Nedes arrived in Skyrim to find Falmer and Dwemer. They shared land with each other until the night of tears in which the Falmer attacked and slaughtered most of the nedes. Ysgramor returned with a bunch more and retaliated against the Falmer, who retreated underground. Dwemer enslaved the Falmer. Eventually the dwemer wiped themselves out leaving mutated Falmer and nords as the only occupants of Skyrim. Nords settle in since there is literally no one left in skyrim. Fast forward to the third era. The War of Bend'r-Mahk. Skyrim conquers the reach(Consists of both High Rock and Hammerfell territories). Despite numerous attempts to retake it by both hammerfell and high rock, neither group was ever able to reclaim it. Neither group liked the reachmen living around the area though. Reachmen have a bad rep. Partly due to their mishmash of racial traits, partly due to their practice of hedge magic, and partly due to their sacrificing people to daedra.(They might've been content to let them be with the first two, but that last one probably went over the line)

They're the faction you love to hate

Nedes arrived in Skyrim to find Falmer and Dwemer. They shared land with each other until the night of tears in which the Falmer attacked and slaughtered most of the nedes. Ysgramor returned with a bunch more and retaliated against the Falmer, who retreated underground. Dwemer enslaved the Falmer. Eventually the dwemer wiped themselves out leaving mutated Falmer and nords as the only occupants of Skyrim. Nords settle in since there is literally no one left in skyrim. Fast forward to the third era. The War of Bend'r-Mahk. Skyrim conquers the reach(Consists of both High Rock and Hammerfell territories). Despite numerous attempts to retake it by both hammerfell and high rock, neither group was ever able to reclaim it. Neither group liked the reachmen living around the area though. Reachmen have a bad rep. Partly due to their mishmash of racial traits, partly due to their practice of hedge magic, and partly due to their sacrificing people to daedra.(They might've been content to let them be with the first two, but that last one probably went over the line)

Speaking to Orc chiefs reveals that Orcs were also in Skyrim prior to the Nords and their Strongholds in the Fourth Era are a remnant of that population. So perhaps Skyrim belongs to the Orcs!

As for the Reachmen, I personally think that they should be given control of the Reach as a new province of the Empire. Their culture may seem barbaric to their neighbours, but who are they to impose their own traditions and values onto the Reachmen just because they don't like these traditions? Their practice of human sacrifice as far as we know appears to be voluntary (if we look at the Briarhearts), and as far as we know, the Reachmen weren't aggressive towards their neighbouring kingdoms, they only wanted their own united and independent kingdom (which apparently has its roots in the first era with Red Eagle).

The orcs moved west out of skyrim into the Wrothgarian mountains(Where Orsinium is). They gave up claim of Skyrim and only moved back when the redguards/bretons attacked them.

I seem to recall travellers not doing so well in the forsworn lands. You don't have to be affiliated with anyone for them to attack you. They kill peace delegates.

Orcs claim to have lived in Skyrim for as long as the Orc race has existed (see the Code of Malacath and dialogue with Orcs in-game), and I can believe that claim. Where is your source for them giving up claim of Skyrim and then moving back in? I recall the attack on Orsinium being mentioned in Lord of Souls but nothing about Orcs founding strongholds in Skyrim as a result of that.

And it seemed to me that the forsworn attacks on travellers was the last resort of a people who have been long oppressed by foreign invaders to take back their land. They are committing violent acts, but when they don't have a voice, it's all they can do. See "The "Madmen" of the Reach" by Arrianus Arius. But as I said, unlike the Nords or Imperials, there is no evidence of the Reachmen aggressively attacking their neighbours in wars of conquest, it seems to me that they just want to be left alone to live their own tribal way of life.

Daggerfall/Lord of Souls

I never said they founded strongholds afterwards, I said they moved back into the ones they abandoned.

I'm not getting my way, instead of talking to travellers and perhaps making it seem like we're not bloodthirsty savages trying to kill everyone, I think I'll just kill everyone.

But where did you get the idea that the orcs abandoned their strongholds? Nothing about that in Lord of Souls, and I don't recall anything like that being in Daggerfall either. They've always been in Skyrim.

And what will playing nice with travellers achieve against the iron fist of Skyrim? They played nice when they took over the Reach around the time of the Great War. It ended with mass execution of their people by Ulfric Stormcloak and his militia.

The reachmen revere and admire the hagravens. That tells volumes about their cultural character. No sense of honor either.

Why hate the Thalmor more or less than the Storms or Eps? They're all just trying to install themselves as the latest crimial, err government, overlords?

I didn't know that being so unbelievably cliche evil that they literally kick puppies, speak with an obnoxious arrogant accent, randomly invent reasons to pick fights with you, have twirly moustaches they play with while saying "mwahahahaha," tie innocent girls to railroad tracks, never say or do anything nice and only perform pure evil meant they were "great villians."

Am I the only one who would much rather ignore the Thalmor because they're so cliche they actually break my immersion? I dunno, it just bothers me that you can -LITERALLY- identify the villian by their tone of voice, word-choice and every single other characteristic possible.