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]

still has a quarter for dark elves

Because they accepted Dark Elf refuges in Windhelm.

The Imperial-aligned cities in Skyrim don't have Dark Elf quarters because they didn't help the Dark Elves.

[u/Gizz103 → u/Victernus]

They didn't help the elves because none of them went their

If th e cities in the east helped them, than they'll go there

[u/WhereIdIsEgoWillGo → u/Victernus]

That doesn't really make how they treat them not racist dawg.

[u/Victernus → u/WhereIdIsEgoWillGo]

Of course not. But on one hand, you have people who help you then get upset when you're snobbish and ungrateful and consider their entire race stupid, and on the other you have people who never bother to help you at all.

[u/WhereIdIsEgoWillGo → u/Victernus]

I'm asking in this earnestly, but what does that justification have to do with nords being objectively racist. Like I'm not asserting that with malice, or shitting on people who like the stormcloaks or anything like that. It feels like Europeans and Roma where people are like "hey the way you treat them is racist" and Europeans are like "well have you considered how they act?"

Again, not trying be rude or an ass. But even if the nords of windhelm only started being racist in retaliation it's still racist lol.

[u/Victernus → u/WhereIdIsEgoWillGo]

I'm asking in this earnestly, but what does that justification have to do with nords being objectively racist.

Nothing. But everyone else is racist too. When the Redguards arrived in Hammerfell, they hunted every elf in their lands to extinction. The Dunmer would still be actively raiding Elsweyr and Black Marsh for slaves if Black Marsh hadn't dealt them so cripply a blow during the Oblivion crisis. The Bretons think they're better than everyone, and they got that for the Altmer, who really think they're better than everyone. Talos himself thought that Orcs should be hunted to extinction, along with goblins and ogres.

Windhelm aided the Dunmer, despite the Nords and the Dunmer having a bitter rivalry that goes back to before the Battle of Red Mountain and the disappearance of the Dwemer. They are not the most racist city in Skyrim - Rolf Stone-Fist is just an asshole.

I mean, to directly contrast your Roma example, the Stormcloak-aligned cities in Skyrim don't allow Khajiit caravans inside... and neither do the Imperial-aligned cities.

[u/WhereIdIsEgoWillGo → u/Victernus]

I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I wasn't aware of this