What's the chance of Tullius staying there? He is a general not a governor, I would suspect he will be withdrawn from Skyrim relatively quickly...

And the Imperials put Maven Black-Briar on the throne of Riften if they take the city.

Maven controlled the city anyways

And the Silver-Bloods controlled Markarth.

Edit: I really wish Bethesda allowed you to fix those cities...

I dont

I think its stupid when there is "EVERYONE IS HAPPY AND GETS THE GOOD ENDING" path in games.

Skyrim is dark enough as it is.

Games can never be too dark.

I personally believe every game should have what amounts to a "No Russian" level.

Tell me about it. It feels constricting, especially for a TES game, that you can't just solve all of Markarth's and Riften's problems. One of the few things in Morrowind that I'll shamelessly lament isn't in Oblivion or Skyrim until the end of time was the lack of essential characters. Not that such wouldn't cause problems, but hey, Maven has a business partner and both Ulfric and Tullius want to get their hands on CIdna Mine.

Non-killable should be the very least... Preferably quests. Half those characters often find a way of pissing me off, I don't like leaving them around and it definitely does not make sense for my character.

I don't want to be able to solve all the problems. And I'd rather quest chains as opposed to simply killing the person.

As stated numerous times, Ulfric isn't a snitch. He was tortured and broken, and was let back loose. He managed to do something, and the thalmor know enough about the guy to take advantage of the situation. He's an asset, not an agent. As an intelligence term, it means he's a contact that they can use in some manner. And as they said, they can't contact him anyways.

The thalmor want neither side to win the civil war, which is why they fuel the stormcloak war machine because face it, they would be crushed otherwise.

Really, in the end, both sides want the same thing. The Empire way is just to subtle for Ulfric and some nords, and it started a war.

Let's bring into account though the dragonborn. The Thalmor don't anticipate him. The Empire doesn't. Ulfric doesn't. He's the first legitimate heir to the sundered throne and it just so happens a vacancy is made just as the dragonborn shows up.

Regardless of the outcome of the civil war, at this time there is more than enough wriggle room that could see the dragonborn being the next emperor, starting the next dynasty, and truly ushering in the 4th age and the 4th empire.

The dragonborn is not a legitimate heir to anything

The Amulet of Kings is gone and the Dragonfires are replaced by the statue of Akatosh, this Dragonborn requirement to be Emperor has been long removed.

Plus, I'm not sure most people would want a werewolf Saxhleel ruling everyone. Or a nord who pillaged and burned a lot of villages held by the empire in Skyrim. Or a kitty.