So I've been really curious as to just how the Stormcloak Rebellion will be handled in the lore, will it result in a victory for the Empire or the independence of Skyrim and the complete disintegration of the Empire ?

I chose to fight for the Empire in my playthrough, I ended up regretting it in the end, I'm still unsure if I made the right decision, I understood the Stormcloaks views (I hold them myself in real life for my own country) and I don't think they needed the Empire to defend Skyrim from the Aldmeri Dominion, after all Hammerfell managed to fight them off on their own when the Empire abandoned them.

It probably won't appear in the lore. There's a possibility that something happens in the future that will make this war irrelevant, something that would have the two factions to reunite in order to fight a bigger threat, whatever.

Yeah I guess. The Aldmeri Dominion invade Skyrim or something and the rebellion comes to an end at a stalemate. With both sides claiming they won.

By the way: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Fourth_Era

Yeah I've read that, UESP is a fantastic page for lore.

No-o!!
:despair:

The UESP is terrible for lore.
It should be used only to look up game mechanics. Quests, NPC's, locations etc. Its great for that.
When it comes to lore they are often vague, incomplete, or just plain wrong.

Use thehttp://www.imperial-library.info/ for lore.

Really ? I've got quite a lot of lore from UESP, it all checks out with stuff I've read in the game. I just like to read it all in the one place and in chronological order.

Of course they don't need them to 'hold the line'... at least not on the short term. But when the Aldmeri Dominion fought Hammerfall it was also combating others. They are now recovering their forces.

If the Empire loses Skyrim then humanity is cut into more individual pieces while the Aldmeri are united and their dominion grows. Once they regain their strenght they will likely target Cyrodiil itself. Nobody will come to their aid as humanity is divided and the central seat of power will be back in Altmer hands. I hold no illusions that the Aldmeri Dominion will let the Nords live in piece, not with the Thalmor in charge.

It is likely that this while 'no talos allowed' thing a political move, not a religious one. The Stormcloaks are doing exactly what the Thalmor wants them to do: weakening humanity. The ''peace'' you see in the game is only temporary and the fighting will rekindle, in a year, 10 years or in a 100 years but eventually it will happen. If humanity is divided at that point then in time it will, again, become the slave of the Aldmeri. Nords might not care if Cyrodiil falls, and it might take a hundreds of years to conquer Hammerfall but eventually the Dominion will do it and then the backwater land of Skyrim is next.

Not if Skrim builds up a huge force of hardened Nord warriors while the Aldmeri Dominion is busy fighting the Redguards, then they send their troops in to smash the main bulk of the Aldmeri army (already depleted through fierce resistance from the natives of Hammerfell).


Nords would fight with more ferocity if they're protecting Skyrim, rather than a weak, dying corrupt Empire.


Remember Black Marsh as well, the Argonians there are potential allies for Skyrim and Hammerfell, they'll be as worried about the Aldmeri threat as anyone else on the continent. It was the first province to declare independence.