User blog comment:Longdead97/Ulfric's war effort & gaining support. Smart move or no?/@comment-7055753-20130323143058/@comment-7371906-20130326143045

The Thalmor was only able to claim the Capital because the "genius" Titus Mede II must had thought that the Ultimatum that was presented to him that demanded that they succeed the southern portion of Hammerfell and abolish the worship of the ninth divine Tiber Septim or Talos and when he denied this he then proceeded to do nothing he didn't even prepared a counter force to defend Hammerfell and so a force that was only meant to take south of Hammerfell was able to take their capital so yeah the only reason that the Empire lost the Imperial city was because their Emperor was a moron.

"the Empire is the only thing keeping the elven army out of Skyrim".

Yeah because they don't need to send an army the Empire allows them to take anyone accused as a Talos worshiper to be tortured and killed legally they are doing everything they possibly want with minimal effort on their part.