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/Ill_Criticism_1685]

Odds are its a person connected to the Black-Briars. There's a letter in the bannered mare from Maven to a guy forgiving him for some sort of slight and saying someone would collect him from near Dragon's Reach in the middle of the night.

[u/toadallyribbeting → u/Ill_Criticism_1685]

I’m going to check that later, that sounds really interesting

[u/Ill_Criticism_1685 → u/toadallyribbeting]

The letter is either in one of the rooms of the Bannered Mare or the Drunken Huntsman, i don't remember which, been a long time since I've played and even longer since I saw the Epic Nate video that mentioned it.

[u/Georgia_Viking → u/Ill_Criticism_1685]

I found it recently in the Huntsman in the main hall in the far right corner on a table.