Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25343239-20150319182007/@comment-260563-20180413032455

Except there is evidence everywhere.

Once again, the AD's populace of Altmer has never been high. It was what forced the Altmer Queen in ESO to make the Dominion in the first place: she was going to war with two other factions and the Altmer wouldn't be able to fight that war unless they had extra muscle.

The Empire remains economically strong: they have corporations like the East Empire Company splashing money all over the place, the Grey-Manes complain that Imperial allies in Whiterun are very rich due to ties with Imperial farming interests, and even confidants of the Jarls like Balgruuf noted how the Empire tried to bribe the Jarls to accept the White-Gold Concordat with "chests full of gold". Whereas the Aldmeri Dominion can't even sustain a campaign to hold on to Hammerfell, unlike the Empire which was at least able to retain the rich half of Skyrim.

Both the Empire and the Dominion faced guerilla attacks and resistance to their rule: the Dominion faces rebels in Hammerfell, the Empire faces rebels in Skyrim. The Dominion lost Hammerfell, despite it being a ravaged kingdom, whereas the Empire held on to the parts of Skyrim that have rich economic activity, parts like Solitude and Markarth. Which goes to show us that A) the Dominion does not have the economic or military strength to push a campaign against the Redguards and B) the Empire is at least strong enough to hang on to the important parts of Skyrim that actually make them money. The only parts of Skyrim they don't hold are A) an inconsequential village, B) a ruin, C) a corrupt shithole, and D) Windhelm. The rest of Skyrim pays them homage one way or another.

And this is exacerbated by what we see with the people of both countries: the Bosmer are reduced to servants and occasionally purged, the Khajiit are so poor that many would leave their own homes and trade with people who hate them just to make a buck, rather than stay in Dominion-controlled lands. Does that seem like a rich, wealthy society to you? One country can't even hold on to a ruin, another country was basically enslaved, and the third has people leaving for greener pastures just to make a buck. The Dominion got nothing out of the last war other than a Talos worship ban and Hammerfell. The former only lost the Empire the shitty part of Skyrim, and the latter was completely undone by guerillas. So while the Empire is still making money off of Skyrim's fat side, the Dominion didn't gain jack shit from the last war.

So yeah, that's not non-canon inventions, that's the obvious truth. The AD never had as numerous an army or a birth rate as the Empire had. They lost most of their army in the last war, and they can't even hold onto a ruined Hammerfell. Their so-called Skyrim Civil War only got the poor and corrupt parts of Skyrim to break off, which is actually good for the Empire, and their own people are languishing in squalor, with only the Altmer having any semblance of power. And with the loss of Hammerfell, it's quite obvious that said power is waning. While the Thalmor can still defeat the Stormcloaks in a fair fight, the Empire is another thing, and with the only province that matters in the Dominion being unable to hold onto Hammerfell, and with the other two being of no help at all, it's quite obvious that the Empire has the advantage.