Are they just Breton nationalists or something? Are they even Breton? What separates them from regular bretons? They worship Daedra?

Im confused a bit. Who was in Markarth/The Reach First? Was the Reach always Breton/Forsworn or did they drive the Nords out first and then the Nords retook it under Ulfric? Who then was kicked out by the Empire? Very confusing chain of events.

Why an Independent Kingdom? Why not just join High Rock?

I'm pretty sure the Foresworn are Nords. All they are is people who continue to follow the old ways and have fallen away from society. They are ancient remnents of dead beliefs and are so violent because they are considered outsiders and shunned. The Nords held all of Skyrim plus much more far before any other race had a hold of it. The Reach has just become an area where a wider array of races are found while the Eastern half of Skyrim remains mostly Nords, at least Nords who consider themselves "Real Nords" while the westerners aren't as pure I suppose.

I'm not sure about Ulfric though. The Foresworn seem to me to just be a "radical group" or cult.

Strange coulda sworn they where Bretons. They talk about "Killing" nords and such as if the Nords are a separate people from them. Sounded more like an ethnic conflict then an ideological one.

Well they may not be all Nords but I do know they follow the old ways which instantly seperates them from the rest of the people.

Edit: After completing the Forsworn quest in Markarth I really don't know what to think of the foresworn >.> I completely believed that they were Nordic followers of the old ways but the leader never really explains anything about the Nords other than saying they enslaved them. It makes little sense to me that he continued to call them all kin, the members in the prison, when they were not all the same race.

It still comes about as a religious disagreement as well as the mistreatment of the foresworn. The foresworn leader comes off really......whiny I think to. How he's just complaining about losing the land which is "rightfully" theirs. He *spoiler* asks you to kill a person who is no longer of use to him but was still a member of the foresworn. Obviously its less about the people and more about him having this power over these people and (in my opinion and here's my theory) becoming a king of the Reach.

The Forsworn certainly are not Nords, nor are they Bretons either. While they are ethnically related to the Bretons, having very similar physical features as noted by 'The Madmen of the Reach', their culture and beliefs are radically different from any other ethnic group in Skyrim or even the Empire as a whole (except maybe the Kothringi, if they still exist).

While it is alluded that they worship 'the Old Gods,' it is not explicitly stated who or what they worship. Judging from their blood-stained altars, penchant for human sacrifice, and gruesome trophies, it wouldn't be a stretch to believe they worship Molag Bal or Mephala. This is further supported by the existence of the shrine to Molag Bal hidden within the abandoned house in Markarth.

As for their history, the Forsworn were the 'native sons' of the Reach long before the Nords conquered and settled the area. It was Tiber Septim who first took Markarth by the sword, and that was when Nordic colonization and conversion began in earnest. It was during the Great War and the weakening of the Empire that the oppressed natives rose up and retook the Reach for themselves, expelling and murdering any Nords they came across. Ulfric Stormcloak and his merry men then formed a militia and drove them out, only to be arrested en-masse by the Thalmor for their heretical worship of Talos.

They are indeed racially Bretons. There's a section about the Reachmen in the http://imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-high-rock. Basically, they were there "first," and have been part of either Highrock or Skyrim all (most?) of the time. They took advantage of the Great War to declare independence, and apparently did quite well for themselves. Then Ulfric decided that the land was actually Skyrim's, and went in there and took it.

Thank you for explaining this. I was really confused about them <.>