shintakie10 said:
J Tyran said:
SkarKrow said:
J Tyran said:
SkarKrow said:
Well in Skyrim I always found the civil war ridiculously one sided.
The Stormcloaks were basically dipshits and political terrorists without a worthwhile cause. So I naturally sided with the empire and stamped them out in the name of the glorious Emperor.
The Empire lost its way though, what about all the innocent Nords being dragged off and tortured to death by the Thalmor and with the Empires consent? What about all the Jarls smooching up to Elenwen and taking Thalmor gold in order to turn a blind eye? Hammerfell also seized independence because of this, Skyrim deserves the same.
I agree, but the Stormcloaks didn't care about that, they just wanted to put Ulfric on the throne to have their god back. What do you think happens after that? The empire sits back? The Thalmor just shrug and abandon it?
The Stormcloaks where talking about planning an invasion of the Summerset isle after they consolidate the Stormcloak position and rebuild Skyrim, so they fully intend to smash the Aldmeri Dominion. Could they do it? Possibly, Hammerfell fought them to a standstill on their own.
Imagine the Dragonborn leading the charge with a pack of Dragons at his command, the Thalmor wouldn't stand a chance.
That assumes the Dragonborn would bother to help the Stormcloaks. Unless the Dragonborn is a Nord, I kinda doubt they'd be happy about helpin the people that think they're less than a person.
It also assumes that the Thalmor in a defensive war after havin consolidated their power for the last...what, decade? More? Would fare the same or worse against the Nords as they did against Hammerfell after an incredibly costly war already.
The Nords would be up against the full might of an enemy that pushed the Empire to the brink of destruction before while the Empire was far superior to the current state of the Nords, civil war or no. If it came down to it the Thalmor would wipe the floor with the Nords if the Nords fought alone.
It isnt as cut and dried as that, the Thalmor position isnt as strong as you claim. The great war hurt the Aldmeri Dominion as much as it did the Empire, the Thalmor made several mistakes during the war and it cost them a great deal. Initially the Thalmor where unstoppable and pushed
Cyrodiil to the brink of destruction but it was the Thalmor army that left the war tattered, broken and almost completely wiped out.
The Dominion had invaded Cyrodiil and Hammerfell and had taken Leyawiin and besieged Bravil, at the time Hammerfell was suffering from internal political strife and conflict and when the Thalmor invaded the Imperial resistance was weak and ineffective. Their forces where quickly scattered, the Thalmor believed that the Empire was much weaker than they first thought and gambled everything on a swift and decisive victory. They hugely over committed their forces into taking the Imperial city, and began bringing reserves into Cyrodiil from Valenwood and Elsweyr.
The army in Hammerfell was regrouping and reinforcements from Skyrim and High Rock where converging on Cyrodiil, then the all out assault on the Imperial City began. Titus Mede II realised they could not hold the city at the time and forced a break out with most of his army leaving one legion as a (doomed) rearguard. During this time the Thalmor believed it was all but over, Hammerfell still seemed scattered and the Legions appeared to be in flight. They where wrong, badly wrong. Hammerfell seemed scattered because most of the forces where in Cyrodiil and as misdirection the Legions stayed in Hammerfell while Redguard forces marched to Cyrodiil leading the Thalmor to believe that was where Imperial forces where concentrated while the Legions in Cyrodiil had disappeared into the Colovian highlands. They mounted a three fronted counter attack and the Thalmor had little warning, two of them where intended to pin the Aldmeri flanks and reserves by attacking Cheydinhal and Chorrol while the main force hit the Imperial City. Titus Mede led the direct assault on the city himself. within a week they had retaken the city and the forces at Cheydinhal and Chorrol destroyed the consecutively weaker Aldmeri counter attacks preventing them from reinforcing the beleaguered forces at the Imperial City, some of the Thalmor forces tried to break out from the city but where annihilated by the flanking Imperial forces.
Almost
all the Thalmor army was destroyed, in a matter of weeks the Empire mustered enough force to undo everything that had taken the Dominion years to acheive. They also lost their best general, the one responsible for all the earlier success. They haven't been able to consolidate their position all that much since either, Valenwood and the Summerset isle are full of discontent and the Thalmor are a running a series of pogroms and purges to keep their grip on power in their homeland. This obviously drains resources and manpower, the Empire was battered and lost a lot its army but the destruction of Imperial forces was nowhere near as comprehensive as the destruction of the Aldmeri Dominions army. Almost every soldier committed to the campaign in Cyrodiil was lost. This was one of the reasons the Nords and Redguard where so angry, the war had turned around and the Empire was in the dominant position within Cyrodiil but the Nords and Redguard felt they where paying the price for the peace treaty and where being forced to give up everything they had fought so hard for. The Empire keeps claiming it was to prevent the destruction of the Empire, when in reality its only to protect Cyrodiil in the short term.
The Thalmor know they cannot win in an open war just yet, so does the Empire so both sides are watching each other and wary of provoking another war just yet. The Dominion is concentrating subterfuge and deceit, they are planning another war eventually. They call the great war the "first war with the Empire" which obviously shows their intentions, prolonging the war in Skyrim was one of their goals because it weakens both and either a united Empire or an independent Skyrim isnt something they are prepared to deal with.
