Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-11344160-20160205154012/@comment-26693897-20160819200407

76.190.133.241 wrote: "The Empire is what keeps the Thalmor out of Skyrim" says the Imperial Officer as ten Thalmor pass by. If the Empire keeps the Thalmor out of Skyrim, then why do I see groups of Thalmor on the roads all the damn time.

At first, when I first started playing Skyrim I didn’t understand what "The Empire is what keeps the Thalmor out of Skyrim" meant, since the Thalmor are there in Skyrim, until I dived into the lore. What they're saying is an independent Skyrim is inviting the Dominion to invade. The White-Gold Concordat let the Thalmor enter Skyrim without issue, and allows them to enforce it, but it doesn’t give them free reign to just start sacking villages or killing people. The Empire hate the Thalmor just as much as the Stormcloaks do, so "The Empire is what keeps the Thalmor out of Skyrim" translates to "If the Empire wasn’t here, you would be fighting a real Thalmor invasion". It makes sense to "play nice" for the time being till a counter offensive can be made.