User blog comment:Spritydove/Deeper Thought into the Civil War/@comment-4692902-20120616075537

I find that a lot of people keep using Hammerfell as an example of how one country can hold off the Thalmor, but I would ask you to consider the number of factors as to why they won, this is a quote that I feel summarizes what most likely happened quite nicely:

"The Empire wouldn't have been able to defeat the Thalmor as easily as you seem to imply purely because the Redguards "won" their war. Which is largely up in the air. Sure, it was a technical victory. But only after years of war that devastated their homeland. A war in a desert I might add. Historically fighting your enemies on their home territory is bad enough, but when said homeland is a desert filled with rocky mountains and vast expanses of sand? Have you seen the size of Hammerfell? It's a geruella fighter's dreamland. Not to mention the Redguard are, as a race, physically perfect for war. The Altmer, on the other hand, and perfectly built for magic. Magic from TES lore needs preparation and planning to use effectively in a large scale application. This would most likely mean any magic heavy army caught off guard by a hardened band of warriors would likely be in a pretty bad place."

I hope you see that there is a lot more going on than at first glance. If you think about it there are probably a lot more factors and sides going on then you might think, and that you would want to take into account, an example would be that there is a (kinda) good reason for the Nords being so weary around outsiders (not that I excuse racism at all)is because as a whole their experiences with outsiders has more or less ended in violence, such as the Falmer and Dunmer.

To be honest I don't see why I should care about the freedom to worship Talos while the Nords are hypocritically oppressing the native Reachmen (Breton-Nordic mix), much worse than the Empire is doing to the Nord's, who occupied the Reachmen first, and before you start saying something like: "All Reachmen are Forsworn". Or something equally biased, you are saying something similar to saying: "All Nords are a bunch of dumb drunks". In case you haven't noticed the natives including those that want nothing to do with the Forsworn are generally being treated like trash, being paid barely anything for backtracking labor, getting beaten for doing their jobs ever so incorrectly, and of course any that still own their own mines are being muscled out by the Silver-Bloods, I think they are being treated much worse than the Dunmer in Windhelm that people keep complaining about, yes they are being treated poorly, but looking at the Reach, they have it much better off. To be honest I know that The Bear of Markarth was most likely made to slander Nords, and Forsworn were probably was much more bloody than described in the book, but after seeing Markarth and the general situation going on there, I don't blame them, and I'm sure it was exaggerated just how bad the things were Ulfric did in it, but knowing Ulfric, and especially since one of the Stormcloaks rallying cries is about the true sons and daughters of Skyrim, it certainly sounds like at least some of the things he did actually happened.

Also, why do you like Ulfric? I'm not going to say how he was working for the Thalmor, or how he's a racist. But I am going to say it seems almost transparently clear that he's doing this for the power and being able to worship Talos is clearly more of rallying cry and at the back of his priorities. A good example of this is when he KILLED not murdered Toryyg. When it seems that he could have simply asked Toryyg to leave the Empire and he would put serious thought into it. I understand that from a Nord's perspective, the duel was perfectly legitimate, of course nobody can really deny its one-sided. From my point of view, well, lets just say that poor doorman wouldn't be on the chopping block. Instead, he killed Toryyg, thus plunging Skyrim into this bloody civil war that weakens both sides when it could have been avoided. From that view, Ulfric is either after the Throne, or really, really, short-sighted.

Another possible point I could add is that the Empire imports\trades food and other goods into\with Skyrim, a bit of mutual benefit, while this probably won't cripple Skyrim or the Empire when this trade ends while you're with the Stormcloaks, it still makes both sides that much weaker.

I would like to add one last point that while reading more closely the history books and other documents. I have come to the conclusion that while the Dominion isn't that near ungodly boogeyman everybody used to think they are, they aren't something to be messed with, everybody knows their primary strengths are espionage and intelligence, and seem to have a moderately powerful military to boot, The Great War seemed to be proof of that.

So after contemplation and trying(kinda) to piece together what I could from both sides I personally(that's just me) have sided with the Empire, I understand it's a shadow of a shell of it's former self, but From where I stand, the Stormcloaks aren't much better