Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-26213507-20150715194939/@comment-26801133-20150731192533

Shigeru Thalmor Slayer wrote: By allowing the Thalmor some room, the Empire enabled reconnaissance to be done on them more effectively. And you don't think the Thalmor has done the same? In fact, while Thalmor officers can walk all over the Empire without impunity, it is never mentioned that the Empire can do the same. Meanwhile the Thalmor can use their position as "Talos Hunters" to gather critical intelligence, like the size of their armies, their resources and even probe Skyrim's overall security for weaknesses.

And you do bring up a good point with Alvor's line of dialogue(I have kinda forgotten it, it's been a while). However, while the dossier mentioned that Ulfric could have been valuable due to him being son of the Jarl of Windhelm, they didn't plan the Markarth Incident, which sparked the rebellion in the first place. Once Ulfric regained the Reach for the Empire, instead of openly accepting Ulfric's unreasonable terms of free Talos worship in the city, only to later blatantly betray him, the Empire could have made secret dealings and compromises to play both the Thalmor's and Ulfric's side and thus preventing the rebellion while still being on good terms with the Dominion. But they didn't, either out of fear or they believed that they could do whatever they wanted without repercussion. The Thalmor played both Ulfric and the Empire like a flute, due to both acting incompetently on their respective parts.