Markarth is an Imperial city.

Considering it's corrupt, there are Thalmor agents asserting their dominance, and it's at risk of being ripped to shreds from the inside.... I'd say it pushes you AWAY from the Empire.

They knew someone would win eventually. But they planned that to be long into the future.

If you win the civil war for the stormcloaks, they start preparing attack forces for summerset pretty much immediately. Do you recall the empire ever doing anything but screw up over and over until red ring?(And then screw up again by agreeing to terms for no reason at all since the thalmor had no attack forces left) Ulfric doesn't even want to fight the empire, the only thing on his mind is taking the fight to the thalmor directly. He has no plans of attacking cyrodiil.

3 competant allied nations are much better than one superpower that has no idea how to coordinate the other provinces.

Allied? After a bitter and bloody civil war? You think people will simply forgive starting up a war which left their friends and family dead, just so the Stormcloaks could launch an inevitable war on their own terms? You think that they'd be able to work together again so soon? America and Great Britain had bad blood between them for decades after the American Revolution. The only ally Skyrim might have is Hammerfall, and both of them would be reeling from the aftermath of war. Summerset might still be rebuilding its own forces but Ulfric is in no position to start a war of his own (excepting the Dragonborn's presence, since the PC is pretty much, and sometimes literally becomes, a deity in TES games).

I might have more commentary after I complete the Stormcloak side of the civil war. What Ulfric says and what Ulfric does can be very different depending on surrounding circumstances. Right now I'm skeptical that the Thalmor armies were truly as devastated as claimed and that the Emperor didn't have a good reason for accepting the peace treaty. Even assuming that the invading Thalmor army was destroyed, the Summerset Isles remained untouched during the conflict and the Aldmeri Dominion would've been in a better position to rebuild their forces whereas the Empire would be struggling to repair its infrastructure and war industry.

If there's one thing that men hate more than each other, it's the elves. Skyrim will be more than ready so long as the empire doesn't try to counterattack(I don't think Mede would risk it though, he's too scared of losing his capital again.)


You should read not only the great war, but also The Rising Threat. When the thalmor are in a bad position they tend to puff up and try to look intimidating so you won't risk an attack. They did the same thing when they took over valenwood and Mede I fell for it then too.

Mede? About that... Lets just say you should count on mede playing a big role...

Erm

My Khajiit doesn't like and feels no loyalty to either side. She just wants to get out of this crazy, cold place and back to the warm sands of home.

honestly I was iffy either way but the more I wandered the more I hate both sides.
Stormcloaks are racist and Ulfric is a D#%@
on the other hand
while the Empire is nice and would be ideal to join are just puppets to the Thalmor which is not ideal either.

Buildings don't fight back, they also don't run or hide, they're just...there.



Wait...you (and Ulfric) think that overextending and exhausting your forces is a good thing? I must have missed that part of the art of war...



The stormcloaks are the ones being used by the Thalmor, you can't call the Empire puppets for agreeing to the Thalmor demands for peace, they could choose to oppose the white-gold concordiate but really, lives before pride is a helluva lot better than the stormcloaks "death before dishonor" crap. There's no honor in death, regardless of what gods name you're supposedly protecting.

If Talos is a god (yeah yeah, I know he's a god, I use his shrine all the time and I get bonuses so obviously he's supposed to exist but aside from that...), and if he cares so much about it I'd think he would be able to protect his name by himself.

The traits we admire in communities--things like being lawful and quiet--are traits more in line with Imperial rule. It would stand to reason, then, that the majority of us would find more appeal in living in Imperial cities that have some form of structure and consistency as opposed to more rugged and lawless (not entirely) rebel cities. By their very nature, rebellions are chaotic and violent and so you'll seek any normalcy you can find--the Empire just happens to provide a disproportionally larger amount of that.

For the life of me, Nord or not, I cannot fathom why someone would support Ulfric after visiting his "capital." Horrible place, that is.

They did it in the past with no issues. Ulfric wants to work with all opposed to the thalmor. He'd ally with the empire in a heartbeat if they were actually open to it. The empire only has cyrodiil in its best interests, it stopped caring about the empire long ago.




If the imperials were never in any real danger after Red Ring, then yeah they were puppets. There's nothing stating there was any thalmor attack force left after that battle. Mede panicked. Men replenish their forces much quicker than high elves can.

Talos did send someone to protect him. You. Shezzarines always tend to pop up when his empire gets threatened. The problem is. If Talos doesn't get enough worship, Shezzarines don't show up. Not to mention the kalpa ends killing everyone.

Both sides can take a hike. :flamethrower:

Thanks, Imperials, for wanting me dead without seeing if I was a baddie.
Thanks, Stormcloaks, for not at least trying to tell the Empire I wasn't with the Stormcloaks.
:tongue: