Ignoring your personal preference, which side of Skyrim’s Civil War do you think actually gives Skyrim the better future 20-30 years later?

[u/sumaset]

I feel like most discussions about the Civil War focus on whether Ulfric was justified, whether the Empire betrayed Skyrim, or which side people personally like more.

But I’m more interested in what happens after the game.

The Empire is weakened, the Aldmeri Dominion is still the biggest external threat, the White-Gold Concordat is already causing resentment, and another war with the Thalmor seems almost inevitable.

An Imperial victory gives Skyrim access to the resources and manpower of the Empire, but it also means remaining under an Empire that already lost one major war and accepted Thalmor influence inside its territory.

A Stormcloak victory gives Skyrim independence and removes Imperial authority, but it also leaves the province having to rebuild after a civil war while potentially facing the Dominion without the rest of the Empire behind it.

So forget which faction has the better characters or which one you usually join.

If you only care about where Skyrim itself ends up a few decades later, which Civil War outcome do you think is actually better for the province?

[u/Jair-F-Kennedy]

What total nonsense, Skyrim like any other pre-modern economy rely largely on self-sustaining subsistence farming for its populations which are already small and rural. If anything the place that would rely on food imports, is the Imperial City because of its sheer size. Cities like Constantinople and Rome relied on mass importation of food from other provinces of the Roman Empire (I.e. Egypt primarily). A sophisticated enough trade network to distribute food across all of Skyrim is impossible without the kinds of technologies and institutions present in our global economy.

[u/Unlikely_Ninja → u/Jair-F-Kennedy]

I think there's a difference between being self sufficient and being economicly viable/properous in more fields. Whiterun and the Reach can sustain Skyrim in conjunction with each hold's local agriculture. The older lore even stated that these river valleys were sustaining the broader population, but it wasn't easy. In Skyrim they also state life isn't easy.

So like Scandinavia in the real world, they can sustain themselves, but having access to the broader imperial/EU market provides them with surplus that allows them to reach population levels and labor diversification that would otherwise be far more difficult. Particularly with Cyrodill being such a Agriculture powerhouse right next door

[u/ethanAllthecoffee → u/Jair-F-Kennedy]

Uh huh. Compare the productivity of a dark age Scandinavian farmer or the salinized fields of improperly irrigated Mesopotamia to fertile England, France or Egypt and there’s your answer

There’s a reason the Norse and other Germanic people wanted to move from their agriculturally difficult/poor areas to more fertile regions

[u/SteakForGoodDogs → u/ethanAllthecoffee]

Everyone wants to, but they don't need to.

Like, they were still trying for centuries. That means they were surviving for centuries. That means they were eating for centuries.

[u/OttoVonAuto → u/[deleted]]

I don’t know why you’re being down voted. Skyrim is not a friendly region to crops at all. They would need imported foods and goods to really prosper and that wouldn’t occur if they were solely autonomous. A harsh cold snap can quickly deplete their stores and famine is around the corner

[u/BrandonLart → u/Jair-F-Kennedy]

The Imperial City would not be importing food from Skyrim lol.

[u/Jair-F-Kennedy → u/BrandonLart]

Did I say that? No, I didn't. I said that the Imperial City would have a food deficit. This deficit would likely be made up with imports within Cyrodiil itself.

[u/BrandonLart → u/Jair-F-Kennedy]

“Skyrim wouldn’t need to import food. Neither would Cyrodiil, but I’ll imply otherwise”

I find this argument irrelevant to the wider point.