Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-76.97.80.106-20130811163656/@comment-14138255-20140624221313

Still, it's not like the Empire wants to appease the Dominion, it just has to get it's stuff back together. What sense does it make if they decide to go to war unready and end up getting slaughtered and get THEMSELVES enslaved by the Thalmor, of course they don't want a war yet. The Stormcloaks are willing to fight the Thalmor, but whether or not they will succeed is different.

The Imperials have a better chance of succeeding since they have a larger amount of resources and manpower (in fact the only reason they were doing so badly before was a lack of morale since the Oblivion Crisis and the Thalmor taking them by surprise early on, crippling their ability to wage war).

And as for your freedom, people don't get to rebel just because they can't do a certain thing that people were already doing long before they appeared (worshipping Talos, everyone was doing it in secret and when it became public no one cared until the Empire [and by extension the Thalmor] had to crack down)