Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-76.97.80.106-20130811163656/@comment-71.105.111.156-20140219102333

i can never bring myself to side with the stormcloaks. i personally think that people always impulsively want to join them at first because of freedom of religion and this idea that rebels are good guys, particularly in the US. but i think that siding with the empire is a far more mature choice. the stormcloaks are too hotheaded, too focused on the short term, to be able to stand up to the AD.

also pink slim you seem to be assuming a lot to me. i dont know of anything that says the AD force in hammerfell was small, or that the forces involved in the battle of red ring were their only offensive forces. this wiki itself says that, following red ring, the AD realized that defeating the empire would now take a much larger investment of mer, time, and money. that to me implies they could have still won but it would have cost more than they were willing to give.

i also dont see why people say mede is such a crappy emperor. not saying he is awesome or anything, but the guy personally led one of the legions that retook the imperial city from the elves, allegedly wielding goldbrand as he fought. following this he signed the white gold concordat. call it a coward's way out, but i see it as the smart man's way out, the mature way out. sure, he could have done the "brave"(for brave here read short sighted and foolish) thing and tried to actually beat the AD.

but lets remember actually defeating the AD means conquering Elsweyr and Valenwood, both powers in their own right. this is all before even looking at the altmer base itself, the summerset isles. that means launching a full blown naval invasion against the AD's home turf. ALL OF THIS after the empire taking serious casualties on all fronts leading up to and including the battle of red ring, as well as however many losses they would suffer in the capture of the mainland AD territory.

or, they could sign the WGC. swallow their pride for a while until the empire can effectively build up its forces and bring them back to a level where they can seriously compete with the AD and have a solid chance at victory, a victory which would be good for all men, not just imperials (i mean the race here)

but then, fools like ulfric and his stormcloaks play right into the thalmor's hands, rebelling against the empire once they decide they are too good for it, distracting the empire from its main goal, weakening cyrodiil and skyrim in the process. just like the thalmor almost certainly wanted them to. hell, the thalmor themselves deem ulfric an asset, albeit an uncooperative one, and the thalmor have even considered giving carefully managed supplies to the stormcloaks.

that's my reasoning anyway. but on another note, in all the TES games i have played either an imperial or a nord most of the time. and i like alvor's way of thinking when he says "we nords have never been fair-weather friends". i hate the thought of my nord char pulling out of the empire he's been loyal to just because they are in the middle of hard times