Poll: Skyrim- Who did you side with and why?

[Lyri]

The Imperials, if you sided with the Storm Cloaks then you've aided the Thalmor's conquest of Tamriel.

Long story short, if Ulfric removes the occupation and the Empire from Skyrim and abandons it like they have done in Hammerfell then there is no hope.
The Empire is strongest when all the nations where allied together, now with the split the Thalmor are capable of demolishing the peace of the White Gold Concordant and crushing the Empire.

If you say that the Nords and the Redguards of Hammerfell are capable of crushing the Thalmor without the Empires help then you're incredibly naive.
It was the Nords and the Redguards who made the strong fighting front of the Empires armies and other races filled in the blanks.

Ulfric is just an opportunistic jackle at best, using the peace treaty forced upon not only them but the entire Empire as leverage.
The Empire even remark about how much they hate the Thalmor and don't want the peace as much as the locals do, they really don't care if you worship Talos or not, see Whiterun and Markarth.

Thalmor are the Enemies.
Empire are the good guys.
Ulfric is an opportunist, not a king.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Yeah, I clicked on "yourself" but that's just not true. I would have loved to keep flying solo, it's just that all the guilds and groups have pretty good questlines. I'm a member of the Thieves Guild, which led to the Nightingales, and I'm in the Dark Brotherhood. And I chose the Stormcloaks out of a coin flip.

I try to stay a solitary figure though. I don't take followers (the fact that you can't use "Storm Call" without killing made that choice easier) and I promptly sell whatever outfits a group gives me. Most of the clothes you find simply by playing the game have better bonuses than guild armor anyway.

 

[00slash00]

i never paid much attention to the elder scrolls story because frankly, the story has never been why i played these games. playing this game though, i have been very confused. i dont remember ever hearing the thalmor mentioned before this game and aside from being arrogant, im confused why im supposed to hate them

 

[standokan]

Imperials, just because I think the stormcloaks are asshats. I tried the stormcloak questline but at one point I snapped and just went from camp to camp butchering stormcloak soldiers. It was around that time I developed a thirst for nord mead, I just couldn't handle it anymore, all the horrors I had seen, all the inocent people I slaughtered. I even betrayed Balgruuf and for what? A bag of gold coins? "The freedom of the Nords"? Lies, all of them, I've become a monster. I should've killed Ulfric when I had the chance in Helgen, I'm thinking about one last charge at Windhelm. And I won't make the same mistake twice, his Nordic blood will flow.

Also to give my post something interesting, Thalmor, Thal mor, morThal.

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

Well I was an imperial so it made sense to side with the imperials. Also, the stormcloaks annoyed me and I held on to the idea that if I murdered every high elf in the Thalmor Embassy eventually I could have uplifted the Talos ban. Simplistic thoughts, I know

 

[RatRace123]

Eh, my main guy is a nord and he holds a grudge against the empire for scooping him up off the road and throwing him in that cart.
He doesn't care much for politics though, not while dragons are burning Skyrim to a crisp, and he sided with the stormcloaks if only to get the land under some sort of control, without much concern for the long term consequences.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I choose The Empire. What do I care about Talos? I still worship him and all of the people I talk to in The Empire reckon we'll be fighting the elves again in about 10 minutes time, so the concordat doesn't matter.

So, I join them and unite the land under one flag. Pockets of resistance exist, but The Empire now controls Skyrim, the innocent people are free to enjoy their lives, the millitary machine is stronger and can defend the land better and some unorganised rebels can bugger off whilst a proper army takes over.

 

[8a88leph1sh]

I wasn't listing guilds to mark them as my fighters necessarily, just to show that I have influence. The companions for instance are highly respected, their Harbinger even more so. And no one would ever walk around just recruiting peasants. As I said, I have influence. I would need to convince people in power to fight for me rather than Ulfric or the Empire (which would undoubtedly be tricky). You could force some, charm others. For instance, the Jarl of Whiterun doesn't want to chose a side at first, he likes and dislikes both. But I saved his city from a dragon. I saved his city. If I could show him that I have the strength to win the war he would follow me. Also in the game only one dragon obeys you but I'm sure you could force others to do the same. The Thu'um of the Dragonborn is far stronger than any of the dragons. Imagine, convince enough Jarls and you could even win the war without more bloodshed if the support of both sides just dries up.

The thing is, all of the Jarls have already backed the Stormcloaks or the Imperials. Have you ever wondered why, in many Democratic systems, things tend to devolve into two political groups going at each other's throats, and third parties don't usually get many votes unless one of the major ones completely disintegrates? It's because a third party has to start out small. The first two parties have guaranteed voters- guys, and guys who think the other guys are dicks. But after that, people start questioning things. You always have to start off as a small party competing against the two established titans, and people don't want to back a team they think might lose. So they tend to back one of the titans instead, and your party stays small.

Same principal applies here. How are you going to convince your first Jarl to support you? He already has a moral obligation to follow one side; why is he going to back you instead when you don't have anybody else supporting you?

Look, I don't think you're wrong in fact you're totally right. There's two factions both with their drawbacks and no clear-cut good answer. That's the point since it's just a game. In the game there would never be a third option with a perfect compromise because that would be too easy. I'm just saying that, if the game was as open as life, I would attempt to take over Skyrim myself. I never said it would be easy, just that I'd prefer to back myself than either side.

Think about this: no side would dare kill the last dragonborn, the only one who can permanently kill the dragons still plaguing them after Alduin's death. And who would dare stand against him politically if he can command dragons capable of wiping out their cities, armies, and smallfolk. I mean I'd prefer not taking over skyrim with pure force, especially not using dragons because then I would lose the trust of everyone. They just have to understand the potential for me to use them is there while the potential for me to reward them if they back me also exists.

 

[darron13]

THE EMPIRE!
I mean at first I was considering joining the Stormcloaks, then I realized they're basically a bunch of racist pricks.
That and Ulfric is an asshole.

So yeah. Empire.

 

[ToxicOranges]

The Empire, because if it heals, it has a better shot at crushing the Thalmor than just Skyrim on its own.

Also, Ulfric is kind of a racist douchebag who just wants to become High King.

 

[darron13]

Now all I want is a DLC pack where we can get rid of the goddamn Thalmor and I'll be happy.

 

[Ammutseba]

I sided with the Stormcloaks because:
1. They didn't try to execute me (like a certain other faction tried to do).
2. They may be nationalist fascists, but at least they don't want to take over the world and enforce their own laws on everyone else (sieg heil, Imperials).
3. Skyrim rightfully belongs to them.
4. They're just cooler.


If I could I'd kill both sides and make myself the High King/Queen of Skyrim.

 

[Kurokasumi]

Stormcloaks. Very simple. The imperials tried to execute me in the beggining of the game with no grounds for it. If I "wasn't on the list" or "wasn't supposed to be there" they had no grounds for any sort of punishment on my part, and should have just let me go free. More then likley a mistake of some sort. However they use their tyrant/communist(?) ruling to just kill me anyway.
I was very happy to get my revenge

 

[Belzera]

I supported the Empire. I don't like Ulfric at all, then learning he killed the high king with his Thu'um, didn't care about the nords beyond his own thirst for power. Has been captured and broken by the Thalmor and is considered a sleeping asset by them.

And also, I don't believe that Skyrim on its own could defeat the Thalmor, especially under Ulfric.

 

[kasperbbs]

First time i went with Stormcloaks, just because imperials tried to cut my head off for some reason, but then i spoke to some of the npcs and realised what assholes they are and tried to kill Ulfric, turns out he is immortal, so i had no choice but to continue helping them. On my second playthough i'm gonna kick their racist arses.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Imperials.
I like the Roman Empire.
All the organization...
The legions...
Good times...
And then they lost their old values when they started worshipping a single god and the empire started to crumble...

Umm... No. The Roman Empire fell because they overextending themselves in their conquests and were unable to control it all. The fall of the Roman Empire had nothing to do with the conversion from their former nationalistic/pagan religion to Roman Catholicism. If anything, the conversion made the Roman Empire more united than it was before the conversion.

Maybe you're just making a joke, or maybe you're just pointing out a correlation between the two things. Either way, I had to respond and ask that you not post misleading things about history. We have enough of that crap on the rest of the internet.

I'm not joking, that's how I view things.
Other religions started being alienated after that whereas before people were allowed to have different religions.

You do realize that they killed Christians, and anyone else who refused to recognize the Emperor as divine? They fell due to a variety of complex factors, but mainly it was foreign invasions. Additionally, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all religions throughout the empire. ie. They stopped killing everyone who disagreed with them. Please do not speak of what you do not know.