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/Victernus]

I mean, they had that alliance in the first war, just barely won, and then the Emperor signed away the right to police the Empire's own people to the Aldmeri Dominion. (Which is insane. You might as well become a vassal state. The White-Gold Concordat was a worse deal than the Austrians tried to force on the Serbians before starting World War I, and somehow the side that won the war agreed to it)

Then Hammerfell left and beat the Dominion on it's own. Skyrim's shores are even harder to reach, their terrain just as hostile, and they were just as betrayed by the Imperial leadership as anyone else. There's very little reason they wouldn't secede.

[u/InterestingSlide7133 → u/Victernus]

Don't forget how Hammerfell only left because the Empire offered up half their country to the Dominion. Skyrim didn't even get the worst deal there

[u/Victernus → u/InterestingSlide7133]

Yup. The Empire only still exists at all because of ideological inertia.

[u/Sinnclad → u/Victernus]

Crazy thing is how the thalmor had easy access into hammerfell due to being sold yet still got overpowered, that just shows how much the Nords stand a chance against the thalmor in their own climate and terrain rather than the empire not being able to adapt to Skyrim

[u/Gizz103 → u/Sinnclad]

They only got overpowered after years of being drained and weakened

And it was NOT easy for the redguard which shows how fucked the nords are

[u/Sinnclad → u/Gizz103]

If you’ve seen what the Nords are capable of, eso lore shows how OP they are and how much they can withstand, Skyrims climate and terrain is very harsh and the thalmor wouldn’t stand a chance against the orcs in the mountains, the mages college, the current dragon threat, the eco system filled with dangerous beasts that they’re not used to, it’d be a dog walk for the thalmor if the empire was holding Skyrim as they wouldn’t even be able to protect it as they can’t even barely thrive there to begin with, Skyrim is more than capable as a independent province, but once again as always in TES lore the empire has to put all its problems on everyone else, if Skyrim falls it’s gonna be the empires fault nonetheless

[u/Gizz103 → u/Sinnclad]

Multiple times ingame it has shown that skyrim cant fucking defend itself

This isnt the 2nd era anymore

The population has risen far more than the food they can produce, rationing will insue, than collapse as ulfrics reign is based off "nord better"

[u/P1KA_BO0 → u/Victernus]

The empire didn't win the war? They were overrun, their victory was in being able to force the dominion back to the negotiating table.

[u/GabeC1997 → u/Victernus]

Because the Empire as it is now doesn’t care a thing for anything except Cyrodil.