Forgive me if I'm a bit off base here as I've not actually PLAYED through either the Imperial or Stormcloak quests so I may not be entirely clear on the outcomes.

For the first time in The Elder Scrolls series we as player actually have a choice to make that changes the very face of The Empire. The War in Skyrim.

In previous games while we've always had choice the end outcome was always basically the same. No matter what choices you made in Daggerfall, Morrowind or Oblivion so long as you followed the main quest, even if you made different choices the end result was always the same.

Side quests have always given us a lot more freedom in how we affect the world and change it however as side quests are... side quests they are often given by unimportant people to do trivial things, or at least minor things in the grand scale of the world.

However in Skyrim its different. We have a choice as players to support The Empire, or the traitorous Stormcloaks. Each choice, when followed to completion no doubt changes the very face of The Empire. Skyrim either stays with The Empire or secedes becoming an independent nation, thus dooming all of Tamriel to Thalmor control.

What choice we make will radically alter the future of not only the map in the game but the very fate of The Empire. This has never happened before.

How do you suppose Bethesda plans to deal with this in the future? Both through DLC and in The Elder Scrolls VI player choices in Skyrim are going to not only vary but change what is going to happen. How will they deal loreically with two choices that radically alter the game? How will books reflecting on this time period deal with the possibility that Ulfric either failed or was successful?

I'm trying to figure it out myself but I've been unable, thus this thread.

Say a player supports The Empire and successful rids Skyrim of the Stormcloak plague. Yet, Bethesda writes in Elder Scrolls VI that Ulfric succeeded and Skyrim became independent. There will be a mismatch between "what happen" and "what really happened." A player who's always been able to reflect back on old games is suddenly unable to do so. Likewise if a player supports Ulfric and Bethesda says the Empire was successful.

For once there is a choice that radically alters the game world, that WILL be chronicled about, and without a same basic "end" you now create two different Tamriel histories.

Has anyone else been troubled by this? Without spoilers are the "ends" to both side the same? Or are they different, as the should be. What are you're thoughts about this?

My only conclusion is that were going to have DLC that ties the two stories back together. If the player sided with Ulfric, when the Thalmor invade Skyrim rejoins The Empire. At least in that way, when the future makes reference of Skyrims bid for succession, so long as it stays vague, it won't be incorrect as in both storylines Ulfric did try to rebel. Or the reverse where some how even after you've stopped the rebellion Skyrim goes independent anyways. That route however has the problem of leader differences between the two stories.

Thoughts?


*edit -posting with phone auto correct is a killer. Thread title makes me sad-

Bump, this might do better, and probably belongs in the Cheats Hints and Spoilers section.

Any mod care to do so? If you edited the title too to fix if to of you'd be awesome.

You should've done the actual quests before making this big post, as they were incredibly disappointing - so much so infact that I don't think Bethesda had any real plan for them, other than adding them on as an afterthought.

You can read my review of the Imperial Legion quest line here: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1287959-just-finished-the-imperial-quest-line/page__p__19426058__fromsearch__1#entry19426058 if you don't mind spoilers (nothing very surprising in terms of spoilers anyways).

My guess is that any future games will make little, if any mention of the Stormcloak rebellion's outcome. It is such a smaller part of the game than you seem to be hoping for.

I'm at work So a huge post was easy for me to write lol

I just started the Imperial questline myself last night so these thoughts have been bouncing around all day. Haven't played past getting accepted so I've no idea where it ends up.

Sad that apparently it's a disappointing end

It's not the first time...

Simple, the next elder scrolls won't take place in the Imperial empire, it will take place in Sommerset Isle. Home of the elves and the center of the Thalmor power base. Thus what happens in the empire won't matter. Then of course, the elder scrolls after that will take place 200 years later and nothing we've done will really matter except that we managed to defeat the "big bad" (whoever that is in Skyrim, don't know yet as I haven't finished)

thats all speculation on the next game. what if its Elswyr instead of Summerset? Even if it goes to a different continent it will still be important to the lore, but look at daggerfall. it had six different endings, and they solved the lore behind that. of course the warp in the west wont occure again, but meh. likely what will happen is even if you side with ulfric, they send another general into skyrim and finish Tulius's job.