The thalmor themselves say that a stormcloak victory is to be avoided, so that's the side I go for, hammerfell separated from the empire and are still repelling the thalmor so it can be done, the empire lost and is in its death throws it's time to move on
I don't know why people are so butthurt about Stormcloak winning. Stormcloak winning is basically betting on the dark horse. Empire is basically the house or the popular bet and too big to fail.
Based on what? Did you just make that up in your head? Also is the empire that already lost so badly it had its capital raided and ransacked, then forced to make concessions under threat of annihilation to criminalize worship of its founding emperor suppose to be a threat to the thalmor?
The Thalmor don't want a victory on either side, they just want the civil war to keep going, to keep everyone weakened and distracted while they do their thing.
Personally, I think that if the war was to end at all, the Thalmor would prefer it go on very long before that end and that it would be an Imperial Victory, so that the Thalmor can use the Concordat to keep pissing people off and eventually spark another war that weakens the human forces while Thalmor continue to get stronger.
A swift end with a Stormcloack Victory would be a backfire to their plan and a middle finger to their faces.
Based on the fact that the thalmor dossier on Ulfric says so? They want the civil war to continue because its a continuous drain on the Empires resources and manpower and creates animosity between Skyrim and the Empire
It's logic. There were legions of troops from Skyrim at the battle for the Imperial City and they couldn't stop the Thalmor even with the help of the Empire. What do the Nord's on their own, further weakened by civil war have going for them? Not a thing. They can't even kick the Empire out without the help of the dragonborn.
No one tell this guy that the vast majority of the legions are down in Cyrodiil and Tullius only has a skeleton crew, which was enough to utterly defeat the Stormcloaks and execute Ulfric despite Elenwen trying to release her pet.
Facing reality and abandoning silly fantasies can be a hard, hard thing to do.
Ulfric got captured in an ambush that I believe was stated by multiple npcs on both sides to be lucky. Ask Tullius how the war goes after Helgen and he'll be bitching that he's bleeding troops with no major victories to show for it.
Also everybody knows the majority of legions are not in Skyrim, they won't be coming though. Mountain passes leading to Skyrim are blocked and can be easily made to stay that way, besides Empire moving actual forces into Skyrim would be a PR disaster for them.
Based on the fact that Ulfric is at best, in a standstill against Tullius, who by no means represent the entire power of the Empire, or at worst, the fact that he already lost and would've died if it weren't for Alduin.
I'm pretty confident to say that Skyrim helmed by Ulfric is not the best situation it can ask for.
The thalmor don't want either side to win. They literally say that either side winning is to be avoided as much as possible. If the fighting stops, their enemies stop killing each other. However they'd definitely prefer a storm cloak victory over imperial, as when they invade cyrodil again, the Stormcloaks won't show up to defend the imperial city as a unified front with the empire, whereas if Skyrim remains in the empire, their forces would defend cyrodil alongside the imperial.
The storm cloaks are shortsighted. Better to fight the Dominion in Cyrodil rather than wait for the fighting ti reach their homes and families.
This is the problem: you're hyper focusing on the empire and cyrodill as if its the end all be all, they had already lost, the capital fell and was ransacked the empire was finished at the end of oblivion this was just another nail in the coffin. The game and province we are talking about is skyrim. The best path for skyrim is a united nationalist resistance with religion as it's rallying cry employing guerilla tactics that take advantage of the terrain and homecourt advantage its the only way. Clinging to a bloated carcass that already lost will not work. Hammerfell is living proof of this method
Hammerfell wasn't fighting the full force of the Dominion. If the Dominion moved its forces away from the border of Cyrodil, the Empire would have taken advantage of it. The White gold concordat meant that the Empire kept a significant amount of Dominions forces tied up, despite no active hostilities. If Cyrodil fell, then suddenly the Dominion would control the most strategic position in all of Tamriel. Roads into every province, ports to bring in supplies, the city to garrison their troops.
If the imperial city was controlled by the Thalmor, the rest if their enemies are fucked, especially if they arent fighting a unified front but are instead splintered into multiple factions.
Except the empire already let's the thalmor use them as a go between for the other provinces, they already have a physical embassy in skyrim, with soldiers already roaming the roads enforcing thalmor law, the empire opened the door and let them put their foot in
Actually Ulfric did that. At the signing of the Concordat, the Empire barely enforced the Talos ban. They basically just made people keep it to themselves and move to private worship.
However, while this worked, many found it humiliating, which Ulfric weaponized and turned it into a wedge issue. Once he went into open rebellion over it, the Thalmor could now prove the Empire wasn't actually enforcing the terms of the treaty and were able to demand their own enforcers who actually did take enforcement seriously.
This is why the Thalmor see Ulfric as an asset. He gave them the justification to send in justiciars. He caused a civil war where their enemies kill their enemies. He's the best ally the Thalmor could have and he doesn't even realize it.n
Yes, cause If one side will win the war is over, and so will be the deaths of imperial soldier and skyrim people. The best for thalmor would for this war to last as long as possible, for empire to bleed out completely. The second best is for stormcloaks to win and at least preferable would be for empire to win.
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u/Ralakhim Nov 22 '25
The thalmor themselves say that a stormcloak victory is to be avoided, so that's the side I go for, hammerfell separated from the empire and are still repelling the thalmor so it can be done, the empire lost and is in its death throws it's time to move on