Malfeasinator wrote:Ulfric's basically a Thalmor agent. Everything he does is just setting up the Dominion to beat the Empire later.
The Empire was doing just fine running Skyrim, for a little over 600 years. So they can't worship Talos anymore, big whoop. There's 8 other freaking gods. The Empire was founded by Talos, when he was Tiber Septim, the man. Going against the Empire is then, in a way, going against Talos.
The Empire's obviously not perfect, and some hard sacrifices have been made, but they have good points that the Stormcloaks do not. The Stormcloaks want Skyrim to belong only to the Nords. It doesn't belong to the Nords; they took it from the Falmer and got lucky that the Dwemer disappeared. The Bretons of the Reach have been around at least as long as the Nords have, if not longer.
I think the weird thing we really need to talk about is how Atmora, the original home of the Nords, got frozen over? Sounds like classic Nord magical mismanagement, if you ask me.
I'm going to quote myself, because I feel like I made some good points.
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Thalmor_Dossier:_Ulfric_StormcloakThe Thalmor have been indirectly supporting the Stormcloaks. If only the poor saps knew!
TRUE Son/Daughter of Skyrim = Nord, as far as the Stormcloaks are concerned. Nord Supremacy is their bread and butter. They're basically just the Nord version of the Aldmeri Dominion, or they're trying to be but don't have the local support or resources.
Ulfric's an idiot. He got himself captured and almost executed right in the beginning of the game. You take out Ulfric, the rebellion dies. You can take out the Emperor and the Empire just keeps on chugging along.
Dude didn't have to kill Torygg. And if he was going to kill Torygg anyway, he didn't have to use a Shout. It was a bitch ass move. It's even worse that he abused the power of the Voice for political gain, and Ulfric should have known that many people would have seen it that way. He was just showing off.
My own opinions aside, Skyrim is a tiny region of the overall Empire. The Empire has had a history of putting down local rebellions. If you go just by geography and territory, the Empire already has all the good spots when the game starts. Solitude, Markarth, and areas close to Cyrodiil. Windhelm starts out allied with snowy regions that are bad for crops, and Riften, which is such a terrible town that most people living there agree that it's about due for another scourge.
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Of_Crossed_DaggersThe Empire can bring in more troops, they're better funded, and they're not limited to just using one race of people. Other than possibly the Dragonborn, and the weird random encounter person who says they're going to join up with the Stormcloaks, Ulfric and his army are 100% Nord. If you've played Morrowind and/or Oblivion, you might know that there aren't a lot of Nords outside of Skyrim. There are a whole lot of "everything else" though, a whole lot more than what Skyrim would have.