Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-76.97.80.106-20130811163656/@comment-92.13.116.74-20131224175839

MeadDrinker wrote: but it's not like the legion really wants to stop worshiping talos, it's just that they need to enforce the thalmor's will, nobody did anything about stopping talos worshipers before ulfric started being noisy.

i believe alvor (the blacksmith of riverwood) says something like "we each have our shrines of talos and what gods you worshiped was your business" It's just that the Thalmor have more power over these events than most believe and the empire would prefer not to cross them again and so they can't simply make peace.

Think of it like 3 people, one with a tazer and the other 2 with guns. The one with the tazer will taze gunman one if he doesn't shoot gunman 2 and gunman 2 will shoot gunman 1 if he doesn't shoot the one with the tazer. So you understand:

Tazer guy=Stormcloaks

Gunman 1=Empire

Gunman 2=Thalmor