Ulfric,and the storm-cloaks in general are not only helped alduin arise,but also helped the thalmor. The thalmor are more obvious.With the empire divided,they have neither the time or resources to drive out the thalmor,and that's just the way the aldmeri like it. If the storm-cloaks destroy the empire,the aldmeri would wipe them out without a thought.The entire empire couldn't defeat the thalmor,I doubt the storm-cloaks can.

Alduin is more of a theory of mine,but a very solid one.A quote from the loading screen is And the scrolls have foretold of black wings in the cold that when brothers wage war come unfurled.Alduin,bane of kings,ancient shadow unbound,with a hunger to swallow the world. Alduin is the Nordic god of destruction and chaos.Therefore,when brother and brother fight,when grief and sorrow are rampant across skyrim,would create enough chaotic energy for him to arise.Also,the fact that alduin conveniently keeps ulfric from being executed can't be looked over.

Another thing.I haven't finished the main quest-line,so no spoilers!

http://i.imgur.com/AMwaGia.gif

The bloated self importance of you imperials really defies belief.

First off; in what universe is the empire the only force capable of taking on the Thalmor? You clearly haven't read up on the great war, if you had, you'd know that the empire won te Battle Of The Red Ring thanks to reinforcements from Skyrim. The great war had been mainly fought by Imperials and Redguards up until that point, with the Nords and Bretons added to that and Imperial victory could have been achieved. Also; "Empire of Skyrim"? "Empire of Skyrim"? You clearly know nothing about TES Lore. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore

Secondly; the Thalmor WERE defeated. By the Redguards. Alone. It was only because of incompetent Imperial leadership that the White Gold Concordat was accepted. If Ulfric Forms an alliance with Hammerfell and Orsinium he'll have a sufficient fighting force to crush the Thalmor in a land battle. The sea is a different story, but I'm not going into that right now.

Thirdly; Elves have a much lower fertility rate than Humans. While the Nords Redguards and Imperials have pretty much recovered from their losses in the great war, the Thalmor are still reeling from theirs.

Fourthly; Who says the Empire and an independent Skyrim can't form an alliance? If the Empire agree to one, that's all the benefits of a united Empire without the Talos ban, and if they refuse, they're clearly incompetent and Skyrim is better off without them.

Fifthly; The Thalmor need access to Skyrim in order to depose Talos and enact their plan of unmaking the world. If the Stormcloaks win the Thalmor lose access to Skyrim and so can't execute the plan.

Sixthly; The Thalmor straight up SAY in their dossier http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Thalmor_Dossier:_Ulfric_Stormcloak

And as to your (what I'll jokingly call an) argument about Alduin, it's nonsense. Alduin's return was predicted to COINCIDE with the civil war, both events as inevitable as each other. There is no evidence to say that either event caused the other and to say so is pure speculation.

War, huh, yeah. What is it good for?

Absolutely Nothing. Say it again.

Regardless of the outcome of the Civil war the weakened winner is sitting on a landmine.

Nice imagery.

Freeing oppressed people from the yoke of a dying empire and restoring religious freedom?

Let's make a simple anolysis of the outcomes.

- EMPIRE WINS: Skyrim is secured as a province. The Empire, which pretty much incarnates the bastion of humanity against the coming Elf Apocalypse, retains enough strenght to hope to survive the next Thalmor blitzkrieg. Kinda.

- REBELS WIN: Skyrim becomes independent. United and proud.... and utterly alone. The Thalmor easily defeat the now even more weakened Empire, then have their fun with Skyrim (along with all remaining nations of man). Good luck worshipping Talos now you geniuses.

- NO ONE WINS: Skyrim stays in chaos, which is what the Thalmor see as an ideal scenario for eventually overwhelming both it and the Empire with greatest ease. Also, Alduin!

There's no need to point out how Ulfric is merely a power-hungry conman (and other things i won't say here because no spoilers allowed etc, but that anyone who spared 2 mins to explore the plot knows). An Imperial victory is clearly the best of a bad situation.

And let's not forget that it was Ulfric who started the war, triggering the unfurling and waging and whatnot.

Why o why, General Tullius, did you not have HIM executed first?

Everybody will be up to their eyes in Mer.

Well except for Hammerfall not really sure why the Thalmor wasted so much man power there. They're pretty much the only ones left that can put up any sort of fight against the Dominion after the events of skyrim. Daggerfalls practically a black hole of information right now besides Wayrest being held by corsairs and that they completely ignored the Empires requests for assistance in Skyrim. The Dunmer hate the Empire for abandoning them during the oblivion crisis and are still recovering from the brink of extinction and the Argonians and Hist are doing whatever it is they do in the depths of their swamp.

The Emperor may or may not end up assassinated and if that happens the Elder council will probably be at each others throats vying for power.

Assuming no major infighting occurs within the Dominion before the next war it'll be a strong united front vs a bunch of bickering independent provinces.

The Nords will likely fare the worst though even if the Stormcloaks win or there's a treaty. They're about to get some of their own medicine.

Of course the Thalmor want to 'avoid' a Stormcloak victory because that will stop the drain on Imperial resources and stop the Empire from spreading their forces too thin trying to maintain borders beyond their own. This statement in no way even remotely indicates that the Thalmor are in anyway threatened by the rag tag band of farmers, fishermen and blacksmiths that form the Stormcloaks.

No; an independent Skyrim would not be alone. If the empire has any sense at all they'll ally with an independent Skyrim, not to mention the Redguards who are in pretty much the same political position as Skyrim and have the same goals. And where to you get the idea that the Thalmor could easily defeat the combined force of the Empire, Hammerfell, and an independent Skyrim when they couldn't beat Hammerfell all on its own? The Thalmor took just as many losses as the Empire during the great war but elves have a much lower fertility rate than Humans. While the Nords Redguards and Imperials have pretty much recovered from their losses in the great war, the Thalmor are still reeling from theirs.

Also: what are the other things you want to call Ulfric? Put them in spoiler tags.

During the rebellion they are this, yes. But after the war Galmar talks about building a disciplined standing army for Skyrim. And allied with Hammerfell and Cyrrodiil they would definitely pose a threat to the Dominion.

Overall, a good post.

As to the "No one Wins" option as in the Civil War drags on indefinitely, while that was what was indicated as desirable in the dossier, it was never really an option. Wars don't work that way. Either one side wins or peace is made. As it turns out, Bethesda allowed for only three potential canon outcomes.

1. Imperial Victory

2. Peace Treaty (divided province)

3. Stormcloak Victory

The divided province approach, logistically as far as the anticipated war is concerned, is nearly identical to an Imperial victory.

There won't be a canon outcome; that's not how Bethesda write. It will be left ambiguous or unmentioned.

Are you kidding me, OP? Ulfric *hates* the Thalmor. They tortured him, broke him, made him believe he was responsible for the destruction of the Imperial City even thought it had long since fallen.

Basically, he hates them. He would sooner kiss General Tullius' hand when kneeling than help the Thalmor.

Alduin? Ulfric doesn't even know about that dragon, or much of anything about the dragon attacks. He probably doesn't care either. It took the pleas of an old man Ulfric barely even knew to get him to realize just how real this dragon threat was.

I think the OP meant Ulfric was unintentionally helping them. Still wrong but not as ridiculous as him deliberately helping.

*whoosh*

I think someone missed a joke there...

The alliance you propose faces the difficulty of being credible. It would not be credible for Cyrodiil to trust an independent Skyrim lead by someone who just lead a rebellion against them. Hammerfell has no particular reason to trust either of the other two. The humans would be divided, just as the Thalmor would like.

This is not quite true. While further mention is unlikely, the Main Quest trumps faction quest lines in canon. Your, I presume, Stormcloak wins will not be canon and neither will my Imperial wins be canon. "Season Unending" is canon. The specifics of how the province gets divided up will probably remain a mystery.

Ahm the Thalmor themself say that the war and Ulfrics escape helped them ,so how is that wrong ....?

The war he started helps them :He is unintentionally helping them.