User blog comment:IceFireWarden0/Elder Scrolls VI- An Analysis/@comment-5185283-20121219005329/@comment-5185283-20121220032229

They were interesting, but as a few people said, every main character in TES starts out as a prisoner. It's Bethesda's formula for a narrative, and I doubt they will break it. But that's what I said about the class system, and that was pretty much removed. To answer your question, yes to the shipwrecked Imperial soldier, no to the Thalmor lackey, simply because that by default makes you Altmer, Bosmer, or Khajiit.