User blog comment:Spritydove/Deeper Thought into the Civil War/@comment-1840877-20120629132604/@comment-5135631-20120704190440

@TheEpicShot The reason he helps out Nord villages more than ones predominantly foreign is because he is at war. We don't even know if that is true, after all Brunwulf said it and he becomes Jarl if Ulfric is defeated, he cares more about Khajiits and Dunmer than he does his own people. Not all elves are treated badly by the Stormcloaks, just look at Niranye, the bard in Candlehearth hall, the entire Elven population of The Rift, The Pale and The Winterhold. Do the Stormcloaks not have a reason to distrust elves at this time? The Nords and Dunmer are ancient enemies, The Snow Elves nearly killed every Nord in Skyrim before they even properly settled, The Altmer are given free reign by a cowardly Empire to arrest, murder or torture any Nords who follow their native religious customs or protest against Thalmor law.

The Dunmer are lucky they were even offered a home in Skyrim, let alone on Solstheim or in the glorious city of Windhelm. The Dunmer are too proud to understand that nothing comes for free and that they are outsiders, so instead of trying to gain the respect of the Nords, many just sit in the Grey quarter moaning about the fact that not everyone loves them. Need I mention that until recently many where notorious slaveholders? Of course someone is going to mistrust a race notorious for indiscriminate slaveing.

All that alone gives the Stormcloaks a strong argument for distrusting elves, but the statment that all Stormcloaks hate elves is a generalisation itself, and it's not even true. Joining the Empire out of hatred of racism is the absolute height of Irony and hypocrisy, as they are letting the biggest racists of all (Thalmor) attack people trying to defend their land, some of whom are xenephobic at absolute worst, in a time when profilling is justifiable (civil war/aftermath of racial war).

I would like to add that despite still being human, Imperials (who I often call Cyrodills, as it is less confusing and just sounds better), Redguards and Bretons are still foreigners in Skyrim and thus their dwellings in Stormcloak land is still an example of multi-culturalism and thus eligible for use as evidence against the stupid stereotype that all Stormcloaks are racist, especially due to the fact most have proven their worth to Skyrim.

Everyone is treated equally in the Empire, right? Then explain to me how it was fair and equal compared to what would happen to every other Imperial citizen when I was put to the headsman's block, simply for returning to my home land. How is that fair? They knew for a fact that I wasn't a Stormcloak at that point (though I am as sure as fucking hell that I was afterwards) but they decided to try to execute me anyway, probably to appease their Elven puppet masters. I don't care how sympathetic and sensitive Hadvar could have been to me, he still sent me, a kinsman of his, along to the block because someone told him to. He was willing to see one of his own people, who he didn't even know, who had never done anything to him, executed.

If being a 'royal jerk' about your nationality is standing up to a group who tortures, arrests and murders your country's citizens, Nordic or not, simply for either questioning the legitimacy of the said group's presence in your country or worshipping a certain god thus honouring the traditions of your ancestors, or if being a 'royal jerk' about your nationality is invoking one's clause to the most legitimate claim to the throne in Skyrim, then Ulfric would be proud to be called that, and so would I.