I keep having trouble choosing sides in the civil war.. I usually go with imperials because I have yet to play a nord. However it occured to me.. when the game makers create a new Elder Scrolls game and IF it takes place in the future, the game makers themselves will have to somehow decide who won the civil war so they can add it to the lore of the gaming world. Looking at it from that perspective it makes me wonder who will they choose. It seems that Ulfric, being a strong character would be the one that they would pick to want to write lore about. A stormcloak rebellion and how it further shaped Skyrim seems a likely path.

What do you guys think of how all this will fit into future lore of the game world? I guess they could simply ignore it all and not ever write about it.

I love these threads. I have my own opinions (as I have not yet explicity chosen a side yet), but I really love the ideas people toss around.

I'm guessing from the looks of it the Empire is well on it's way to complete downfall either way..

Beth typically doesn't like to say one side is canon in situations like this. They'll "canon"ly resolve it in future releases in a way that doesn't alienate either side. History of the event will be vague, one side contributed troops to the counteroffensive against the thalmor, but things were so chaotic no one really knows how things ended in skyrim.

Stormcloaks will definitely give them more to play with lore-wise. Who knows though?

Not likely...

It's more probable that they will give a small info, without giving more details that after the civil war the human races finally joined once again to give their last stand against the Dominion.

Well, you can talk to the old king of Solitude in Sovngarde, and you learn that his and Ulfric's Duel wasn't exactly fair. Ulfric didn't just ground him with the thu'um.
Quote from the High King
"When Ulfric Stormcloak, with savage Shout, sent me here, my sole regret was fair Elisif, left forlorn and weeping.""I faced him fearlessly - my fate inescapable, yet my honor is unstained - can Ulfric say the same?"

edit: I personally believe that, eventually, Skyrim will be realigned to the empire in sole dully hinted at manner. You will hear some details, but the whole truth and all the facts for the reunion will be unknown.

I also think that the empire is going to collapse. The empire as many of us know was ruled by the septim bloodline. The empire today is weak and corrupted. Besides many of you guys know that Emperor Titus Mede II is assassinated by the Dark Brotherhood. This leave the throne empty once again as Titus did not have any known son.

I bet the stormcloak will play a role in the future.

It can be also explained that his son ( that we might don't know of ) or someone else who has grew tired of the Dominion sticking their noses everywhere and ordered the assassination.

Maybe a new Empire will be born...

Seriously though, we can all just give wild quesses.


Also, I don't think Bethesda will develop a plot that could "hurt" anyones choices.

Maybe the empire came together under a new bloodline and the emperor/emperess united the provinces and kicked the thalmor out
(P.S. maybe you could be the savior of the empire in the next TES

On a practical level, I think the outcome is already predetermined by whatever quest line that may or may not get introduced later on in the form of DLC.
The only variable will be the name of the faction of the player, just like now.

If a powerfull Nord warlord from Skyrym takes the imperial throne that could have a lot pf positive effects like saving the empire and uniting the nords with it again.

They definitely aren't going to pick one side.

A better line of questions would be;
Is the Empire going to fall or not?
If it is, then the Stormcloaks just made it happen quicker. If it isn't, then the Stormcloaks were just a thorn in its side.
Can a new Empire be built?
If it can be, maybe a free Skyrim and Hammerfell can begin the process. If it can't, then it might be more desirable to fight for the "only chance" of the Empire.


Regardless of the players' decisions, TESVI will almost certainly be a future where all possible decisions were made simultaneously, and then somehow tied together into a final outcome.

Won't matter the player ends up being ether being High King then the new Emperor or some even occurs to make the civil war a mute point basically killing off the winning side.

Though cannonly Ulfric probably wins. Honestly without that whole racist thing which you don't see happening most gamers would have to go for Ulfric because he is just more upstanding than the General.

Point of view.

When in doubt... Dragon Break.

I think they are just gonna say in the end that after the war Dovakhiin was choosen High King in the end, cause its hard to choose one of two to win.

I think it's kinda obvious. The Empire and the Stormcloaks unite because no matter what the other side is present at the end of the "War" with just one being small contingencies.

They unite to kick out the Thalmor, Thalmor get kicked out, Dragoborn is the hero and the day is saved.

The only thing I can't quite figure out is if the Dragonborn will become Emperor (Which I really don't think will happen just because the Emperor has to be human) or if the Empire will get a new bloodline (which I think the empire is long overdue for).

10 Septims they write a book ingame called Warp Of The North/The Civil War that explains the events of Skyrim.

The thing is.. they made a pretty big character out of Ulfric. I don't see how they can easily write him off or not talk about him in the future. As far as I know he's the only other normal guy in Skyrim who can shout. (besides drrugr.. those dead guys can just "ka pow" you any time they want.)

I believe that the future would be what would happen if either side won.
Stormcloaks win: Skyrim is now no longer a part of Tamriel, and is no longer in control of the Thalmor. A future war against the High Elves or an alliance with the Imperials is still possible.
Imperials win: The empire still holds Skyrim as well as the Thalmor. The Thalmor may conquer the empire or vice versa.

In the end, I believe there may be an uprising of the Thalmor that may be addressed in the next game. Perhaps the aftermath of a high elf empire of Tamriel or a great divide cutting the empire in half. The Summerset Isles may appear in the next game, although it is my favorite, I hope it will be saved for last.

It wasn't fair? You could say the same to any other fight where one person bothered to train to death, and where the other didn't.

Ulfric isn't a Dragonborn, so he had to learn how to Shout the hard way. And the hard way involves to train several years to learn even the simplest of the shouts. If the ex-High King (which was also a Nord, and thus capable of learning how to Shout) didn't bothered to learn or practise, it's his fault. But they both had equal capability from the start.

So yes, it was a pretty fair fight to me.

I would agree on this.
Likely it is simply never mentioned again, except in vague terms that do not touch on any details.

Maybe a truce to fight the real threat? The Thalmor?

I think that could happen.
While the events of Skyrim are important in the scope of the game, the bigger picture is the Thalmor storyline.