Ladies and Gentlemen: Context.
The empire has relatively recently emerged from a costly war in which they won a Pyrrhic victory. They pushed the Almeri Dominion out of their home territory of Cyrodiil but in the process gave them half of Hammerfall as part of the peace treaty and outlawed the worship of the god of the empire giving Thalmar free access to persecute his followers.
-Talos is the most significant of the nine divines for the Empire because he was a man who became a god, specifically an emperor. The Empire is basically shaming itself by denying their founder's divinity.
-The Empire has also been forced to allow Black Marsh (Argonians) and Elseweyr (Khajit) to secede from it.
-Morrowind was wrecked by an ash volcano eruption and then subsequently invaded by the now free-agent Argonians.
-Hammerfall was expelled from the empire due to their refusal to accept the White-gold peace treaty. The Redguard continued fighting all by themselves and to put it bluntly: kicked elven arse. They single-handedly threw the Thalmer out of the parts of Hammerfall the Empire freely gave over as part of the peace treaty.
-The Empire currently consists of: Skyrim (Nords), Cyrodiil (Imperials) and High Rock (Some Orcs, Bretons) and is not all that great a military force any more (Nords and Redguard used to do the bulk of the fighting till Hammerfall's split and Skyrim's civil war)
-Skyrim is being drained of resources (mainly manpower and metal) to float the other two provinces.
-The Thalmor call themselves the "savior of mer (elven) kind" basically if you're not an elf you're a second class citizen or worse a slave.
Skyrim currently has just finished fighting the Thalmor (elves) and is bordered on one side by Morrowind which has just been invaded by unallied Argonians.... can you see why the Nords might be a little predisposed to not trust those races?
Those of you balking at the capture of that one town need to remember that without decisive movements the civil war just grinds down both sides and causes unnecessary loss of life. That town was given months to decide where their allegiances lay. The Jarl thought that the Empire would win and wanted to be on the winning side so his people were not mistreated by the eventual victor.
The town was captured within a day (presumably) and with fairly minimal loss of life. Had they decided to sack and burn the town you might have cause to call them unjust...but they didn't.
TL;DR:
-The Empire is not the strong, overwhelming force you think it is
-You think the racism unjustified? Look to Europe's past and how those associated with prior aggressors were treated by those they had been fighting against. It's not racism for racism's sake.
-Yes Ulfric is a dick and selfishly motivated but he's a good leader. Have you actually spoken to the Jarl of Solitude? She means well but she doesn't know her ass from her elbow when it comes to military doctrine; at one point she suggests sending an entire legion to clear an insignificant cave complex before her advisors correct her.
-Windhelm is a shithole purely because it's a shithole not because of Ulfric's direct actions (it's highly likely it's a slum to be due to him being rebel and unsupported by the other towns in skyrim with limited trade)
-Solitude (The Empire's skyrim capitol) is surrounded by water. Thalmor elves specialise in naval warfare. Should they siege it, they'll win.
Edit:
Here's a map of Tamriel
Empire= High Rock, Cyrodiil, Skyrim
Argonian forces= Black Marsh, Morrowind
Almeri Dominion (Thalmor)=Summerset Isle, Valenwood
Unaligned= Hammerfell, Elseweyer
The empire has relatively recently emerged from a costly war in which they won a Pyrrhic victory. They pushed the Almeri Dominion out of their home territory of Cyrodiil but in the process gave them half of Hammerfall as part of the peace treaty and outlawed the worship of the god of the empire giving Thalmar free access to persecute his followers.
-Talos is the most significant of the nine divines for the Empire because he was a man who became a god, specifically an emperor. The Empire is basically shaming itself by denying their founder's divinity.
-The Empire has also been forced to allow Black Marsh (Argonians) and Elseweyr (Khajit) to secede from it.
-Morrowind was wrecked by an ash volcano eruption and then subsequently invaded by the now free-agent Argonians.
-Hammerfall was expelled from the empire due to their refusal to accept the White-gold peace treaty. The Redguard continued fighting all by themselves and to put it bluntly: kicked elven arse. They single-handedly threw the Thalmer out of the parts of Hammerfall the Empire freely gave over as part of the peace treaty.
-The Empire currently consists of: Skyrim (Nords), Cyrodiil (Imperials) and High Rock (Some Orcs, Bretons) and is not all that great a military force any more (Nords and Redguard used to do the bulk of the fighting till Hammerfall's split and Skyrim's civil war)
-Skyrim is being drained of resources (mainly manpower and metal) to float the other two provinces.
-The Thalmor call themselves the "savior of mer (elven) kind" basically if you're not an elf you're a second class citizen or worse a slave.
Skyrim currently has just finished fighting the Thalmor (elves) and is bordered on one side by Morrowind which has just been invaded by unallied Argonians.... can you see why the Nords might be a little predisposed to not trust those races?
Those of you balking at the capture of that one town need to remember that without decisive movements the civil war just grinds down both sides and causes unnecessary loss of life. That town was given months to decide where their allegiances lay. The Jarl thought that the Empire would win and wanted to be on the winning side so his people were not mistreated by the eventual victor.
The town was captured within a day (presumably) and with fairly minimal loss of life. Had they decided to sack and burn the town you might have cause to call them unjust...but they didn't.
TL;DR:
-The Empire is not the strong, overwhelming force you think it is
-You think the racism unjustified? Look to Europe's past and how those associated with prior aggressors were treated by those they had been fighting against. It's not racism for racism's sake.
-Yes Ulfric is a dick and selfishly motivated but he's a good leader. Have you actually spoken to the Jarl of Solitude? She means well but she doesn't know her ass from her elbow when it comes to military doctrine; at one point she suggests sending an entire legion to clear an insignificant cave complex before her advisors correct her.
-Windhelm is a shithole purely because it's a shithole not because of Ulfric's direct actions (it's highly likely it's a slum to be due to him being rebel and unsupported by the other towns in skyrim with limited trade)
-Solitude (The Empire's skyrim capitol) is surrounded by water. Thalmor elves specialise in naval warfare. Should they siege it, they'll win.
Edit:
Here's a map of Tamriel
Empire= High Rock, Cyrodiil, Skyrim
Argonian forces= Black Marsh, Morrowind
Almeri Dominion (Thalmor)=Summerset Isle, Valenwood
Unaligned= Hammerfell, Elseweyer
