Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25343239-20150319182007/@comment-260563-20180324021403

The Empire can draw upon two provinces.

The Dominion can only draw ON ONE.

That's the problem that sabotages your entire argument. Number of provinces doesn't matter for shit when the provinces the Empire has are more productive, wealthier, and more populous. Alinor is wealthy, but the other two provinces of the AD are either rotting in squalor (Elsweyr) or getting its people killed. (Valenwood) And of course, as I've told you more than once THE HIGH ELVES ARE STRETCHED THIN. They lost most of their army in the last war, lost more men in Hammerfell, which means that one province of Alinor isn't ready to go to war with two provinces. Let alone three. Maybe they can crush the Stormcloaks before Ulfric fixes the economy and country, but against Cyrodiil, High Rock, and Imperial Skyrim, winning will be a pipe dream for the Dominion.

Once again, the Elves do not have as fast a reproduction rate as men do. THAT IS CANONICAL ELDER SCROLLS LORE. That's what scared the Snow Elves about the humans. That's what got Queen Ayrenn back in ESO to form the first Aldmeri Dominion in the first place: because she knew the Altmer have shit for numbers and need reinforcements, something that the Third Aldmeri Dominion forgot.

And yes, the information about Valenwood and Elsweyr IS CANON. That's why the Khajiit are going to foreign lands despite the risk. That's why Bosmer like Malborn are willing to plot against the Thalmor. And canonically, there's no proof of the Third AD drawing upon troops from Valenwood or Elsweyr anyways. So again, all the fighting is being done by ONE province, which lost most of its army in the last war.

While, on the other side, Cyrodiil and High Rock can still draw upon armies and has a wealthy economy, and the same can be said for the Imperial half of Skyrim. And considering that Ulfric attacks Whiterun, that will give the Imperials the numerical superiority as well as the resource superiority against Ulfric. Ulfric has like what, ONE city that's fit for war? The other two holds, Dawnstar and Winterhold, are practically villages, and his other city is Riften, overrun with thieves and corruption. Which means that Ulfric has one healthy city, two villages, and one city overrun with thieves, to go to war against Whiterun, which is a healthy trading hub, Markarth, which is a hold overflowing with silver, two more villages in the form of Morthal and Falkreath, and wealthy Solitude, where cash is being splashed around like nothing.

So yes, that civil war would realistically end rather soon in favor of the Empire. The only reasons it didn't was because A) Alduin, and B) the game keeps the war on hold until the player picks a side.

The only reason why the Empire hasn't acted on this information is BECAUSE THEY'RE GETTING READY FOR THE NEXT WAR. Hence why most of their army is down south at Cyrodiil, and they just sent one general and local recruits to deal with the problems at Skyrim.

The Empire lets the Dominion operate in Skyrim because A) the Thalmor soldiers primarily attack public Talos worshipers, of which the Stormcloaks are a part of, and B) while the Thalmor are fooling around in Skyrim getting them men killed, the rest of the Empire has time to prepare. Also, Thalmor Justiciars get killed in Skyrim all the time, and the guards there, even the Imperials, just slap a minor assault charge on the perpetrators, and they even disregard that if the Justiciars attacked first. It's basically a way for the Empire to get more Thalmor soldiers killed while getting them to kill the very same Stormcloak rebels they riled up against the Empire.

Your indisputable facts are a pile of garbage. Only a kid would be impressed by that kind of logic, of looking at a map and saying 3 > 2.5. Because if one looks at the situation based on both canon lore and realistic logistics, the Dominion only has one province doing all the fighting, while the Empire can call on two and a half. Plus, What do you think will happen if the Empire does go to war with the Thalmor while the Skyrim Civil War is still going on? The Empire will obviously throw the White-Gold Concordat in the trash, while Stormcloaks will bury the hatchet with the Empire just to get a shot at the Thalmor.