Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-209.7.3.188-20160303204000/@comment-993964-20161030030901

Blademaster Jauffre wrote: Sports72Xtrm wrote:

Harming "their overall position in Skyrim" only applies to Ulfric's death at Helgen. Naturally, if Ulfric died right there at Helgen, there would be no rebellion and Stormcloaks and Imps wouldn't be killing each other thus it would "harm their overall position in Skyrim". It's only applicable in that context. They've already achieved their goal by having Ulfric survive Helgen and start the rebellion and solidified their overall position in Skyrim, no matter who wins because both imps and stormcloaks are enemies of the dominion. Yet they don't desire either of the two factions to survive and the remaining faction who emerges victorious needs to be able to challenge the Thalmor. The Stormcloaks are still a valid contender in that regard. Ulfric's death would have dramatically increased the chance of an  Imperial  victory  and thus harmed our overall position in Skyrim.  The and thus is a reference to the Imperial victory.

The full quote is "The incident at Helgen is an example where an exception had to be made - obviously Ulfric's death would have dramatically increased the chance of an Imperial victory and thus harmed our overall position in Skyrim."

The "The incident at Helgen" is the subject, specifically, Ulfric's scheduled execution. Ulfric's death at Helgen would decisively ruin any chance of a Skyrim civil War, which is what they mean by harming their overall position in Skyrim. Since the civil war occurs anyways, their overall position in Skyrim is already secured. If the Empire wins, they get their excuse to stay in Skyrim and influence its politics, if the Stormcloaks win, then the Empire loses a province.