Due to lack of information, honestly.
I am playing a Nord, born in Skyrim. I basically am a overall good-neutral male Nord, not trying to hurt the world. Here is what i know so far:
-Stormcloaks murdered the King of Skyrim (that's not very nice!)
-Legion is trying to "balance" the empire of Tamriel, and fix this issue in Skyrim.
- Stormcloaks are apparently really racist, as i encountered visiting Windhelm. (Gray districts don't seem fair)
-Stormcloaks are standing up for their own land, while the legion is mainly (Imperial?) *is the legion from the Imperial empire?*
- Legion seem to be control freaks, and a bit brutal. (The Legions i encounter randomly seem a little uptight, and the little captain b**** that tried exectuing wasn't very kind).
-Both the stormcloak and Legion tutorial followers were nice, So i liked both at first.

So that's it... I haven't spoke to either leaders (Ulfred Stormcloak and whoever leads the legion) mainly because i am afraid they are going to just be biased on how right they are and the other is wrong. I give you forumers a task for me:
Please give your reasons to why i should join one group over the other in a (very LITTLE please!) minimal spoilers way. Again, i am a Skyrim-born Nord (raised in Cyrodiil due to family death) who wants to make the gov't best for HIMSELF, so he can live happily after all this dragon nonsense is over.

Thank you all in advance

Well, Tamriel was founded by the Nords, infact Talos was a Nord Himself, and the first emperor of Tamriel... the White-Gold Concord has forbidden the worship of Talos in Tamriel... the Empire founded by Talos himself! The Stormcloaks feel that Talos must be worshiped, and Feel everyone in Skyrim should do the same, Accept Talos, The Imperials want to subdue the Rebellion and virtually erase Talos from the Annuals of history.
I guess it comes down to what sort of Nord you are deep down! Join the Rebellion and make Skyrim it's own Empire where the Worship of the first Septim-Talos is accepted! Or forget your Nord Heritage and submit to those Mers who forced an empire to it's knees

Does the Legion like the Thalmors? Cause man, i F'ing hate those group of elves.

It's more like the Legion is the Thalmor's B*#ches, I hate them too

Hmmmm....this very well might make my final decision. Unless someone can provide a good fight for the Legion.

The Legion hate the Thalmor, they just can't do a lot about it right now.

And if you thought the Great War was hard fought, imagine how hard it will be if the Stormcloaks (led by a Thalmor agent) weaken humanities position.

Plus, the Eight Divines were the Aedra. The Creators of the world. Worshiping Talos would be like worshiping Richard the Lion Heart or some other Christian Crusader. It doesn't make sense.

Even after playing through till the end its hard to know what is true there is so much propaganda and misinformation being spewed by both sides. Even the books in game are full of lies. You cannot know how it will end up long term for any one of the sides. All you can believe is what you see with your own character's own eyes.

Stormcloaks and love the ending felt better than the empire well for me anyways

Well i think it is a rely easy choice, i never side with a foreign power that try to subdues the native people to there beliefs...especially when they are Thalmor's lap dogs.

Hadvar's a Nord and he's in the imperial Legion

The second in command Rikka(?) is a Nord.

General Tullius didn't agree with the ban on Worshiping Talos.

The empire didnt really enforce the ban until Ulfric started complaing about it, which prompted the Thalmor too send their damned Justicars.

The Legion are biding their time with the Thalmor and I'm sure once the next war starts the ban on the worship of Talos would be repealed.

A united Empire is needed to stop the Thalmor, Skyrim becoming soveirgn territory especially when they're hostile too the Empire will only make humanities position worse.

There are only really two reasons to join the stormcloaks.

1: You value pride more than reason.

2; You hate the Empire.

Its hard to reply to something like this without giving spoilers. But Ill say that when you give a prisoner last words before he is executed, he normally tells the truth. Thats something you can believe.

I liked the idea of a free independent Skyrim, but I wish you could take over instead of Imperials or Stormcloaks. They both have their flaws, but I didn't like the Stormcloak's Nord>All mentality.

The Empire tried to cut my head off.

For some reason, I don't feel real charitable towards them.

Not all Nords subscribe to the Nords>all mentality.

Personally the evil is the Thalamor. Talk about arrogance.... and for now the Imperials (even if forced) sided with the Thalamor. So therefore it was an easy choice for me. Any enemy of the the Thalamor are a friend of mine, any ally is my enemy.

Now as far as Ulfrick being a Thalamor agent?? Where was that??? If thats the case...well I am the Guildmaster of the new Dark Brotherhood .... and already killed the Emporer.... a High King wont be an issue will it

Technically the legion banned the worship of talos, but they never enforced it until ulfric decided it would be a smart idea to kill the high king, who admitted he would have supported ulfric, which caused the thalmor to look into the enforcement more.

The legion is not the [censored] of the thalmor, they hate them more than anything, but can't do anything because they have been weakened and only survived because of the cease fire. It is pretty much assured that once the empire regains its strength they will beat back the thalmor. Something they can't do if skyrim breaks off.

While what the stormcloaks are doing is admirable, its at the wrong [censored] time and the wrong things for the right reasons. Honestly though if you look at stormcloak cities, they are in terrible condition which shows they aren't great at maintaining things.

The most likely results from a stormcloak victory is the regaining of freedom, if you could call ulfric's dictatorship that, and the short term independence before the thalmor take advantage of the splitting empire and conquer all of tamriel.

While if the legion win they will lose some minor freedoms for the short time before the thalmor are defeated. All controlled provinces will be in order and kept in good condition which will make Life better for all instead of just nords.

Ulfric stormcloak did not murder high king torygg(spelling?) *SPOILERS* when you go to sovngarde high king torygg even says it was a dual and he lost.

Spoiler cause I'm on my phone











In one of the thalmor dossiers in their embassy it states clearly that.ulfric was captured sometime before his rebellion and was technically brainwashed into being a thalmor agent. So technically the rebellion was created by them.

Legion is a better choice, but storm cloaks is a more fun storyline

Cheers

Using a weapon that is completely beyond what your enemy knows exists and in what is supposed to be a fair and honorable fight is in my opinion considered to be murder.

But how can one be so sure that the empire will regain it's position with the Thalmor keeping such a close eye on things. They have a fort by Solitude, and one nosy mofo in the mage college

Ahhhg!!!!
You guys are making such good points! It's too hard to decide!!

And please, for the love of God, stop posting heavy spoilers. PLEEEEASE!! Most good arguements were soiler-free, so it is possible to argue w/out spoilers.

They didn't have those there before ulfric's rebellion. They were established to make sure the empire entered into conflict. As the thalmor said, "we don't want the stormcloaks to win, but we definately don't want the legion to win."

On a side note, I would completely support the stormcloaks if the thalmor were out of the equation.

It the old nord way use what ever weapon you have if its sword, bow, spear(lol) or the voice. If you have it use it it just means your oppenent was weak.

No, not really. Any relevant information that isnt available to your intro character would have to be a spoiler.

well from an achivement/ trophy standpoint it doesnt matter you get an achivement like capture fort blank or fort blank so you only need to do it in one go and dispite which side you chose it dosent matter you still get all the stormcloak/ imperial legion achivements

well depends on what your charecter stands for

if he believes skyrim is nord territory and that anyone else should back off and go to where they belong then go stormcloak

if he thinks that the land is for everyone and nobody should have the right to exclusively own an entier contenint go legion

i found this to be generic like though so the only true differance is which flag your fighting for the dungeons and cities you take/defend wont be any different from the other side