Skyrim Civil War Part 2: Answering points made by Stormcloak Supporters

SKYRIM CIVIL WAR-PART 2

Answering points made by Stormcloak supporters.

(Here, I address the points made by many a Stormcloak fan when it comes to defending the Stormcloak side in the Skyrim Civil War.

Next, I will be looking at the Thalmor themselves, and why they do what they do. They're quite interesting villains, and I was disappointed that they didn't have more of a presence in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.)


As a follow-up to my first piece on the Skyrim Civil War, this second entry will be a response to pro-Stormcloak arguments made by players who sympathize with the Stormcloaks in the video game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Some of their points have legitimate merits, but others are far-fetched, and others are practically grasping at straws. For me, the argument for the Empire is simple: Ulfric Stormcloak committed regicide and started the civil war to begin with, the Thalmor are using the Stormcloaks as footstools and even secretly support them to weaken the human-led Empire, combining the Empire with Skyrim can form a stronger front against the Thalmor, and there is also the fact that General Tullius is a better military leader than Ulfric Stormcloak.

Once one peels away Ulfric’s whole “messianic hero” archetype that many Nords apply to him, the guy’s not that good of a fighter, and not that good of a hero. His track record in war is getting caught by the Thalmor and then getting caught by the Imperials. The king that he killed was a young man who was barely old enough to be a warrior. And as I said in my previous entry, when the player fights Ulfric, he’s not that tough of a warrior to begin with. The Draugr that the Dragonborn player fights in the dungeons and tombs are more of a threat than Ulfric is. Both can use the Voice of the dragons, but the former wields better weapons than the latter and have an easier time killing the player, whereareas, even on higher difficulty levels, the only way Ulfric can kill the player is if the player lets him. So the image of Ulfric Stormcloak as this powerful warrior-king just doesn’t come off as realistic when you realize he has the tactical acumen of Leeroy Jenkins and the fighting prowess of a common bandit. As for Tullius, he doesn’t have the reputation of a skilled fighter, but what he does have is superior tactics-the Civil War in Skyrim dragged on for a while, then Tullius shows up, and through superior tactics, he captures Ulfric. For all intents and purposes, the war was over, until Alduin appeared and attacked Helgen. A literal Deus Ex Machina had to save the day for Ulfric and the Stormcloaks. If that’s how Ulfric fights against a weakened Empire, how will he fare against a powerful Aldmeri Dominion?

Ah, but so many Stormcloak fans have reasons as to why and how the Stormcloaks can win against the Dominion, or why the Empire either won’t win or isn’t fit to rule Skyrim. But of course, dispelling them isn’t that hard, especially when one looks at the cold, hard facts.

Argument #1
“The Empire is a foreign occupying force trying to impose their laws on Nords! They are forcing Nords to give up their long-held customs to satisfy the whims of the Thalmor! They have no business in Skyrim!”

Uh, yes they do. The Legion has been in Skyrim as long as Talos’ Empire ever existed. The Empire that exists in the Elder Scrolls games is the empire established by Tiber Septim, also known as Talos Stormcrown. While he made his capital in Cyrodiil, Skyrim was his home, and it was a part of his Empire ever since it existed. The Legion had always been in Skyrim as long as there was a Legion in the first place. Many Nords are legionnaires. And since the Empire always had ruled over Skyrim, it does belong there.

As for its laws, yes, the White-Gold Concordat that bans Talos worship was a pain in the ass, especially for fervent believers of Talos, but it does buy time for the Empire to recover, so they can once again wage war against the Aldmeri Dominion and tear up the concordat. Plus, what the Thalmor don’t see, won’t hurt them. People can and still do worship Talos in secret, even Imperials. The ban is only enforced through High Elf Justiciars roaming the countryside, hunting down worshipers of Talos. They are legally allowed by the Empire to hunt down Talos worshipers, but Imperial citizens can kill them without much repercussion outside of paying a fine for assault if a guard saw them. Plus, if the player acts in self-defense and the Thalmor Justiciars strike first, then there is no fine for assault, and killing them in self defense is perfectly fine.

So Imperials can and do still worship Talos, and there’s nothing stopping anyone from having a crack at the Thalmor Justiciars roaming the countryside, or hiring people disguised as bandits to kill them. It’s sad that they can’t worship their god out in the open, but they can still do it in secret, while the Empire uses the time they bought through the White-Gold Concordat to re-arm themselves and prepare for the next war that is obviously coming, which would allow them to tear up the concordat and worship Talos out in the open again.

Speaking of Nord customs, the Stormcloaks  seem to be selective on which customs to obey. Just as many “traditionalists” and “reactionaries” nowadays who love to trump about the past, but tend to forget bits and pieces of it when it suits them. The Stormcloaks seem to be following the same pattern. Part of Nordic custom, aside from always being a part of the Empire that was made by a Nord, was the tradition of the Greybeards. They Greybeards believe that the Power of the Voice should be used to worship the gods, specifically the goddess Kynareth, and it was not to be used as a weapon. The Greybeards were the ones who taught Ulfric the Power of the Voice, because he was once training to be one of them for ten years straight, until the war against the Thalmor erupted, which then forced him to join the fight.

However, after the war, Ulfric used the Power of the Voice to kill High King Torygg, by knocking him down with a mighty shout then stabbing him in a duel. This, of course, was a violation of Greybeard teachings, because they believed the Voice should be used to worship the gods alone. Now, self-defense against the Thalmor could warrant the usage of the Voice, after all, if the player attacks the Greybeards, or if the occasional Ice Troll makes it to their fortress, they will fire back with the Voice to defend themselves, and the war against the Thalmor was nothing but self-defense. But the usage of the Voice to kill a boy-king? In a duel that Ulfric could have won in the first place without using any magic powers? Yeah, that kinda warrants a charge of heresy. Unlike the Dragonborn, who is permitted to use the Voice as they see fit, those taught by the Greybeards to join their ranks are not permitted to abuse the Voice in such a manner. If the Stormcloaks respected this tradition, they’d have tied Ulfric to a stake and burned him for heresy, or enacted whatever punishments upon him for breaking religious law, not to mention killing the High King of Skyrim, who was, as I mentioned before, already a fan of him. But as always, the Stormcloaks honor the traditions that they can use as a justification to fight the Empire, and conveniently forget the traditions that would hinder their cause.

Well, if killing the High King with the Power of the Voice is okay, I suppose an ambitious Nordic Dragonborn can legally turn the tides and use the very same power to kill Ulfric in a duel. Hey, he did it, so why can’t the player? Ulfric used the Nordic custom of challenging a man to a duel to force Torygg to fight him, only for him to blast Torygg apart with the Voice. So what if an ambitious Nordic Dragonborn challenges Ulfric to a similar duel? He’d be honor-bound to accept or get accused of being a coward, especially since his last notable kill was barely a man. The Dragonborn can come up to him and say: “I CHALLENGE YOU, ONE WARRIOR TO ANOTHER, AND ONLY THE STRONGEST CAN RULE SKYRIM!” If he refuses, the Dragonborn can accuse him of being a coward who uses the Voice to kill young, barely-trained boys. If he accepts, the Dragonborn’s greater mastery of the Thu’um will most likely destroy him. What goes around, comes around.

Argument #2
“The Empire surrendered to the Thalmor! They don’t have the balls to fight the Aldmeri Dominion!”

This reason I somewhat sympathize with. The Empire should not have signed the White-Gold Concordat-a concordat so badly disadvantageous that the Treaty of Coruscant from Star Wars: the Old Republic was a lot less disadvantageous. The latter only forced the Galactic Republic to agree to a truce while giving up some territory to the Sith Empire, while the former allowed Thalmor Justiciars to intervene on private matters of faith for Imperial citizens. Instead of signing the concordat, the Empire could have bunkered down once they retook the capital of Cyrodiil, defended their cities, while the Dominion wastes time and manpower trying to take one province or another.

Let the Altmer Elves, who were never numerous to begin with, strike first and waste their manpower and auxiliaries scaling walls or besieging cities, because this is a medieval fantasy setting. Unless the Aldmeri Dominion has cannons that can breach walls in a few shots, siege warfare will automatically favor the defending side, and if both sides have equal manpower, then the defenders have the advantage. The Emperor was weak indeed, for signing the concordat and allowing the Thalmor to intervene in a private matter of faith. That’s why the Dark Brotherhood assignment to kill him was actually a plot by one of the members of the Empire’s Elder Council-the Council began to see the Emperor as too weak to affect change, and they see him as a symbol of weakness and a source of misery for the Empire since he signed that treaty.

However, we have seen that the Imperials are capable fighters. Capable enough that General Tullius defeated Ulfric in a short amount of time right after he took the reins for the legion in Skyrim. Plus, as I said, many Imperials resent the Thalmor for the last war and the White-Gold Concordat. If they see a weakness in the Dominion, they can and will take advantage of, it and declare war to reverse the disadvantageous terms of the concordat. If the Imperials can stomach a war against fellow humans, they would be more than capable of waging war against elves that they despise, especially since Imperial leaders like Tullius have shown that they are good with tactics.

The Thalmor’s main strength are magic, conspiracies, and intelligence gathering. In a battle against someone like Tullius, the advantage isn’t necessarily on their side, especially since like the Stormcloaks, the Thalmor are quite full of themselves, and that pride can easily be exploited by a more down-to-earth faction like the Empire. And, if you really dislike the Emperor that much, then go join the Dark Brotherhood and kill the guy. You can still join the Empire later, anyways. It’s not like they care, even though guards from Imperial-held cities know that the player is a member of the Dark Brotherhood, and they know the Dark Brotherhood killed the Emperor.

Argument #3
“Skyrim doesn’t need the Empire to defeat the Thalmor! A Stormcloak-led Skyrim can defeat the Aldmeri Dominion on its own!”

(Or as I’d like to call it, the “Skyrim is for Nords!” argument.)

This is the argument that posits that a united Skyrim can defeat the Thalmor. That they don’t need the Empire, or the other races, to win. Nord strength is all that’s needed to defeat the Aldmeri Dominion, and the Empire’s hesitation for going to war against the Dominion is part of why it is too weak to fight the Thalmor, while the Stormcloaks display no such weaknesses.

This is an argument that is mired in ignorance. Because last I checked, back then when Skyrim was a unified land that was battling the Dominion alongside the other member states of the Empire, the war was still horrible for both sides, resulting in a draw that was basically a truce until both sides are ready to fight again. That was the results back then when a unified Skyrim fought the Aldmeri Dominion alongside other races that were a part of the Empire. They didn’t score victory, they didn’t even score a draw that was favorable. They scored a draw that was so razor-thin that the Emperor signed a concordat that allowed the Thalmor to bully Talos worshipers and even drag them off to be tortured in dungeons. Granted, a more tactically-proficient Emperor could have prevented that and forced the Dominion to offer more generous terms for a truce, but let’s be honest-is Ulfric Stormcloak going to fare any better?

Ulfric’s war tore Skyrim in half; only one half wanted to go with his plans, the other half hated him for his regicide of King Torygg and wanted to remain with the Empire. Defeating that other half will take the Stormcloaks money and men-and those resources won’t easily be replenished when trade with other Imperial provinces gets cut off. After Ulfric succeeds in getting one half of Skyrim to pound the other half into pancake batter, Skyrim will be in no state to wage wars against world superpowers like the Aldmeri Dominion.

And considering that Skyrim will be in a very sorry state once the war is over, without Imperial support, the Aldmeri Dominion would take that time to attack. If I were the leader of the Dominion, I would attack right after Ulfric wins the Skyrim Civil War. By that point, General Tullius is dead, robbing the Empire of one of its greatest tacticians. The Empire would have lost plenty of men trying to hold Skyrim, which means they’re in no mood to intervene, and they certainly won’t be enthusiastic about helping the people who just rejected them. And Skyrim will be severely weakened, with one half of it in ruins while the other half is exhausted after fighting that war. If I were a Dominion general or a high-ranking Thalmor leader, I would certainly take that opportunity to crush Skyrim and Ulfric once and for all, before Ulfric has any chance to recover. To destroy Nordic culture and the homeland of Talos once and for all, to avenge the loss of the Falmer due to Ysgrammor, and make Skyrim into another arm of the Dominion while we prepare for a fight with the Empire.

And let’s face it-as I said before, Ulfric is a warrior, not a tactician. Tactics and strategy drive warfare. A better tactician and strategist can make a smaller army defeat a larger one, or make the difference in a war where two sides are evenly matched in terms of strength or numbers. Ulfric, however, is not a tactician. He’s not a strategist. He’s a warrior, and not even a strong warrior at that. He got captured and tortured by the Thalmor, who only released him because they knew they could use his emotions to their benefit, and they did. In terms of manipulation, he’s not a user, he’s the used. As I said before, the most notable events in Ulfric’s military career outside of using the power of the Voice to kill a boy king who could barely fight, is getting captured twice-once by the Thalmor, then again, by his former Imperial co-workers. I once joked that if Skyrim under the Stormcloaks ever fought the Thalmor, Ulfric would get captured again, leaving his assistant Galmar and the Dragonborn to run Skyrim and the Stormcloak war effort while “Princess Ulfric” spends the whole war locked up in a Thalmor dungeon. Again. Perhaps if he runs into a Thalmor force whose commander is drunk enough not to take prisoners, he’d get killed for good.

If the Stormcloaks do win the war with the Empire, they will already be in a big disadvantage against the Dominion because they’re working with a country that is still recovering from the scars of war, cut off from the resources and trade it once had as a member of the Empire, facing against the military might of the Aldmeri Dominion, which was strong enough to force the Empire to heel. Perhaps if Ulfric hadn’t torn the country in half through civil war, and gotten other allies like the Dark Elves and the Argonians, he might have stood a fair chance at defeating the Thalmor. But the Stormcloaks’ racist “Skyrim for Nords” ideology will obviously burn bridges with potential allies outside of Hammerfell and its Redguard population, who were recently suffering from Thalmor occupation. That’s one broken kingdom, with another country that is wracked by war as an ally. Not enough to win against the Aldmeri Dominion which once faced off against both Skyrim and Hammerfell, back then when they were still fully-functioning kingdoms allied to the Empire, giving them access to Imperial resources and support.

That whole “Skyrim is for Nords!” argument is complete bullshit, too. Before the Nords occupied Skyrim, there was the Falmer, and the Dwemer. The Nords practically crushed the Falmer, and the Dwemer disappeared. Plus, there have been many visitors to Skyrim, from Dunmer escaping the cataclysm at Morrowind, to Argonian workers, Khajit traders, and even humans from other provinces of the Empire trying to make a new life in Skyrim. Each of them can benefit Skyrim one way or another, especially since the Dunmer are very good with magic, while the Khajit trying to leave Dominion lands could be a good source of intel about the Dominion. Argonians could be experts at poisons and biological warfare, while obviously, humans from other provinces could bolster the manpower of the Skyrim armies or use their trades and skills for Skyrim. Although Ulfric does not preach it, this whole “Skyrim for Nords” shit that the Stormcloaks pass around can burn bridges at a time when Skyrim needs all the help it can get. The Stormcloaks seem to be coasting on pride alone, while they’re blind to the situation that they’re in, waging war against the Thalmor with a broken kingdom scarred by war as their base. As any person who played strategy games can tell you, this is not a good idea.

Compare this to a situation where the Empire wins the Skyrim Civil War. Skyrim is wounded, but can recover faster, thanks to all the trade and resources the Empire sends their way, with companies like the East Empire Trading Company providing money and support. The increased wealth can help country recover from the effects of the Skyrim Civil War faster and prepare for the inevitable war against the Thalmor. Skyrim won’t have to fight alone-other provinces from the Empire will also send their troops. And with a good tactician like Tullius in charge, they’re well-equipped to give the Thalmor a good beating once the war begins. At the very least, they can fight the Thalmor to another draw, or, in the best-case scenario, even win.

Skyrim under the Stormcloaks is almost guaranteed to be a target by the Thalmor before they recover from the war, but Skyrim under the Empire will most certainly recover faster, and will have aid from other provinces of the Empire should the Thalmor attack. Imperial help will guarantee that Skyrim will eventually be able to fight back against the Dominion for imposing the Talos ban on the Empire, but without that help, even if the Stormcloaks repeal the Talos ban, it would only be a matter of time before the Thalmor invade and re-impose that ban while enslaving Nords, like the way the Ayleids enslaved the humans before. By that point, they’ll need help from the Divines for another Saint Alessia to emerge in order to defeat or even halt the Thalmor advances. Speaking of the Divines……….

Argument #4
“The Dragonborn can tip the scales to the Stormcloak side! The Dragonborn can win the war against the Thalmor for Skyrim!”

Ah yes, the Dragonborn. The Divine Intervention against Alduin and Dragonkind. Surely, a person who defeated the mightiest son of Akatosh himself could defeat a bunch of prideful elves, right?

This is an argument given to me by those responding to the previous concerns. Yes, Skyrim is a broken kingdom. Yes, Ulfric is fighting against the odds. Yes, he doesn’t have many allies or access to Imperial trade or resources. But if he has the Dragonborn on his side, the Dragonborn can win the war for them! The Dragonborn can use the power of the “Bend Will” shout to bring dragons to their side, to create an army of dragons that could be useful in the war. The Dragonborn can also have the Companions, an elite guild of warriors, the Winterhold College of Mages, the Thieves’ Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood assassination guild on their side. With expert magic-users, warriors, thieves, and assassins, the Dragonborn can bring one military advantage after another to the Stormcloaks, from dragons performing airstrikes, expert warriors turning the tide of battle, to assassins, thieves, and mages undermining the Thalmor at every turn.

The Dragonborn can also potentially have either the Dawnguard or the Volkihar vampire group on their side, with the former being trained at countering magic powers and killing magic-users like vampires, and the latter being able to plant vampire-infested sleeper agents amongst the Thalmor ranks. The Dawnguard could be put to good use in assassinating Thalmor High Mages, who are some of the strongest fighters for the Dominion, especially since the Thalmor mages and the vampires fight in similar fashion, using magic as a crutch. The Volkihar vampires can use their vampire powers in combat or in turning important Thalmor agents to the Dragonborn’s side, either by ensnaring them with vampiric mind-control, or outright turning them into vampires to be thrown in battle against the Thalmor.

But this is all assuming that the Dragonborn is a loyal Stormcloak, through and through. That he or she is not using the Stormcloaks for their own purposes. That they’re loyal to Ulfric all the way through. And if that’s the case, then a Dragonborn who’s loyal to the Empire can do the same exact things for the Empire once the war starts again. An Imperial Dragonborn can do all of those things, except he or she is backed up, not only by Skyrim, but also by the resources and allies the whole Empire can afford to give them. So even with this scenario, the pro-Imperial side is superior, because instead of fighting the Thalmor with a broken, isolated kingdom for support, the Dragonborn could fight the Thalmor with the whole Empire, including a recovering Skyrim, supporting them. Metaphorically speaking, the Dragonborn is a walking atom bomb. Alduin, the firstborn of the chief of the Nine Divines, Akatosh, could not even stop them. How are a bunch of Elves who aren’t even near divine status do anything against them?

Well, a lot, actually. The Dragonborn can have great power and influence, but is also incredibly vulnerable at the same time. A well-planned Thalmor ambush, executed by mages and soldiers who know what they’re doing, can go a long way in either exhausting or even injuring the Dragonborn. Perhaps, if the leaders of the ambush do things right, they can possibly capture or kill the Dragonborn, although capture is more likely, since the Dragonborn is bound to know a lot of things that the Thalmor would find very useful. If the weakened, down-on-their-luck version of the Dark Brotherhood can kidnap the Dragonborn from a tavern or from their house, then I’m pretty sure someone from the Dominion could have a chance at pulling off the same thing. And unlike Astrid, who just wanted to kidnap the Dragonborn for a recruitment drive, the Thalmor might want to slit open the Dragonborn’s throat with an elven dagger, or perhaps tie them up and torture the living crap out of them for information or an experiment.

The Thalmor can also resort to kidnapping the Dragonborn’s loved ones, attacking their allies, or attacking different parts of Skyrim to force the Dragonborn to split their attention from waging war to defending cities or towns. Hence why I really thought it would be useful for the Dragonborn to ally with the Empire-more support from other Imperial provinces can protect Skyrim, and a larger support pool can keep the Dragonborn’s family and friends safe, and with more support, the Dragonborn won’t get exhausted that easily, and getting injured, captured, or killed is made less likely, especially with brilliant commanders like General Tullius supporting them.

And what happens if the Dragonborn is anything but a loyal Stormcloak? What if the Dragonborn has ambitions of their own? What if the Dragonborn is a power-mad freak who uses the power of the Voice to smite their enemies and seize control of Skyrim? What if they helped the Stormcloaks defeat the Empire, but when the Stormcloaks are still recovering, the Dragonborn makes a bid for power, summoning Daedric minions and dragons to devastate anyone who doesn’t bend the knee? What if, instead of letting Skyrim recover, the Dragonborn revives the old Dragon Cult instead, anointing new Dragon Priests with the Dragon Priest Masks that they retrieved from old Nordic tombs, and using both Daedric minions and dragons to turn Skyrim into their own playground? Or, as I said before, what if the Dragonborn is an ambitious Nord who uses the Nordic traditions and challenges Ulfric to a duel, a duel that Ulfric cannot refuse, which would most certainly end in Ulfric’s death and the Dragonborn ascending to Skyrim’s throne?

That’s also assuming that the Dragonborn even gives a hoot about Skyrim or the Nords. What if a Dragonborn is a Khajit, Dunmer, Bosmer, or Argonian who helped the Stormcloaks only because an Imperial tried to take their head back in Helgen, and once Alduin is dead and the civil war is over, they return back home to Valenwood, Elsweyr, Black Marsh, or Morrowind? Or, what if the Dragonborn gets tired of all the infighting between factions and joins the Greybeards, withdrawing from the world to practice honing their Power of the Voice for the gods and the gods alone, spending time worshiping and conversing with Paarthunax instead of joining any other cause? Speaking of otherworldly entities, many Dragonborn players get caught up in Daedric quests. What if the Dragonborn gets ensnared by the Daedra, especially since even the most basic plot quests have the Dragonborn interacting with at least one or two Daedric Princes. What if one of them manages to ensnare the Dragonborn? The Daedric Princes are always plotting. If not against mortals, then against each other, and they all have their eyes on the Dragonborn, seeing the hero as someone that they can use for their schemes.

Hermaeus Mora appears in both the basic story quest against Alduin and in the Dragonborn DLC where the Dragonborn learns about the Bend Will shout needed to tame dragons…...from Hermaeus Mora himself. That’s two instances where the Prince of Knowledge and Fates can influence the Dragonborn, make them his slave, get them lost in Apocrypha, where they would be lost forever, seeking more and more forbidden knowledge. The Dragonborn might fall in with Molag Bal and become a vampire in the Dawnguard questline, furthering the cause of vampires and the influence of Bal. They could fall in with Sheogorath or Sanguine, pulling off pranks left and right and forgetting about politics altogether. They might fall in with Hircine and become obsessed with hunting. They might fall in with Mephala or Boethiah, and betray everyone close to them for power. They might even fall in with Meridia, and forget about going to war with the Aldmeri Dominion, being more obsessed with the holy crusade to eradicate all the undead in Nirn. How is that useful, when the one person you rely on for war falls into the many Daedric traps that exist to ensnare powerful beings like the Dragonborn to force them into whatever hairbrained scheme the Daedric Princes are plotting?

A worst-case scenario could happen if the Dragonborn is a High Elf, fighting for Altmer interests, and they intentionally helped the Stormcloaks to weaken the humans and make them easier for the Dominion to crush. What if that Altmer Dragonborn then hops onto a dragon and flies back to the Summerset Isles, crushing or intimidating the current leaders of the Thalmor and taking control of the Aldmeri Dominion? What then? Can Ulfric’s Skyrim withstand a Thalmor assault led by an Altmer Dragonborn? At least an Imperial-held Skyrim will have more of a chance in holding back such an assault. And with tacticians like General Tullius, they might even luck out and even capture or kill the Thalmor Dragonborn. But a meathead like Ulfric would have no chance, considering the Stormcloaks mostly just spend time sharpening their swords and honing their fighting skills, to the detriment of all else, from stealth and intelligence operations, to magic usage. Stormcloaks would most likely share the Nordic distrust for magic, and a Thalmor Dragonborn can manipulate that to their advantage.

The point is, we’re talking about factions as a whole, not the influence of one man or woman, no matter how powerful that influence might be. Saying that “The Dragonborn can do it!” doesn’t solve the problem: the Stormcloaks are in deep, deep doo-doo once the Skyrim Civil War ends, and that they’re the less likely of the two factions to triumph against the Thalmor. Even with the Dragonborn, there are many ways the Thalmor can screw with or even take out that advantage, but an Imperial Dragonborn can offer the same advantages, except they are backed up by a larger army, a larger support pool, and a stronger force fighting alongside them. The Dragonborn is not an argument as to why the Stormcloaks can win, because the Imperials can apply the same argument too, except they can offer the Dragonborn more assistance than a broken-down kingdom ravaged by war ever could. And that’s if the Dragonborn wants to fight for Skyrim in the first place, which is not a guaranteed thing.

Sure, a Stormcloak Dragonborn does have a chance at winning the war against the Thalmor. But they not only need power, but luck on their side. Luck that keeps the Dragonborn from getting captured or killed by a Thalmor plot. Luck that would keep the Dragonborn from falling into a Daedric ploy. Luck that the Thalmor aren’t smart enough to try and divide the Dragonborn’s attention by kidnapping their friends or attacking Skyrim. And luck for the Stormcloak side as well, that the Dragonborn isn’t going to usurp Ulfric or just run back home after defeating the Empire, or worse, join the Thalmor.

Argument #5:
“Ulfric had no other choice to rebel! The Empire was weak, his culture was being trod upon! Even if his chances are slim, Ulfric had no other choice! He had to stand up for his god and country!”

This argument usually is the final line of defense for the Stormcloak fans. When they admit that yes, the Empire is the more suited to battle the Thalmor, that yes, the Dragonborn has more chance for success in fighting the Thalmor if they throw their lot in with the Empire rather than the Stormcloaks, but still, Ulfric’s rebellion had just cause based on who he was and what he was fighting for. There was no other choice for someone like him, who valued Nordic customs, who wanted a strong Skyrim that can stand up to the Dominion, no other choice but to rebel against an Empire and an Emperor that have become puppets of the Thalmor, especially now that Thalmor are running around, hunting and killing people for worshipping Talos. The Empire was weak, and so was King Torygg. Seceding from the former and killing the latter was the only thing he could have done, given that Ulfric, and those like him, are honor-bound to follow Nordic tradition.

And quite obviously, this was not the case. Ulfric had many other choices he could have made. For one, King Torygg of Skyrim adored Ulfric. According to the vampire court mage that Torygg kept around in Solitude, he admired Ulfric, even though he didn’t fully agree on seceding from the Empire. Ulfric could have gone the legal route for secession and tried to convince the king that perhaps, secession was the right way to go. Keep visiting the king, play a mentor role, keep trying to convince him that secession is the right way for Skyrim. When Ulfric started the civil war, Jarls who were angry at his regicide of Torygg stuck with the Empire because they saw him as a usurper. But imagine what those Jarls would have done if Torygg, not Ulfric, chose to secede from the Empire. Then they would follow. Then the Empire would have no allies in Skyrim, and will have no choice but to withdraw. Then Skyrim would be free of the Empire, without a single drop of blood shed on the battlefield. Then Skyrim could remain as an ally of the Empire, not a member state, which means they’ll continue to have trade with the Empire, and they will fight against the Thalmor alongside Cyrodiil, but not be bound to the White-Gold Concordat which only applies to Imperial territories. Ulfric would have gotten everything he wanted without a single drop of blood had he chosen the peaceful, legal way of seceding from the Empire.

Another way would have been for Ulfric to make a plot alongside the other Jarls, Torygg, and the Imperial Legion-to create parties of “bandits” to attack Thalmor Justiciars who hunt down Talos worshipers while creating secret enclaves beneath caves and old forts for Talos worshipers to gather in. Have the Empire use third-party sources to leak word to the Justiciars that Talos worshipers are gathering in caves, old forts, then when the Justiciars come to arrest them, have Ulfric’s men dress up as “bandits” to ambush and attack the Thalmor patrols. Then the Imperials would announce their arrival by blowing a loud horn and yelling atop their lungs, which would signal the Stormcloaks to retreat. By the time the Imperials arrive, the Stormcloaks would have disappeared, the Thalmor patrols would have been devastated, and the Imperials would offer fake sympathies and tell the Dominion emissaries that due to the previous war, their forces have been stretched thin and they don’t have the manpower to knock out all these bandit hives. More and more Thalmor Justiciars would get killed over the years, and this trap would allow the Stormcloaks to kill Thalmor soldiers at a time of peace, basically becoming a trap for the Aldmeri Dominion’s manpower to be wasted on.

The Stormcloaks would be the Skyrim equivalent of Cerberus from Mass Effect 2: officially, the Human Alliance government in Mass Effect 2 recognizes the black-ops group Cerberus as a terrorist organization and condemns them in public, but the player discovers from a Cerberus AI that in private, the Alliance military-industrial complex funds Cerberus operations, making Cerberus an unofficial arm of the Alliance government that they use against problems that they’d rather not dirty their own hands with. The same could happen here: the Stormcloak “bandits” would be condemned as traitors and rebels by the Empire, but in reality, the Empire funds and supplies the Stormcloak rebels from behind-the-scenes, even sending in experienced legionnaires to disguise themselves as rebels. The whole civil war would be a sham made by the Empire and Ulfric, to get the Thalmor to waste time and manpower on their hunts, while they create secret enclaves for Talos worship.

So, you see? The Stormcloak Rebellion could have done things so much better if they used more brains instead of brawn. They could have gotten King Torygg on their side, or perhaps even involve the Empire in a complex scheme to get around the Talos worship ban that the White Gold Concordat imposes, not to mention get more and more Thalmor soldiers killed so they have less troops in the next war between Man and Mer.

CONCLUSION

As far as I can tell, most of these reasons comes across as Stormcloak fans grasping at straws. The Stormcloaks seem to be a trap made by Bethesda for newcomer players or players who don’t know the lore behind the whole thing. I remember a reviewer who reviewed Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim once said that the only players who would side with the Empire after they tried to cut off the player’s head in Helgen would be those who were either curious about the options, or brain-damaged. A long, hard look at the facts would show otherwise. As I said before, my character found it easy to sympathize with the Stormcloaks at first, but as she found out more about the whole “Skyrim Civil War” fiasco, she found it more and more prudent to side with the Empire, and so did I, when I started looking at the facts and visualize what a war between the Thalmor and Skyrim would be like if either side won control of the latter. The Stormcloak fans, like the Thalmor, seem to be coasting more on pride, but unlike the Thalmor, who proved themselves to be a real threat and forced the Empire into an unequal truce, the Stormcloaks have nothing but brawn and nationalism to fall back on, not enough to win a war against the Aldmeri Dominion, and the Stormcloaks, while strong, have proven to be flawed, especially when they’re led by a guy who isn’t necessarily the brightest lightbulb in the shed when it comes to military tactics and strategy.

Even the Dragonborn has limits and even weaknesses that the Thalmor could exploit. The Thalmor patrols that the Dragonborn fights all the time, heck, even the Thalmor soldiers that they fight in forts and embassies, are nothing compared to a large army of Aldmeri soldiers who can overwhelm the Dragonborn and capture or kill them. The Dragonborn, after all, is a mortal. A mortal with special powers, but a mortal nonetheless. Even if they were some kind of maxxed-out super-warrior or master sorcerer, the Dragonborn is still capable of getting overwhelmed by a large army, and attacking small patrols doesn’t prepare you for a massive war. And the Dragonborn would have more of a chance to win that war if they had a larger, more powerful ally backing them up, and that ally is the Empire. Sadly, while the Stormcloaks seem sympathetic and even downright honorable at times, in the end, the Empire is the superior option in terms of pragmatic advantages against the Thalmor, and pragmatic advantages beats nationalistic pride any day of the week. You can have all the national pride in the world, but if you don’t have realistic advantages, then you’re totally screwed when it comes to fighting a war where the enemy has said advantages.