Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25343239-20150319182007/@comment-260563-20180319155116

If the Aldmeri Dominion is as smart as you think it is, it would have won the war without any need for a truce, and we'd start Skyrim with both Imperials and the Stormcloaks doing hit-and-run attacks against a Thalmor government in Skyrim. In the end, the Thalmor are good with two things: magic, and intel ops. When it comes to actual, dirty fighting, they rely on the superiority of their magic and arms, which is why they can still be out-fought, like in Hammerfell and Cyrodiil.

1) The Dominion is slowly wiping out people from Valenwood because they don't think the Wood Elves are racially fit to survive. Hence why you get guys like Malborn who are more than happy to plot against the Thalmor. Outside from the odd spy or agent, the Thalmor's armies are purely High Elven, which goes to show that they don't have much support from their other two provinces. They strong-armed their way into Valenwood and tricked the Khajiit into an alliance. But even the Khajiit traders outside Windhelm despise the one member of theirs who was working for the Thalmor. Couple that with the fact that the High Elves were never numerous to begin with, and more consecutive draws with the Empire will bleed their army to the point where they won't have enough to resist the Empire

2) If those commanders were as good as you think, they wouldn't have been chased out of Cyrodiil or Hammerfell. Heck, they lost to a battered, lone Hammerfell, and an immensely weakened Empire. The Thalmor are certainly smarter than Ulfric, but certainly not smarter than Imperial commanders like Tullius.

3) They can sail to Skyrim before it recovers. The East Empire Company already has trade and shipping lanes all over the place, and two trade harbors in Skyrim are Solitude and Windhelm. What's to stop a Thalmor fleet from sailing up there? Nothing. Also, the Legion is keeping the Thalmor out of Cyrodiil. On the other hand, if Skyrim secedes, then there's no consequence for the Thalmor if they sailed a fleet up there, because the Legion that kicked their asses in the last war won't get involved. That, and the fact that Ulfric's forces would be dead tired right after the civil war, so yeah, that might as well be an instant victory for them.

4) Bullshit. The Empire is still bringing in good money from the trade relationships, and the Empire itself is still strong enough to force the Thalmor to a truce. And unlike the Elves, humans reproduce like rabbits, which means they have plenty of meat for the grinder. During the Great War, the Empire's forces, mages included, drove off the Elves from Cyrodiil. And now, the mages have improved, gathering powerful magic weapons as well as practicing conjuration and necromancy. Which means come the next war, and not only will the Imperial armies have a few new magical toys, but they'll also be raising zombie and Daedra armies to fight at their side.

There is nothing that indicates that the Empire is screwed when the next war starts. At worst, it'll be another draw, and that will be to their advantage since High Elves are never that numerous. The Empire can afford to lose men. The Dominion can't. As Robb Stark told Edmure Tully back in Game of Thrones, "WE NEED OUR MEN MORE THAN TYWIN NEEDS HIS!" And with the High Elves not being able to reproduce as fast as the humans do, then yes, the Dominion needs its men more than the Empire needs theirs. For every truce period that takes 10-20 years, the Empire can recover and train more men, while the Dominion would keep losing experienced mages and commanders who lived for centuries. That is not an equal exchange.

Quite frankly, this whole "The Empire is screwed" bullshit seems to come from ex-Stormcloak fans who admit that the Stormcloaks will lose to the Thalmor, so they decide to state that the Empire will lose as well. Which is, of course, complete bollocks. The most the Empire spends in the Skyrim Civil War is some auxiliaries led by their best general. And the Legion overall can stomp the Thalmor and force them to a truce. And with the Dragonborn getting involved in that razor-thin balance of power, the Dragonborn can tip it to the Empire's side if they're imperial, or to the Thalmor's side if they're pro-Dominion. If the Dragonborn is a Stormcloak, though, it doesn't matter how many dragons they mind-control, they don't have enough forces to occupy the ground, and the Thalmor can easily ambush them if they don't have a large mass of soldiers to work with.