Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25343239-20150319182007/@comment-25343239-20150320162417

-AR- wrote: Heroes disappear after their events: by the time a Second Great War can rear its head, the Last Dragonborn will be long gone. This has been the case with every Hero, and for good out-of-setting reasons: Heroes are easily powerful enough to safeguard the realm from any threat, and writers cannot account for every player's characterization of a particular Hero. Some players' Last Dragonborn may be Thalmor sympathizers or Altmeri Supremacists. Thus, Heroes depart after their prophecies are fulfilled: thus was the case of the Nerevarine, thus was the case with the Champion of Cyrodiil, thus will be the case of the Last Dragonborn.

Besides this, the Dominion has no need to conquer Skyrim, only to destroy the Empire. It knows that an independent Skyrim, an independent Hammerfell, so on and so forth poses no threat to their long-term goals, which is to say the unmaking of Mundus. One does not need to conquer the province that houses it in order to deactivate a Tower: the only reason the Dominion actively seeks to destroy the Empire is due to the fact that it is the only military power that is remotely capable, if it knew the Thalmor Endgame, of foiling their plans. The Dominion are perfectly content to continue carving up the Empire province by province, until all that remain are a lot of squabbling independent states that pose no threat to them. With the largest threat to their long-term goals ended, they are free to set their greatest minds upon figuring out how to deactivate the last of the Towers and undo Creation.

And of course, even disregarding the Dominion, a Stormcloak victory does not mean peace and happiness in Skyrim. On the contrary, I would argue it would lead to even more turmoil. A significant portion of the population remains sympathetic to the Empire, guaranteeing a post-war pro-Imperial insurgency. The difference here is that while the Empire has had a great deal of experience in counterinsurgency and ample resources to draw from to combat it, the Stormcloaks have neither. Skyrim's population has been exhausted by the Civil War, the Dragon Crisis, and the Vampire Crisis: many of the men and women of fighting age are dead or too injured to fight again, the local economy has taken a shock, and the entire province is in sore need of reconstruction. While the Legion can draw on recruits from the Orcish Strongholds, the lands of High Rock, or the Imperial Heartland, the Stormcloaks can only draw on this already battered population. Further, the Stormcloaks are a movement whose momentum is a result of rebellion against authority: one needs to look no further than real-world history to see how new regimes that come about from spontaneous and poorly-planned rebellions that do not hold majority lead quickly to more Civil War. Interesting post. I find ignoring the dragonborn and his power to be a bit of a cheap cop-out, but I can't argue with what you've said. Bethesda can't do much with the character in lore, users each have their own version of the Dragonborn. Fair enough.

Ignoring the Dragonborn - they still want to destroy the The Snow Tower, as you mentioned, ans as quickly as possible. They can't unmake Mundus while the Snow Tower stands, and while Talos is still venerated and given strength/direction through worship. According to the UESP Wiki, the "snow-tower" is just a metaphor for the Nords themselves. Whether it's a physical structure or a metaphor, the point remains the same. The Thalmor needs a presence in Skyrim in order to remove the Snow Tower, and the Stormcloaks will not allow that presence under any circumstances. There are also Elder Scrolls in Skyrim, Keening is there, so is the staff of Magnus, etc etc.

With all that in mind, one should expect factions within the Aldmeri Dominion to pushing for an invasion. We can't forget that the Aldmeri Dominion is lead by delusional fanatics; they aren't vulcans. The Thalmor would have conquered Hammerfell if they could have, and they will do everything in their power to bring Skyrim to ruin as soon as they possibly can.

I also find your imperial sympathies to be more than a little misguided. The empire has been co-opted by the Aldmeri Dominion. The claim that "the empire would have been destroyed if not for the white gold-concodat" was flatly disporven in the subsequent Hammerfell/Domnion war. Mede was a coward who deserved to die. The Thlamor in Skyrim torture and murder people with impunity and the Empire made a deal with them to legalize that sort of behavior. There is absolutely no moral reason to support the empire. What's the point of keeping the empire strong to fight the Dominion, if they aren't fighting the Dominion? If they're letting Thalmor soliders round up decent, every day people, to be tortured and murdered? An imperial victory means more oppression, more violence, more plundering and disrespect. The stormcloak rebellion (especially if it's backed by the dragonborn) is a popular rebellion. Ulfric did not simply take the throne and become high king, he is still waiting for the moot to convene and make it offical. He has displayed patience and tact in his approach. The Stormcloaks have a large network of supporters. We have no reason to assume imperial loyalists would be able continue to spring up and sow chaos. Look at the American Revolution, The Cuban Revolution, the Spanish Revolution - there were decades of peaceful reconstruction afterwards, and in the cae of the United States, the Civil War did very little to damage to Americas long-term plans of settling the west, becoming a global economic and imperial power, etc.

With the empire in charge and no force to oppose them, the Thalmor will and would continue to infest Skyrim and pursue their objective of destroying the Snow-Tower. The empire using their experience in counterinsurgency against Stormcloak supporters is a complete waste of imperial resources. Your expectation that imperial loyalists will continue to harass the Stormcloaks and interfere with Skyrim's reconstruction is based on your own personal bias towards the empire, and little else.