IIRC, I can't remember where it is talked about (maybe it is in the story for Legends), but it is mentioned somewhere that the Thalmor may have made deals with the Daedra, specifically Boethiah. Boethiah, being the lord of plots and backstabbing and such, helped the Thalmor blindside the Empire so easily and seemingly be one step ahead all the time until, as Boethiah is wont to do, he turned the tables on the Thalmor. Titus Mede, who is rumored to have wielded Goldbrand (Boethiah's artifact), may have helped to make this happen, and in turn the winged daedra carried off Naarifin's body. This also suggests the reason for why Titus Mede isn't that perturbed when you come to assassinate him for the Dark Brotherhood. He knew that in his dealings with Boethiah that he would have to "return the favor" if you will, and that turned out to be his life. So the story goes, anyway.
As to your question about Stendarr, do you mean the Vigilants? All I could find was http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Discovering_Ruunvald. If about Stendarr specifically, the http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Stendarr for it is a good place to go, and it will direct you to some texts about him as well.