i was wondering if you needed to be invited to join the stormcloaks in order to be able to. i followed the imperial soldier out of helgen to get the help of the smith in riverwood, but i want to join the stormcloaks. can i just go ask to join them?

Yes go to Windhelm and speak to Ulfric Stormcloak

Yes, it doesn't matter who you follow in the beginning.

Yes you can, but you shouldn't, seeing as Ulfric is a [censored]

really not necessary; he only asked how to join, not if he should join, so no need to turn this into a giant arguement

u can talk to any stormcloak npc to get the quest. well this is how i gained the quest 3 times now.

Thanks!