The redguards dislike the nords, and want to have a war with skyrim so they can try and take back the land they lost to the nords in the war of bend'hr mak in the 3rd era, personally i think that if skyrim becaome independent and lost the support of the empire, hammerfell would declare war or at least raid, and the bretons would also declare war to take back the lands they lost in the same war. (markarth).

Watch that handbag, you'll put someones eye out with it.

But if you wish me to be more verbose, I can state that I concur with the opinion that the winner of the civil war is irrelevant to the conquest of the Aldmeri Dominion in that to favour either would create an inconsistency that players whom supported the non-lore side of things in the next game would feel slighted and it would trivialise their original Skyrim experience.

I could also have stated +1, but in essence the post had neatly summarised my own opinions, and definitely was worth repeating, especially as an open to the second page of the discussion.

I have written so many essays on this forum, far more than most, forgive me a brief answer for once

Couldnt have said it better myself. Due to skyrims location, its nto gonna be the first target on the Thalmor list due to what it has to do to get to Skyrim, secondly it wont take very long for things to get under control considering most of the population didnt have anything to do with the civil war. Ulfric assumes ciommand and once the people knows whos the high king and the moot goes thru then Ulfric starts tasking people to start up sea raids to the elfs homeland--taking the fight to them instead of waiting to be atked

Not likely, allthough they do know the land well and they are used to fighting in it, not to mention that the Stormcloaks guerilla tactics are very effective against a large force in foreign territory. However, the Aldmeri have numbers and magic heavily in their favour. The Dragonborn might be a huge help though, if he/she decides to join the fight.

But, the Stormcloaks will not have to do this alone. Plenty of people have reason to hate the dominion, the Redguards I imagine are very eager to show them just why they are known as the best warriors in the world (again) and there are many people within dominion territory who hate the Thalmor just as much as everyone else, murdering people's families thends to sow some dissent you know.

So in short, I believe that if everyone who wants to fight the Thalmor are not complete idiots, they have a decent chance.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Ulfric is not going to sit and wait. He's going to start attacking the Dominion as soon as he is able to. I imagine others who want to see the Dominion gone would jump on the bandwagon, once again I have a lot of faith in the Redguards.

Not for a long time. Thalmor is weak at the moment.

edit: Dragonborn could destroy the dominion all by himself if it wasnt for the invisible wall.

I am with the stormcloacks what is happening in Skyrim will happens in all the empire, REVOLUTION! FREEDOM! Death to the Romans.. err. imperials!

I really don't think that if the Stormcloaks win = Skyrim stands alone. It is entirely possible that a Hammerfell and Skyrim could forge an alliance that would be able to keep the Thalmor on their toes while the Empire regains it's strength. After that, I don't think it's entirely possible that the provinces (especially human based ones) could have peace without having to be a united Empire.

Of course not. You think a bunch of untrained, ignorant, zealous peasants could match the invasion force that decemated the Imperial Legion in the Great War - previously the greatest fighting force on Tamriel? They'd be wiped in a matter of seconds.

It's of no point in my game anyway, as Stormcloaks have become a sore and unmissed footnote in Tamrielic history. Ulric's head now proudly adorns the walls of the Imperial City.

If Hammerfell can do it, then Skyrim can do it. End of story.

EDIT: Think about what happened to various rising world powers when they made the mistake of invading Russia.

And Russia wasn't even filled with angry, bloodthirsty vikings.

I think Skyrim marches on Cyrodiil, takes out the emperor, reunites Tamriel and then goes after Thalmor.

Just to clear thing up, Hammerfell has survived the war with the Thalmor after they went on a huge campaign with considerable losses, and that the Empire left legions of "wounded" and "sick" veterans to help them in thier defence.

and anyway, The stormcloaks won't survive the Thalmor on thier own, and they can't expect help from anybody. only the Empire can win this war.

You mean the Empire that's bowing and scraping to the Thalmor's every whim?

I'm starting to think they might

They know the area.
Skyrim is a dangerous place (Giants, dragons etc)
They have more of a reason to fight. The Thalmor are fighting in a foreign land just to prove they are better, while the Nords are fighting for their very homes and the gods they worship.

Given how the Thalmor were not able to hold their primary goal, Hammerfell and how much the redguards now hate them for what they did... I think it'd be foolish for the Thalmor to invade, also some other provinces might not like the idea of Thalmor taking over Skyrim, like Marrowind, High Rock and most importantly Hammerfell. However I don't think the Dominion/Thalmor are looking to weaken skyrim to take skyrim, they're looking to weaken skyrim to take Cyrodiil; Hammerfell are already alienated against Cyrodiil and Skyrim is also going that way. Slowly the Thalmor are attempting to weaken the trust that everybody has in the Imperial Empire itself. I don't think in the long run the Dominion can hold any real territory for any real length of time but they strike hard and fast. The dominion is horrible at defense and in the end I can see the Thalmor and the Dominion over extending themselves (like they did with the great war by going for the capital) and losing everything via attrition.

I think it's a larger issue with the Altmer of the Dominion itself, their arrogance leads them into taking on continuously bigger and bigger targets until eventually they're so widely spread and fighting on so many fronts that they either have to retreat or get treaties signed. I don't think the Thalmor would have been a real issue if the Imperial Empire had kept on fighting, sure people would have died but the Dominion was clearly starting to suffer from attacking both Hammerfell and Cyrodiil at the same time.

This. People keep forgetting that Empire left a lot of these "invalids", before pulling out.

Not to mention the Empire is pretty much the only thing stopping Thalmor from walking all over Tamriel. With that gone, not even these angsty Stormcloak rebels would last.


Bowing and scraping so they can get up on their feet and win the second round with those sassy Elves.

Pretty sure that even Tullius (after crushing the rebels) reassures you that the Empire should now focus on the Thalmor.

This.

The narrative of Imperial supporters is that the Aldmeri Dominion is some giant, fearsome, insurmountable power that only the Empire can fight. The truth is far removed from this bit of propaganda.

Without Skyrim there is no Empire.
They've lost the vast majority of their previous lands, and what they do still cling on to, have little resources or manpower left. The gold and blood of Skyim is all that keeps the Empire alive.
Technically the Empire is not dead yet, but it is in a vegetative state on life support with no chance of waking up.
What Skyrim must decide is if it'll cut the Empire loose, or if it'll fall with it.

Three very valid points as I see it,

bump

My High elf dragonborn is actually cast a master illusion spell on Ulfric that convinced him to start the rebellion and kill the high king. So now I'm gonna assassinate the Emperor and join the stormcloaks to finish breaking the empire. Then it's Aldmeri Dominion all up in dis bich

Nop they cannot defend it, the only true force that can defend them are the United forces of the imperial legion along with the dragonborn.

I predict 50 level 30 bandits in plate could tank the entire windhelm anciens.

Right before the THalmor crush Skyrim, the provinces of Atmora come in and wipe the elves out!

Any invasion of Skyrim wouldn't come any time soon. People assume that the Thalmor are some big powerful monstrosity, but that's debatable. People have already mentioned the troubles they've been having in Hammerfell, but keep in mind that their armies in Cyrodiil were decimated by the Imperial legions. So I would argue that neither side was in particularly good shape after the war, militarily. So just like the Empire, they, too, need to rebuild their armies. Even then, Skyrim has several buffer provinces between them and the Thalmor. An invasion by sea wouldn't be feasible for logistical reasons. That means before they can invade Skyrim, they either need to complete their conquest of Hammerfell, which seems unlikely, or take control of Cyrodiil, Morrowind or High Rock. And even if they did that, there would be concerns of over stretching their forces and spreading them out too thin. They'd be forced to occupy and advance at the same time, sapping their overall military capabilities.

Stormcloaks? In time, they'd become the new Empire anyways. Ex-Imperials would join the Stormcloaks. If Urlich is smart enough to lead a war then yes. They can do it.