Ok, started playing again after sooo many months almost a year and things are starting to stick out. the main thing that is sticking out is does the empire know about the duel between ulfric and the late queen or is it that they know but are trying to cover it up?

ok so backstory first, Ulfric goes into the city alone and issues a duel to the king. The king accepts and the king dies when Ulfric uses the thuum and stabs him in the chest. ok so thenthe Moot wouls start happening now....but NO, the queen sees her husband die and declares Ulfric a murderer and issues arrests against him. Ulfric hightails it out of town and the Empire are brought in.

the question is...do they even know about the duel? or do they and they are just covering it up?

ill throw out reasons why im asking now.

1. The citizens never talk about a duel between Ulfric and the king, but only talk about how Ulfric shouted the king apart with no mention of the duel, like he just strolled in and blasted the king apart and got found out.
2. At the beginning of the game, Tullius dosent say anything about the duel but does talk about how ulfric used his voice in murdering the king. no mention of duels, no mention that it was against the rules, no just says u murdered the king with ur voice and bc of ur kingkilling u plounged skyrim into a civil war.
3. when we first enter solitude, the guard is being beheaded. He says he saw the duel and that there was one and ulfric won it and he let him out bc he didnt do anythign wrong but merely did what traditions do. The crowd screams and seems like they dont even believe or even heard of the duel actually going on. Almost like its a shock that the guard must be lying type deal.
4. correct me if im wrong, but does it state anywhere on the empire side of civil war of the words of the duel between ulfric and the king at all?

it almost seems that the Empire dosent even know about the duel at all with its absence in the locals lips and rumor mills. But then there are somethigns that kinda seem like the empire DOES know about the duel and are seemly trying to cover it up.

1. The beginning of the game screams that things are fishy.
A. Why is there no trial? Ulfric surrendered and being a noble as well as a jarl, there would be a trial and even seems like there on there way to one and then bam, headsman axe with no trial. Why no trial?
B. Why is the horse theif and us being executed? The stormcloaks know hes not part of them and even know that he got caught stealing a horse. The empire has him on their list and know who he is. Why the execution when stealing a horse by empire laws either means pay the fines or go to jail? Why are we being executed when we simply trespassed? Why dont we just pay a fine?
C. Why is Ulfric gagged? of course because he can use the thuum as a weapon but could it also be because he cannot speak and so no one can hear his words?

Could it be that the Empire does know about the duel and has tried to silence it and also trys to silence it permenantly by skipping a trial for Ulfric so that the details are not known to the public, executing him gagged so that in his final words the skyrim citizens of that town cannot carry on the details, and that we and the horse theif are killed so that whatever info the stromcloaks MAY have given us or basically witnesses to the event with untainted eyes maybe silenced so we cannot spread the news that the Empire dosent want spread? I mean yes they will want the news of Ulfrics death to spread but the details that we may have known and even the details of the lack of trial and the fact that we know he surrendered hence means that he gets a trial by empires law butis being denied them?

I really dont know. Is it that the empire dosent know about the duel and only knows what the queen says that "ulfric just murdered my husband with the thuum" and they dont know about the duel, or is it they know about the duel but to keep the peoples support they have denied or covered up the detaisl about the duel in a way that most dont even know about it?
If its the first, then the civil war is even more tragic because he got started over somethign that wasnt illegal but was declared soemthign else entirely and the Empire just coming in doing thier duty when if they knew then they would even say theres no cause for this bloodshed. Do the Moot and the people will decide with our persausion who the next high king is.
If its the latter.....Has the Empire grown so jagged that they no longer use diplomacy anymore? One side cant backed down because that means admitting that he commited murder when he didnt whereas the otherside would have just scoped out the scenario and said let the moot happen and we will bribe and manipulate the results to our benefit.

i just dont know.

I think everyone knows.

Traditions and rules are conflicting with one another.

The Solitude Court Wizard says that they know of the duel.

The guards talk about it all the time and the people at Rogvir's execution seem to know about it.

They know of the duel. The likely results of what will happen afterwards necessitated that the empire step in. Skyrim's got a lot of wealth and manpower that goes to cyrod, and they can't give that up.