Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-10993011-20130618024431/@comment-8248675-20130824202521

Pickleseller wrote: VAULTEER wrote: What is up for debate here is if they could take Tamriel. Skyrim WOULD FALL easily, with it being in shambles after the civil war. What's left? High Rock and half of Hammerfall. And maybe Orsinium. Black Marsh is on no-ones side apparently. Would they be able to capture HR and HF? Yes. Immediately? No. Eventually? Yes. I agree with you, but High Rock is part of the Empire. For once, Hammerfell is its own nation, ever since White Gold Concordum gave away half of it to Aldmeri Dominion. However, since they got their independance, trough rebelion or not, they did what the heck they wanted there and forced Aldmeri Dominion to leave the other half of Hammerfell. Now Hammerfell is independant and whole again, and Thalmor possibly already weakened by fighting Redguards and Alikir warriors.

When Ulfric began his rebelion, the Empire not only wanted to punish him for murder of Toryg, but also tried preventing Skyrim from spliting from Empire like Hammerfell. One reason, is trough Skyrim lies the only land path from Cyrodil to High Rock and Orsinium. The other reason is Skyrim got the firecest warriors in all of the Empire and they need them. They already cannot count on Redguards for protection, if Nords will declare independence in Skyrim, they would only have Orsimer of Orsinium as the best worriors in Empire and I don't think many trust Orcs.

Now, lets take a look at what is Empire today. No Hammerfell as I mentioned before. Morrowind was independent ever since the Oblivion Crisis, plus they always had an autonomy within the Empire since Tiber Septim. Blackmarsh, I belive Empire always controled only perimeter of the province to begin with and possibly no non native ever even been in the heart of Argonia or Blackmarsh, so if anything Blackmarsh is an autonomous within the Empire, if not independant. Aldmeri Dominion orginaly took Sumerset Isles, Valenwood and Elswyer away, so Empire basically lost three provinces at once. Now Elswyer if I am not mistaken split itself from the Dominion eventualy, but I don't think Khajits ever reenterred Empire yet. So what it leaves us with now? Cyrodil, Skyrim, Highrock and Orsinium within Highrock. If Skyrim's war for independance was successful, Skyrim is it's own nation, cutting Empire from Highrock and Orsinium. Now to reach their other provinces, Empire have to sail Abecean Sea and Iliac Bay, probably paying hight tax tarifs to Hammerfell to use their teritorial waters. Judging from how many intrugues always still going on within Highrock, it is not certain if they stay witin the Empire for too long, especialy since it is would be harder for Cyrodil to resuply their garisons there. If Highrock becomes independant as well, Empire would be left with just Cyrodil and Orsinium, with Orsinium landlocked between Highrock and Skyrim. Oh and more then likely, with Empire not able to tell Bretons what do to anymore, they would no doubt raise an army and will tear Orsinium down once more. That vertually destroying the Empire, since Cyrodil by itself is not an Empire.

Now, if they would be able to hold on to Skyrim, there maybe be still hope for Empire, maybe even to restore lost provinces. Otherwise, lets not underestimate Nords, even if they have been hit hard during civil war, they are the toughest people in Tamriel. There might as well build their own Empire like during Ysgramor's times with the High King wearing the Jagged crown once again.

I know I bring up Russian example quite a lot, but I would refer here to World War I anyways. Russians were a formidable oponent for Germans, just like Germans were formidable for Russians. Appearantly Russians didn't have any problems fighting Austo Hungarians in that war. In fact, they considered it rather boring fighing against Austrians and would rather try themselves against Germans. I already mentioned how Russians threw wave after wave of milions and milions of troops against Germans, preventing they from duing much on the Western front. It was to the extend that after artilery barrage, and gass attack, Russian possitions would still be able to repel the cavalry attack aimed at finishing off any survivors. Russians believed that the key to their strengh and endurance was their faith in God. All of the allies believed in God, but none in the way that Russians did. At the end, to get Russia out of war, Germans used the trickery. They helped a revolutionary to get back to Russia, to start a revolution, when they were most volnerable to it. The Bolshevik revolution, not only brough the government that opposed the war effort, they even opposed religion and faith in Russia. Only by low trickery, Germans mannaged to eliminate their strongest oponent in war, but by doing so, they planted the seeds of revolution within their own people and Kaiser Willam II, didn't keep his thorne that much longer then his cousin Nicholas II, the one who he wanted dethroned so much. Curious fact by the way, Kaiser of Germany had no family ties with Emperor Franz Joseph II at all. However he was related to both Tsar Nicholas II and King George V. Yet he sided with the nation closst to his by language, not family ties.

My point here is not to underestimated Nords, Aldmeri Dominion might think that they have a chance after Skyrim is ravaged with Civil War, but they might as well underestimate Nordic strenth of spirit and their unveavering believe in Talos. In the way that Germans underestimated how strong of the opponent Russians would be, in both World Wars actually. Unless ofcourse Ulfric is a secret Thalmor agent and they had him start that rebelion on purpose. He was imprisoned by Thalmor and he did break under torture. No one knows if that's enough to make him work for the Dominion or not. He might honestly be fighting for free Skyrim because he's done bleeding for the Empire that won't bleed for them, who knows?