This IS NOT a rant about the bugs, or problems with the game. No, this is a simple question regarding the Dominion. WHAT THE HELL BETH? Why did you need to create such an obnaxious, nazi-esq, organization and then give the player NO option to fight them off? I know that the treaty stops the empire from attacking them, but you are not the empire. It would be nice if you could convince General Tulius to go rogue and lead his forces to crush the dominion in Skyrim (Ulfric would be easier, as he likely already hates them). But no, I have to deal with these snobs walking around like they own the place.
There should at least be an option to help the blades hunt them down secretly...

I assume we are going to be dealing with them in a DLC or TES VI.

1. You can hunt down the Thalmor in Skyrim solo.

2. Tulius is a general, not some impulsive teenager. He isn't stupid. The empire would get stomped by the Thalmor without Skyrim. And Skyrim would get stomped without the Empire.

3. The blades hunt them down? Delphine and Esburn? Esburn is old, and Delphine is..stupid. And the Thalmor wiped them out rather easily.

Im quite saddened that they are such a detestable faction. Most people will view them completely as the enemy. The big bad, so to speak.


TESVI: Alinor. GIVE IT TO ME BETH!

The Empire lost to them, with all of it's legions. There is no way you, or even you and General Tulius' army can defeat them.

Unless...

Unless you could summon Dragons to fight them !!!

Odahviing would help you.

1. Ya, but it's not official/ you will have to deal with fines, guards, etc And they will keep showing up. Quests to do it would add some fun and actually make it matter more.

2. Agreed (on the general, teenager part), but with two forces baring down on them, the power (or whats left of it) of cyrodiil and the might of the nords would easily hit them hard. Just look at how Hammerfell held them off...

3. You can recruit for them, can you not? Let you get some more people hired, trained, etc. The cap is 3 now, but that could change. And the blades faught them before, like spies from the cold war. You're not trying to end their society, just their grasp on Skyrim.

Another Empire supporter, eh? That claim is highly debatable (and highly off-topic, though that's apparently not stopping me).

The REAL reason that we don't conquer the Thalmor in vanilla Skyrim is because they're simply not the most immediate threat. It's the same reason that we didn't see Almalexia or Sotha-Sil until Morrowind's Tribunal expansion. First we have to take care of Skyrim's Dragon problem before worrying about a bunch of snobby elves.

Think of it this way; the Thalmor are an important part of the game, but they act as more of a catalyst of the main story than an active part of it. If we're destined to fight the Thalmor before TES VI, then it will be as part of an expansion.

Most of the people in the Empire are about level 4 (Not including guards). Try picking a fight with them solo when you are level 4 (All facts are made up).

There is such a thing as scale. Skyrim is just one part of the Empire, the bulk of the Thalmor are poised to attack in the West (Redguards permitting). Should an Imperial general even think of attacking them openly, the Thalmor would steamroll their way all over the Empire. That they haven't yet is due to the long lifespan of Elves. Why risk high casualties now, when you can fragment what remains of the Empire and stroll in with minimum loss later?

Provoke them into war however and they would have no choice than to wipe all men from the face of Nirn. They almost destroyed the Empire because of a diplomatic row over territory. Think how hard they'll fight if those lesser creatures (men) begin to threaten or take their lives.

No Dragonborn, as strong as you may think you are, you are not stronger than the Aldmeri Dominion.

Fight them off? How about join them?

Funny how many players want to be "evil" and wear their Daedric armor, name their character Raven Blackblade or something corny, join the Dark Brotherhood, but then whine about how much they can't stand the Thalmor cuz they're so, y'know, cold, ruthless and evil.

See, people like to claim that the Dominion is a lot stronger than it actually is. While the Dominion's campaigns were highly successful at first, the Empire fought the Dominion to a stalemate. The reason that the Emperor signed the White-Gold Concordant was because of how bloodied Cyrodiil was. His people were sick of fighting. There is strong evidence to suggest that the elves of the Aldmeri Dominion were stretching their forces thin by maintaining fronts in both Cyrodiil and Hammerfell. See the book The Great War for details.

Well I guess there wasn't a huge amount you could do in Morrowind to end slavery either (the Twin Lamps wasn't a joinable faction).

But I think it is simply a matter of not trying to do to much in to short a time. I think the option to join the Thalmor/resist the Thalmor on a local scale would be sensible and make sense for DLC - just not a full on war. The Thalmor have been built up and cast a great shadow, the conclusion to their arc, whatever it may be, should be suitably epic.

And the player does has the option of fighting the ones he sees - it just doesn't necessarily feel like you are striking a great blow against the Dominion (because in all liklihood you aren't).

Not done much in the way of diplomacy huh?, the empire need to keep the dominion happy, as a war with the dominion would be too costly both in money and people, if you listen to some of those in the empire, Tulius and Rikka you will hear them make comments about the uneasy truce the empire has with the dominion.

I totally agree with this. i would much rather join the Thalmor.

Probably they want to keep it for DLC?
Next game?
Or maybe they just want it to be apart of the lore(If there is a gap between now and the next game)

I have a character who I would love to have the chance to get to join the Thalmor. I hope any DLC we might get has it as an option.

You might even get that chance in the next TES, heck your dominion overlord might even let you torture some captives.

My outcast halfbreed Altmer has only met seven Thalmor. Six of them were butchered without warning or mercy. The other is in the College of Winterhold, so has lived so far. That's good enough for me.

I think we will be able to fight them out of Skyrim in DLC and destroy them in TES Vl

But since then Skyrim has been consumed by civil war. The Empire has it's already overstretched forces deployed there and lost a large number of it's members due to desertion. The balance has shifted (again) in the favour of the Aldmeri Dominion. Lets not forget it was the Nords who first broke free of their elven masters and a Nord who created the Empire. Without the Nords, what does the Empire have left?

Men stand more chance of surviving as a strong independent Skyrim than a weakened Empire. And that opinion comes from one who favours the Empire.


Edit: On the subject of the war, DID the Empire fight the Aldmeri Dominion to a standstill, or did the Aldmeri Dominion stop fighting because the war resulted in all their original demands being met? The book The Great War is written by an Imperial and covers recent events. It is far too narrow a view to be taken as the only source of the war. It could be the Aldmeri Dominion underestimated the Empire and only stopped the war so they could weaken the Empire further to reduce their own causalities.

I don't think that starting the fight in a DLC and waiting for a new game to finish it would be a good idea on Bethesda's part. Once the peace has been broken, it would be better for them to see the story played through... one way or another.

But since then Skyrim has been consumed by civil war. The Empire has it's already overstretched forces deployed there and lost a large number of it's members due to desertion. The balance has shifted (again) in the favour of the Aldmeri Dominion. Lets not forget it was the Nords who first broke free of their elven masters and a Nord who created the Empire. Without the Nords, what does the Empire have left?

Men stand more chance of surviving as a strong independent Skyrim than a weakened Empire. And that opinion comes from one who favours the Empire.

Every moment that the White-Gold Concordant stands, the race of Man becomes weaker and weaker. Whether or not you think Skyrim stands better off on its own comes down to whether or not you think that the Empire can turn things around before it's too late. Given their apparent weakness and corruption, I personally say that they can't.