Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24.139.116.236-20131222233804/@comment-10207438-20140222012744

TheDwemerSpy wrote: But yet you fail to realize that the Thalmor are already in Skyrim, secretly they are pulling the strings of war and politics in the Empire and even in Hammerfell which makes it easier for the Dominion to invade. Plus, the Dominion could avoid being spotted by enemies and leave Skyrim unaware of the invasion. Also, Cyrodiil can't afford to invade the Dominion, High Rock is still too divided to become a real threat to the Thalmor and it seems like both High Rock and the Dominion don't care about each other at the moment, and, while it may not seem like it, Hammerfell also can't afford to invade the Dominion, they may have brought the Dominion to a standstill in the War but it is clear that the Dominion did not waste much troops in the war against the Dominion. Oh wow, three days, sorry, I didn't get the notification.

while the thalmor are in skyrim, they are protected by the empire(ex: as soon as Markarth is handed to the stormcloaks Ondolemar is dead, they kill the chief Justicar because he's no longer protected) without the protection afforded to them by the empire they will have to beg for their lives if they want to see the summerset Isles again, and that's if the Stormcloaks feel like forgiving them, they are severely outnumbered and they have two headquarters, both of them are known to the local governments.

Hammerfell is staunchly opposed to the Aldmer Dominion, and they are known to have many pirates, a single one of those pirates spots that armada of Aldmeri Ships and they know they can screw the AD and make themselves rich by moving that information. sure they can keep their ships so far out that no ship would ever spot them, but that will only make the trip longer and harder, they'll need even more food, meaning less room for soldiers, and many will still die, that means they will need even more ships to move the soldiers.

You're right about hammerfell and the AD, they fought to a standstill, this was done by mostly untrained fighters, I would have to assume that since that time Hammerfell has been able to amass a standing army of trained soldiers.

As for Cyrodiil, they might not be able to fight off the entirety of the Aldmeri Dominion armies, but that's why they'd attack after the AD troops have left to fight Skyrim.

and Highrock, well it's tough to say anything about Highrock with how little information we have about Highrock since the war, I'd assume that if they stay with the empire they'd help Cyrodiil defend/attack the AD in Vallenwood/Ellswyr, if they seperate and form an alliance with skyrim or hammerfell they will almost definetly help skyrim/hammerfell. but as we don't know much about their current political alignments it's hard to say what they would do.