@Lamora

If I could use that post as my sig and get away with it...

Could I settle instead for Step 1-4?

 

What appears to be an Altmeri commentary on Talos:

To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison.
To achieve this goal, we must:

1) Erase the Upstart Talos from the mythic. His presence fortifies the Wheel of the Convention, and binds our souls to this plane.

2) Remove Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility, so that the very idea of them can be forgotten and thereby never again repeated.

3) With Talos and the Sons of Talos removed, the Dragon will become ours to unbind. The world of mortals will be over. The Dragon will uncoil his hold on the stagnancy of linear time and move as Free Serpent again, moving through the Aether without measure or burden, spilling time along the innumerable roads we once travelled. And with that we will regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit.

That's from one of the Developer's blogs. The Altmer plan on erasing Talos as a part of a plan to wipe out all human races and then unmake the universe. I say that pretty much gives Ulfric permission to do whatever the fuck he wants as long as he's actively combating these efforts.
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Riiiiiight.

The Altmer can't even subjugate the Redguards. An independent Hammerfell province was troublesome enough to them that they signed a truce. In order to succeed, they would not only have to wipe out Hammerfell - something they have already shown they cannot do in their present state - but also the rest of the human provinces.

If Skyrim and Cyrodiil remain separate, then there is no reason to believe they will co-operate against the Thalmor. In open war, sure. But I don't think the Thalmor would go for open war. This is the guys who almost wiped out the Blades, who are pretty badass in their own right. They could just as easily drive deep wedges between Cyrodiil and Skyrim through espionage, especially with an Empire in turmoil and a racist, dogmatic High King of Skyrim.

By contrast, a united Empire would heal quicker, especially in Skyrim once the threat of the Stormcloaks is finished, and would not only be able to fight the Thalmor on an even footing, but also regain enough strength to bring the Redguards back into the fold. Meanwhile, the Thalmor will be much slower to recuperate from their losses, simply because they control a smaller area.

 

I've always supported the Stormcloaks, in an effort to prolong the civil war. The longer the fighting continues, the stronger the Aldmeri Dominion becomes. When the time for war finally comes, the Empire will be crushed, and nothing will be able to prevent the fall of the Mannish races.

 

Rather well, actually. It's...disappointing. I joined the Stormcloaks on my Dunmer spellsword because he's a self-serving prick (and Windhelm was closer), but for all their racism, they don't care. I was hoping for at least a little contention. I've noticed that there are actually quite a few Dunmer in Skyrim though; they're probably the second most common citizen race, next to Nords of course. Then again, Bretons and Imperials are difficult to distinguish from Nords at a glance.

My Breton mage is going Imperial though. Haven't decided for my Khajit thief yet - I think that one's just going to run around ignoring the main quest for as long as possible.

 

Its not surprising that there are so many Dunmer, after the Red Mountain erupted, most of them just started walking west, out of Morrowind. For the most part they ended up in Skyrim IIRC, and thats where all the problems come from. And for the record, Dunmer are still cool, I don't care if they take slaves or not.

 

Okay, looked it up on UESP, and it looks like you're right. Here's the thing. I'd rather side with Hadvar, for a couple of artificer-related reasons, but during that ambush where you meed Ralof and his dudes as well as that captain of the guard who decided to have me killed either way, can I kill her in that battle? Like, seriously just spew gouts of flame at her until she dies burned to a crisp on the floor?

Or, if I go with Hadvar, does that make her plot-importantly invincible during the escape through the keep? Argh, choices, choices.

Yeah, so the empire tried to kill me, but I still see her as the main personification of it. She could have said, "what do you mean, she's not on the list? Well, we'll deal with that later, those dudes, cut their heads off and we'll interrogate this stranger afterward."

Instead, she chose the wtf-batshit-psychopath-and-stupid route, and so betrayed herself as a cancer in the empire that must be surgically removed . . . with large amounts of fire.

 

To be honest, I chose the Stormcloaks largely because of that one woman's callous disregard for my life. It's pretty rare for me swear vengeance on a video-game character within ten seconds of meeting them, but that's what I did. Granted, I did come to regret that choice once I saw those documents labeling Ulfric as a former Thalmor asset, but at least he seems to have pried their hooks out of him.

 

Yeah, I went with Ralof to escape Haegen just so I could kill that bitch. But overall, for the Empire!

 

So... I guess you're playing an Elf? :awesome

 

Didn´t they lose High Rock after the Great War? I think the the province was left alone and still managed to stop the Aldmeri Dominion which is the reason why so many Nords believe that the Empire could have beaten the Elves.


I played as an Imperial.. just seemed the natural choice. And I am really happy with my decision... as I explored Skyrim it became clear to me that Ulric was an Racist (And he cheated when he defeated the High King... which is really not the Nord way).

And because I have just finished the game (Done all Daedric/Guild/other Main quests) I have to say that the end is really unsatisfying... I killed the end boss and what happens.. nothing. I missed a little Epilog which would have told me what consequences my major actions had.

If I ever play the game a second time I will probably finish the main quests first.. just to use the dragon.

 

Erandil - I think you're thinking of Hammerfell. I don't think High Rock was involved with the Thalmor as a major power, while Hammerfell was ceded in part to the Thalmor but then proceeded to conduct a successful resistance that ended in a truce between Altmer and Redguards.

 

Info on what went down between the Thalmor and the Empire

 

Oh...That was Hammerfell? In that case I meant Hammerfell...

 

If you're talking about the smithing stuff you do in Riverwood, you can do the exact same series of quests with the smith in Whiterun if you go with Ralof. You don't get all the free materials lying around I guess, but you can always sneak around Riverwood at night and steal them.

She doesn't appear in the escape if you go with Hadvar. It's presumed that she didn't make it - so either way she dies. Unless she pops up again later? The only negative is that you don't get the satisfaction of killing her yourself.

 

Went stormcloak with my first Nord warrior character, but it got boring for me pretty quick. Tried Imperial with my Breton mage character, and didn't like it all that much. Now on my third character, a Bosmer Thief/Mage, didn't take sides in the civil war and it's actually pretty cool so far. I went completely dark with that one, and I'm more than a little disappointed at the lack of reaction it generates. I mean, come on! I took over the Thieves Guild, I'm a champion of three or four Daedric Lords (and I have close ties to another three), and I

Spoiler

assassinated the Emperor of fucking Tamriel

, gaining leadership of the Dark Brotherhood in the process.

You'd think after all that, word would get around that you're one bad motherfucker! But no, the worst reaction I get is town guards telling me "Keep your hands to yourself, sneak-thief." Sneak-thief? Seriously? All the high profile murders, massive heists, and Daedric pacts, and the best they can come up with is fucking sneak-thief? They should be fleeing in terror of the monster in their midst! I mean, come on, completing Namira's quest alone should garner that reaction, it was that fucking demented and disgusting! Hell, I'd even settle for them muttering something about not wanting any trouble as I walked by. All I'm looking for is a little recognition for my efforts here, people; is that too much to ask?

 

Could be interested if a patch added in an infamy meter of sorts. The higher it is, the less likely enemies of a certain level will try to attack or disrespect you.

And you'd gain infamy by completing quests, same with xp. More high-profile or dangerous it is, the more infamy.

 

I was going to support Ulfric until I saw his sorry excuse for a city. So I will probably just kill him at the earliest convenience. The same probably goes for the empire. And the Thalmor.

Really, I'll just kill everybody. Will it make things any better? No. But it will be fun.

 

I'll just leave this here.

And I'll reiterate that I don't particularly like either faction much.

 

This completely, I have never played fall out but I hear it has a system that works like this and since Bethesda made fallout I wonder why they didn't incorporate the same concept here.