it seems pretty clear at this point that the empire was preparing for round 2 with the thalmor and probably would have won, and king torygg himself would have happily gone along with ousting the thalmor. Ulfric fucked up extremely badly when he killed king torygg and was pretty clearly manipulated into doing so by the thalmor via is own asinine ego and ambition, and pretty much fucked over the whole of tamriel as hamemrfell shows, the dominion are a paper tiger, their army devastated by the war, and it will take them hundreds of years to recover, while humanity would have bounced back within a couple decades, which is why they needed to keep humanity occupied with infighting. no matter who you chose to side with, its not going to be good for them since ou will be ending the civil war and they probably wont be able to adequately respond, but man is it ever increasingly difficult to side with the the stormcloaks. ulfric is a complete fuck up who fucked things up for all of humanity because he wanted to be the big dick in town, and not only that, but the broader stormcloak leadership is equally dogshit if not much worse. pretty much everywhere stormcloaks rule are absolute shitholes, and siding with the stormcloaks has you replacing actually competent leadership with awful people, in some cases, straight up demented senile old men. and as jarl balgruf points out, skyrim is going to become a dumpster and everyone is probably going to starve to death once imperial trade stops coming in because whiterun cant feed the entire nation on its own. certainly in theory they might be able to hold of the paper tiger that is the dominion who would be woefuly overextended in a war in skyrim, but it seems like it will be just awful for skyrim its self
yeah i agree. stormcloak side is retarded and i cant imagine why anyone would support them. empire is clearly better to deal with the threat of the thalmor and empire is better at governing in general. empire makes skyrim richer, freer and cosmopolitan whereas stormcloaks want to turn it into a poor shithole
and another thing i forgot to mention in the OP:the nords reverence of Talos is itss elf a symbol of their integral part of the empire,a nd the integral part the empire plays in skyrim. the Nords' worship of Talos and use of Talos to justify the stormcloak rebellion is the ultimate irony in that their deepest expression of "Nordic pride" and nationalism is actually a celebration of the Empire that they helped build.how the stormcloaks can manipulate people into a nordic nationalist movement while paying lip service to Talos is utterly bizarre. it seems like aslim chance that ulfric actually gives a shit about Talos worship and is just manipulating and abusing people so he can have his moment on the throne
>>750680725Will TES 6 have the Dragonborn as emperor or will he vannish into apocrypha?
>>750680725>it seems pretty clear at this point that the empire was preparing for round 2 with the thalmorlmaoLMAO
>>7506835732 more weeks, for now keep deepthroating your thalmor masters and look the other way as they drag Skyrim citizens into their rape dungeons. Trust the plan.
>>750683573is there some reason to not believe this is the case?
>>750683976>is there some reason to not believe this is the case?The fact that they haven't for the last 26 years? The fact that they did nothing as the Thalmor hunted down and slaughtered the Blades?The fact that in those 26 years they've let the Thalmor infiltrate every faucet of their government? This isn't headcanon btw. You literally see the Thalmor bitching around and spying on Jarls and guild masters in-game.The fact that the Thalmor are already in Empire controlled territory, acting as a secret police, that hunts down, kidnaps, tortures, and murders citizens of the Empire? The Empire also WILLINGLY lets them do this btw.Should the citizens of the Empire just wait 26 more years and trust the (non-existent) plan?
>>750683527All TES protagonists disappear from record and historyDragonborn and his wife Serana were last seen sailing east of Morrowind etc.TES6 will start with Hammerfell beating the Thalmor all the way back to Summerset Isles, a new Redguard emperor is crowned in Cyrodiil but the Forebears and Crowns are putting the new Redguard empire at risk of a civil warThen there's the tower in Balfera and there's Elder Scrolls about The Hoonding was captured on the border of Markarth/Dragonstar
>>750684479I would argue thats not really good evidence. 30 years is historically and biologically the ideal timeframe to recover from a devastating war and raise a completely new generation of military aged fighters. For humans at least. For the elves, much much longer, hence why they need humans killing humans as much as possible. Because humanity is going to bounce back long before they will be able to26 years fits the timeline pretty snugly. More than that, we are shown in the game that the main reason the empire hasn't stomped the stormcloaks is that the reinforcements he keeps requesting are getting delayes because most of the legion is gathering along the borders of the dominion, and the dialogue pretty much all of the imperial leadership in skrim treats the civil war as nothing but a prelude to the imminent war with the dominion
>>750685210>Dragonborn and his wife SeranaTodd really will do something like this won't he
>>750680725>it seems pretty clear at this pointJUST 10 MORE YEARS OF LETTING THALMOR DICTATE THE EMPIRE'S OWN TERMS OF TRADE AND MILITARY ACTION AND WE'LL BEAT THEM FOR SURE THIS TIME
>>750685210It's going to be so easy to just say TLD went to Solstheim and never returned. It's the easiest way to get rid of him like how the Nerevarine went to Akavir. TLD settling down in the Skaal village will be his canon ending.
>>750680725>it seems pretty clear at this point that the empire was preparing for round 2 with the thalmorNo, nothing in the game indicates that at all, actually. Not reading the rest of your post, you're an idiot.
>>750687956actually theres a lot that indicates it. tonnes of dialogue of the imperial higher ups points to this being the case. its said directly quite a bit, and probably the most damning thing is the timeline (30 years is historically and biologically the ideal timeframe to recover from a devastating war and raise a completely new generation of military aged fighters) and the fact that we are told that the empire isnt just swooping in with overwhelming force because most of the legions are down south on the border with the dominion theres quite a bit of evidence that this is the case and...nothing really to the contrary
>>750687881more like 5 more years at most, likely sooner given how long it takes for a human population to recover from a large scale war with bad losses
>>750685797>letting your enemy enforce their personal religious doctrine is a good thing, actually.>nothing bad could happen when they have the authority to jail anyone they please, have jurisdiction above the local governments, and have black sites scattered across your provinces.That's to say nothing about the potential for collaborators in the Imperial nobility. The Battle-Borns are a good example.Or the general lack of stability. An Elder Council member organizes the assassination of the Emperor, do you really think any of them are above treason if the price is right?Hammerfell only succeeded against the Thalmor because the elves were absolutely despised by that point in the war.Look at any conflict between man and mer and you'll see the same conditions. Men only win against elves when men completely hate them.The Empire only views them as an enemy, but the Stormcloaks fucking hate them. If you want them beaten, side with Ulfric.
