I didn't play any other TES games, and could use some guidance about what the different groups are. I have the option of joining with the 'companions' and also with the 'stormcloaks' right now. Are the companions the same as the empire or the same as "thalamor"? Will joining the companions prevent me from joining the stormcloaks? What about the thieves guild, or dark brother hood (which I think are the same?).

Anyway, please fill me in on what the different groups are, you don't have to go into the history of the groups....but which ones are the same and who is against who would be nice! thanks

To put it short all guilds are in for them self they dont go with anyone the empire is a well empire the thalmor are hitler and no joining a guild will not stop you from joining the stormcloaks or the empire.

The Empire = The Empire(bent on domination)
The StormCloaks = The Rebel Alliance
The Champions/Mage's = The Jedi Knight's
The Dark Brotherhood = The Sith
The Thieves Guild = The Huts (jubba's Group of Bad guy's)
The Thalmor = ??? (The Old Republic)
Dragonborn=The One who will bring Balance to the force/Universe (is You)
I don't know aht else i can tell you.

Storm Cloaks = Rebels meant to "reclaim" their homeland and to praise talos

Imperials = Imperials although lesser in number and power then they were in Oblivion still a fighting and very influential force.

Companions = pretty much a Skyrim mercenary group

Thalamor = High Elves who want to ban the worship of Talos and have rule over humans.

Thieves guild = Guild of Thieves they steal thing and fence them for a living although in Skyrim they are not doing so well recently

Dark Brotherhood = Assassins, folks pray to the night mother and they go out and kill those that are wished to be killed for profit.

Bard's Collage = Collage of Bards with story tellers, musicians, and vocalist

There are minor factions as well but I will leave those for surprises they usually are explained within game.

Empire: Thousands of years old, they used to rule all of the continent (Tamriel). Originally founded by Nords, but those days are long gone.

Thalmor: A federation of high elves and wood elves, with the high elves in control. They nearly wiped out the Empire not that long ago, but they agreed to a truce with the terms that originally began the war.

Companions: A legendary group of warriors descended from Ysgramor's Five Hundred Men. Ysgramor was a Nord hero that drove out the elves that used to live in Skyrim, thousands of years ago. Today they're mercenaries who slay giants and other pests for money and get drunk afterwards.

Dark Brotherhood: A group of semi-religious assassins, split from another group of bit-more-religious assassins from Morrowind.

Thieves Guild: Thieves, smugglers, extortionists, loan sharks. Mobsters with daggers instead of Tommy Guns.

The Thalmor is your friend. That's all you need to know.




Worship of Talos is strictly forbidden!

Empire: Bunch of pricks that are asking for an ass whooping

Thalmor: Misunderstood. All they want is some good old fashioned Elven supremacy

Stormcloaks: Good ol' brutes that want to peck a fight and defend their land from a bunch of skirt wearers

Dark Brotherhood: Cicero is on your side

Companions: Over-glorified mercenaries

Thieves Guild: A bunch of trash

You know, if you don't understand what you're talking about you shouldn't "answer" the question with incorrect star wars parallels.

The Empire = The Old Guard hit by hard times an not at it's best. Establish Order and rule of law, cosmopolitan in culture.
The StormCloaks = Nord Seperatists wishing to break from the Empire
The Champions = Independant non-politcal (not involved in the war) warband that do lawful mercenary work.
The Dark Brotherhood = Amoral group of Cultists-Assasins.
The Thieves Guild = Organized crime, don't often kill
The Thalmor = The ruling government of the Aldmeri dominion, Mer Supremicist that wish to reclaim Tamriel under their banner.

This. lol

It is a stand alone game, you don't need to have played the previous games. Stormcloaks and Thalmor don't come up in the previous games in any real way that would influence your play. You can learn all the history of the factions and their interactions in game through conversation and reading the assorted Lore related items (plenty of books in game).

There are guilds/minor factions you can join, as well as some two dominant ones tied in with the main story (you can only join and work your way completely through one of the dominant factions).

The two main factions -

The Empire - think the Roman Empire made up of a culturally diverse assortment of races. Elves, beast races, orks, humans the Empire has it all. Tolerant and largely accepting. Has ruled a long time but has fallen on hard times and the Legion you encounter in Skyrim is mainly there helping the Pro-Empire Nords in their civil war against the rebellious...

Stormcloaks - A group of Nords who want Skyrim to leave the Empire. Some of them give a bit of a Nord supremacist vibe.

Then there are various guilds (Mages, Fighters/Companions, Thieves, Dark Brotherhood - assassins).

The Thalmor are the rulers of the Aldmeri Dominion, which is the Empire's only real competition as a super power. It extolls Elven supremacy and wants to take man down a peg or two (or so many pegs man and non-Altmer/Bosmer races all end up six feet under). It has fought the Empire previously, the result of the last war is the situation you find yourself in now - The Empire and the Thalmor signed a peace treaty essentially, the Empire getting the worse end of the deal.

The Thalmor do not want anyone to worship Talos. The two sides in Skyrim are the Empire (stay neutral with the Thalmor), and the Stormcloaks (rebel against the Empire so they can worship any god they want). The guilds in Skyrim are: The Companions (fighter/warrior type guild), Thieves Guild (not looking to murder anybody, just steal things/make a profit) and the Dark Brotherhood (hired/paid/contacted through ritual assassins who kill by contract, not necessarily for pure enjoyment). There is also the College of Winterhold, if you're a mage, or wish to learn the magical arts. You can join all guilds in the game, nothing has restrictions, but you can only fight for either the Empire or the Stormcloaks, if you choose to participate in the civil war. None of your guild involvements will affect these two things.

The Empire = Pathetic band of Imperials who have lost their glory and purpose other than being servants and boot-lickers of the Thalmor.

Stormcloaks = Rebels ruled by a racist military genius bent on reclaiming Skyrim in the name of the Nords.

Thalmor = Xenophobic High Elves bent on taking over Tamriel and eradicating and enslaving any race that is not Altmer.

Thieve's Guild = Servants of Nocturnal and pilferers of wealth. The Robin Hoods of Tamriel.

Companions = A clan of wolves, fierce warriors and mercenaries that seek glory in battle and relish in the thrill of the hunt.

Actually in Star Wars Terms I think it would be more:

The Empire = The Old Republic
The Stormcloaks = Separatists crossed with the rebels
The Champions/Mages = Just a faction
The Dark Brotherhood = Bounty hunters and assassins
The Thieves Guild = run the gamut from Han Solo to Hutt gansters
The Thalmor = Sith/Galactic Empire
The Blades = Jedi
Dragonborn = No equivalent character

Don't forget the leader of the Stormcloaks wants to toss every non-Nord out of Skyrim.

Even as a hater of Ulfric, I have to call out this as being an exaggeration. Why throw them out when you can disenfranchise them so that they're effectively slaves?

Well that's basically what he's doing anyways. "Sure you guys can live here, but just do it in this low end dilapidated part of the city."

To me its more like;

The Empire: A group of principled people who are finding it hard to hold together a vast empire with a lot of outside pressure.

The Stormcloaks: A terrorist group hell bent on pulling apart a functioning union lead by a seriously deranged man with his own agenda who abused 'The way of the voice' to get where he is.

Not really got invoved with guilds on this play though yet,

But that is how I'm RPing the civil war.

Stormcloaks = Rebels

Empire = Well, they are the Empire that now only consist of Cyrodiil, High Rock and Skyrim(Morrowind is kinda destroyed, and the other provinces have secceded).

The Companions = Mercenaries dating back to the days of Ysgramor, and they seem to place honor and loyality high.

The College of Winterhold = College devoted to magical study. Does not involve themselves in politic like the Synod and College of Whispers.

Thalmor = The ruling body of the Aldmeri Dominion, who seek to rule(and probably kill off) the human/non-mer races.

Bards College = Bards who tell stories and sing songs. More of a cultural thing than a faction of actuall importance in the political schemes of Skyrim.

Thieves Guild = A guild of thieves.

Dark Brotherhood = A guild of assassin cultists, worthshipping a frikkin corpse.

cicero as a companion always makes me laugh so hard... wierdest beeing in skyrim!!

Maybe I read someting wrong, but I thought the Thalmor only had control over Tamriel and not over the entirety of all humans.

They don't even have control of Tamriel. There are just a couple of issues the White-Gold Concordat granted them the power to intervene in (which is pretty much Talos worship, and then the Thalmor only really had an opening there after Ulfric stated causing trouble).