The Civil War is a poor man's attempt at adding in an awesome idea for a storyline feature. Not to mention the execution of the feature was terrible.

I originally said that the Stormcloaks was the way to go but that is now incorrect, Imperial is the best option.

Okay terror you have to admit they atleast did the two factions very good, very morally grey
Edit: I'm imperial by the way.

Their Army was decimated all across Tamriel, They would be in no shape to fight the Empire on there homeland no matter what the shape of there Island. That and they were just as much infected by the Oblivion Crisis as Cyrodil was, I'm surprised they could bolster the army they did.

You can fit only a certain amount of elves on an Island 1/3 the size Of Cyrodil. What army they lost was their largest attack force.

They were also fighting to gain Hammerfell for those Five Years. What time could they have to recuperate their army if they could barely stand against the formerly split Hammerfell. They ultimately Lost that war as they did the one for Cyrodil. Had Titus Mede called out the Thalmoor on their Treatise and said No, the Thalmoor were in no shape to mount another assault. Their numbers were far less than that of The Men of the Empire.

But the Empire had absolutely no knowledge of how many soldiers the Dominion had left. They couldn't know if they had reserves in Valenwood or Elsweyrr, or if the original invasion force was just a precursor to another assault.
Again, the Empire was completely blind due to the loss of their only intelligence agency. Also, the Altmer are known for their incredibly powerful navy. Any Imperial invasion force would be dead before they reached the shores. Tiber Septim himself had to use Numidium to conquer it.
What army the Dominion had left was clearly more than a match if it could fight toe-to-toe with the best warriors in Tamriel as well as their core of legion veterans. Even after five years, they didn't defeat them. They signed the second treaty of Stros M'Kai and decided to leave. This was all after most of Hammerfell turned into even more of a scorching wasteland from the fighting, of course.

thought hammerfell was always a scorching wasteland...

ignore

The Alik'r desert doesn't stretch that far, it doesn't reach eastern Hammerfell, although I doubt the Redguards would be much friendlier to the Imperials than the Stormcloaks. And High Rock isn't utterly cut off, you still have Naval trade and the EEC, although I don't know what resources High Rock is dependant on the Empire for. And please explain how cutting off High Rock would lead to the downfall of Hammerfell? The Thalmor couldn't defeat Hammerfell 15/20 years ago, they sure as hell couldn't do it now, Hammerfell has a more stable government and better resources (human nations recuperate faster than elven nations). I also doubt the Thalmor would be able to conquer Skyrim, either.

The Dominion lost the majority of their forces from the Great War and the war with Hammerfell, they couldn't afford to launch an assault on Cyrodiil on 6 fronts. In addition, a Stormcloak victory is just as unfavorable for the Aldmeri Dominon as an Imperial victory, in the Civil War.

This is not an imperial versus nord conflict. It's a nord versus nord conflict. Civil war.

I wouldn't consider it "more than a match" if they weren't able to hold on to the land that they had gained from the WGC, and I wouldn't consider those Legionnares that fought with the Redguards 'the core' of the Leigon, if they were, than the core of the Legion consists of invalid soldiers, which doesn't make it much of a force to be reckoned with. I wonder why the Aldmeri Dominion decided to withdraw its troops? Likely because they didn't have the resources continue waging the war. If they can't even defend their territory properly, how can they hope to launch an invasion? Not to mention that the Redguards fought off the largest Aldmeri Army. The Dominion was in no condition to negotiate after the Great War and even further after the war with Hammerfell, it's a shame that the Empire thought otherwise. Of course, as said before, what saved the Dominion was being able to eliminate the Blades' presence in Alinor.

One more thing, those are different "they"s, bloody pronouns.

Nords are the very definition of the empire, which are the Imperials. My proof is the Stormcloak storyline...

Therefore... it would be more of an Imperial/Empire versus Everyone conflict. Not a Civil War.



Proof?

In the Stormcloak Rebellion storyline, it's largely implicated that you are part of the empire, which is also partly Imperial. The Imperials want MORE control of their own Empire.

In the ENTIRE city of Windhelm, every NORD is racist against anything that isn't a nord. Excluding your character. This is proven by walking into the city your first time through.

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So let's be realistic.

THIS IS A FICTIONAL GAME.

-There are dangerous shouts
-There are dragons
-People can use magic
-You can ABSORB a soul from a dragon.


Who cares if this is a Civil War or not? In technical terms, it ISN'T. You shouldn't be so worried about it if it's not an integral part to the actual game.

You need to seriously re-evaluate this.

Judging that you only read what was highlighted, let me make it more obvious for you.


"In the ENTIRE city of Windhelm".

"Excluding your character".


I don't need to quote the last one. If you have never been to Windhelm, or payed attention to the conversation near the gates, you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

I know exactly what you're talking about. The fact is that two racist bigots who are also the local town drunks don't define the opinion of a whole demographic of a city on other races, unless you think otherwise, I guess.

BTW, I fixed the highlight

Thank you, but you'd also be taking it a bit out of context.

MOST of the nords, if not all, because I haven't had the time to check, are VERY racist within Windhelm.

I can go walk in the streets, and there'll be a few comments saying "Stupid elves..." or some other vulgar terms.

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It doesn't upset me, but it proves my point that Nords just don't care. They want to rid every race but themselves, so they can make room for themselves in Tamriel. They believe to be the ONLY rulers of Tamriel, and that other races are just 'tourists'.

Some of the words were warped, but there have been NPC's which have given me that option.

So Ulfric and his Storm cloaks are just Hippocrits... They fight the very thing there are(Thalmor)...

^

Well somewhat, but they also want to rid every other race besides a Nord, because they believe that those are the 'rightful' rulers of Skyrim.

Maybe not Tamriel.. but Ulfric has mentioned it before.

RACISM!

Okay, so you are allowed through Hammerfell to get a trade route going between Highrock and Cyrodil, What happens when your ships get to Highrock and can't get to land to trade because there are to many Thalmoor ships in the port?

When in war times the main supplies are food to keep the soldiers fit and focused, weapons and armor that need replacing when they break or get dull. And when your main supply of these items came from the soldiers conscripted into your army, so you tend to have a shortage because swords and shields can't be made on a battlefield.

If Highrock is cutoff from the Empire that allows the Thalmoor to move into Hammerfell to try and gain control of it. Hammerfell was renounced by the Emperor himself and they became an independent nation. Thus the Empire nor would the Nords come to their aid in defending Hammerfell, If they did it would break the White Gold Concordiate and re-ignite the Great War. With this, the Thalmoor are now just fighting a one front war against the Redgaurds.

As lons as WGC is upheld and Valenwood and Elenor remains independent of the Empire, I don't see any need for the Thalmors to continue the conflict. Altmers aren't as bad as the Ayelids.

I'm not understanding you. If you're going through Hammerfell you're not transporting supplies by ship. And what is this, anyway, a Second Great War scenario or not? There's not much TES information about this, but I would assume that Cyrodiil would prefer to trade with High Rock by land, given that the land route to High Rock is shorter than the naval route from western Cryrodiil. If this is a Second Great War scenario, than the Aldmeri navy can't do too much about interfering with trade between the two nations.

Okay, the Thalmor are fighting one on one against the Redguards? What makes them anymore likely to win round 2? The Aldmeri Dominion couldn't defeat an independant Hammerfell following the Great War, I don't see why they could do it now.

If you lead the Thalmoor and you wanted to kill man, What would be your War Strategem following you losing the Great War. The Thalmoor wanted Hammerfell and the outlaw of Talos. This would disgruntle both Redguards and Nords, the Redguard rebelde against this and The Emperor was forced to renounce Hammerfell as the Empire. Hammerfell felt betrayed by this and the relations between the two went in a downward spiral. At first the Most Nords were tolerant, Ulfric however went berserk about this, he was then captured by the Thalmoor and tortured him for years until he broke. After returning to Skyrim he then killed the High-King which broke Skyrim in two: The Imperial Nords of Skyrim and the Stormcloaks. If the Empire wants trade routes between Highrock & Cyrodil, you have two options: by land or sea trate. Sea isn't an option because it would game too long and trade by land would be difficult because you'd haveto ask either nation if you could set upgrade trade r routes in their country. If both independent nations don't like the Empire they would not allow trade through their land.

The Thalmoor are no longer fighting a war with the Empire, they are just fighting the Redguard as they were equally destroyed with the Empire. The Redguard of Hammerfell don't have Reserve forces as the Thalmoor have. The Thalmoor can send troops from Valenwood and Elsweyr, where as the Redguard won't receive aid from Nords because they aren't Nords and they can't receive help from the Empire because that would break the White Gold Concordiate.

With Hammerfell now in Thalmoor control, they now surround Cyrodil on three sides, they can then send troops into Highrock and the Empire can't send troops through Hammerfell due to the Thalmoor at the border, and they can't go through Skyrim, the Nords will think they are there to invading and they will attack the Imperials Forces.

You seem to have things out of order. Ulfric was captured during the great war and escaped during the great war. It wasn't years. After the war he was offered Talos worship by igmund if he and his men would retake the hold. They do so. Thalmor complain to empire, Ulfric is arrested by the empire and incarcerated for at least 10 years. Ulfric is released and becomes Jarl of Windhelm. Torygg's father dies. The moot convenes. Ulfric makes remarks suggesting that they secede from the empire but phrases it in a way that won't make him liable to a treason charge. Several more years pass. At this point we're within a year of when skyrim takes place. Upset that Torygg isn't taking any action, Ulfric enters the Blue Palace. He challenges Torygg to a duel. Torygg accepts the challenge. They fight and Ulfric wins the duel. Someone orders Ulfric's arrest(Likely Elisif or Aldis) despite Torygg sanctioning the duel, Ulfric flees from Solitude. Roggvir is arrested. Civil war begins, jarls start taking sides. Imperial forces stationed in skyrim clash with Stormcloaks. Stormcloaks have the upper hand. Tullius is called in from Cyrodiil to handle the situation. The stormcloak advance is halted by Tullius's tactics. Tullius sends an advance party north of Riften and wipes out the watchtower guards stationed there. Another force is sent to the other side of the watchtower. Ulfric and a small band of Stormcloaks head for Darkwater Pass. The Imperials ambush Ulfric outside Riften. Lokir and the Dragonborn are also caught in the ambush. Several days later, Skyrim starts.

The Redguards successfully drove the thalmor out of Hammerfell in 4e180. The thalmor signed a treaty agreeing they would stop hostilities against them. Valenwood has few soldiers. Most residents were killed off by the thalmor purges. Khajiit side with the thalmor but feel no obligation to really help them out militarily.