Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-26213507-20150928140042/@comment-26896471-20151006230822

Even then, established could mean anything. It could mean, contact was established but then he tried to have us killed. The "he became uncooperative.." line implies that this isn't what happened. But even then, contact established could mean the opposite, we established contact, he didn't try to have us killed, but unfortunately nothing came from it. Most likely, it's somewhere in the middle. A deal, likely very informal, was made to both parties mutual interests. Possibly, the Thalmor quite liked the idea of the Markarth incident, so they told Ulfric that, should he choose to go ahead with it, they wouldn't intervene. This is now a long way away from even being an agent. He is a passive asset, with whom there has been dialogue.