No it doesn't.

How do you know? There was indication of anti-imperial feeling in both Elsweyr and Black Marsh long before Skyrim. The http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:An-Xileel are in charge in Black Marsh now, they are Argonian nationalists and anti-imperial. In The Infernal City the Argonian character says that the Nord-Cyrodiil culture the empire imposed on them never really "took." Likewise if you read books like http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Argonian_Account or http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:A_Dance_in_Fire, it's obvious that the outer provinces tolerate the empire's presence and appreciate some of its benefits but are more or less ambivalent- sometimes quite negative, as when the imperials tried to collectivize Argonian agriculture and caused a lot of starvation.

I don't think anyone has any idea what Black Marsh will do. The Hist will look after its own, and who knows what that is.

I do hope that there will be dissenting forces in Valenwood and Elsweyr that will help fight the Dominion, but even so, none of these provinces are going to just fall in to imperial rule.

There is no rope, dude. Cyrodiil has lost all its provinces except Skyrim, maybe High Rock and possibly what's left of Morrowind. You're holding the short end of a very frayed rope even before the game starts.

Obviously Bethesda didn't do enough to fill in the picture on what has happened since Oblivion, because not many people seem to get it.

Exactly. AD is way weaker than people make them out to be (I believe their arrogance makes them look stronger in the eye of people easily impressed by such things).

Never underestimate an alliance of independent nations.

You don't have to be part of the imperial empire to collaborate with them and form temporary alliances.

Nations run by people who are anti-imperial are more likely to make an alliance with other anti-imperial leaders rather than with the empire they've finally gotten free of.

Russia didn't like the USA but they still allied in WW2.

Nations can easily put petty quarrels aside when a common threat arises. I seriously doubt we'll be seeing Red Guards and Argonians joining the AD

*SPOILER OR TWO HERE* Don't know how to make the tag, sorry.

Everyone knows the Imperial Legion don't like the Thalmor, but are sworn to uphold the White-Gold Concordat signed by the Emperor. It's the law of the land. I find the avenue of least evil to follow is to side with the Imperial Legion and -- this is ironic -- also complete the Dark Brotherhood quest which takes out Emperor Titus Mede II. Why? Simple. It means White-Gold Concordat is almost certain to be annuled by the new government. You are Dragonborn. You're not Septim lineage, but you have the Septim's power. Your power can certainly strike down White Gold Concordat if you will it. If you can defeat Alduin, you can certainly do something as simple as take the throne for yourself and go to war on the Thalmor, even. (for all any of us know, it's the next DLC.)

Otherwise the choice is between Thalmor religious persecution and Stormcloak xenophobia and racism. What kind of a choice is that? You can debate for hours as to which side has the moral high ground, but face it. Neither side is very clean. Neither the stormcloaks or the Imperials under Emperor Mede.

And if you don't want to be a friggin emperor?

The Stormcloaks are no more racist than the imperials. Nationalism = / racism.

The Empire is a shadow of it's former self, just like Uriel said "The Empires days are numbered" or something along those lines.
The Empire is corrupted beyond repair and things need to change, Ulfric may not be Talos, but i can bet Talos was no saint either, every leader needs to start somewhere.

P.S: Ulfric is not racist, if he was then the Dunmer would not even be inside the walls.

Wow, these are some really good discussion points and I hope to hear even more from you. Just remember to keep it civil everyone.

-Thanks

If only the Septim Dynasty was still around. :\

If that was the Imperials that I could have joined, I definitely would have.

Ulfric went thru legal means that even the empire itself practices to start the moot. The empire started the civil war when they illegally declared a legal act illegally and tried to frame ulcric with the high kings murder.

Ulfric tried first thru legal means for the moot and when the empire played dirty, hes doing it thru war when the smpire was to late in wanting a moot to go. hes not taking chances for the empire to screw him over dishonorably a third time.

Hammerfell didn't "kick out" the dominion, they fought them to a stalemate and the diminion thought it would be more cost effective to leave and try again later instead of sending more troops now and taking the country but losing a larger portion of troops and it's never been explained how the redguard and ex-legion forces created the stale mate, it might have been something impossible to replicate or something the Dominin can counter in the future

Screw Ulfric, we all know Balgruuf should be king.

The whole point is we don't know!!! So they could have fought them off, it's not like we know all the facts so this argument can't really be used.

The imperials are just as unhappy with the ban of talos worship as the nords so I don't see why people think it was just the nords getting screwed over with the ban.
Ulfric was stupid in challenging torygg straight away as many people in game say that if Ulfric just asked torryg to secede from the Empire he would of probably considered doing it. It's for this reason and this reason alone that I feel all Ulfric really wants is to become high king and that he's using the ban on talos worship as a way to rally people around him.

This is why I support the Empire however I feel an independent would be able to defend against the aldmeri i don't feel that they could defeat them on their own turf especially as the aldmeri make much better use of magic than the majority of skyrim.

The Empire needs a new emporer in my opinion the nords should support the empire and then some great assassin from the dark brotherhood should kill titus mede and a new leader NOT Ulfric should take the throne and lead a new effort to reunite all the provinces against the Dominion

One person says that (Sybille Stentor), no one substantiates it. The Bits and Pieces shopkeeper says that all Torygg did was make speeches about the glorious empire. If he was pro-secession, he was doing a good job of hiding it.

Such as the only live dragonborn!

It is said that he had a GREAT deal of respect for Ulfric. If Ulfric suggested something, Torygg would have most likely done it.

The only way the Thalmor can invide Skyrim is if the Imperials let them in. They got a good head start.

Torygg was the High King, it was his job to lead his Jarls and his people, not the other way around.

Ulfric's extreme dissatisfaction with and desire to secede from the Empire was not a secret. According to other NPC dialogue he had already spoken out about it in a way that was just *this* short of treason in a previous moot. Torygg knew how Ulfric felt and what he wanted, and probably knew that some of the other Jarls agreed. If he was inclined to move Skryim in that direction it was HIS responsibility to let them know and make that happen, not Ulfric's or anybody else's job to go tell him what he should be doing. He was the HIGH KING, fer cryin' out loud.

One side says Torygg was a bad king because he let other people (i.e. the Empire) tell him what to do, the other side says Ulfric is a bad Jarl because if he'd only told Torygg what to do Torygg would've done it. If the second statement is true then it only serves to prove the validity of the first.

I think Titus Mede II had his greatest moment (battle of red ring) followed by his worst (white gold concordant), and this weakened him greatly. No legion had more than half its men, hammerfell had a force of "discharged" warriors left there by the general who was fighting there, and even with that hammerfell was basically destroyed. So in my opinion Mede made a good choice, granted he should have at least negotiated. But the real problem was that it has been 30 years and he's done nothing, after the white gold concordant he should of got to work immediately building an army and the shouldve began fighting 5-10 years later. So if mede dies, and a new emperor takes over then they most likely would want to fight, so the empire would be better as a whole. That means more money more men and more supplies. And after the war tamriel would be more peaceful under a free empire, not under independent provinces, that's how its always been.

in my opinion ulfric is just a power hungry politician who will try to make a cause seem noble to advance his own power and fuel his enormous ego