So, this was a big deal for me. I was concerned. Some of my favorite sites I visited absolutely trashed this concept. However, I really believe it fits into the game particularly for specific races.

A couple of examples:

Argonians were slaves of the Dunmer. Excellent reason to leave? Umm, yes.

Dunmer are elves. Why not jump ship from the Ebonheart Pact to join the Dominion?

There are numerous possibilities to justify having other races in each Alliance. The major defense I hear popping up over this is "faction loyalty". That is a decent argument, but really one is not signing up because it is a race war I would hope. This is a big world and each race moves around. I hope nobody imagines they would never see a Khajit in Daggerfall or an Orc would never show up in the Dominion. From a common sense perspective this should not be irregular if anyone has played any TES game.

I do not wish to come off as 100 percent behind everything in the game, but this is one point that is generally brought up on some of the sites I frequent regarding the game that just....well, I have a strong opinion on because I believe it is baseless.

Now, as to including it only for pre-orders I think that is fine, but there is a strong argument against this, which I am not going to touch....

i keep saying that i feel the unlocked faction is good for pve but bad for pvp. the entire pvp story is pointless now. in pve its good though

I dunno, I feel that each Alliance will have its attached "mercenaries" to it. At least that is my perspective as I will play a race in an alliance that is not, by default, attached to it. I will say that it largely depends on the race in question. Argonians make sense to jump ship more easily than say a Nord from Ebonheart perhaps. However, at least there is that freedom for races that are more practical to fight against another alliance.

Ye I also swayed my mind in this, it is actually okey to do this. What would a khajiit to in a "mer(elf)" dominion, though I will not betray the help from ayreen when dealing with the knahaten flue.

Not necessarily bad for pvp, could be fun to bash a khajiit in ep or dc thinking "now you know you shouldn't have deserted".

Just to nit-pick...

1. Dunmer are elves, but isolationists from other elves. Nothing I've seen in lore suggests that they'd be loyal to Aldmeri cause based upon being elves alone. Quite the opposite actually.

2. The Ebonheart Pact actually makes more sense to me than the other factions. There are several cases in history where conflict has allied former enemies, even if for a time being. Actually quite a large number of the countries we have today are through such scenarios. The whole idea isn't that they are all buddy buddy, only they wish to keep their independence from the other factions and will work together to see that goal met.

We are also talking about hundreds of years between various events in Tamriel. We've had countries constantly invade each other, then become strong allies in a fraction of that time period in our own world.

The one that I don't get: Kittens get a flu, so now they join the Aldmeri. That one seemed a bit of a stretch to me.

IDC what they decide to do. It's their game. I was going to be Breton but now I can be a bosmer. It's nice in some ways, but if they were to revert it I would be okay too.

lol... I think the real reason is the Aldmeri have gained monopoly on the skooma trade and promised samples if the kitties help them.

A lot of it has to do with lore and relevance to the integrity of the future storyline, The aldmeri dominion would be formed 3 times over the course of the Elder scrolls timeline. The dark elves are unfortunately look down upon as inferior to their highborn cousins from the summerset isles, Maybe because the colour of their skin or the fact they believe they're ill omened who knows, Also the beliefs of the dark elves contradicts the beliefs of the high elves. the dark elves worship the daedric gods as well as the aedric gods at this period in time as well nercromancy isn't outlawed in Tamriel because the Imperial empire has plummeted and martial law is no longer valid. I find it odd however that people forget that the orcs are also mer folk and non are looked down upon more than the orcish folk.

On the subject of the dark elves though, The dark elves are kind to only one race out of all the other races and that's the Imperials, The dark elves are more than accepting of the imperial law I'd of liked to have seen the imperial be added as an extra to the Ebonheart pact but I guess it makes sense that the Imperial is on every side they're strong diplomats and charismatic so I guess I can see the point of having them being played on all alliances because I'm sure that the Imperials are evil and march under the banner of Molag Bal but I'm sure there are some who disagree with being under his rule and oppose him and want to march up against him even if it's with the enemy.

Hey I'm all for the free faction thing, but I had to say some things, respectfully

Even though argonians are "former" dunmer slaves, they would not be welcome so much in the Dominion since the Khajit hate them and hold them responsible for the Khanatan (however it's spelled) Flu that devastated Elsweyr. Other than that, most races would not look at them like more than "beasts".

Second point, even though Dunmer are mers, they would not fit well with other mers as Altmers (mostly) would see them as nothing more than corrupted worshippers of daedra and no better than orcs.

Other than that, I agree with your overrall point, that there are plenty of possible reason for this to happen.