Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-76.97.80.106-20130811163656/@comment-202.156.8.11-20131216124217

Draevan13 wrote: I'm not dissing the human races. I'm saying the Altmer aren't to be underestimated.

As to Thermopylae, I'm not sure where you heard that it was 150 Spartans against several million Persians, but the historical texts I've read have stated 300 Spartans commanding 5,000-10,000 Hoplites against 70,000-300,000 Persians over the course of 3-4 days. This comes from Greek historians Herodotus, Plutarch, Diodorus and Pausinias. While they don't agree on exact numbers, they aren't anywhere near what you claim. The WHOLE Persian army was in the millions (2 or 3 mill), but Thermopylae was attacked by about 150,000 - 300,000 Persians (not the whole load) in a detachment. You are correct, it was 300 spartans + some forces. But that is still 1 man VS 15-30 men so its still epic in a way. Thermopylae was a military failure, but it demoralized the Persian army heavily, so the psychological war was won there.

The next battle by the alliance of Greeks was like 80,000 - 100,000++ (10,000 spartans) people against 1 mill, if my memory didn't fail. Since the greeks were well rested and  already awesome at Thermopylae fighting a demoralized, tired out enemy, they obvioulsy whipped the Persians, but the Persians had to withdraw anyway cause of political instability (the Persian army is not only Persian, so some allies gave up too, plus there was instability in the Persian court at that time).

Same thing could happen - The AD might be forced to give up because of growing internal dissent (by the anti Thalmor segments of the AD alliance, who are tired of the liars that command them). Plus, the wars in Hammerfell and Cyrodiil, like the battle of the red ring, could have been massively demoralizing, which is why the WCG was created by the Thalmor - to give the altmer soldiers time to rest, recover and get over their PTSD and for the Thalmor settle the internal disputes.