What are the population of all the major military factions?
I'll try my best but of course i could be way off the actual size so please make your own list if you could too.

Imperial Legion - around 600000
Stormcloaks - around 5000
Thalmor - around 20000
Aldmeri Dominion - around 250000
An-Xileel - around 150000
Redguard( from the wiki, it seems they are united so not sure about the faction name) - around 100000
High Factions - no idea

I doubt the Stormcloaks have only 5000 members. From what Legate Rikke says the Stormcloaks are recruiting hundreds of Nords every day. Also a 5000 man army couldn't put up a fight against a Legion.

I'd put the number up to 15000.

Aren't the Thalmor technically the Aldmeri Dominion? Since they are the ruling party?

What about the Forsworn?I say they have at least 5000 also .Also shouldn't the Dominion&Thalmor have much bigger numbers since they managed to destroy the Empire so easily?Or is it because they have better weapons+magic?

i think how the thalmor are doing has more to do with their long term planning than actual quick muscle. and they didnt actually destroy the empire, they've just been planning to so for a couple of hundred years getting good results. not quite good enough to finish the job properly though, the empire made them pay dearly during the war, as did the redguards

Are we only considering actual races for this? Because it's highly likely that the Aldmeri back their army up with both goblins and summoned daedra, which makes their standing army much larger than a race-count check.

Agreed.
I imagine Goblins being the intial host, followed by Khajiiti backed by Bosmer bowmen.
All of that supported by Altmer battlemages and summons.

Altmeri summons would most likely be confined to familiars and weaponry since anything else would require Daedric creatures.

Unless they've found a way to summon from Aetherius.

It depends on how many people are in a Legion? If it is organised like the Roman legion, it would be roughly 5000 strong.

Uhm like people mentioned they have enough army to match the Humans.But more importantly they did not destroy the Empire because the empire surrendered,and High Elves are all about profit.And a servant empire,is more useful then a dead one.

Speaking of elves,what about the Falmer?Since there Zerg like creatures,i imagine there hosts would be massive.I fear if they actually became smarter like the Snow Elf(cant remember his name) suggested,they might destroy all of Skyrim.That would make for a awesome DLC,fighting to save Skyrim against hordes of Falmer troops:D

Also what do people think about the Forsworn numbers?

the falmer's numbers are a bit hard to estimate since theyre mostly underground. they've been wiped out on the surface but they've had plenty of time and all of blackreach to replenish numbers.

however i think they're a bit too 'zerg' like to actually organize large hosts and actual large scale wars

Having a fighting force that's large enough to sack the Imperial City doesn't necessarily mean that they match them in numbers. It could be a sign of Imperial weakness/disunity or Imperial military overstretch, considering that the Great War was fought at a time when the Imperial army had to contend with other provinces fighting for independance.



As for the Falmer - the Betrayed, own slaves from above the ground (if they aren't intelligent enough I think they would have easily been out-smarted by the slaves).

Forsworn seem to rely on guerilla attacks, holding small forts and the like. I think a large portion of the Reach is pretty much controlled by them, so they would make up quite a large portion of the Reach.

This is very hard to calculate when we don't know the exact areal of Tamriel and the different provinces, when we don't know the birth rates, expected lifetime and demographics in general. We also have to take the recent wars into account.
But from wild guess, I'd think this should be somewhat close:

• Imperial Legion, present in High Rock, Cyrodiil and half of Skyrim could possibly number at about 50 000-100 000 soldiers. Well organised heavy infantry and auxillaries are the main body.
  
• Stormcloak army, present in half of Skyrim, recruiting form all over the province, might number at about 20 000 soldiers. I'd like to think they mostly consist of guerilla soldiers, lighty armoured withswift attacks.
  
• The Elven Dominion and Thalmor, in control of Alinor, Elesweyr and Valenwood, might be at around 60 000-120 000 soldiers. Good variation of troops, like guerilla archers from Valenwood, conjurers and spellcasters from Alinor and hordes of Khajiit and goblins should make up the main body. Summons should also be accounted for, but has not been included in my numbers.
  
• The Forworn, hill tribals located in the Reach of Skyrim and possibly Eastern High Rock, might be at about 5 000-10 000 I'd guess. They pretty much control the Reach except for strongholds like Markarth. Lightly armoured tribals with fierce ambushes are expected.
  
• The Redguard military, from Hammerfell, with no known official title, I'd guess to number 30 000-80 000 soldiers. They just recently fought themselves free form the Empire, and should still be in the restoration phase. I'd guess corsairs and heavy cavalry is their greatest strength.
  
• The An-Xileel of Black Marsh, who we know very little about, I have absolutely no idea about. 50 000 maybe? I only know that Argonians have many varieties of sub-races, which should give them some advantages. Guerilla warfare in the bogs is their speciality, so I don't think anyone could ever hope to conquer Argonia.
  
• The Betrayed, if they count, have unknown civilisations under the ground and are probably in the hundred-thousands. That'd be something to meet at the battlefield.

Did I forget anyone? And once again, these numbers are pure speculation, but from my experience with Daggerfall and the number of NPCs featured in the games, these might be somewhat accurate.
Also remember, that very few of these armies are probably standing ones. They're proably mostly compromised of raised levies from the farmlands, with only some of them trained to any great extent.

The thalmor army includes three entire provinces, including conjured creatures (From their high level mages). Don't forget like someone else said the Aldmeri Dominion slave army. Imagine the Aldmeri Dominion's army like the Persian empire's army, except more organized, better equipped, and better trained.

This, I'm very sure they are.

Personally, the idea of an "Aldmeri Slave Army" seems VERY unlikely to me.
They don't seem the type.

Also, I may have missed something, but where does it say the Thalmor practice slavery?

Also x2, are you seriously bringing gameplay mechanics into a lore discussion?

They never destroyed the Empire, or even caused it to surrender. The Empire, although devestated early on, managed to come back and fight the Dominion to a stalemate (hence the WGC). And from what I understand, the Dominion's early success is mostly attributed to sudden and overwhelming attacks that the Empire wasn't ready for, though I could be wrong.


It more than likely isn't organized like the Romand legion, especially considering how the ranks aren't even the same. I would say the Empire's legion is anywhere between 5 and 10 thousand strong, depending on how many legions the Empire has. I would say more so towards 10,000 (or even higher), considering how they only deployed a single legion to Skyrim (which isn't exactly the smallest region).

Well IIRC, one of the books mentioned about how half of a legion is 3,000. So that could mean that a full legion would be 5,000 to 6,000 men. Though that is very small for a region as big as skyrim. (I would assume that the Empire couldn't afford to send any more to Skyrim and is relying on a small token force from High Rock, and the militia of the loyal holds to help support the only Legion in the province. So that, mixed with General Tullius being a good strategist, is the reason why the Stormcloaks are struggling,)

I actually tried doing a guesstimate based on Roman Imperial and High Medieval figures for Europe. But I came to the conclusion the scales are completely out of wack.
Starting from a total Tamriel population of 120-140 million (Roman population extrapolated for size but taking into account lower reproduction for some races and low population density areas), the numbers just don't mesh with how Bethesda has portrayed most of the lore.

Anyways, if Ulfric is anywhere close to a powerful, Medieval duke or count, he has a lot more than 5000 soldiers. Noblemen the likes of the Dukes of Aquitaine, Bohemia or the Counts of Flanders,... regularly field armies of 10-15.000 men. Ulfric would have similar forces just by virtue of being a jarl, and is riding a wave of popular support in a highly militaristic society. So, I reckon at full strength he has about 25.000 soldiers, of which he can field about 15.000 in a set piece battle. Add the other Stormcloak jarls and maybe a total of 50.000 men and a potential field army of half that under ideal circumstances.
I'd reckon Tullius can counter that with a somewhat higher number of legionaries and friendly Skyrim forces, say 6-70.000 men total and 35.000 for a set piece battle.
At least those are numbers I'd consider somewhat plausible in a fantasy medieval Scandinavian context .

Morrowind's War Council would maintain a standing army on the mainland and small forces on Solstheim and Vvardenfell. Not huge, but separate from the Legion, and the bulk Redorans and Indorils in the west, and Dres in the south. Not huge, thanks to Morrowind's depleted strength and armed borders with Black Marsh. Maybe 25 or 30000?


The true strength of the Empire has been in logistics and naval power rather than brute force. I would round the number of full legionnaires as opposed to auxiliaries down.

I think this is a fine bet.

In skyrim i get the feeling of hopelessness when the legion soilders talks about the thalmor. The fact that they show alot of respect for the them makes me think the thalmor are in greater numbers. I think we will see a joined army of legionares and redguards fighting talmors in TESVI.