is seen as a martyr and people will rally even more for his cause, I think. If the Stormcloaks win, the empire is separated and the AD has a much better chance of taking Skyrim, along with the whole empire.

I wish you could end the war in a peaceful way, make some sort of treaty. The damn Nords who support Uflric are too blinded by rage of the White-gold concordat to see that if you stay with the empire and bide your time a bit, we could all take out the AD and hopefully end this. I understand that the empire lost before, but what better odds do they have with a country leaving the empire. It helps no one in the long run.

First off, people need to stop making failed real-world anologies to the situation in Skyrim. Secondly, I woulnd't call that an alliance. The U.S. didn't do anything to help the Soviet Union during WWII, which is why the U.S.S.R. began to further resent the United States.

The point was that the Aldmeri Dominion's largest army wasn't able to conquer Hammerfell, which was their initial plan for the war. It shows just how weak the Dominion is when it's not fighting on its own terms. Also, Hammerfell was in the midst of a civil war during the Great War, which is why they weren't able to fully commit their assistance to Cyrodiil.

If I remember correctly those two factions decided to stop fighting in order to stop the Thalmor. Which is why we need a larger scale version of that truce (not allegiance) with all non-Dominion provinces in order to stop the elves.

Torygg ultimately chose to back the Empire, though. And don't you find it a bit ironic that you oppose a faction led by a "usurper" yet support a faction started by one?

We don't support Mede we support the Empire. If Tullius had any sort of disagreemnet with the Imperial city you can bet your ass that I'm gonna give a big middle finger to Mede and follow Tullius. Tullius is my leader, and his word is my will.

You're talking about Hammerfell and Cyrodiil right? No, they never started fighting. Cyrodiil threw Hammerfell under the bus with the WGC, Hammerfell was too busy holding onto its land to instigate hostilities with the Empire. And no, you don't need Tamriel entirely united to defeat the Aldmeri Dominion. One of their long-term goals is to eradicate all non-pure Mer off Tamriel and conquer the continent. They thought they were able to do that when they started the Great War, now they don't even think they'll be able to conquer the Empire. This is why they're taking such an interest in the Civil War, it is vital that any opposing factions are weakened as much as possible, because the Dominion doesn't have any advantages anymore, and suffered heavy casualties from the Great War and War with Hammerfell.

Mede is the Empire, Tullius is just a soldier who takes orders. Last time I checked, you don't swear loyalty to Tullius when you join the Legion. Maybe Tullius should go back down to Cyrodiil and try to become the Emperor.

I'm perfectly fine with the provinces becoming independant, but when you're fighting a possible ally against your true allies, it doesn't make any sense. And I know Hammerfell and Cyrodiil never fought, but HAmmerfell still hates Them, but they should only hate Mede, becasue they wouldn't have been able to hold against the Dominion without the Legion troops that were "left behind".

I think all in all the thalmor will eventually fall, most likely due to the actions of the dragon born or a future protagonist. So my question is which one is the better choice for skyrim and tamriel. My main problems with the stormcloaks are that they make their racist "skyrim for the nords" ideals law, there are a lot of racist imperials too, but they don't usually make racist laws. Also with the defeat of the thalmor we will no longer have the white gold concordant, so the nords would be free to carry on with their traditions. My other big problem is that tamriel doesn't do to well when the provinces govern themselves, tamriel is the most prosperous when united under one empire, so as long as the thalmor are out of the picture and the people can do as they please, the empire is the best government.

Regardless of a new Dynasty ruling the Empire, it is still regarded as the third Empire I believe (there is never a distinction made between the two Dynasties, unlike the Reman and Alessian Empires of the past). If we make the assumption that this is the case, then it is still the Empire founded by Talos.

I would make the case that the true sons and worshippers of Talos would remain loyal to the Empire. I would rather honour him in that capacity than offer prayers in a temple.