Skyrim Civil War Part 1: Who to fight for in the Skyrim Civil War?

SKYRIM CIVIL WAR-PART 1

Who to fight for in the Skyrim Civil War?


(Here are my reasons explaining how and why I chose to deal with the Skyrim Civil War the way I did.

The fact that both sides have a good, legitimate argument, and the fact that people to this day debate as to which side is right, is a testament as to how well-done and gray the conflict between the Empire and the Stormcloaks is. Just as Bioware and Obsidian must be commended for making KOTOR and SWTOR more than black and white, so too must Bethesda be congratulated in the same manner for making believable sides in a civil war for their game, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I mean, it's far better than Game of Thrones where it's Starks/Targaryes=Good, Lannisters=Bad. I really can't see the conflict dragging on that long with a clearly evil faction lasting as long as it did.

Stay tuned for Part II, where I answer some arguments made by pro-Stormcloak players.)


Ever since the venerable Elder Scrolls series came out with its fifth installment, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, people have debated endlessly on which of of the two main factions to join in the main Civil War questline of Skyrim.

The Stormcloaks or the Empire?

Now, for a bit of history. For those of you who are uninitiated, the Civil War in Skyrim is being fought between the Imperial Legions trying to keep Skyrim as a part of the Empire, and the Nordic rebel Stormcloaks who are trying to fight for independence. The Empire of Tamriel, which used to govern all of Tamriel, recently signed a very disadvantageous peace treaty known as the “White-Gold Concordat” with a rival superpower known as the Aldmeri Dominion, a government dominated by the High Elf faction known as the Thalmor, who are Elven supremacists who wish to “prove” the superiority of elves over men. The Great War that preceded the game’s timeline was a draw, but the Empire suffered plenty of damage, and the Emperor Titus Mede II saw no other choice but to sign the treaty so that his failing Empire can lick its wounds.

This peace treaty banned the worship of the Nordic god Talos, also known as the Empire’s first Emperor, Tiber Septim, who was deified after his mortal life. Talos worship is very much a part of Skyrim culture, especially since Talos was a Nord who ascended to become an Aedric god, quite literally one of the most powerful beings in the world of Nirn, which is the Elder Scrolls’ version of Earth. Talos was a symbol of how far a human, a Nord, can rise, because this Nordic warrior went from being a powerful Nord to being the ruler of all Tamriel, then became a god alongside the other gods whom both humans and elves pray to, such as the chief elven god, Auri-El, also known by the humans as the dragon-god Akatosh. The custom of Talos worship existed in Skyrim ever since Talos passed away, and now, this centuries-long practice came under attack after the signing of the White-Gold Concordat. What’s worse is that the Empire signing this treaty made it legal for Thalmor Inquisitors known as Justiciars to visit Imperial territories like Skyrim and arrest/torture anyone breaking this new law.

In response, a rebel movement was founded by Nords discontented by the treaty. Led by Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak, the ruler of Windhelm, one of Skyrim’s Nine Holds, this rebellion seeks to sever Skyrim from the Empire so that they no longer have to follow the White-Gold Concordat. They want to restore Talos Worship as well as re-ignite the war with the Thalmor, who have proven to be an enemy of mankind ever since the events of the last war.

The matter was further complicated since the rebellion was started with an act of regicide; King Torygg, a vassal of Emperor Titus Mede II and the legal ruler of Skyrim, was challenged by Ulfric Stormcloak in an honor duel that was a custom of the Ancient Nords. Not wanting to be embarrassed in front of his subjects, in his own city of Solitude, Torygg accepted the challenge even though his martial skill was far below that of the battle-hardened Ulfric. Instead of fighting fairly and beating the king with his superior martial skills, however, Ulfric used the power of the Voice, a power once wielded by dragons and only limited to use by the Greybeard monks in worship of the sky goddess Kynareth. Ulfric let loose the power of the Voice, and accounts differ as to what happened next. Torygg’s wife, Jarl Elisif, states that the Voice tore her beloved Torygg apart. Ulfric himself states that he used the voice to knock down the king then stabbed him with a sword.

Nevertheless, it was a blatant act of regicide that left the kingdom of Skyrim without a king. The Imperials called it a crime, a murder of the highest order of treachery, the Stormcloaks call it a fair duel, proof that Torygg was not meant to lead the kingdom. Thus, the Stormcloak Rebellion was born as Ulfric escaped Solitude, rallied other Jarls to his cause, and declared war on the Empire and its loyalist Jarls. The rebels were called Stormcloaks as a pejorative by the Imperial side-they called them Stormcloaks as an insult; because they were slaves to Ulfric’s insanity. The rebels took the name as a badge of honor, saying that Ulfric is the rightful king, and to serve him is to serve Skyrim. Hence the Stormcloak Rebellion and the Skyrim Civil War was born.

The country was split in half; four Jarls supported the Empire, another four supported Ulfric, and the Jarl of Whiterun, Jarl Balgruuf, remained neutral. (Although he had maintained Imperial connections) But for all intents and purposes, the Civil War was an even fight. Four Jarls against another four, an even split. The war itself remains a stalemate until the player character, the Dragonborn, chooses one side or another.

I’ll be honest-this was my first Elder Scrolls game. I was more of a KOTOR/Mario/Zelda man myself, with a few flirtations with Final Fantasy. Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game. But the freedom I experienced with the game showed me why many fans chose to stick with this franchise ever since the first game came out decades ago. Even though past titles like Morrowind had combat that I wouldn’t recommend, I can see why others would stick up for this franchise, and Skyrim was another argument as to why Elder Scrolls remains relevant today.

But on to the question-who to side with: the Stormcloaks or the Empire?

SIDE 1: THE STORMCLOAKS

The argument for the Stormcloaks is simple: Torygg was a weak ruler, and so was the Emperor who ruled him. The Empire that once benefited from Skyrim’s warriors serving in its legions is now forcing its people to abandon the worship/veneration of Skyrim’s most cherished son. The Empire is doing nothing as Nords who are faithful to their Talos-based traditions are being dragged into torture chambers by Thalmor Justiciars whom mankind fought in the Great War. Soldiers of mankind’s enemy are roaming freely in the land that was mankind’s bastion in the past, arresting and killing those who simply wish to engage in human customs. Humanity is in peril, and it needs a strong leader, and that leader is Ulfric Stormcloak.

I gotta admit, I originally sympathized with the Stormcloaks very easily. When I first played the game, my female Nordic character (I chose female because the male options didn’t look as appealing or dynamic enough) wore her Stormcloak armor with pride. It was easy to sympathize with people who were persecuted, who were simply fighting for their god, their home, their native culture. The Thalmor’s arrogance towards worship of human-based deities was disgusting, both from an in-game perspective and from a personal perspective to me, so naturally, the side that wants to punch their face in was the side that appealed to me at first.

Not to mention the fact that during the intro, where the main antagonist, the divine dragon Alduin, levels the city of Helgen with his destructive power, it was an Imperial captain who tried to behead my character. My character was not on the list of criminals to be killed, and yet this Imperial bitch wearing legionnaire steel armor ordered my character to be killed. If it wasn’t for the ancient evil dragon blasting the Imperials and the whole city with his Voice like a trumpet of doom, my character’s adventure would have ended before it even began.

So, couple that with a Stormcloak sob story of how Nord culture was under attack and how mankind’s enemies roamed the countryside freely, torturing and killing humans for worshiping a human god, and I suddenly got hooked on to the Stormcloak side. I saw the Imperials as weak cowards for not standing up to the Thalmor and allowing the Thalmor to attack mankind’s religion. I saw the Empire as weak for allowing enemy soldiers to legally prosecute Imperial citizens for venerating the founder of the Empire. What kind of Empire allows an enemy to strike at its own religion and its subjects? What kind of Emperor can’t even protect his own people? I saw the Thalmor as a blight, a disease that needed to be purged, wishing for there to be a campaign where we wage war against them, expel them from Skyrim, and burn their fortresses in the Summerset Isles to the ground. I saw victims of Thalmor persecution as good people trying to uphold the faith of their ancestors, and I always tried to rescue them when I saw them.  Being a Stormcloak felt natural, at first.

Then I went to the capitals of both sides, Windhelm, and Solitude. And my opinion changed.

Suddenly, these great heroes of mine began to look like bigots and idiots. Two Nords in Windhelm, the Stormcloak capital, accost a Dark Elf for not supporting the war effort, using her race as an excuse to persecute her and threaten her, even though Dark Elves were enemies of the Thalmor as much as humans were. Then I saw Argonians in the docks outside the city, not allowed to come inside even though they were born and raised in Skyrim and by technical definition are citizens. I heard from Brunwulf Free-Winter that while Ulfric is quick to mobilize against bandits who prey on Nords, pleas for rescue by the Dark Elves and Argonians are blatantly ignored by Ulfric. It seemed that Ulfric, for all his heroic speeches, was a bigot at heart. He didn’t openly show hate for other races, but his policies show that they are treated as less important than Nords. Similar as to how Emperor Palpatine back in Star Wars never made openly racist statements, but his bureaucracy in the Galactic Empire was a pool of toxic racism against non-humans, to the point where the only non-human Admiral in the Empire had to be the greatest genius in the Admiralty to be even admitted membership.

Not to mention the other Jarls working for Ulfric are, well, morons. The Jarl of Riften, Laila Law-Giver, is a naive buffoon who allowed the Thieves’ Guild to grow in power in Riften. Her viceroy, Maven Black-Briar, was the person she relied upon to deal with the Thieves’ Guild, and yet Maven has ties to the Thieves’ Guild that people on Riften’s streets openly admit. Maven’s own goons describe that the Thieves’ Guild is in her pocket, and yet Laila either doesn’t know (or care) that the person she appointed to confront the problem of the Thieves’ Guild actually uses said guild as her own private weapons along with the sinister Dark Brotherhood assassins’ guild. It’s like how in the Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon, Duchess Satine of Mandalore relied upon Governor Pre Vizsla to get rid of the Death Watch terrorist group, not knowing that Vizsla was the leader of said group.

The other Jarls aren’t much better. Jarl Skald the Elder of Dawnstar is a superstitious kook who bullies former Imperial Legion veterans and chalks up the Dragon attacks in the game to Talos being angry about the lack of worship. (Even though Ulfric also once served in the Imperial Legion and it’s common knowledge that some of the Imperials also worship Talos in the privacy of their own homes) Jarl Korir of Winterhold constantly ignores or berates the Mages’ College present in his city, even though his city’s livelihood owes much to the Mages’ College and the people wishing to study there. Many people who visit his city’s inns are people who either wish to get into the college or who work for the college. Korir is content with berating them and living inside a hut, even though supporting the college could enrich the town and get him more wealth so that he can actually live in a castle instead of a wooden house barely fit for a random aristocrat.

That’s not to say that there aren’t good Stormcloak folks. Vignar Gray-Mane is a member of the elite warriors’ guild in Skyrim, the Companions, and his kinsmen, Eorlund, Fralia, and Olfina Gray-Mane are good people who regard the player character with respect if they complete tasks for them. Ralof helps the main character should they choose to escape with the Stormcloaks, and many of the innocent refugees trying to escape the Thalmor seek to join the Stormcloaks to worship in peace.

As for Ulfric Stormcloak himself, he doesn’t seem to be an evil man. There is no hint of greed in him, nor is there a lust for power, or a desire for pointless bloodlust. Looking over his conversations with his second-in-command, Galmar Stone-Fist, the two men discuss why they wage the war. Ulfric even has a moment of hesitation due to all the bloodshed his war is causing, which prompts Galmar to encourage him and say that they’re on the right path. His ultimate mission statement is encapsulated in the speech he gives when the player first enters his personal home, Ysgramor's Palace of Kings in Windhelm.

"I fight for the men I've held in my arms, dying on foreign soil! I fight for their wives and children, whose names I heard whispered in their last breath. I fight for we few who did come home, only to find our country full of strangers wearing familiar faces. I fight for my people impoverished to pay the debts of an Empire too weak to rule them, yet brands them criminals for wanting to rule themselves! I fight so that all the fighting I've already done hasn't been for nothing! I fight... because I must."

Ulfric and Galmar then both decide that when the day comes that they no longer need to fight to protect their beliefs and their customs, they would gladly retire from the world, and the only thing keeping them from doing so is their desire to fight for what they believe is right: their customs, their god, their race, their way of life that is threatened by the High Elf Thalmor government and its goons. Their war against the Empire is because the Empire capitulated to the Thalmor and allowed the Thalmor to persecute loyal Imperial citizens venerating its first Emperor. In a way, it’s practically dress rehearsal for when they finally drive the Thalmor from Skyrim and crush them in their own home in the Summerset Isles.

But at the same time, they’re willing to fight those who would otherwise also be fighting the Thalmor just because they reneged on the religion aspect and allowed the Thalmor Justiciars into Skyrim. By doing so, they’re decreasing the numbers of people who would wage war on the Thalmor, which lessens their chance for victory. Add in the Nordic distrust of magic, and the chances for victory against the Thalmor are very slim, considering that Thalmor soldiers march around in plate mail armor, wielding conjured Daedric swords while being backed up by High Elven wizards who are well-versed in destruction magic and summoning Daedra to fight by their side.

All in all, the Stormcloaks are the classic case of the Byronic, Romantic hero from the 1800s. They have ethos, they fight for their beliefs, and they’re willing to die for it, seeing that death for the sake of their people and beliefs as the highest form of sacrifice. Unfortunately, they have many weaknesses, from lack of knowledge when it comes to corruption, to racism against other races that might be allies against the Thalmor, and an impractical distrust of magic in a time when they could be at war with a faction that uses magic like an everyday tool. There’s good reasons for joining them, but they also have many flaws that lead other players away.

SIDE 2: THE EMPIRE OF TAMRIEL

At first, the Empire doesn’t encourage much love from most players. They capitulated to their greatest enemy and allow foreign troops to persecute citizens for venerating the first of their own Emperors. Their Emperor proved to be a craven coward when he signed a treaty with an enemy that allows the enemy to persecute Imperial citizens based on a matter of religion, even though the Great War ended in a draw and he could have bartered for more from the Thalmor in exchange for peace. Some of the Imperials don’t care or understand why the Nords, especially the Stormcloaks, are angry about the Thalmor persecuting them for their traditions. And of course, as previously mentioned, an Imperial was the one that tried to take the player’s head. If it wasn’t for the evil, world-eating dragon popping by and blasting the place to smithereens, the player character would have been another casualty of Imperial mismanagement and lack of care. Add in the fact that the Empire seems to be decaying anyways, and many people sign on with the Stormcloaks because not only does the Stormcloak side seem more appealing, but they also seem to be the winning team, with a charismatic leader backed up by popular support even in Imperial-held places.

However, as the layers of complexity are peeled back, I began to sympathize with the Empire more and more. The Jarl that my character had a personal connection to, Jarl Balgruuf, was technically neutral, but eventually, the Stormcloaks attack him because he didn’t sign on with them, while the Imperials make no such moves against the neutral faction of Whiterun that Balgruuf represents. Balgruuf was the kind of guy who cared more for his people first, the sides of the war second. Like Ulfric, he allows for free worship of Talos out in the open, with a priest of Talos openly preaching in front of a Talos statue in the wealthy Cloud District in the city of Whiterun. But unlike Ulfric, Balgruuf doesn’t go looking for fights when there are none to be had, refusing calls from his own brother Hrongar to aid the legion. Hrongar mentions that if they send even half of their troops to aid the legion, the war would tip the scales in the Empire’s favor, and the Emperor of Tamriel would be personally indebted to them, giving them great power in a future post-war Skyrim. This was because even though Balgruuf can hire the Companions to protect the city while his men fight for the Empire, he was worried that the absence of men would allow the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood free reign of the city if half of the army of Whiterun leaves for battle.

In the main quest, it was Balgruuf who first sends the main character to battle against a nearby dragon with the aid of his personal bodyguard and a group of his men. He sent men to defend outlying towns despite the fact that it was a move that could potentially alert his neighbors by moving troops to the borders. And after the main hero slays their first dragon and discovers their role as the Dragonborn, Balgruuf quickly rewards the player with the title of Thane and assigns a personal bodyguard from his own household to protect the player character and help them with their adventures. And while Balgruuf is technically neutral, he in the end counts as an Imperial Jarl, since his men curse the player if they wear Stormcloak armor yet praise them if they wear Imperial armor. This is especially evident when later in the optional player-initiated peace council, he appears alongside the Imperial General Tullius and the Imperial-backed Jarl Elisif. Kind of hard to remain angry at the Empire for trying to kill you when an Imperial Jarl gives you a bodyguard from his own personal household along with a noble title that allows you to get away with even bloody murder at the sight of the guards. If one follows the main quest before the Civil War quest, Balgruuf even ends up being the guy who helps the player capture a dragon so that you can interrogate it and help locate Alduin, right after the player handed the big black dragon his first major defeat at the Throat of the World. So Balgruuf not only was generous to the player character, he also helped the player character save the world. For my personal preference, it’s hard to turn against the Empire after an Imperial Jarl practically helped you avert the apocalypse.

And a further exploration of Skyrim shows more reasons to join the Empire. Aside from the race concerns one can have with the Stormcloaks, the Empire shows more of an advantage for Skyrim. Increased trade with other provinces of the Empire keeps the money flowing as Imperial organizations like the East Empire Company helps fund Skyrim’s economy. Imperial-held places have less intolerance for non-Nords or magic, and some Imperial Jarls, like Jarl Elisif and Jarl Ravencrone, are more wise compared to their Stormcloak counterparts. Their tolerance for the Thalmor is a tolerance with gnashed teeth, as they too want the White-Gold Concordat repealed and just had no choice considering their Emperor signed it. And if you hate the Emperor for being a coward, you can always join the Dark Brotherhood assassins’ guild and kill the Emperor himself. The mission against the Emperor is even given to you by a member of the Empire’s ruling Elder Council, and said member even says that the death of the Emperor “saved” the Empire. And of course, nothing is stopping an Imperial Dragonborn from lynching Thalmor patrols that are hunting for Talos worshippers. So long as you use the right dialogue options (feigning ignorance on Talos worship) and provoke the Thalmor to attack you first, there are no penalties for attacking the pointy-eared bullies. In fact, you can repeatedly attack the Thalmor embassy near the Imperial capital of Solitude, killing all the guards and wizards there, and the Imperials slap no penalties on you whatsoever.

As I previously stated, Imperial Jarls like Elisif, Balgruuf, and Ravencrone are more wiser than their Stormcloak counterparts. While Jarl Igmund of Markarth and Jarl Siddgeir of Falkreath leave much to be desired, the previously mentioned three Jarls are more decisive and caring. Ravencrone has a weird, kooky feel to her, but her sayings eventually prove to be wise, as she helps the player stop a vampire plot in the city.

Jarl Elisif, on the other hand, is the standard good queen trope, with the death of her husband causing no dent in her commitment to serve the people and the kingdom. Especially with the quest tied to her city of Solitude, where the player winds up fighting a dead Dragonborn queen by the name of Potema Septim, the first instinct to hit Elisif’s mind when rumors of a cave occupied by necromancers trying to revive something powerful was to send a legion there to clear them out. She gets overruled by her second-in-command, who persuades her that such an action is rash, she is then proven right when Potema Septim rises from the grave and becomes a potential threat to the world. With her servants’ direction, the player vanquishes the would-be tyrannical Dragonborn queen. One can only wonder what would have happened if a Stormcloak Dragonborn who hates Elisif never came upon that quest. Perhaps they would have found a rival in an evil Septim queen rising from the dead with an army of walking corpses being the major threat against Ulfric’s kingdom.

This is aside from the fact that Elisif is a grieving widow. She and Torygg truly loved each other, and his death at Ulfric’s hands broke her heart. While Ulfric plays the hero, brooding over the consequences of his war, Elisif is the widow, a person affected by the war, her beloved husband and king being the war’s first casualty. Unless you’re a Stormcloak with no ability to feel empathy for Elisif’s plight, it’s hard not to sympathize with Elisif and Torygg, especially when it gets revealed that Torygg once considered Ulfric a friend.

And hanging out in Elisif’s court reveals details on Ulfric’s murder of the king. While the Stormcloaks repeat the line that Ulfric won the duel fair and square, Elisif’s account reveals a much darker tale of Ulfric’s mighty power of the Voice literally tearing the young boy-king Torygg apart. Even if Ulfric’s account is true, the murder was completely unnecessary-a talk with the Vampire sorceress Sybille Stentor reveals that Torygg actually ADMIRED Ulfric. When Ulfric showed up in the day of that fateful duel, Torygg and Elisif thought that he was there to ask the king to secede Skyrim from the Empire. Stentor, who raised Torygg since he was a boy, even mused that there was a chance that Torygg might have done so, considering that the king himself was an Ulfric Stormcloak fanboy before the man challenged him to a duel. Ulfric might have gotten his “Free Skyrim” without a drop of blood by just uttering a few words and encouraging his king with one of those wonderful speeches of his. While Torygg was hesitant to secede from the Empire, considering that Talos was the one who built the Empire in the first place, Torygg also respected Ulfric greatly, and might have come up with a plan to deal with the terms of the White-Gold Concordat in a way that would be favorable to Ulfric. Since the king himself was barely an adult, easily impressed by “heroes” like Ulfric, it was very much a possibility that he might have gotten over his hesitation to secede from the Empire had Ulfric worked more to persuade him rather than just killing him in cold blood.

Ulfric was a man who believes himself to be a hero. He was also a man who was grievously injured in both body and soul. During the invasion of Cyrodiil by the Thalmor, Ulfric was captured. In his interrogation by the Thalmor sorceress Elenwen, he was forced to give up information that the Thalmor told him was essential in their conquest of the Empire’s capital. While it was nothing more but a clever ruse, it mentally damaged Ulfric, which perhaps caused him to lash out at something that can be a symbol of the White-Gold Concordat and Imperial weakness. And that someone, according to Stentor, was Torygg, whom he brutally killed to make a point.

An Imperial player can argue that such a man is not mentally fit to lead Skyrim, especially if past events affected his mind severely and negatively. His murder of the king and kicking off of the Civil War was, according to journals seized by the player in the Thalmor Embassy mission, a part of the Thalmor’s plot to weaken the Empire and cause chaos in the region of Skyrim, to cause the Empire to send its men to die pointlessly in a Civil War and soften them up for the kill. This is more ammunition for the Imperial side, stating that Ulfric is an unwitting stooge of the very same Thalmor elves whom he hates, and that a united Empire, that includes Skyrim, is the world’s only hope of defeating the Thalmor and tearing up the White-Gold Concordat that holds the Empire hostage.

The Imperial leaders themselves are also very nuanced. General Tullius and his top lieutenant, Legate Rikke, are in charge of the Empire’s war effort in Skyrim. Tullius is a maverick military leader. According to Imperial soldiers like Hadvar, he was the superior general when it came to a comparison with Ulfric Stormcloak. The war raged on for a while, then Tullius takes command, and suddenly, Ulfric is ambushed and captured. Had it not been for Alduin’s assault on Helgen, Ulfric would have been decapitated, his head sent to Cyrodiil, and the Civil War would have been over. But Tullius shows a particular distrust of Nord culture. When Rikke attempts to explain to him Skyrim’s political system, he retorts with “you Nords and your damn Jarls”. When Rikke explains to him that Nords don’t accept help that they haven’t asked for, and how the Nords believe more in following the heart rather than the mind, Tullius scoffs at the Nordic idea of honor, preferring instead the tactical pragmatism of war. He even considers letting Jarl Balgruuf’s city of Whiterun fall to Ulfric since Balgruuf forbade the garrisoning of Imperial troops in his city. (Although he relents and eventually sends Balgruuf some men to help.) However, for all his disdain for Nordic culture, he is a pragmatist and a good general when it comes to actual fighting. That is why Ulfric Stormcloak starts the game with binds on his hands and a gag over his mouth-Tullius outsmarted him. That kind of tactical genius would work wonders against the Thalmor if a war were to break out between the Thalmor-ruled Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire.

Legate Rikke is a very interesting and very sympathetic character. Like Ulfric and Galmar, she’s a Nord. She loves Skyrim and its people. Like Balgruuf, she worships Talos in secret even though she’s on the side that officially bans it. However, she sees the pragmatic side of things, how Ulfric’s war is turning old friends into enemies, Nords against Nords, brothers against brothers, and how it weakens Skyrim, especially in terms of being able to fight the Thalmor in the future. Even when the Empire loses the Civil War if the player joins the Stormcloaks, Rikke fights for Tullius to the bitter end because she believes a united Skyrim with Imperial support is the only way the Thalmor can be defeated. Skyrim was always in the Empire ever since Talos made the Empire, and Rikke believes that severing the two is a big mistake, whether or not Talos can be worshipped in the open.

Rikke shares both the desire for Talos worship from the Stormcloaks and the Imperial desire for unity and strength, which makes her, to me, the most interesting character in the whole Civil War questline. Especially when Galmar and Ulfric used to be her friends. Ulfric, during the Stormcloak victory, allows Rikke to leave in the name of their old friendship. Rikke refuses. During the Imperial victory, when the player sides with the Empire, when the player finally kills Ulfric, Rikke chants a small blessing for her old friend: “Talos be with you.” She represents the juxtaposition of conflicting interests in the Civil War rolled into one character, and that was very interesting for me.

THE SIDE I CHOSE AND WHY I CHOSE IT:


THE EMPIRE

After getting a clear examination of both sides, my character decided to sign on with the Empire. Both my good character, who wiped out the Dark Brotherhood and the Volkihar vampire clans, and my evil character who not only heads the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, but also the Volkihar vampires as well. I made this decision mostly due to the generosity of Jarl Balgruuf, but also due to the logic that stems from my characterization for my good and evil characters both.

THE GOOD CHARACTER

My good character sympathizes with Elisif and thinks highly of Balgruuf. Elisif is a grieving widow who did nothing wrong-she wasn’t the one who signed the White-Gold Concordat, she never desired to support the Talos worship ban or the Thalmor Justiciars roaming the land, and she still cares for the needs of her people, which makes her an ideal candidate for High Queen. Balgruuf helped the Dragonborn in the campaign against Alduin, so my good character sees that as a massive debt that she must constantly repay by protecting him and his city from any threat that comes by, whether it be dragons, bandits, or Stormcloaks. Ulfric cares for the needs of his people, but his definition of his subjects seems to extend only to the Nords while Balgruuf and Elisif make no such distinctions.

My good character did once sympathize with the Stormcloaks, as she went with the Stormcloaks in Helgen at the beginning. But as she learned more of both sides, she became more favorable towards Balgruuf and Elisif. And during the peace council hosted by her Greybeard mentors, Ulfric was the one who made sure to state that the council was nothing more than a temporary truce-quashing any hope that the council can effectively kill the war that was feeding Alduin’s soul-sucking powers. Alduin consumes the souls in Sovngarde, a part of Aetherius where human souls reside. The more dead humans, the more food for Alduin, and the war is practically making Alduin fatter than Jabba the Hutt by giving him a banquet of souls to feast upon. This, of course, made my character angry at Ulfric. Not to mention that it was Ulfric who launches an attack on Whiterun, not Tullius. Whiterun, for all intents and purposes, was my good character’s home base outside her personal home in the College of Winterhold’s Archmage quarters. Lydia was a close friend of hers that helped her in many adventures. And Balgruuf was one of the first Jarls to befriend my good character-something that she will never forget.

While it pains my good character to betray her former Stormcloak friends like Ralof, and while she sympathizes with Ulfric’s desire to protect his culture and his god, in the end, she sides with the Empire because not only does it guarantee a larger host in the upcoming war with the Thalmor, but in the end, she can’t support the Stormcloaks after learning of the details of Ulfric’s act of regicide. Not to mention that his attack on Whiterun that was totally unprovoked. Balgruuf resisted calls from many people, including his brother, to join the Empire properly, and Ulfric attacks him anyways, believing that to not sign on with him was to side with the enemy. My good character sympathized with Elisif, had a massive personal debt to pay for Balgruuf, and had a pragmatic view of the war in general, seeing the need for pragmatic commanders like Tullius and the need for other nations allied with the Empire outside of Skyrim to join the fight against the Thalmor in the future. While it pains her to bite the pill and kill men and women who were simply fighting for their faith, culture, and homeland, she sees that in the end, to defeat an enemy as malevolent as the Thalmor, strength, unity, and friends outside of Skyrim are needed. The Dragonborn cannot defeat the Thalmor alone, and she has a better chance of defeating them if she has allies all across the Empire.

Besides, nothing stops her from attacking Thalmor patrols on the road. She merely provokes them to attack, defeats them, then releases their captives and sells their armor to the highest bidder in the Whiterun markets.

THE EVIL CHARACTER

My evil character, however, desired a fight. She licks her lips for blood, and outside of feasting on the blood of villagers, temple-goers, and prisoners, she seeks action and adventure most of all. While my good character vanquished Alduin, Lord Harkon, and Miraak out of necessity, to save the world, my evil character did so because she saw them as potential challenges and competitors.

She killed Alduin out of a sense of adventure, to boast of how she killed the mightiest of dragons, which would, in turn, make her the mightiest Dragonborn to have ever lived. She joined the Volkihar vampires for the sake of power, then killed Lord Harkon to assume his throne, while my good character joined the Dawnguard in wiping out said vampires out of a sense of duty to the realm. But my evil Dragonborn uses Auriel’s Bow to blacken the sun at her whim now and then, when the sunlight annoys her enough, and she slaps around anyone who is not at awe at the sight of a blood-colored eclipse in the sky.

My evil character journeyed to Solstheim to kill Miraak, to see the powers of this “First Dragonborn” and claim them for herself, in contrast to the good character who simply wanted to help the good people of Solstheim. My evil character drenched herself in Daedric magic, made deals with all sorts of evil Daedric lords, priding herself on being the champion of more than one evil Daedric prince, and walks around town wearing fearsome Daedric Armor while having the evil Mace of Molag Bal hang from her belt. My good character only relished deals with Daedra when they ask for good deeds or mere pranks. My evil character wants to experience all the Daedric powers, so she can use such powers in conjunction with her power as Dragonborn to dominate the globe.

She joined the Thieves Guild, not to engage in petty acts of thievery, but to gain the powers of the Daedric Prince Nocturnal for herself. She joined the Dark Brotherhood and joined the quest to kill the Emperor, not for the Stormcloaks’ desire for revenge, or out of a desire to salvage the Empire from a weak ruler, but because it gave her a sense of thrill to murder the ruler of one of the two superpowers in the globe. She conducted her bloody murder of the Emperor and his guards in her Vampire Lord form, cutting a swathe of blood and gore on the deck of his ship, painting the walls with their blood. She continued to kill and torture people as the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, not to serve the Night Mother or Sithis, but because the thrill and the danger, the blood and the gore, made her feel more alive.

So when picking a side in the Civil War, she obviously picked a fight with the side that seemed the mightier because it would be more of a challenge-the Stormcloaks. The Empire was poor sport for her-the Penitus Oculatus, supposedly the most elite of Imperial units tasked with guarding the Emperor, was a joke for her, having slaughtered most of them like animals. And looking at most of the other Imperial troops that could barely afford leather armor with a few pieces of chain mail made my evil Dragonborn laugh at the pathetic and sordid state of the Empire. She saw that a grieving widow like Elisif and her punch-clock Imperial minions Tullius and Rikke would make for poor sport, not to mention boring enemies.

In comparison to the Stormcloaks, whose troops wore a shirt of chain mail under scale armor, or the Thalmor soldiers who parade around in plate mail with powerful magicians backing them up, the Imperial soldiers and their leather uniforms made my evil Dragonborn want to laugh at their pathetic state. While she would have relished to match wits against a tactical genius like General Tullius, instead, she wished to face Ulfric Stormcloak in battle. Endlessly hearing about how heroic Ulfric is from the tales of those who favor the Stormcloaks gave her an idea of this powerful warrior-hero who is the rightful king of Skyrim. It began to whet her appetite for war. And my evil character does abide by the old Nordic customs-she sees Ulfric as the rightful king because he killed the last king. And she sees the chance of becoming the next ruler by killing him in fair combat. She saw that clobbering the local hero would make for great sport, and she sought to test Ulfric’s power of the Voice against her own, honed to near-perfection after her journey in Solstheim and her newfound “friendship” with Hermaeus Mora.

Needless to say, she was a little disappointed. While she enjoyed the epic siege of Whiterun and defending the gates from hordes of die-hard Stormcloak warriors, her assaults on Stormcloak fortresses inevitably began to bore her. They ended with massacres of Stormcloak soldiers when she augments the assaulting Imperials with assistance from dragons, Daedra, and undead monsters from the Soul Cairn, a dimension within Oblivion that was the source of the strongest Undead warriors. The Imperials in their poverty leather uniforms stood in awe as dragons set fire to Stormcloak forts while Daedras and undead bashed through the gates and slaughtered Stormcloaks in droves along with their evil liege.

It finally culminated with the siege of Windhelm, where my evil Daedra-infused Dragonborn besieged Ysgramor’s mighty city with her dragons, Daedra, and undead, alongside General Tullius and his frightened army of poverty-stricken, leather-bound legionnaires, whose jaws were on the floor at the sight of her evil magic. And while plowing through hordes of Stormcloaks in their own capital gave her a thrill rarely matched by her other adventures, her final fight with Ulfric was underwhelming, to say the least. Ulfric barely had knowledge of more than one Dragon Shout, and his fighting skills were paltry in comparison to a master duelist and sorceress like her. The fight with the supposed mighty warrior-king inevitably ended with her winning, and when Ulfric made the last request to die at the hands of the Dragonborn, she vaporized him with a lightning storm so that not a trace of his weakness would be left. My good character did the same, so as to not leave a body or a head for Tullius to mutilate or place on a spike, but my evil character did so because she was underwhelmed with Ulfric and wanted no reminder of his weakness and her disappointment.

She then spent the time after the Civil War helping the Imperials consolidate in Skyrim. With the Emperor dead, and the Imperials indebted to her, a powerful Dragonborn, she sees that the time is ripe of Cyrodiil to once again have a Dragonborn Emperor in the same league as Talos, except one that tames and rides around in dragons while summoning undead and Daedra. With the Mages College and the Companions as her mainline supporters, while the Volkihar Vampires, Dark Brotherhood and Thieves’ Guild being her shadow support, seizing the vacant throne would be an easy task, as the Mages’ College and the Companions give her a lot of public credibility, as a patron of knowledge and warrior traditions, while the Thieves Guild steal from her rivals, and the Volkihar Vampires and Dark Brotherhood take out any potential threats to her ascension to the Imperial Throne.

GAMEPLAY-WISE AND PERSONAL REASONS

As for my own personal reasons for my choices, they mirror the thoughts of my good character. Betraying Balgruuf seemed like a personal betrayal after what he did in helping defeat Alduin. Even my evil character had standards and won’t betray those whom she owes favors to. Elisif made for a poor opponent for my evil character, and a sympathetic ally for my good character. Tullius and Rikke weren’t that charming as enemies, seeming more like punch-clock villains when seen from the Stormcloak perspective. Ulfric was more like a proper enemy: for my good character, it gave her a good dilemma to get over, killing an enemy whom she sympathizes with, just like with Rikke. For my evil character, it gave her the sport of clobbering the local hero, to test this warrior king against her unspeakably powerful magic and see how long he lasts.

What influenced me the most is how the Stormcloak campaign ended when I did play it: the Stormcloaks drag out Elisif, and force the poor widow to swear allegiance to the man who murdered her husband and ruined her life, with no apologies or condolences from the Stormcloaks whatsoever. Even my evil character would have had standards and at least apologized for killing Torygg and ruining Elisif’s love life. Not to mention that like my evil character, I found the Imperial legion to be underwhelming enemies. After looking at the Imperial heavy armor, I thought I’d be up against these Urban Cohort-looking types from the Rome Total War games that were typical of Roman legions during the height of the Roman Empire, which would be a mighty foe, especially if they had shield-wall tactics. Instead, what I did fight were mostly leather-wearing “legionnaires” with only some troops having bits of chain mail on their armor that would only be fit to guard the border as the lowest of Roman Imperial troops. I kinda felt ripped off. At least the Stormcloak soldiers looked like a Medieval army with their chainmail shirts under scale mail armor.

Another reason why I felt ripped off was because I thought part of the Stormcloak campaign would be wiping out all Thalmor presence in Skyrim, like besieging the Thalmor embassy, perhaps, or attacking forts that Thalmor Justiciars in Skyrim would have taken refuge in following the defeat of the Empire. Instead, all Ulfric and Galmar do is talk of a future war with the elves and the storyline ends there. I can understand why the Imperial campaign has no such thing-they’re still technically at peace with the Thalmor. But for the Stormcloak campaign to not include a mission that has the player wiping out the Thalmor in Skyrim was a big letdown for me, especially considering that I spent the whole campaign fighting guys whose most common armor were leather shirts and whose leaders felt more like punch-clock villains at best.

I wanted to fight more enemies that were soldiers of the Thalmor, considering they actually looked like threatening foes, what with their guys wearing golden plate mail or glass armors being backed up by sorcerers that fling lightning bolts and fireballs while summoning Daedric minions. Instead, it ends after a grieving widow is forced to submit to her husband’s killer, and no plot threat is generated concerning the current Thalmor presence in Skyrim despite the fact that the point of the Stormcloak campaign was to EXPEL the Thalmor from Skyrim so that the Nords can worship Talos in peace. So while the Imperial campaign was a bit of a letdown when it came to the final boss, the Stormcloak campaign was even more so, being a disappointment of massive proportions for me, with its ending being rather tragic than inspiring, unlike the Imperial ending, which was both tragic AND inspiring. Rikke realized that Ulfric was a good man gone wrong, and that his death was a tragedy, but a necessary tragedy at that, which was needed to unite the Empire and prepare Skyrim for a future war against the Thalmor.