Hammerfell beat the Thalmor. If the Empire controlled Cyrodiil, Skyrim and High Rock I believe they would be highly able to successfully invade Alinor, or at least Valenwood and Elsweyr.

And remember that the Empire stationed only a small portion of its forces in Skyrim, whereas Stormcloaks obviously committed everything it has. If it wasn't for the Dominion binding the Imperial Army the Empire could have steamrolled Ulfric in a week.

Well the Emperor may be dead, and even if Alinor were weak it still has a hell of a navy, the Empire will have a very hard time reaching the Island with the fleet of the Dominion trying to stop them.

I have read that book several times, I love it , and the war was quite even, if the Empire had won the war they wouldnt have agreed on the terms that were created.

I hate the Dominion but their strengths I think should be defended.

My last character was High Elf but still i pick Ulfric side.

Crazy theory time:

Hammerfell's secession was planned. Not just by the Thalmor who wanted to peel the Empire apart, but by the Empire and Hammerfell.

The WGC is on the table. Hammerfell obviously doesn't want anything to do with it. In private, Emperor Mede and the leaders of Hammerfell decide to have Hammerfell secede without issue from the Empire, freeing them from the WGC, and giving them mission of finding out just how strong the Dominion really is in the wake of the Great War (as the Emperor is getting conflicting reports), impressing upon them the risk of doing so. That's why Hammerfell was just let go and Skyrim is not: it was part of a gambit by the Empire and the Hammerfell rulers. And then lo and behold, Hammerfell repulses the Dominion. What looks like egg on the Emperor's face for signing the WGC in light of that is actually confirmation that the Dominion was far more weakened by the Great War than they let on.

And yet they couldn't before. Which illustrates the problem. There's a rot and corruption at the top which pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory. Doing the same thing over again expecting a different result is the definition of...

Only because the empire has entrenched itself in Skyrim's strongest and richest holds. And the fact that the empire can't hold on to even Skyrim nowadays is indicative of how weak it is. Expecting the empire to save you is a losing proposition in the 4th Era. Well, even in the Third, as the OC showed.

The same players will be on the field, it's just a matter of how you organize them. I think you're doing both Cyrodiil and Skyrim a favor by teaching them to work together with free allies who respect each other's interests (because they have to) and align freely against a common enemy. Rather than on the crumbling superstructure of an empire that doesn't exist anymore and is just appealing to nostalgia and "you'll do it because I told you so" paternalism.

As for those who think Nords are too stupid to combat the Thalmor, the empire got caught with its pants around its ankles and now they're trying to beat the Thalmor at their own game rather than take the simple lesson from the Great War and Hammerfell that when you stand and fight, the Thalmor lose. Real "genius," that is.

I've proposed that as a possibility before. If Mede had done something similar with Skyrim, it would be plausible.

I don't think it was planned, I think that Titus made a mistake in guessing the strength of the Dominion. Literally he assumed Skyrim would back the empire, and Torygg did. He just didn't expect Ulfric to ride into Solitude and kill Torygg.

I don't believe that Skyrim will be able to defeat the Aldmeri Dominion on its own.

However, the idea of the Aldmeri Dominion invading and defeating Skyrim is even more laughable.

The way I see it, a war between them would result in a stalemate.

Oh, and gameplay does not equal lore. A Level 50 Stormcloak Guard can easily defeat a max-leveled Thalmor soldier/wizard.

The only reason that Valenwood is a part of the Dominion is because of how they overthrew it by putting staunch supports of high elf superiority into power. The general populace of Valenwood won't suffer the Dominion for long.

The Dominion shut out the rest of the world during the Third Era and eliminated all of the Blades from Valenwood from the Summerset Isles and Valenwood. Dropped hundreds of heads on the floor of the palace. Essentially completely destroyed the Empires foreign special forces. But it took them an entire era.

@Empire losing - they didn't lose. Re-conquering the capital was a decisive victory. He didn't have a choice but to sign a peace treaty because the Elf army was decimated and the people didn't want war anymore. You can't force people to continue to war to eliminate a threat. Look at the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. The job isn't done there, but because of public opinion and unrest we're leaving a country we tore to pieces. It svcks, but it's the reality. So he had to concede to the WGC to buy the Empire time to rebuild at a faster pace than the Dominion.

You don't seriously think the whole dominion army is outfitted in glass armor and magical weapons, do you? The thalmor, sure, but not all the dominion forces.

Thats legit as hell given that Titus was a strategist

That would be plausible if Mede actually did something with that info, like renege on the WGC, but he keeps it going for 26 years, and now he dies and nothing was said about it. So it seems rather unlikely.

The thalmor are the main threat though.

Now that I think of it, thats true. I maxed warrior bones dragons within seconds. Magic is still a force though.

They supported an indigenous coup, they had Bosmer allies. It's been 170 years since then. We know not all Bosmer like the Thalmor, but don't count your chickens.

You're a little confused on dates. Brush up http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Fourth_Era, ideally before you accuse the rest of us of being dolts who don't read the game material. All of this is Fourth Era. The Blades had been sidelined by the Medes because they only trusted their inner circle. The Medes ignored their warnings, and the head-rolling only began at the beginning of the Great War, 30 years before game time.

Which made what followed even worse.

There's always a choice.

The thalmor is the one running things, yes, but they wouldn't be the brunt of the dominion forces. And if they were, they certainly wouldn't be able to afford glass and elven armor for their entire force, when the Empire on its best day had only heavy iron armor for their troops.

As it stands, I don't think either the Empire or the Stormcloaks could beat the Dominion. The Dominion is the only ones who have grown in the 4th Era, which has been a time of decline for the humans. Either option would have to rebuild for a while. After that, I'm sure Alinor will still be standing. Same as I don't think the Dominion could invade Skyrim successfully. It would be a standoff of sorts. Skyrim and Alinor are two of the most difficult provinces to invade, Alinor being slightly harder historically.

That said, I don't think the Dominion will have the manpower without a time of rebuilding to properly defeat Cyrodiil either. It is basically a cold war going on while the sides try to rebuild.

Alone? Eh... maybe, but maybe not. They don't plan on fighting the Dominion alone, though. Even if they only united with Hammerfell they'd stand a strong chance, since Hammerfell already forced the Dominion out on their own.

Well as we can see from their invasion of Tamriel, the Thalmor have a highly trained military that is capable of toppling Empires. They are the most naturally talented at magic in all of Tamriel and have a navy that could only really be challenged by those other elven dudes on that other continent.

From what I've seen, all of the Thalmor patrols do all have elven armour.

I doubt that The Empire would willingly let the Dominion so close.

Well, my Dovahkiin may or may not have a basemant full of dead thalmor...
Because he's a stormcloak and VERY high level wearing dragon armor and wielding a dragonbone sword.
That's what the stormcloaks need. Better weapons and armor. I think some training wouldn't hurt either.

Thalmor patrols, yes, not the dominion army's forces. The Thalmor in Skyrim is a small group of their faction with a specific goal, not a representation of their whole army. They likely wear leather armor like they did in Solstheim largely. It would make absolutely no sense for them to have such wealth to outfit them all that way.

When its all laid out it seems comparable to the usa invading afghanistan, at best, I mean stormcloaks are closer to the thalmor than afghanistan is to the usa. But still the us seems to have an extremely hard time winning that war, as they did with vietnam. So yeah just saying it's not as clear cut as it seems. Obviously the thalmor are more advanced and more organised, more tech/magical and all the rest. But when its stormcloak land and they're digging their heels in all determined and dirty it might be a tall order for the thalmor.

Interesting...who exactly on Tamriel is going to stand with them?

Empire- nope, obvious reasons.

Morrowind- They don't even worship Talos and they have no reason as the Dominion's war is on man not Mer.

Blackmarsh- They have no reason to trust or aid the Stormies. They have trade relations with the Empire. They generally have no interest in conquest and simply want to be left alone with their maaaagical trees.

Valenwood- Allied with the dominion

Elsweyr- allied with the dominion

You really only have Hammerfell, which would be a mighty foe for the Dominion indeed, but is it enough? i doubt it, considering a united Empire couldn't even defeat the Dominion. Just reinforces the pointlessness of Ulfrics rebellion.

Wait wait are you saying the empire is totally ok with the dominion? Are you seriously saying that?

They might remember how the interests the dominion represented chased them from summerset and tried to have them killed but idk.

This implies the hist think the dominion will leave them alone. Just because one doesn't particularly like another doesn't mean there's a mutual enemy.

Skyrim and Morrowind teamed up after all when the Akaviri invasion happened. With both Almalexia and Wulfharth fighting to kill the Kamal prince together.

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that the Empire and it's legion would be severely weakened from the Civil war and also the last war with the dominion, that it wouldn't be as strong as it could be. They aren't going to march along side traitors for certain suicide, is what I'm saying.

Of course this all depends on which faction wins in your play through, it would be a different story if skyrim was under imperial control.