User blog comment:Sgt. S.S./Why I support the Empire/@comment-1726879-20120323172518/@comment-69.146.244.153-20120331213000

Yeah, through cyrodill. We see plenty of thalmor agents roaming through Skyrim as an imperial territory. Being part of the empire protects them (skyrim) from an all out invasion. The thalmor could simply march in an army and crush the distrought rebels. The Empire is still too scared to stop them. It isn't Hammerfell's business, so they wouldn't do anything, but this action may see the interference of Highrock, possibly leading to another cecession, which probably would be much more sucessful. If Highrock joined skyrim, they could "possibly" appeal to Hammerfell. The main reason Hammerfell didn't fall to the AD was because they resolved their own civil war and showed how strong they really are. There is also a reason the Redguards didn't launch an attack, they have no strong armies. They pushed the AD to a standstill with guerrilla warfare, which can't be used for attacking, just defending territory (like Spain did in the real life peninsula war). It also puts a major strain on the resources of the invading party, the main reason the AD withdrew, not because Hammerfell scared them. They did prove the AD was defeatable in all their strength, however. The civil war in Skyrim has proven too bloody for either side to support a war afterwards. The White-gold Concordat protects the empire and ALL of its Provinces, but the Stormcloaks have no such buffer and would be quickly disposed of by the Aldmeri Dominion's Armies if they were to win. The AD do no show much interest in skyrim beyond stamping out Talos' memory, and in Hammerfell's case they wanted a huge portion of their land, so they might not even want to invade.