User blog comment:JoshofBlades/Give the Empire a Chance./@comment-4639619-20111212220121

Another point I noticed against Ulfric... It's mentioned in game dialog that the imperials didn't even really crack down on the worship of Talos before the civil war. It was illegal but not much was done about it unless the Thalmor started poking around. Guess a lil' worship wasn't a big deal to the imperials until some idiot made it into a trait of a traitor.