It's kinda difficult to keep this topic going without getting into some spoilers for people... Possible move?

Boom diddly.

Yes. I'm pretty sure the ones I chose could not have been Canon.

Then again, who hears about ANY of the possible endings?

Ok it's been years but lessee.
Forgotten King? I think that's what he was called. Anyone hear of him? If you didn't choose him he should still be around and I'm pretty sure the ending which would kill him off would never be considered canon.

Some sort of collosal golem which would help the Empire. I don't recall ever hearing of that in any post-Daggerfall lore. If I had to pick one as the canon ending that would be the one.

Several others which I can't even remember now.

As several have pointed out, since the next TES is pretty much assured to NOT be in Skyrim, it'll just be things happening in a far off province of no immediate relevance to what's going on.

Yeah, Tullius svcks.

Really, probably this.

All that aside, I think the solution is pretty simple. The next game will take place in sommerset isles and will deal with the Thalmor (The Thalmor is just a faction in the dominion that currently has power). Once the thalmor are dealth with and the dominion isn't bent on subjegating all of Tamrial the empire will be released from the White-gold concordat and the nords will have no reason to continue rebelling.

Thalmor wins, Stormcloaks die, everyone is happy.

It wasnt a hard decision at all. Ulfric can hardly be said to be rightful king by fair combat using the voice. One guy has a pistol, the other guy has a pistol and a nuke. Hardly fair. Plus Imperial law supercedes the old way. Plus Ulfric is just a power monger who was a Thalmor lackey until he had enough power to tell them off. Plus the whole thing about outlawing Talos is a Thalmor plot the Stormcloaks are wilfully and ignorantly playimg out. Plus the Stormcloaks are only 3x as racist as the Empire, which takes some doing. Plus they are hypocrites, since they did to the Forsworn what they are complaining the Empire is doing to them. Bethesda couldnt have written a more cut and dry choice, execution via blind bureaucracy against my PC notwithstanding. But big picture: Rome in decline but still powerful? Or the KKK. Easy pick, really.

So from a personal perspective, the choice wasnt even close.

From a lore perspective, I think any option could work. Maybe the Dragonborn is Argonian and helps set up the Reign of the Black Marsh. Or whatever. Should be interesting which ever way they go.

The events of Oblivion happened just a few years after Morrowind, so the next game does not have to be 200 years after this one. In fact, they could very well go back in time to another series of events.

All possible outcomes happen a la deus ex style ulfric wins but it wasnt in the way he wanted or imperials win but skyrim becomes independant due to a new turn of events

I really hope they break their ambiguity and just be frank about it. X won, simple as that.
Cause I don't want their damn ambiguity to affect Fallout.

I think the best way to handle this would be to simply pull a Warcraft 1 and 2, and simply choose which one is cannon to the lore of the game.

Indeed the choice is difficult. I still haven't sided with either. I keep putting that off and doing other side quests hoping, along the way, to learn more about both sides so that I can make a more informed choice. I love this game.

Wasn't a hard choice for me, Ulfric is a racist, murdering bastard. If he won, Skyrim would be open to Thalmor invasion.

I signed up with The Imperial Legion almost right away.

Also, what Gabrial said.

either way the thalmor will win.

This.

But for [censored]s sake not a warp in the north. Also, SC all the way!

I also believe the Empire will eventually disappear, they only hold three provinces right now, two without skyrim.

I love when players can not understand why they are given free choice in an RPG. If you want a linear action game where you just follow the story without having to put any thought into your decisions then you are playing a plain adventure game. RPGs give you the option the influence the world however you want, but each installment is a self contained 'alternate reality'. The player may get to fool around with the world as that is part of the game mechanics, but that has nothing to do with how the developers will have the overarching story unfold.

I have no idea why players think that they have any real influence over where the developers take a series just because they are allowed to ROLE-PLAY like the game allows. Freedom of choice does not mean the player is given any control over what the developers decide will continue to the next title. Choice is allowed to give players the opportunity to role-play different characters.

I guess many players need to learn how an RPG functions. It is a different way of interacting with a game than they are used to.

And this is related to the topic because.

We are just acting in accordance of what Beth has done until now.

If players can not fathom a binary choice, how could they possibly understand games like the Fallout series. When developers start to change series for the demographic that can not understand that binary choice it hurts the RP part of an RPG.

Sorry if I got a bit ranty.

I was thinking the whole Aldmeri Dominion was an intrigue to be used in a future MMO Elder Scrolls. Didn't Bethesda purchase the domain name Elderscrollsonline?

It pretty much sets up a Tamrielic reality of sides where players play their part in either Dominion or Empire.

Just a thought.

The most probable thing is:

Stormcloaks win - the Thalmor find it as an excuse and attack Tamriel.
Empire wins - the Thalmor betray the treaty and attack Tamriel.

The note will say "the petty squabbles of both sides led to the Almeri Dominion taking advantage of the situation and conquering us"

It seems only logical that the outcome is going to be a Thalmor Victory.

Really, this is precisely what the Thalmor wanted when they made the Empire outlaw Talos Worship, the same thing they did when they forced the Empire's hand with Hammerfall, they want the Empire to be weak, and either way the result of this game will be a weakened Empire, which is likely all Bethesda is going to say about it, a Stormcloak victory will almost certainly be short-lived, it will just mean more pain

My imagination puts the next game in either two scenarios

1) Tamriel is now under an oppressive and clearly omnicidal Thalmor regime, any lore from previous games mentions simply how the Empire fell losing provinces one by one, the emphasis will be put more on the return of the Dragons than the civil war, allowing for a moment of mention to the previous game, before it continues on talking about how the Empire played into the Thalmor's hand and weakened fell to them.

2) Something absurdly different that I believe has been mentioned, the Dragonborn ascends to the Imperial Throne through some convoluted means and the civil war is mentioned only in passing reference to how he or she quelled it.

I believe they will take a side, based on what is more likely and who the Dovahkiin is more likely to join.

As I constantly struggle with this choice in the game a quote from Paathurnax always sounds in my head.

Even from my favorite book novels of Dune it was once said that "All great empires must serve their time then fall." Probably quoted in many books prior in both fiction and non.

I don't think that victory for either side is a valid option for lore, just see the nerevarine and what you thought what's going to happen to him and what DID happen to him? He just sailed for akavir lmao. An akaviri invasion under their new ruler the never aging nerevarine is more likely than a victory of 1 side in the civil war, gonna be something like so yeah they fought for years and no side could gain the upper hand and at one point the bullies landed on the shores of skyrim laying waste to everything they encoutered and slaughtering both the imperials as the stormcloacks.