What proportion of high elfs are thalmor and why did the thalmor attack the empire, what were their morals for doing so?

After the Oblivion crisis support for the Thalmor increased dramatically because they had kept the Daedra from overwhelming the Summerset Isles. I estimate that, since the Thalmor are technically the 'special forces' of the Aldmeri dominion, a very small percentage are technically Thalmor. That said, if you want to expand what is technically 'Thalmor' into the Aldmeri Dominion's army as a whole, I believe it could be anything from 5-10 or even more % of the population considering their aggressive foreign policies.
Compare it to Nazi Germany (ie the SS and the German army). The SS are the radical extremists (the Thalmor) while the army aren't necessarily radicals (the Aldmeri dominion army).

In a nutshell, Elven superiority. Ironically, Dunmer and most likely Orcs don't like the Thalmor.

Where to start...

I'd say almost any Altmer that lives in the Summerset Isles (Alinor), is with the Thalmor/supports them. Many Altmer fled the Isles before the Thalmor rise... if they didnt like their ideals.

The Thalmor's goal is to:
-End the worship of the man-god, Talos.
-Secure Elven supremacy.
-(and the confusing bit) They want to return to their god-like/immortal form that they were in before the creation of the Mortal plane + Mundas. (sorry if this sounds "off" Lore buddies, but thats the gist of it.)
---------The fact that Talos is thought of as a god, somehow prevents this.

The Empire was formed by men and the protected the worship of the Man-God Talos, therefore it must be destroyed.



Even the Bosmer dont care for them.

Only the ones sympathetic to the Empire... The Bosmeri rulers willingly reformed the Dominion with the Thalmor.

Well, that's what they said anyway. Thalmor claims of stopping the oblivion crisis are as false as Crystal-Like-Law is toppled.

The Thalmor is the governing body of the Aldmeri Dominion. They make up a small portion of the Altmer
population of the Summerset Isles, just like NSDAP of Nazi Germany only made up a fraction of the German
people.

Altmer dissidents have been hunted down and killed by the Thalmor, so the rest of the population presumably
lives in fear of the Thalmor. The Psijic Order openly opposes the Thalmor, but no one knows where they are
since their island of Artaeum has disappeared for a second time. So I think it's safe to say, that the Thalmor
aren't very representative of the Altmer population.

The aim of the Aldmeri Dominion is, as the name suggests, to dominate. They are trying to establish that Elves
are superior to the other races - especiallly High Elves are considered superior.

The Thalmor's ultimate goal, however, is the destruction of the universe, or Mundus as it is called in the TES universe.
The short version of it, is that they believe that the Aedra (the 8 divines) were tricked into creating the physical world, and
that this forever tore the Elves away from Aetherius (TES's version of heaven) and their gods. The Thalmor seek to dissolve
Mundus and reunite with their ancestors ("Aedra" means ancestor).

I'm not saying those claims are true. I'm just saying that they did close at least some Oblivion gates and effectively saved the Isles from getting overrun by Daedra.

really?! I could of sworn the Thalmor only had a tiny support base in Valenwood, and with some political maneuvering and a coup, they took over.

The Thalmor are just a political party, or group, that came to power within the Summerset Isles (now Alinor). Once they took control of the Summerset Isles, they helped take control of Valenwood and the Bosmer nation joined them to reform the original Aldmeri Dominion. Eventually Elsweyr became part of the Dominion as well. As for proportions of high elves who are Thalmor, I would say that within the Summerset Isles, probably all of the high elves there, or nearly all of them. Outside of their nation, it likely varies depending on who supports them.

As for their goals, the end goal of the Thalmor is the destruction of the universe and being able to reunite with their gods through the destruction of it (which has always made me think that they probably secretly hoped that Alduin WOULD eat the world).

Edit: Hehe, Blacklight pretty much beat me to it.

Alduin eating the world would be bad for them, because they haven't yet removed man from the pattern of possibility. If Alduin eats the world, Shor will bring back mortality in the next world.

Ahh, very true, hadn't thought about that. It would kind of ruin their plans for destroying everything if it just kept coming back. There go my mental images of the Thalmor applauding in their towers every time Alduin got more power, as if watching a soccer match and rooting for their favorite team or something.