Skyrim Made Every Civil War faction Morally Unforgivable

Comments · 243

• MA

  @MassiveiusBiggus · 10 days ago

  A long time ago, back in Cyrodiil, I saw a group of Thalmor agents dancing with joy when the first Oblivion gate opened and destroyed two watchtowers; I tried reporting it to authorities but they didn't take it seriously. Soon after that, my gold in the Imperial Bank was confiscated, I lost my job and got kicked out of my house... I've been a homeless beggar ever since. Nobody wants to believe that Thalmor destroyed my life but it's true, I swear on Stendarr's mercy.

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• HO

  @horaciogonzalez4284 · 1 day ago

  I feel like Skyrim does have a very easily missed theme to it, which is a challenge to our modern concept of freedom. &quot;You are going to be screwed with by powers you cannot control or even confront, and you will NOT like what they aim to accomplish.&quot; that&apos;s my thesis, it&apos;s beyond the civil war quest line to me, look at what the Deadra have been, the arbitrary one-note violence of the Blades, the hands-off complacent fatalism of the greybeards. You want to join the companions to have some direction for you violence? like the fighter&apos;s guild? well Hircene is taking your soul, don&apos;t like it? break off the quest line I guess. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; No matter what you do in the game it feels like you&apos;re signing on to a manipulatively written contract, you get power, but you don&apos;t REALLY get to change anything.

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• SH

  @shayanalenejhad6563 · 10 days ago

  Let&apos;s look at it from a existential perspective. The Nord folk have this place called sovengarde, which is their heaven. We learn that to enter this heaven, one must die with honor. In Nord culture, to die with honor is to die for what you believe in (that is what I have heard). With this said we should ask: does the ban on Talos worship prevent the Nords to die with honor? And if so, then what should be done?

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• KI

  @kingdevon2548 · 2 days ago

  Cool and interesting video, man. Also, I&apos;m just wanna ramble a bit here.<br> Akavir has been really quiet lately for a good long minute. Yall don&apos;t think they&apos;re planning on anything, because I feel like they&apos;re planning on something. Yall think they gonna invade tamreil again, but with some new weaponry or something?

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• SA

  @samgafford2371 · 9 days ago

  Am just gonna cosign everyone&apos;s obituary, just for the sake of not having to deal with it B-)

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• SI

  @simonfraser3332 · 10 days ago (edited)

  do you guys think TES 6 Sentinel will take place before or after Skyrim? &nbsp;i think it&apos;ll be just before Skyrim lining up with Saadia (from the &quot;in my time of need&quot; quest) fleeing Hammerfell

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• TE

  @teyrncousland · 3 days ago

  There’s absolutely no way to defeat an enemy when you’re infested by their agents. Which is why the empire is done for and independent provinces like Skyrim and Hammerfell which aren’t handicapped by the White Gold Concordat are the only hope of beating the Thalmor, or at the very least they would do so much better resisting the Thalmor than the empire infested with them.<br><br>Ulfric knows the bigger picture quite well and the bigger picture and it shows that there’s no way that the empire will ever be able to fight the Thalmor ever again after allowing them to infiltrate the empire so thoroughly. Which is why he has to save Skyrim from the failing empire as fast as possible so that Skyrim can actually prepare against the Thalmor, otherwise it will be dragged to its doom by the empire.

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• MA

  @matasaugunas8114 · 11 days ago

  the civil war would of been so much more interesting if the Nords still had their own pantheon and culture or if the civil war was about that in the first place, now the Nords are literally fighting a civil war for an imperial god which makes zero sense, I also don&apos;t think the idea of the Aldmeri domination invading Skyrim would be even feasible as they would need to take cyrodil and then fight through pale pass which is highly defensible terrain and a natural border , and the redguards won againt the Thalmor by themselves so im sure the Nords could do it too

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• BO

  @Boromir-From-Gondor · 4 days ago (edited)

  A generally left out point imo is that the &quot;deity&quot; Nords worship was an Imperial General and Emperor, who massacred Millions of Altmer, other Mers as well as to a lesser extent other Humans. Thalmor wanting to ban Talos worship is also sort of justified because in the perspective of the Aldemari he&apos;s pretty much what Julius Caesar was to the Gauls, what Genghis Khan was to the Chinese, Slavs and the Persians, a Ruthless and Brutal conqueror who killed Millions. <br><br>Nonetheless, In the present Geopolitical state however, the most justified cause is the Empire&apos;s, because their compromise with the Thalmor is temporary. The Empire already doesn&apos;t have any power in the Provinces. For quite a while now Regional Governance is delegated to the Regional Lords like the High King + Jarls of Skyrim or the various Feudal Nobles of High Rock. Heck even Cyrodil isnt fully centralized, it is only the Imperial City that is Centralized, the surrounding area of Cyrodil is governed by Counts. <br><br>The Empire either way cannot decide whether Thalmor should or should not run rampant in the Provinces, this is how they lost Valenwood and Elswhere to the Aldemari via regionally back coups, without a fight ever even taking place. Had the White-Gold Concordat not happened, the Thalmor would still be persecuting Talos Worshippers with or without the Empire&apos;s consent, because the Empire do not hold enough Imperial Authority in the Provinces for Civic Administration, their Provincial Governance is only for Military Recruitment. <br><br>Several Nords serve in the Legion, are Imperial Loyalists but also worship Talos and the Empire turns a blind eye, Balgraaf permits Talos worship in Whiterun openly, whilst still considering himself Imperially Aligned (lets face it even when he was Neutral he was Imperial Aligned, because he wanted to maintain the status quo, and was not actively rebelling, even his guards constantly talk sh*t about stormcloaks), heck even Rikke, a Legate, the highest Administrative post in their Military Bureaucracy only under the General, worships Talos. <br><br>This is not because the Empire is &quot;Allowing Thalmor to persecute Talos worshippers&quot;, but in actuality it is Not able to prevent the Thalmor from operating, with or without the White-Gold Concordat, it simply does not have the Manpower to prevent it or resist the Altmer. It had to cede Hamerfell to the Aldemari, which is why they declared independence, it lost both Valenwood and Elsewhere without even being given the Opportunity for a Military Response. The loss of Hamerfell was a concession they were forced to make at a loss, and so was the &quot;Outlawing&quot; of Talos worship, which isn&apos;t even that bad since Talos aint even that respectable of a deity, Worshipping Talos is like worshipping Julius Caesar.<br><br>Supporting the Empire is the only correct choice, because the Stormcloaks are Ethnonationalist Xenophobes, which in my opinion cannot be condoned under any circumstances. Whilst the Empire does what it does because of &quot;Reason of State&quot;, as a means to an end. Ultimately when the Empire regains its strength, it will repel the Aldemari, revert any Laws set by the Thalmor (such as banning Talos Worship), and restore the Status Quo of being an Inclusive Inter-civilizational Imperial State, with a restored Military Bureaucracy. <br>Whereas the Stormcloaks will spend the next few decades, expelling and massacring Minorities. <br><br>Do not forget that the only reason the Empire is still in Skyrim is by invitation of 5/9 Jarls who do NOT support the Stormcloaks and are also desperately trying to maintain the Status Quo, under an elected High King that is subordinate to the Emperor. At any given moment these Jarls can go &quot;No&quot;, and the Legates will no longer be able to recruit from amongst the Nords, leading to them losing Skyrim. However it is Skyrim itself which does not fully wish to break free. And also Do not forget that the Imperials themselves revere and deify Tiber Septim/Talos as the center of their Imperial Cult. Ultimately the Status Quo will be restored, and it is also the most progressive option, from the 3 primitive Medieval choices which have been proposed to us. Ultimately it is also the best route to strengthen Tamriel&apos;s position against other threats such as the Aldemari and any possible invaders from other realms as well as other continents (yes the Aldemari and the Empire are not the only 2 superpowers in the world of the Elder Scrolls).

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• DU

  @DustJacket0-0 · 9 days ago

  The storm cloaks could provide the same unity as the empire, if they win quickly. Both sides harm skyrims independence through prolonged conflict. What matters most isn’t who wins or what side the player picks but how long they let the conflict play out for and how many resources are wasted.<br>Whether under ulfric or elsif it doesn’t matter as long as Skyrim is united again quickly they are in a better position.

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• MK

  @mkvenner2 · 10 days ago

  Morality doesn’t factor into my choice on who to side with in the civil war, it’s a political and strategic matter. The stormcloacks will leave Cyriidil and High Rock in a weaker position to deal with the Thalmor, yeah a lot of people forget about High Rock. <br>Thalmor are currently the dominant on the continent but they are stretched thin. High Elves do not reproduce quickly or very often. The only thing that gives them any advantage in a war is their natural affinity to do magic. The main reason they won the Great War was more to speed, centuries long subterfuge and crippling the Blades intelligence network. Give how Wood elves, dark elves and the Argonians respond to and treated by the Thalmor it is reasonable to assume that the Thalmor do not have total control over Valenwood or Elsweyr. While the Empire is weak it is not as weak as it was when it signed the Whitegold Concrodant and has getting stronger with every year that passes.

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• KY

  @kyuusei19 · 11 days ago

  I can understand the Empire&apos;s initial reasoning, but if the Dragonborn joins the Empire it changes everything. They&apos;d have an ally that&apos;s around the power of Tiber Septim. They could kick out the Thalmor, restore Talos worship and unify Tamriel again. If they actually did that, even Ulfric and his Stormcloaks would bow to the Dragonborn warlord.<br>Instead, it&apos;s only Ulfric who declares that he will defeat the Aldmeri Dominion. While it&apos;s true that it&apos;s unrealistic at the start of the civil war, but again, the Dragonborn of legend appeared. Even if Skyrim doesn&apos;t have the military power of the Empire, with the Dragonborn leading the assault, victory against the Dominions is definitely achievable and Hammerfell resistance is a proof of that.<br>If the player was a random citizen, the Empire would be right. But we play as the Dragonborn. The balance of power becomes greatly against the Dominion and submitting to the demands of the Thalmor is completely absurd.

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