They did it a few era ago but they did it again on Fourth Era. Haven't you read Lord of Souls?

Haha I'm just saying - in a dead is dead walkthrough and from a real life Tamriel point of view - the entire Stormcloak invasion army being wiped out by one Thalmor patrol.

im not buying the whole magic thing because the ayleids were supposed to be super mages and were beaten by the nords who everyone knows HATE anything to do with magic.

Both sides Imperials ans Stormcloaks has no chance to stand against the Aldmeri Dominion. Together they may have chance to keep High Rock, Skyrim and Northern Cyrodiil out of the rule of Dominion for a while. But after all there's no hope for men if there's not coming a fleet from Atmora to help them - and I deeply doubt it. So when we see the next Elder Scroll Tamriel is under the rule of Aldmeri Dominion.

They had help from Aedra to do that.

Correct.
Not only are there very powerful wizards among the Altmer, the Dominion itself is very patient, makes plans that last generations and they have impeccable timing.
I have once theorized their timing is wholly too perfect, they must have advance kowledge of what the future will hold.

Maybe, just maybe, they have succeeded their ultimate plans in the future and they get their information from that victorious future that is trying to make itself happen by affecting the past.
The moons dissapearing is I think wholly a more important event than those two paragraphs in the books about the Thalmor make it out to be.
We are talking the moons here, the physical manifestation of the influence of Lorkhan on the Mundus.

That happened in ancient times and many weapon has disappeared since. I believe that Nords had at that time weapons from Atmora. Have you ever seen Wuuthrad? It's extremely deadly for elves. It is the kind of weapons they know how to made in Atmora and those kind of weapons made it possible for 500 men to slay the entire snow elven population.

The Thalmor guy in the Markarth keep said the wood elves allied with them, didn't sound like a hostile take over. Maybe the wood elf at the embassy is just a dissenter and part if a minority.

"The Altmer have powerful wizards. It could become a dangerous situation."

AFAIK, their alliance was created forcibly over time. Before the Aldmeri Dominion came about there were some supporters of the Thalmor but not a majority. The Thalmor later killed the Summerset monarchy and held pogroms in their own country to gain control, justifying the mass killings as cleansing the impure. They did the some in Valenwood, there was resistance at first but it weakened as the resistance was killed in pogroms or had to disband fearing for their lives and families. By that time, the Thalmor had enough support and had instilled enough fear in the rest of the population that the Dominion could be formed.

It wasn't as hostile in Elsweyr though, since the Almeri gained a lot of respect and support for having returned the moons to the sky (though it's suggested that they were the ones who caused the disappearance of the moons and just brought them back to trick the people of Elsweyr).

Bosmers weren't united in this. Some of them were allied with Empire but even larger number of them allied with the Dominion. But it's said that dominion defeated Imperials and their Bosmer allies quite easy. Nowhere is said how they did it but I suppose they used Imga who sees Elves as their masters.

I don't think they made the moons disappear I think they just knew what date they would come back and so made it look like they brought them back. I think a book somewhere speculates that if I remember correctly.

The moons have never dissapeared before though.
This again shows the impeccable timing of the Thalmor, almost as though they have foreknowledge of events.

They were at exactly the right place and time to take over Summerset at the end of the Oblivion crisis, they reformed the Dominion by annexing Valenwood and Elseweyr with ease, the entire history of the Thalmor is one of great timing.

Did the moons really dissapear or were they obscured?
And what does the dissapearance of them mean?
They are the body of Lorkhan, the physical manifestation of the influence of one of the most powerful Et'Ada on Creation.
Could it have to do with his heart being unbound in Morrowind?

But didn't the war come to a dead lock hence the treaty? If the Dominion could win now why haven't they? Because they can't out match man in pure power, they have to weaken them first with subterfuge, hence them pulling the strings and causing this civil war.

because Cyrodil and its army was massively weakened by the Oblivion crisis whereas Summerset Isles wasn't. The Argonians attacked Morrowind shortly after the Oblivion crisis which would have weakened the structure of the Empire even further.

The Altmer took advantage of this and allied itself with the Bosmer which gave them even more resource and influence. The Khajiit have also made an alliance with the Thalmor.

The Empire still struggling to rebuild itself and also coming to terms with what had happened in Morrowind, the Aldmeri took the opportunity to take southern Hammerfell by force. Hammerfell itself has a massive hot sandy desert in the centre on it (I'm guessing much like the Sahara desert covering the entirety of North Africa) making travel through the centre very hard. Hammerfell and Imperial forces would struggle to attack this way leaving the habitable coastline as the path for war.

The Altmer apparently have a powerful navy so they would naturally have occupy sea ways and trade preventing an Imperial attack by sea. The Imperials however have better land warfare and won a massive victory when the Aldmeri armies crossed into Cyrodil.

Summerset Isles to my understanding is still untouched by any form of real war whereas the Empire has been weakened and to make it worse this uprising by the Nords has only crippled them further. If the Stormcloaks had any real brain they would have seen that by weakening the Empire with a civil war they have given the Aldmeri a greater upper hand.

I am curious what the Argonian's view on the Thalmor is. They can't be underestimated as look at what they did to Morrowind. I fail to see who's side they would choose if any. The Orsmer I'm sure would aid the Empire. The Bretons I doubt have any love for the Altmer due to their lore. Skyrim and their natural love for war would have been the Empires biggest allies.






There is a quote by a Thalmor in the Embassy where the Thalmor says to your character that the war was just an echo of something far greater to come - or something along those lines. Indicating the Thalmor may be building up and supplying for an even bigger attack

The fact that they breed less balances the fact that they live longer. Imagine an elven couple living together for 700 years and having a baby every 2 years. That would be quite a chirstmas family meeting.

So their numbers are pretty much balanced with the humans.

How the Aldmeri Dominion got so powerful? Easy, it is indeed magic and arcane knowledge. Do know that the Altmer built space probes that harvested unearthly materials from a nearby planet. Yes they went to space...

Now the empire was crumbling when the Thalmor rose to power. The Thalmor then further weakened the empire by planning and subterfuge. They helped the Khajiit and Argonians rebel and mapped all the Blades agents. Then when the time was right they simply took out the entire imperial intelligence network. As for the issues with manpower, they now have Bosmer auxiliaries and most important, hordes of Goblin slaves. Altmer have always used Goblins are footmen in their armies.

It seems that they have knowledge about the future but then it turns odd that they were surprised by the return of the Dragons. All this makes me to believe that everything is connected to the divine of time. This divine's one aspect, Akatosh was the protector of the Empire and his acts stopped the Oblivion Crisis. Well then his Nordic aspect Alduin returns to world and brings the other dragons with him. (Alduin is probably the reason why return of dragons was hidden by Aldmeri Dominion.) But there has been nothing about the elven aspect Auri-El. I think the reason is that the Dominion actually works with Auri-El and I believe his role is to be the protector of the Dominion as the Akatosh is the protector of Empire. Auri-El may be the key why Dominions timing is so perfect. Does this make any sense to you?

Im no lore master but it seemed kinda obvious to me that the Empire was getting old and fat at the start of the Oblivion crisis. And as I understood it, the crisis had a devastating effect on Cryodiil in its ability to grow crops, earn taxes from the population etc (its economy basically) which left them completely unable to keep a proper standing army in place and without any way to keep its empirical commitments (ie trade/governence/spending). With many gaurds and soldiers having been either killed or injured during the crisis leaving them severely undermanned this further compounded the problem. And when a controling nation of an empire looks weak, thats when factions inside rebel and outside powers seek to gain from it.

Any war between powerful nations and states always end up going to the one with the best supply lines and firepower. Since the Altmer have an almost unrivaled mastery of magic, it becomes both a weapon and a supply tool that few can compete with let alone best. Teleportation of troops or stores, levitation of enemy siege weaponry or ferrying the injured to safety the list is endless in how magic could easily win a war on its own merits. And the empire with fewer mages, soldiers and stores is a sitting duck.

And there we have exactly the prelude to Skyrim's storyline

But replenish the ranks much slower. This would have them dislike drawn-out wars, wars of attrition. Which may explain they stopped the war against the empire before the final victory. Or why they made peace with the the redguards, who were too persistent in their resistance. Or why they might fear a similar struggle and guerilla-war against a determined Nord opposition.

Of course, this is just us trying to make sense of what some pimply kid at Bethesda wrote during the summer job.

I'm also a little unsure specificlly why they only mention ELVES when they talk of the the Aldmeri Dominion's invasion - the Khajiit were their allies too during the conflict. Granted the khajiit don't make especially good line infantry they prefer to engage in asymmetric warfare - hit and run, ambushes that sort've thing - nonetheless, khajiit units would clearly be a boon on their fighting force, especially given things like Senche-raht battlecats are nothing short of siege weapons (Being around 8ft tall, weighing a couple of tonnes, can wear heavy armour and are just as intelligent as any other khajiit phenotype)

We also know the elves made extensive use of necromancer to provide further frontline meatshielding

Yes it does, its a very interesting speculation.
Considering that the Thalmor's ultimate goal is to 'uncoil the Dragon' so they can 'regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit',
(They want to end the world by unbinding time and reach heaven by returning to Anu), and considering that their sense of timing is impeccable, it does seem logical that 'time is on their side'.

Consider their war with the Mede Empire.
They came to the Empire with demands. These demands were seen as ridiculous and led to war.
The war cost the Empire Hammerfell and led to the civil war in Skyrim.
At the end of the war the exact demands the Thalmor made before the war were met.
You could say the war cost the Thalmor nothing and won them everything, the Empire would have been better off accepting the terms in the first place and avoid the war.

But the Thalmor knew they wouldnt.

Edit: About the Thalmor's potential for warfare:
They do not need to use their own as footsoldiers. Its possible that the Thalmor and Altmer themselves hang back and give orders, are the generals. The actual fighting quite possibly can be done by Imga, Goblins and Atronachs.

The Thalmor can have Military and Magic advantage and be the Iluminati's from TES:universe.Homever they were greatly injured in the Great war and an army of Flamer's could easily wipe out them.Also let's not forget that one of Dovakhiin main goal's save Tamriel and restabilish the Empire.Just like they ancestor's done.

Yeah, most people seem to forget that Altmer use hordes of goblin slaves to fight battles for them. That plus possibly the most powerful mages in Tamriel and there you have it.

Very intersting argument.So could probaly,the returning of Alduin just to make the Dragonborn stronger enough to stop the Thalmor by himself and restabilish the Empire?This explains why Alduin was weak in this game.