By extension, so can the Talos Worshippers, because they're keeping the Elves trapped on Nirn. So they can just get used to their routine torture.

Or do you believe that what the Dwemer did to the Falmer was also "right"?

Correction: Their keeping a small portion of omnicidal Mer who live in Summerset trapped in Nirn. Even then, everyone that is Pro Thalmor (And even working for them) may not have the entire scenario about deconstructing Mundus given to them. At most, their fed the whole "Mer are superior and Men are ravenous dogs" mantra pumped into them.

What does ones belief in what's "right" have to do with how the developers of the game have portrayed the Thalmor or what they are likely to do in future games? The way they have portrayed them is very obviously to be unsympathetic and villainous. I would actually say if anything, they went overboard on trying to make them look evil. Unlike the civil war where one feels sympathy for both sides, they made the Thalmor completely without shades of grey.

All this to me says that the developers want us to dislike the Thalmor, and they are most likely being set up to be the "Big Bad" for expansions or future games. Not to mention, that the Elder Scrolls have been very biased towards human civilizations (human empire, human god Talos, etc.). So most likely, the Thalmor are gonna get their smackdown from the humans eventually. People can sympathize with them and cheer them on all they want, but I think they will be disappointed in the end.

I can kind of see where the Altmer are coming from, mortality svcks. But I can't really care that much about what I see is going to be the losing side in the end.

That was the case even before Talos became a divine.

Anyway, Its pretty obvious that the Thalmor cant win, otherwise there would be no more TES games.

The thalmor goal won't grant them immortality, it'll grant them unmortality- and ruin the any chance at CHIM. If they don't want to take Lorkhan's test, fine. But don't light the answer key on fire.

Just because they will never win doesn't mean they shouldn't continue to fight!

True, but the Thalmor must realize theysimply do not have the numbers to win. Even one of the four humans races outnumbers the Altmer population, let alone the other three. Humans reproduce on a larger scale than Altmer, and besides pretty much all Altmer that live outside Summerset Isle are considered impure by the Thalmor and are hunted as if they are men. I also think that many Thalmor supporters are simply supporting it out of fear, certainly that must be the case in the lower ranks.

I'd say you're mostly right, Jango, but don't forget they have the bosmer and the inhabitants of Elswyr. So it's not just the altmer vs. everyone, it's Summerset, Valenwood, and the former country of Elsywr vs. Cyrodiil, Hammerfell, High Rock, and Skyrim.

Also, while the altmer have smaller numbers, pretty sure they do make it up with having more mages, who are probably more talented than most human mages, which can tip the balance in their favor.

If only there was a way to take advantage of Bosmer and Khajiit nationalism. There must many among those races that resent the occupation, especially among the khajiit. The Renrija Krin from what Ive heard in Oblivion seem to be a nationalist Khajiit organization. If the man races can somehow play into that, then an uprising in Elsweyr and maybe even Valenwood could really weaken the Thlamor presence on mainland Tamriel.

Also, I imagine that the Thalmor plans to unmake the world also require the extermination of the beast races and not just man.

The Thalmor took credit for restoring the moons, so the khajiit were very happy to being incorperated. And the bosmer did try to rise up against the Thalmor early in the 4th era, but it failed badly, even with the support of Titus Mede I.

And Goblin armies, can't forget the Goblin armies.

I suspect that man-for-man in a straight fight, Goblin hordes (who fear the lash) are a lot less effective than Imperial legionnaires (with the love of Empire Actual in their hearts).

True, but even if with 10 to 1 or worse odds the Goblins will take down Imperial soldiers. Cheap cannon fodder is always useful to have in wars.

True, and the Thalmor don't really seem to be the sporting types.

I don't feel like getting into the whole big thalmor debates again right now, so I'll just adress the OP's question about what I'd do if I commanded either side's army:

Thalmor: I'd never've invaded Cyrodiil. Instead, I'd've purged the AD of the blades, then proposed the following deal to the Emperor: allow Thalmor Agents to travel openly through your lands, and we'll destroy the DB, Daedra cults, and other padomic groups. In exchange, we'd end the Skooma trade to Cyrodiil. If he accepted, we'd do as we said (which they proved themselves capable of in the great war), greatly reducing human access to Daedric Artifacts, unleashing hordes of strung-out junkies upon Leyawiin, and get rid of one of the great outlets of human psychopathy. We'd try to use the excess sugar to mess with either the Sload, or the Maormer. Regardless of whether or not the deal was taken, we'd focus first on invading Thras and Padonyea. At the same time, we'd try to establish relations with the Hist, Ka'Po'Tun, and the legendary surviving dragons (I'm talking about the ones who were there even before the events of Skyrim). Thras and Padonyea are far more obtainable goals, and make far better use of Altmeri seapower, than "the whole of Tamriel", + diplomacy rocks, + the spiritual battle against Padomics is most important.

Empire: I'd've sent a ghost fleet (lots of ships with very few men) sailing for Alinor, and had all my island holdings pretend to be better manned than they were (have more blokes on the wall than is normal). That'd hopefully freak the Altmer right the eff out and mess with their tempo. Besides that, I'd also try to leverage Titus Mede II's obvious daedric ties (he wielded Goldenbrand) for greater influence. That's really all that a commander could do. The Empire's errors were mostly due to the nature of surprise attacks. No genius plans I could hatch would really have much of a chance of getting implemented with all our forces scattered.

Now, this is really rather silly to think about, but from what we've seen of imperial tactics & outfitting, the goblins should actually have a huge physical (if not morale) advantage over the humans. Shin & lower thigh protection is highly de-emphasized by imperial armor, while they favor stricking weapons of lengths insufficient to be effective versus a near-ground target. It's essentially a classic case of the left-handed advantage: both the tall men and the short goblins are trained to fight tall foes, because tall foes are more common. This renders the tall men's training slightly inapplicable, but leaves the short goblin's training wholly relevant. Having the three shortest armed forces (goblin, bosmer, and four-legged Khajiit) on their side really is a very strong advantage.

If Argonia discovered that the Thalmor seek to destroy Nirn, I'd doubt the Hist would take kindly to it. And we all know from the Oblivion Crisis how Argonians driven into Hist-frenzy managed to strike fear in the heart of the Dremoras themselves.

Goblins would be a joke. They might be trained to fight tall oppenents, but they're incredibily stupid, barely armored, ect. Also, there are a lot of goblins in the Colovian West, particularly around Skingrad. The Legions know how to deal with them.

They'd do nothing but piss away the Thalmor's resources. That is, if they plan to give their goblins enough supplies to be useful.

Also, the Khajiit and Bosmer don't do much. They use the former as assassins, true, but I doubt either of them are loyal enough to fight for the Dominion. The only example I recall of the Bosmer helping them was attacking an Imperial fort in Valenwood. Deploying an army that hates you isn't a good idea.

That's why the Thalmor blotted out the moons and made them reappear; to appear as saviors to the Khajiit in order to manipulate them. I think the Khajiit would be amongst the Thalmor's most devoted zealots.

Though the wandering merchants in Skyrim don't particularly like the Thalmor. Must, as they'll rat out the assassin for you, and they did dare to venture to Skyrim.

How dare you accuse the Thalmor with such slanderous claims?

I don't think the Thalmor did it. Shor's up to something, most likely, and the Thalmor made the claim after the moons reappeared.

I agree that the Thalmor didn't make the moons disappear, but they sure as hell took all the credit for it reappearing.

Do we even know what the thalmor are trying to achieve is possible ?

Will unmaking the world simply cause Lorkhan to dissapear; and revert everything to right before creation, or if the concept of time is not universal outside of nirn, will unmaking Lorkhan cause the earthbones, aedra and earthbound spirits to be collectively sundered from existence?

Do they have to kill every man across all time and space to accomplish this ?

And why, exactly, would there success stop lorkhan from tricking everyone again/Shor from beating everyone up again?

Who says they'd care? The Hist only respect Sithis, and don't even worship it. They seem to be somewhat timeless, and are immortal hivemind tress. In the future, they'll weaponize 16th dimensional math. They're weird dudes. I think it's safe to say that nobody has a real chance of turning them into vassals, or even trustworthy allies, especially not puny rootless fleshpods who think themselves supreme, but I doubt they're even capable of being offended.
The wild Colovian Goblins are all you say and less. The Altmeri ones we saw in Tribunal were highly organized, well armed, and kicked my Nerevarine's butt more times than I'd like to admit.


We never recieved a racial breakdown of the Thalmor troops, but books claim that the Khajiit basically view the Altmer the same as the Phillipinos viewed (view, arguably) the Americans after WWII. Racism, colonialism, and lesser evils are all but forgotten when you're basically thought of as the averters of the apocalypse. As for the Bosmer, the Altmer have old tribal allies and old tribal enemies.

They're Khajiit. In Skyrim. Obviously the Khajiit in Skyrim hate the Thalmor. That's the only reason they'd ever be in Skyrim. Its a bad idea to try and estimate the popularity of a regime by asking the exiles who have traveled as far as kittenly possible.