Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-27007772-20140611204941/@comment-77.170.146.227-20141217202030

70.134.49.246 wrote: First time playing through Skyrim, with my only previous experience being Oblivion. I was all ready to be a good little Stormcloak--hey, these guys tried to kill me, and besides, empires=bad while rebel freedom fighters=good, right? Right!

I put off advancing the Civil War as I just wanted to get the lay of the land. As I adventured, I encountered the books detailing the evil scheming of the Thalmor among their own people. Then, in the Dragonborn questline, I obtained and read the Thalmor dossier on Ulfric. Put these two together, and it was obvious that a) the Thalmor are the greatest (mortal) threat to Tamriel, and b) Ulfric is their Manchurian Candidate, a sleeper agent helping them to subvert Cyrodiil just as they subverted the Aldmeri Dominion. Once I realized that, I could not side with him, regardless of all the social and political window-dressing that the game includes to support the idea of this choice being neutral or muddied.

Some of this in-game neutrality includes statements that Ulfric is less receptive to the Thalmor than he was, and that their main interest is to keep the civil war going--that either side winning would be less advantageous for them. But with Ulfric having been their brainwashed pawn before, I refuse to trust him with consolidated power. Like many people, you have misread the Thalmor dossier on Ulfric. You seem to think he has been effectively brainwashed to help the Thalmor, while actually that is not the case. The Thalmor have only been able to make him believe certain things that weren't true, but they have never managed to influence his behaviour.

The only reason they think of him as a (past) asset is because his views on the Empire (which really is too weak to rule Skyrim but refuses to let Skyrim rule itself) are dividing Skyrim. But either side winning will weaken the Thalmor, so yours is an argument against Tullius (who really is knowingly serving the Thalmor by letting them run rampant in Skyrim) as much as it is an argument against Ulfric Stormcloak.