Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-96.252.245.207-20130116060134/@comment-70.15.216.196-20131108044459

Bethesda does not need to pick a side for the civil war in Skyrim. The AD had already been sending in investigation parties, guards, etc (read as: spies and soldiers) into Skyrim and Cyrodiil. It would not have been hard for them to learn weaknesses and such, frame and arrest potentially threatening leaders, etc. They could have declared war right after the events in Skyrim, and then taken over both regions (though Skyrim would likely be released as its own region and Cyrodiil would become a sort of Lebensraum for the AD. NPCs could easily say "while the civil war was raging, no one expected a sudden and victorious attack by the Aldmeri Dominion." The assassination of the Emperor would have helped with that, giving them an excuse to "ensure the WGC was to be upheld by the next emperor"