User blog comment:Harold Burned-Mane/The Truth about Ulfric Stormcloak/@comment-5700881-20131108114507/@comment-17114085-20131121190350

"In 4E 176, the Great War ended with the Empire signing the White-Gold Concordat. During this time, Igmund, son of the previous Jarl, took it upon himself to seek help from Ulfric Stormcloak in ousting the Reachmen invaders. He promised Ulfric that if he re-took the Reach, then Igmund as Jarl would allow free worship of Talos - an act that was recently outlawed at the end of the war. Ulfric agreed and marched his militia to the gates of Markarth and ruthlessly retook the city using the power of his Thu'um." Your wrong in who granted Ulfric free Talos Worship. The Wiki clearly states it was Igmund, his father died when he tried to calm the Reachmen before they took the Reach during the Great War.

Lets break this down logically. Great War ends, WGC is signed(Titus is a wuss), Nords legionaires go home angry at the Empire, One of those Nords is Ulfric, During 5 years nothing much happened(except Ulfric started to get a folowing for speacking out against the WGC and that betrayal), then Igmund contacts Ulfric to retake the Reach, MArkarth Incident happens, Ulfric is arrested.....(i think we know the rest).

So my point is that like i said Ulfric does make things worse as he brings more of the Thalmor's atention to Skyrim, but there is no proof that the Thalmor didn't enforce. One thing that makes sense is since the Thalmor lost so many of their troops during the Great War they had to spread them thin across the provinces, thus making the Talos ban less strict as there were less Thalmor to enforce it, but as the years go by more Thalmor are recruted and with the whole Ulfric thing Skyrim draws the Thalmor's atention.

Tecnically the Quarians were in the wrong, they attacked the Geth who were just trying to protect themselfs. Geth never attacked first, and the Quarians never tried politics against them as they though the Geth were hostile, which they weren't. Heretical Geth don't count as they are pawns of the Reapers ad as such are hostile, unlike the regular Geth who just want to live.

In Ulfric's eyes Torygg did nothing against the Empire/Thalmor for 20 years, he had had enough and so chalenged Torygg...the rest we know. Ulfric's political prowess may or may not be good(as we haven't seen much of him ruling) but at this time he is the kind of leader that Skyrim needs, he is a good general and tactitian, he is charismatic(good for moral), he fights alongside his men, he is a capable warrior, etc. He is the kind of leader that Skyrim needs for when the 2nd Great War starts.

He killed the King because he felt the Empire is to weak to rule Skyrim and Torygg was too, he didn't want Elves ruling over Men. Also about the siege weapons. Whiterun is a walled city(in game it may not so big but in lore its 10 times that size) unless Siege Weapons/Magic was used to break the walls he wouldn't have been able to get inside and win, it was a siege after all can't have siege without siege weapons.

Also on another blog Draevan me and some others were discussing the Great War, we found evidence that the Empire didn't just have a temporary upperhand, they had turned the tide of the War by winning the Battle of the Red Ring, though it was unlikely that the Empire could have defeated the AD, as that would involve them invading Elsweyr/Valenwood/Summerset which was near impossible for them to achieve as they were at less than 1/2 their full strength. The Empire could have negotiated way better, out right rejecting the WGC and presuring the Thalmor for better terms(as the AD had way less troops than them).

I agree to disagree on who has claim to the Reach.

Like i said before Akatosh couldn't manefest himself without Martin's sacrifice. They can interfere sometimes but not directly(bringing good harvest,blessing through prayer, etc isn't something big and as such i think doesn't require much of their power so that they can do, or atleast that is how i see it.) like they can't manefest themselfs/talk to mortals/create artifacts and give them to their mortal champions(like the daedra do)/directly fight or banesh evil(like Alduin and Meirunes Dagon)without help(like Martins sacrifice). Though us debating about the divines isn't really on topic.

The closest any race in Tamriel has come to what you say is the Dwemer, who didn't believe in gods, they kind of went crazy and tried to create new gods and become imortal. Needless tosay they failed and their race was wipped from existence. As for democracy i don't think that any race has done this yet. On Draevan's poll we were discussing what we though was better for Tamriel, mostly everyone though a mix of democracy and the current monocracy, with each province having more autonomy from the New Empire(who would function sort of like the UN). Though both of these things you are suggesting are way to advanced for the races of Tamriel. Democracy not so much as the greeks invented it thousands of years ago, but shun superstitions and religion in favor of the pursuit of knowledge and reason only started to happen in our world around the Renaissance(14th to 17th century). Even know religion still is an important part of our reality(though not as important as it wonce was). In TES universe the races might never shun superstitions and religion in favor of the pursuit of knowledge and reason as Gods and Godlike beings exist and are proven to exist. I mean there stars aren't stars they are tears inreality that conect Nirn to Aetherius, and planets aren't planets they are Realms of the Divines/Daedra, and the blackness of space isn't space its Oblivion.

Talos guide you.