I've been trying to research the whole background of events and reasons for the Civil War in Skyrim, and it all essentially comes down to the fact that the "Thalmor" took advantage of the weakened Empire and took like half of it for themselves, then were given control over things like banning Talos worship and other such things. And Ulfric wants Skyrim to be independent so that it can be a strong country unlike the weak Empire.


I've had to find all this out online, since the characters in-game make only passing mentions of it and never really explain anything.


But I still have questions:

-Who/what are the Thalmor? It seems to me from the information that they're either just Altmer, or an Altmer-Bosmer hybrid?
-What are they and why did they suddenly get the power to take half the Empire? Even in a weakened state I can't imagine a single province or two being able to take over so much land and sack the Imperial City.
-Where are they from?
-Why did they want to outlaw Talos worship so much?

In - game. Search for a book called "The Great War" to know more about their ambitions.

There is a little, not informative enough thread on themhttp://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Thalmor but in-game there is much more to learn.

If you talk to the Thalmor Diplomat in Markath, he will give you some info:
1. The Thalmor are agents of the Aldmeri Dominion. Yes, the Aldmeri Dominion is the alliance between the Altmer and the Bosmer.
2. Well Cyrodiil suffered the attack of Mehrunes Dagon which may have weakened it significantly. Martin's death may also have made some provinces brave.
3. Not sure. I assume the homeland of the Altmer and Bosmer.
4. They believe that Talos is just a man and not a god, so that is why it is blasphemous to worship a man, when worship should be reserved only for gods.

Though if Talos is just an ordinary man, how come you can get a blessing from activating his shrine?

There a Altmer, bosmer alliance who for some reason waged war on the Empire, I assume bad leadership lead to the Empire loosing.

As for the religion banning? Political play.

They are just a bunch of elfs nazis who think that talos is just a man and they did an attempt to attack the empire.

Thanks, I'll check the book out. I checked the UESP, thats where I got my info so far from but it's not very specific or informative as you said.


Thank you! that clears it up for me a bit.

Yeah and they alone made my mind up to join Stormcloaks. I was on the fence for awhile until one of their little envoys along a path attacked me without any real provacation.

Yeah, my breton mage is thinking Stormcloaks due to the thalmor snooping around the colledge.

Banning Talos worship is more than just a political play; Aldmeri believe that they themselves originally were divine, but were betrayed and "cast down" by Lorkhan when Mundus was created.

A mortal Man ascending to divinity is a crucial sacrilege to the Aldmeri. It legitimizes Lorkhan's action. Talos' divinity comes mostly from folks believing in it, so this is why they insist in crushing it by force. But Tiber Septim/Talos was a Nord, so crushing his worship in Skyrim is an especially tough nut to crack.

Read http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Monomyth for more detail.

I don't want to get too spoiler-y here. Check out the lore forum, and the http://www.imperial-library.info/

There's one at Honningbrew Meadery.

I learned it from that one. [img]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/614968789425160509/5618ED146FCC3BE3AA9F38AFB9D6CA95D3AD5AF7/[/img]

All larger relgion actions like this are political play, nuff said.

The back-story definitely suffers from a lack of context. Explaining who the Thalmor should have been part of the intro.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/fourth-era

Explaining the great war briefly here, The elves are called Mer, the humans (nords, imperials, bretonish, redguard etc.) are called man, the thalmor are a bunch of high elves and wood elves (im not sure about dark elves, but I dont believe dark elves are involved). The thalmor think so highly of themselves and think they are superior over man, so they started a war with the empire, right before they were about to kill the emporer, the emporer surrendered, so they didnt kill him. Then man let the elves take over their beliefs, so there wouldn't be another war, and the elves banned talos worship, because talos was a man, not a divine. Incase you dont know, talos was tiber septim himself, basically the ancestor of uriel septim who you find at the beginning of oblivion. Anyways ulfric stormcloak and a few others got sick of the thalmor telling them what to do, so ulfric killed the high king of skyrim for allowing this, causing the civil war. This is simply what the thalmor are. In my opinion, they're a bunch of bimbos.

There are other books in game that explain it. I got a few with me (well, with my character) but have to check their names..

The Thalmor/Aldmeri dominion ultimately wishes to reboot the universe, and thwart Lorkhan, so that Mundus (and therefore, men) never come into existence in the first place.

It's been hinted at, in the lore forum, by someone known to be a composer of TES lore, that the Altmer have found a way for some of their members to persist after such a "reboot". Thereby having foreknowledge, and a plan to thwart Lorkhan.

Unfortunately, I'm too lazy/tired to dig up links right now.

Mere politics? Nah. To say so suggests that you don't know the Aldmeri very well.

If one strives for power, as a country or a people then its politics, even if they ways its done is with supernatural.

Religion transcends politics; it even defines politics.

Your frame is invalid. It puts the cart before the horse.

The Thalmor is a faction within the Aldmeri Dominion. The dominion is a result of the Altmer (High Elves) forging an alliance with the Bosmer (wood elves), and by that I mean they basically forced them and started murdering bosmer who didn't agree with them. After curbstomping the empire in The Great War, the Empire signed a peace treaty which basically let the Aldmeri Dominion do whatever they damn well please and also outlaws one of their gods for, well not being a real god...though he does gant blessings and there is nothing that suggests Talos is less of a god than Akatosh or Stendarr, but that's not important, listen to your elven overlords now.

Short version, the Thalmor are a group of murdering dikes.

seeing as you've got many serious answers already:

The thalmor are a bunch of stuck up high elves who think themselves superior to humans

The Thalmor are the ruling government of the Aldmeri Dominion who seek to end the Empire and the dominance of man.

Thalmor was the name of the provisional government set up by the Bosmer and the Altmer during the Aldmeri Dominion. They are agents of the Aldmeri Dominion who investigate and stop any worship of Talos in the Empire. It is commonly believed that the Thalmor would have destroyed the Empire of Tamriel if not for the White-Gold Concordat, which included the removal of Talos from the Pantheon of Gods.

The Thalmor claim to be the saviors of Mer, during the Oblivion Crisis. The Thalmor claim they closed the Gates of Oblivion in the Elven lands much like the Champion of Cyrodiil did at Kvatch and Bruma. It was ultimately the sacrifice of Martin Septim that ended the Oblivion Crisis, saving all of Tamriel, including the Elves. Their supremacist ideals likely caused them to consider themselves the Mer saviors, refusing to believe that it was a man who saved them.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Thalmor

and theye changed the name of summerset isle now (altmer province) . cant remember what to tho.

edit. summerset isle is now alinor

"What appears to be an Altmeri commentary on Talos:

To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison.

To achieve this goal, we must:

1) Erase the Upstart Talos from the mythic. His presence fortifies the Wheel of the Convention, and binds our souls to this plane.

2) Remove Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility, so that the very idea of them can be forgotten and thereby never again repeated.

3) With Talos and the Sons of Talos removed, the Dragon will become ours to unbind. The world of mortals will be over. The Dragon will uncoil his hold on the stagnancy of linear time and move as Free Serpent again, moving through the Aether without measure or burden, spilling time along the innumerable roads we once travelled. And with that we will regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit."

Source: Imperial Library.

so they blame man for their mortality from the looks of that last one as without man they believe they would never die from old age as they would not perish possibbly even become immortal and not just ageless.

Have you played this game? There are so many bugs and glitches "the cart before the horse" is not that far fetched a concept. I bet if we searched youtube we could find an in game video of just such a thing.