Roleplaying an Orc Mercenary who crossed the border without getting caught (using a alternate start mod), how can I justify him joining up forces with the Stormcloaks? Was thinking of joining the Imperials first, but the Stormcloaks just seem so much more interesting to me, it's just that an Orc fighting for the Stormcloaks even if he was raised in Bruma, by Nords or something like that it just seems off, but so cool. Also how does the whole thing play out when you're not a Nord? Do the Stormcloaks treat you differently, does the story still make sense?

"Skyrim is home to more than just Nords."

Orcs have a tradition of serving in the legion to test and hone their combat skills.

That could it be.

Possibility one: In the legion, he was treated badly. Now he want′s revenge!

Possibility two: He was fighting in the great war (or later) under someone, who is now a Stormcloack. Like Horik feels about Brina Merilis, just that it is a Stormcloack in his case...

Or he just thinks, Ulfic will win anyway. Winning with him, Ulfric will respect the Orcs more.

Sometimes I think, the Nords are for the humans, what the Orsimer for the Elves. So a Orc would like Nords more than other human races.

It's up to you if it fits your character or not but most Orcs tend to face their opponents head on so I wouldn't be surprised if he joined the Stormcloaks. The Empire's plan seems to consist of hiding behind the White Gold Concordant until they can gather enough resources to fight the Thalmor without getting their heads handed to them again. In the process, the Empire is assisting their conquerors, compromising their beliefs and assisting in the oppression, torture and execution of their own people.

The Stormcloaks on the other hand refuse to play nicey nice with the Thalmor and Empire, instead they're rebelling against the Legion and if they win, they'll likely march on Summerset and ram the WGC down the Thalmor's throats. I kind of doubt the Stormcloaks can defeat the Thalmor on their own but I think their "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees" mentality would be really appealing to a lot of Orcs.

You could really fit any story into any race. He could have been born and raised in one of the holds, could have served with Ulfric and respected him and so on, don't need to overthink it!

I need no justification. My characters are individuals first. Their race comes second (if race matters to them at all).

You're angry at the Empire for trying to execute you.

You agree with Ulfric's rhetoric.

You have some other unspecified grievance with the Empire.

There are plenty of possible reasons you could use to justify it.

at the same time though, the intro gives you a reason to detest the Stormcloaks.. when Alduin attacks, the legion are actively trying to evacuate civilians, while the Stormcloaks are using civi's as a distraction so they can escape

Likewise, it's one of the things I really enjoy from the series, anyone can be anything.

You disagree with Ulfric profoundly so you infiltrate their ranks in order to assasinate him at some point!

Perhaps a stormcloak soldier passing though Bruma long ago gave this orc his very first real sword as a child and it changed his life. Now he wants to track him down and repay that favor somehow.

Maybe your character is in favour of religious freedom and dislikes the thalmor and the way that the empire has shown such weakness and implemented an oppressive thalmor policy.

umm, the words "imperial" or "empire" have nothing to do with racism

where the heck did you read that? i've played every game since redguard, and thats never been stated



EDIT: after all, the Elder Council, which is literally the empires Government and highest court, consists of members from every province, and of every race..

I ran across it first in Morrowind, and it's spoken about in Oblivion. It's not particularly well-hidden: the Empire is pretty plainly an institution founded on Imperial superiority and domination. Some Stormcloaks may have less-than-savoury attitudes to Dunmer, but they've never invaded, sacked, and desecrated vast swathes of Morrowind.

please give the exact line of dialogue please, because i've played through those games and it was never stated as far as I am capable of remembering (and i have played through each over a dozen times)..

neither did the empire really.. you do know how Morrowind became part of the empire don't you? mainly through Diplomacy, Tiber and Vivec negotiated to reach a mutually beneficial agreement that resulted in Morrowind becoming part of the empire but still having a large degree of political autonomy





the empire ideals were never "we are better than the others, so we ill show that by force" (and if it was, the Elder Council which has almost supreme power within the empire would have been made solely of Imperials, rather than individuals from all provinces and of all races), the empires ideals were more "Tamriel is stronger united than not" (with the exception of a handful of questionable individuals who had relatively short reigns on the ruby throne)..



so, i ask again, please give the exact line of dialogue that what you claim, who said it, at what point, and under what circumstances.. then we would have enough information to see if the individual is to be believed or not

Since Skyrim was my first game, I was also inclined to believe the Empire was all-around evil and authoritarian when they tried to cut my head off. I held off on the Civil War just in case and because it wasn't one of my priorities. Eventually, I very reluctantly joined the Imperials.

Anyways, when you say you want a "justification" for your Orc to join the Stormcloaks, you don't really need any more of a justification than you would if you were joining the Imperials. TES is chock-full of grey areas and ambiguity. Since you are worried about how an Orc would be perceived by Stormcloaks due to the attitudes of many of them, consider a couple things.

1) Not every Stormcloak is a racist. A large majority of them are just concerned with independence and preservation of their culture.

2) EVERY province and race has its fair share of racists. It doesn't matter where you go. In fact, if you ever play Morrowind you will find that the Dunmer of Vvardenfell are arguably more xenophobic than the racist Stormcloaks you encounter.

Some of the previous posters have already given you a few reasons for you to "justify" an Orc Stormcloak. You have to decide how to fit it with your character, but those responses that others gave are a start. I'll throw one in that I don't think I have seen yet: being an Orc, you feel that the Empire has done a piss-poor job in granting Orsinium that provincial status that it has so desperately longed for (as in, not giving it provincial status at all). Orsinium's latest sacking occurred in the early 4th Era, once again at the hands of combined forces from Hammerfell and High Rock. Uriel Septim VII was reviewing their application for provincial status, but it is kind of hard to grant it when you get assassinated. The Medes apparently didn't really have much interest in granting said status to Orsinium. So, maybe your Orc wants to stick it to the Empire, and joining the Stormcloaks to kick the Imperial forces out of Skyrim would be the ultimate middle-finger you could provide.