User blog comment:Zippertrain85/Why the Stormcloaks are right./@comment-7263919-20140606014503/@comment-2600:1700:CA61:3280:446E:61A7:F17C:909D-20180120163223

Firstly, Redguards may be the most Naturally talented warriors in the land, but that does not Discount the Nords out of the running for best warriors. The Redguards have failed to win any war against the Nords, and the Nord were able to invade a part of Hammerfell, split it in half, and holf it against the Redguard armies until a treaty was agreed too. The Redguards ARE great warriors, but they speciallize in hit and run tactics, its why they almost always were scouts and skirmishers in the Legion. The Nords are know for battle tactic, strategy, and oddly enough, formations. Many of the Empire's formations, shield walls, and tactics were based on the Nords fighting style. I mean, think way back to when the Atmorans (The Nords Ancestors) when they first arrived. They made nice to the Snow Elves, who welcomed them to live in their land. However, the Snow Elves turned on them, and slaughtered an entire city of civillians in the night, when no one was expecting it. Ysgramor escaped, and returned with 500 Atmorans, just 500, and that group managed to nearly wipe out an entire race of Elves in retribution for that massacre. Saying the Nords aren't good warriors is like saying Orcs don't have Tusks... its not true lol. (This is not to say they can not preform guerilla warfare, either, as they most definetly can). Also, contrary to popular belief, the Stormcloaks are not a bunch of farmers with Pitch Forks, a good majority of them are Legion Veterans who have become frustrated with how things within the Empire have progressed.

Secondly, Skyrim wasn't invaded by the Dominion in the Great War, the Majority of the fighting happened in Cyrodiil, while a little more occured in Hammerfell. A few Nord Legions were dispatched to help with the fighting, and it managed to slow the Dominion advance to a crawl, though the Dominion decided to commit all their availible forces to the Cyrodiil campaign, and eventually pushed to the Imperial City. All that being said, I doubt the Empire could have won the Battle of the Red Ring with out General Jonna's Skyrim Legions, as the Nord Legions faced the brunt of the Dominion attacks, and were able to hold them off. Not only that, but the entire Dominion invasion force that was occupying the Imperial City tried to break out through the South, and ran smack dab into the unbreakable Shield Wall of the Skyrim Legions, who finished off the remaining Dominion forces in the ensuing battle. The Thalmor Embassy was only put into place after the war was over because the Empire said they could have one in SKyrim.

To many, the Treaty the the Emperor signed was wrong, not right at all, considering they had just completly wiped out the entire Dominion military presence in CYrodiil (Which, by the way, was a large chunk of the DOminions power). The Nords wanted to either continue the war, or force a new set of terms on the elves, as did the Redguards. In the end, the Emperor agreed to the same terms as before the war even began, which said that Talos worship was banned, and that parts of Hammerfell were to be given to the dominion. Many were not happy with this resolution, as they had just spent so much blood in war, one which the honestly won in the end, despite the loses they suffered, and yet they still capitulated to the Dominion's terms, meaning all that bloodshed and loss of life was pointless. The Redguards said no, and so were basically cast out of the Empire, that doesn't seem right or fair at all, considering all the combat they went through. The Redguards managed to beat back the Dominion over and over in combat, however, on their own, and forced a sort of stalemate eventually, in which they made their own treaty with the Dominion. The Nords were frustrated, mad, angry, confused, all of it. They couldn't worship Talos, people were being dragged away, for no reason sometimes, by the Thalmor, the Dominion was activley patrolling through the country, and some of the Nobles were socilizing and Fratrenizing with the people who you had just fought a bloody war with, that to be totally honest, was just the start of wars to come. Add on to boot, that the Empire had abandoned Markarth, which was overrun by reachmen, who slaughtered civillians (Though the city was saved eventually by Ulfric's Militia), and I can see very easily why the Nords would be mad. To make matters worse, when the Civil War started, the Empire did not make hardly any distinctions between civillians, healers, and warriors within stormcloak camps, or on battlefields, an example being Lilija Snow-Shod, who joined the Stormcloaks when the skirmishes between the two factions were just beginning. She was a Battle Maiden, use her healing arts to treat wounded men and women on the battlefield, from both factions, trying to help them, or ease their last moments in the world. Her father even mentions she had never raised a weapon in her life. The Legion Soldiers, however, cut her down on the battlefield, and then, just left her body to rot in the mud, no burials, no nothing. Its why the Snow-Shods are so angry with the Empire.