Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-98.219.131.149-20130704005556/@comment-9854979-20130705014218

If it did come down to that, here's my prediction:

If you're right, and it wasn't just a mistake made by Bethesda during creation, I would have to guess that Talos (being the God of War, and having that sort of jurisdiction) denied the Stormcloaks of their victory because he thought that Ulfric would be a cruel and unjust tyrrant for a leader. This is very likely, as some NPC's will tell you that "...all Ulfric cares about is Ulfric" and "...that man (Ulfric) is a tyrrant!"

It's also likely (assuming your theory is true) that Talos realized that the Empire was supporting Skyrim more than hindering it. Skyrim would loose quite a bit of economical support if the Empire had left (East Empire Company manages most international trade networks, if Skyrim receeded from the Empire, very little international goods would arrive). If you look around certain cities, you'll find little to even no Thalmor around, and people will still openly worship Talos as a God (look at Whiterun, for Christ's sake, there's a shrine to the guy in the central part of town for crying out loud!). Could the Thalmor grip not be as strong as Ulfric anticipated? It's more than likely so. It's also likely that the Thalmor were lessening their grip to re-arm themselves. In the Dragonborn DLC, there's a sidequest (I can't remember the name for some reason) where you rescue a man from Skaal Village and he tells you about how the Thalmor have stolen a map from him that shows Stalhrim locations, and I believe the art to create Stalhrim equipment. Long story short, you have to retrieve the map from the Thalmor, which are about to set sail back to the Summerset Isles. What did they want Stalhrim for? To create weapons and armor to assist their taking-over for Skyrim? Well, I have yet another theory on this.

Skyrim is colder than a witch's tit, right? Nord's have a keen resistance to the cold as well, right? Stalhrim is considered the "ice-ore" and thus have the 25% bonus to any Frost enchantments. Let's say the Thalmor enchant their armor (since they are very prevolent in magic) to help them resist the cold weather in Skyrim. Was the plan to do exactly this, and allow their soldiers to easily resist the cold, thus allowing them to negate any advantage the Nords had on them, or am I being too specific? Anyway, this is getting long lol, MAH BAD.