Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-27007772-20140611204941/@comment-109.182.161.64-20150120215306

The civil war is basically a war between stability and strenght or freedom and free worship. Every smart person would pick stability over freedom (which would result into anarchy) and strenght over a short-term Talos ban.

Also the empire respects all races across Tamriel, while the stormcloaks come out as xenophobic and racist patriots.

An independent skyrim is weaker than an united empire.

And last, but not least, did anyone even try and look at the armours? The imperial legionnary looks like a tank against a punny stormcloak, who ripped his chainmail sleeves off for "extra protection (from the cold)".