Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-206.74.175.104-20151018163917/@comment-26896471-20160223164752

Draevan13 wrote: Ottoman Hold wrote: 1) I guess this point is being misunderstood. The Empire is handling justice in their own providence. For some reason, multiple people think that Skyrim was Dominion land during the war when it is clearly not. Of course The Dominion is not settling the Civil War since it's not their providence. I'm getting a little annoyed by people saying The Empire is a Dominion puppet. They're not. The treaty may be sided toward The Dominion, but that doesn't mean The Empire is powerless.  This.

The Dominion does not control the Empire's armies, nor dicate Imperial policy beyond the treaty signed 30 years prior. This is stated nowhere in-game.

They can send Justiciars to root out Talos worshippers, that doesn't mean they govern the Empire. I don't think anyone is claiming the Thalmor quite literally control Imperial policy. The term "Thalmor puppets" is a rhetorical device as much as anything, and I would't treat it at face value. That being said, the loss of the right to fully police your own territory is an enormous loss of sovereignty. It's what caused Serbia to reject Austria's ultimatum before WWI.

Indeed, the Empire was powerless to the extent that it had no choice but to sign one of the most humiliating armistices imaginable. It is this fact that the Empire were utterly powerless, and still live with a Thalmor knife to the throat, that makes the White-Gold Concordat acceptable. If you make the Empire out to be much stronger than that, then they continue to betray their own people by accepting the peace.