There are always at least some Legion troops in the provinces. As for who asked the Empire to intervene, I'm going to assume Elisif, if anyone. But as Skyrim is part of the Empire, when some dude throws down the gauntlet and says 'guess what, we're breaking off and kicking you out', they don't really NEED anyone to ask them. Especially when Ulfric didn't exactly poll all of his fellow Nords to see if secession was what they wanted, and yet he intends to yoink the entire province anyway.

I really want to like Ulfric's rebellion, I love me a good fantasy rebellion, but Whiterun really sours it for me. Tullius may be trying underhanded tactics to get Whiterun to want Imperial aid, but Ulfric wants to steamroll in there, utterly humiliate the Jarl (who seems like a pretty even-handed, reasonable dude, in a nation where even-handed, reasonable dudes are rather scarce), send him away in disgrace (to a Nord, arguably worse than killing him in combat), and force the entire Jarldom to go his way anyway. And that's exactly what he does, from what I understand, if you go Stormcloak. And this to a city that lets a Talos fanatic preach all day long every day in front of a giant statue of Talos right in their main square (err, circle), and is staunchly neutral. Why? Because he wants to make an example of Balgruuf, much like he made an example of Torygg, whom, from the accounts of his own court, likely would have been swayed to Ulfric's side if the man had but asked.

Ulfric doesn't seem terribly big on actual freedom, unless by 'freedom' you define it as 'what Ulfric likes'. Trading one master for another, and all that.

Make them an Ally instead of a Province, wouldn't it be easier in theory? The Empire doesn't even have enough Imperial in Skyrim, mostly they recruit a local Nord to fight another Nord, thereby reducing the amount of warriors they could've gotten at least by half

The Empire did worse than they could've been during The Great War. Sure, they have Red Ring, but couldn't they have realized "Red Ring" somewhere else? And earlier?

To be frank, this is the main reason why I do not want to join Stormcloak. Among all the Jarls, Balgruuf give me the best impression and I hope he is the one keep ruling Whiterun.

Same! I'd do a playthrough of each side in a heart beat, and I'd be far more likely to lean toward the Stormcloaks than I am now, but Whiterun is a kick in the stomach. As it should be, I imagine, because the choices are meant to be difficult.

Yeah, during the course of the game, certain actions on Ulfric's part, and the dossier you read about him in the Thalmor Embassy, and talking to Jarls and reading about him in various books, I just have to conclude that he is not an honorable Nord, doesn't *really* care about the Nord people as a whole anymore but about his own narrow-minded agenda, and that everything he's done so far has pretty much played perfectly into the Thalmor's grand scheme. It reminds me a bit of Hitler and the nazis, except he's being secretly controlled by another, even more insidious regime.

And people seem to forget that before Ulfric Stormcloak, and before The Great War, Skyrim existed as part of the Empire for a long time without much trouble. It's only now, after the White-Gold Concordat, that they really have a problem with the Empire. BUT, once the Aldmeri Dominion is defeated/driven back to Alinor, the Empire can then trash the treaty and reinstate Talos worship. I think the Stormcloaks aren't seeing the big picture: that the White-Gold Concordat will not last, and that eventually the war between the Dominion and everyone else will start again, that this whole situation would only be temporary.

And I'm not convinced that Skyrim on its own would be strong enough to defy the Dominion. If the Empire with the combined might of its Legions from every Province was not strong enough to stop the Dominion, why would the Nords alone be strong enough? The way Ulfric wants it, they would go back to the old way of lawlessness and disorder. The Empire is good for Skyrim because it unifies all of the country under one banner, where without the Empire it would just be each hold for themselves. Remember all the books in-game about how Skyrim was back in the day, when there were all these wars between the Holds? The Thalmor would love that I think.

PLZ PLZ get facts straight on the point of the talos ban. Thalmor WERE persecuting Nords for Talos worshipping before Ulfric rebelled. The whole rebellion started when he was hired by the Jarl at Markarth to retake the city after it had be captured by the Forsworn in exchange for a place to secretly worship talos under the citys protection. Wellhe drove them out and retook the city ut the thalmor got a whiff of the deal for worshipping, came down and the city betrayed ulfric to the thalmor for worshipping talos so the city would not start a new war with the Thalmor. The city is backed by the empire and betrayed Ulfric to the Thalmor, which is why the rebellion of the Empire as well as the thalmor, because the empire backed the thalmor on crackign down in ulfric case, also look at all the stormcloak citys that get taken by the Empire and the shrines to talos are removed. It may have been a ploy at first between ulfric and Thalmor, but im of 2 minds of the situation. Either te thalmor created that situation and Ulfric went along with it to get the rebellion by joining up with one enemy to create a situation that would get rid of 2 enemys, seeing the situation of goign along to stab the thalmor in the back to get access to the power/postion to drive the empire/thalmor out of the realm. Or secondly the note of Ulfric in the embassary, i either take the note as full value and see first reason.......tbh i cnat wait till this line is explained better as in what exactly it talking about "After the war, contact was established and he has proven his worth as an asset" Is it talkign about him being a worthy asset for kiling the king or soemthign in his time in jil forkilling the king...dunno