User blog comment:ShawnCognitionCP/The Empire vs Stormcloaks, the most likely answer/@comment-9062114-20140611211441

Just have to clear some things up

If Torygg truly would've done with Ulfric said if he just asked, why didnb't Torygg before? Ulfric was known for wanting to succeed from Skyrim, if Torygg truly had any intention of doing it, he probably would've done it. In addition, the owner of Bits & Pieces says that Torygg did look up to the Empire a lot...

This is pretty one-sided, the Thalmor also lost huge amounts of soldiers in the Great War, almost to the point where they could've had none at all. The Great War book in the game even says how their largest army was wiped out by the Empire. Due to slow Elven reproduction, they probably have barely recovered. Meaning that the Concordat wasn't as necessarey or helpful as you're making it out to be here.

There is literally no evidence to support this what so ever, if anything, there's evidence against it. Since Ulfric made a deal with Jarl Hrolfdir (Igmund's father) to have Talos Worship in the Reach if he liberated it, this was the before the war, so he couldn't have been recruting people for it. Also, I have the Talos Priestess in Windhelm says he comes to the Temple of Talos often, though we don't see it most likely due to gameplay limitations, atleast I assume.

What would Tullius have said? "'Of the Empire is terrible, you were right all along Ulfric!" 'probably not, I wouldn't say he's the most neutral source when it comes to this matter. Also, there's no proof Ulfric is doing this for greed, the few NPCs who have said that give no evidence what so ever to support this.

The Thalmor as explained above might not have many soldiers left to fight with, while the Stormcloaks could have the chance to unite with Hammerfell, possibly even High Rock and Morrowind! As they both dislike the Dominion too, and two of them don't have ties to the Empire at all even!