The Thalmor are the enemy of the Empire as well as the Stormcloaks. There's a tenuous truce in place but siding with the Empire is far from siding with the Thalmor.

Also, it doesn't necessarily matter if Ulfric himself is a racist, his organization however is obviously deeply racist.

If it concerns sides of the Civil War then siding Empire is essentially siding Thalmor. The Civil War basically begun because the Empire was enforcing the Aldmeri Talos ban alongside the Thalmor in Skyrim and Ulfric seized the opportunity to be the pro-Skyrim poster child (likely with other motives), starting a rebellion. The Legion might not like the Thalmor but the Emperor gave in to their demands and lets them police his lands....the Empire is really leaving a bad taste this time and will likely come to an end in TES 6.

We have reason to think that the Talos ban is more like the last straw for a people that increasingly find a problem with Imperial Rule. Like Gerdur flat out saying it was the last straw. And this book: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Skyrim%27s_Rule

But as I prepared to leave Skyrim, I could feel a change in the air, sense the trepidation of some of the good Nord people. Many seemed unhappy with the Empire's continued presence in their land. And the outlawing of the worship of http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Tiber_Septim as the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Nine_Divines - a stipulation of the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:White-Gold_Concordat, the peace treaty between the Empire and http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Aldmeri_Dominion - has only strengthened that division.

All this.

Plus, it's also worth considering that the Nord may not be from Skyrim. That too may factor into the decision to join the Emperor's Legions.

If you think about it, though, siding with the Stormcloaks weakens the Imperial Legion which strengthens the Thalmor. If you look at it from the longer perspective, the Emperor had to side with the Thalmor demands just to buy enough time to gain enough strength to actually defeat the Aldmeri Dominion. Now, I'm not sure why the Thalmor aid the Empire against the Stormcloaks. You'd think they would be aiding both sides to prolong the conflict and make the Empire even weaker.

If you want to talk longterm, there is one little piece of information you should know about the Empire:

There are plenty of reasons why a Nord would join the Legion. Most of them have already been mentioned by others in this thread.

Another reason is that perhaps a Nord's family has served in the Legion for many generations.

Already mentioned

Ulfric Stromcloak used to be in the Imperial legion and fought for them during the Great War. He just became selfish and power hungry when he became jarl of Windhelm. While I do feel some sympathy for him because of his imprisonment, the Thalmor are just using him as a pawn to weaken Skyrim and the Empire so that they can easily take over. A true Nord would join the legion and cast his/her own pride to one side for the greater good since it was Tiber Septim aka Talos who founded the Empire.

I stand corrected.

That's what I get for reading too fast.

Imperial armor is even worse than Iron armor. A Stormcloak cuirass has the same armor rating but is much more lighter.

I'm wondering, have you actually talked to Ulfric about his cause, or listened to Galmar or any of the generic commanders in their camps? I'm not advocating taking their word at face value, but actually entertaining the possibility that they are genuine.

Of course, I'd recommend to not take Rikke's word at face value either(whom you paraphrase rather accurately here). As a Legion Legate, she is a very biased source and her words regarding Ulfric and the Stormcloaks have to be taken with care. As a rule, you shouldn't assume that the negative* the sides say about the other one and its members is true without evidence to back it up. And even then you have to measure it up against evidence to the contrary, if there is any on that specific topic.

In short, don't assume pro-Empire people are honest or accurate about the Stormcloaks, or vice versa. There is too much value is giving your enemy negative propaganda. Dismiss anything that does not have evidence to support it against scrutiny.

*Edited for clarity. If a pro-Stormcloak source says something positive about the Empire, or a pro-Empire source says something positive about the Stormcloaks it has quite a bit of validity, given that there is no intrinsic value in lying about it for the ones involved. It should still be measured against evidence though, if any exists.

No pants while stationed in Skyrim... We're talking frost damage on the family jewels here...

There are plenty of Nords in the Legion.........

The Thalmor in Skyrim take credit for using Ulfric to start the civil war, and consider it a priority to keep the war in progress...I'd have to say that the civil war benefiting the Thalmor is an established fact. I don't really care what Ulfric claims his reasons are, or even if he believes those reasons himself...his actions clearly benefit the Thalmor and near as I can make out aren't doing any good for anyone else.

Which is not to say that none of my characters will ever join his cause. As someone said earlier, what is obvious from out here may be completely obscured from various characters viewpoints in the game.

Nords are 50% frost resistant...I'd guess they only take damage to one jewel.

So did Vignar Grey-Mane and many other Nords but that was fighting against the Aldmeri Dominion, once the next Emperor gave into their demands and outlawed Talos then men who once fought for the Legion now turned their backs and shook their head.

The Empire that Tiber established drove out the Aldmeri Dominion....the current Empire supports them and allows them to abduct Nords at will in their homeland (Tullius is aware of Thorald being taken away and tortured).

Given that the Empire upholds the WGC, they are doing just as much to weaken themselves. Letting the Thalmor legally go around arresting and torturing people(great way of getting useful information) on so vague grounds that pretty much every Imperial and Nord can be arrested at a whim(being suspected of having knowledge of a Cult of Talos is enough, as witnessed by the prisoners the Thalmor can be found escorting around and asking them what he did) under the authority of the Empire. Major security leak.

Accepting the WGC also alienated them from Hammerfell, so that is another major mistake on the Empire's part. And they agreed to let the Blades be hunted down, which is another major problem. Strange how giving the Thalmor everything they wanted works in their favor.

Short term, I can see Ulfric's rebellion being a negative(just like Amaund Motierre's actions), but since it'd free another nation from the WGC if he succeeds, a nation that cannot be realistically invaded from the Dominion in current time, I'm fairly certain that it'd be a better outcome in the longrun.

The Thalmor forced the Empire into the Talos ban...apparently knowing that rather than preparing for the inevitable next war with the elves the Empire would be torn apart...how did they know that resentment in Skyrim would be directed at the Empire and disrupt preparations rather than directed at the Thalmor and fuel even faster preparations?

Because they could count on Ulfric Stormcloak.

Either because they were directing him or just knew him well enough to anticipate his response. Either way, rather than use his influence to push for preparing for war with the elves he opted to squander valuable resources ion both sides of a civil war. I do think one side can handily take all the blame...but again, that's the view from outside the game. I'd have no problems playing a Stormcloak leaning character.

And if no one rebels, the Thalmor continues to walk around in Skyrim, using their Imperial Sanctioned powers to gather information and pushing buttons on important families, and buying the ones they can(like Erikur), just like they can in Cyrodiil. And High Rock.

We have a choice between choosing the side that doesn't give the Thalmor everything they wanted, or a side that does give the Thalmor everything they wanted with

I've always wondered if there was a diplomatic way to release him if you're with the Empire but I've only made 1 who joined the Legion and they were an Altmer who didn't care about helping Nords like Thorald.

It still takes your actions to get Tullius to sign release orders otherwise he stands idly by and allows such injustice to happen just like he stands idly by as we were about to be unjustly executed.

They really paint the Empire in a bad way for this game, naturally they have to balance it out a bit by making Ulfric trixxy but it's still hard to justify joining the Legion as a Nord...you're siding with those that allow the Thalmor to do what they please in your homeland, taking away your kinsmen at will to torture and kill them. That's why I said earlier that the only way I can reason why a Nord would join them is out of supreme hatred for Ulfric and therefore chooses to side with the enemy of his enemy to destroy Ulfric and his followers.

off topic