Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-209.7.3.188-20160303204000/@comment-26893431-20161023154112

Sports72Xtrm wrote: The Thalmor already roam Skyrim. Their inquisitions already abduct people and torture them for information. Tell me, how do you feel about the Thorald Gray-Mane incident. Do you think it's right for your neighbor to aid in kidnapping you holding you prisoner to a hostile foreign embassy, not even to be trialed by you own countrymen or even the Empire that allegedly governs you? That's sounds like doing "pretty much what they like" to me and the Imps gave them an excuse to do it. They torture, kill, kidnap, all in the name of enforcing the Accords and if the Imps don't let them do it, they'll say they're breaking the Talos Ban agreement by not enforcing it and threaten war.

And there are Talos worshipers in Skyrim, the Thalmor already have their excuse to invade and could spin it so that the Empire is in the wrong. You say that the Empire is stronger than the Stormcloaks. I would disagree with you since the Stormcloaks could drive the Legions from the region, though for the sake of your player agency, I'll indulge your assertion but state that only a united Empire would have been stronger than the Stormcloaks alone which it is not. Skyrim is politically divided. The Imperials are assassinating each other as evidence of Titus' potential assassination, and the Empire lacks strong leadership. The Imperials have propped up the Thalmor so that they could dictate the terms to politically weaken them in this region, and the Thalmor could also now have allies in the Reachmen and other native anarchists in Skyrim. Whether we think the Stormcloak rebellion was a good idea or not is irrelevant, my question to you is do you really believe that the Empire would defend Skyrim or hand it over to the Thalmor because it's politically inconvenient? If you say they would, I would argue that they did not defend their Hammerfall province and disavowed the Imperial Legions stationed there, what's to stop them from having the same thing done to Skyrim? The Stormcloak rebellion no doubt taxed the Empire, and it's a politically problematic province with its tenacious Talos worshipers (which is against the accords) will either force the Empire to enforce the Talos ban and fan the flames of more rebellion and thus tax the Cyrodillians even more or sever ties with Skyrim as they did Hammerfall just to save themselves the headache and let the Thalmor fight to have more influence in the region. I fear that Skyrim will fight alone as the Redguards did because the Empire is politically corrupt, especially with the possible recent assassination of Titus Mede in the Dark Brotherhood storyline, and thus would also be too politically divided or weak even in Cyrodil to defend Skyrim. You say the next Thalmor invasion won't take the Empire by surprise? They already did, by dictating the terms via using the Accords that favored them and the Stormcloak rebellion to weaken the Empire. I don't know about you, but I feel less of a fool following Ulfric, whether he fights for vanity or not, at least he will fight the threats to Skyrim just to save face. The Legionaire general in an Imperial victory may be disavowed and be forced to unite an independent Skyrim out of survival. Thorald Gray-Mane had it coming. Backing the Stormcloaks in the Civil War will get you in trouble with the Empire and the Thalmor. The Thalmor are only allowed to enforce the WGC, anything else is not allowed.

No they don't have an excuse to invade. The Empire is stronger than the Stormcloaks, Ulfric himself even acknowledges this, in fact, Ulfric even claims it's the fate of the Stormcloaks to lose.

The rest of your argument is gibberish and simply wrong.