Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25343239-20150319182007/@comment-260563-20180407044313

Sorry for the belated response. Holiday and job obligations.

The Falmer and Atmoran conflict started in the first place because the Atmorans were breeding faster than the Falmer, and the Falmer feared that one day, the Atmorans might overthrow them.

Except we do get information about the AD. We see it from the results of the people leaving there and going to Skyrim. We see that the Wood Elves have either been relegated to a service role (like the maind whom Erikur hits on) or were slowly getting killed, like Malborn's family. We see Khajiit joining caravans and trading in foreign provinces instead of staying back home in Elsweyr, and these caravans are far from wealthy traders like the East Empire Company. Instead, they're poor traders who get preyed upon by bandits, they get rejected by city authorities, and they have no backing from the Thalmor, which goes to show that the Thalmor don't give a rat's ass about the welfare of the Khajiit peoples, to the point where they'd rather risk life and limb trading outside the Dominion rather than staying within it. Heck, we even have J'zargo, who, instead of studying with the finest magical minds in Alinor, decides to go to rat's ass Skyrim for an education, which goes to show that non-Altmer citizens of the Dominion who want to study magic don't go to the Summerset Isles, and instead, go to any other place, even lands where magic is shunned and despised like Skyrim, just for a chance to learn.

So to sum it up: Elsweyr is poor, and Valenwood's people are either slaves, slowly getting killed off.

Which again, brings us to Alinor. Which again, as an elven kingdom, has a slower breeding rate than the humans. Alinor's pathetically slow breeding rate, as well as their small numbers, led Queen Ayrenn Arana Aldmeri to establish the First Aldmeri Dominion, to increase the allies of the Altmer and make sure that she has the numbers to fight a war for the Ruby Throne. And again, if the Altmer had more than enough manpower to sweep what's left of the Empire clean, they'd have done so, and they wouldn't have reached for the negotiations table. Instead, they sued for peace, because their armies in Cyrodiil, and later, Hammerfell, were destroyed.

So, we've established that the other two provinces don't contribute jack shit aside from attack routes for the Thalmor armies. We've established that the Thalmor do not treat the non-Altmers in their lands well, to the point where Wood Elves would plot against them, and the Khajiit would rather leave Dominion lands to make money. And we've established that the Altmer, a kingdom whose low breeding habits led to the creation of the First Aldmeri Dominion, lost most of their armies in the last war.

Compare that to the Empire, which still has a large army in Cyrodiil, forces in High Rock, and the more wealthier half of Skyrim on their side. A Dominion with two useless provinces and one exhausted province is far weaker than an Empire with two provinces that have coin and manpower, and half a province that also is overflowing with coin from trade routes and silver mines.

So again, when it comes to a pragmatic view of warfare, the Empire has the superiority in manpower and coin. Hence why the Dominion lost Cyrodiil to the Empire in the first place. The Dominion's great gamble, taking the Empire's capital, all undone because the Empire had more men. To the point where their great general was defeated by a BODY DOUBLE. What a joke.

Also, the main reason the Stormcloaks hate the Empire is because A) they stopped fighting the Thalmor for a false peace and B) they banned the worship of Talos through the acceptance of the White-Gold Concordat. Newsflash: if war starts again with the Thalmor, then that means that the White Gold Concordat is null and void. Which means the Empire gets to fight the Thalmor again, and the Talos worship ban also disappears. Which means that the Stormcloaks no longer have a reason to fight the Empire. If anything, the Stormcloaks would want to strike the first blow against the Thalmor. The Stormcloaks opposed the Empire in the first place because of the false peace and the Talos worship ban. If it wasn't for those two things, Ulfric would have remained a loyal legionnaire of the Empire, and even after burning bridges with them, he still hates the Thalmor more. So at the very least, he won't interfere with the Empire pounding the Dominion into pancake batter. Heck, he'd probably want to get in on the fun.

The Empire can retake control of Skyrim, because Ulfric attacks Whiterun anyways. And seasoned warriors like Balgruuf's brother Hrongar know that if the Whiterun troops join the Empire, the Empire would have enough manpower to sweep the rebels. Balgruuf also writes to Tullius before the Stormcloaks arrive, meaning that the Legion will be there to stop the Stormcloaks. Hrongar knows that HALF of Whiterun's men joining the Empire would tip the balance of power to the Empire's side, and with the Empire having more men and coin, they can win the war. Especially when their leader is General Tullius, a noted tactician who easily defeated Ulfric Stormcloak in battle, which led to the latter's near-execution in Helgen that was stopped by a literal miracle.

The Thalmor aren't the puppetmasters here. They'd like to pretend to be, but they're not. They couldn't even get Tullius to surrender Ulfric to them back in Helgen.

Money can make problems go away. It can get more men to join the army. It can get more men to fix the damage done by the war. Money is power, after all. The one thing more dear than supernatural prowess in any fantasy is coin. It can get men to do anything, from helping rebuild a house, to assassinating nobles.

No canon lore states that the Thalmor have an overwhelming advantage. In fact, canon lore shows how fragile the Thalmor really are. Granted, they can still defeat a lone Skyrim, but with their losses in the Great War, with the squalor in their other two provinces, and with them being unable to manage a rebellion by the Redguards, it goes to show that the mighty Thalmor have as much wounds as the Empire does, and the strength that they project is a lie.

The main strength of the Thalmor laid in their tactics and logistics. They knew when to hit the Empire and where. They knew which buttons to push. But even that has its limits, and you can only go so far fooling people before everyone wises up. Because if this isn't about pragmatic tactics, but about fantasy and magic, then Ulfric would have been able to defeat the Empire AND the Thalmor, since he's fighting for a god, and we've seen in ESIV what that means: gods can literally fight beside mortals, and they can affect the balance of wars and bring about victory from the jaws of defeat, just as Mehrunes Dagon was defeated by Akatosh in the Oblivion Crisis. Instead, the wars of the Fourth Era are decided by pragmatic tactics and logistics, and that's why the Empire was able to defeat the Thalmor in Cyrodiil, and why they were able to capture Ulfric prior to the destruction of Helgen. They had more numbers, they had better tacticians. That's what led to their victories.