Random Thoughts – Randocity!

I’ve recently been playing Skyrim again and have decided to finally finish the civil war storyline. I’d never really completed it when I first played because 1) I knew how it would turn out and 2) it wasn’t something I was terribly interested in completing. I decided to complete this and I have some thoughts. Let’s explore.

Game Choices

When playing the civil war storyline, you must choose a side. You can side with the Empire or with the Stormcloaks. In my case, I decided to side with the Stormcloaks and for one very good reason. The Empire has money, yes, which is why the rich Solitude folks like the Empire. It keeps their money flowing and their rich lifestyles intact. However, the Empire is far too complacent of a protection arm for long term use. The Empire will eventually fall… and fall it must. And, fall it does when the Nightmother has the Dark Brotherhood kill the Emperor.

I chose the Stormcloaks, not because they were the underdog, but because it made more sense for Skyrim. After the Dark Brotherhood quest line has the Dragonborn kill the Emperor, the Empire would be over and done with… at least for quite some time until a new Emperor was chosen. Skyrim needs a leader now, not later. The Imperial troops would then be far less cohesive after the death of the Emperor.

The game didn’t show this of the Empire, but it would be true. It would also make the Empire’s troops distracted and far less effective. This is part of the reason that the Stormcloaks could easily best them in battle.

Ulfric Stormcloak

The game claims Ulfric to be a war criminal, but that is only from the perspective of the Empire. He was vilified for the ‘shout’ that claims to have killed the High King. In fact, Ulfric admits that that was a tall tale. While the shout did temporarily incapacitate the High King, Ulfric’s sword is what did him in. With that said, we didn’t get to see the battle that led to this death, so we really can’t adequately judge if the King’s death was justified or not. We’re only told it wasn’t justified by the game. In fact, because the Daedric Princes are so petty and quarrelsome, I wouldn’t put it past one of those Daedric Princes to have had a hand in causing Ulfric to perform this deed for some reason. It might have even been Sheogorath who thrives on random madness.

In reality, Ulfric was likely a victim of circumstance. I believe he was either manipulated or he did what he thought was right and just at the time. However, it’s really all water under the bridge by the time we play Skyrim since both the Dragonborn and Ulfric are being carted off to their deaths by Imperial troops. I discounted much of the arguments against Ulfric primarily because the Empire almost beheaded the Dragonborn without explanation. I have no sympathy for the Empire at that point in the game. It’s a good thing that Alduin came along to shake it all up at that very moment.

The Thalmor (Aldmeri Dominion)

Many people believe that no matter who is in charge over Skyrim (or indeed Tamriel) that the Thalmor always stand to benefit from it. It seems that the Thalmor are interested in taking over all of Tamriel, including provinces such as Cyrodiil, Hammerfell, Valenwood, High Rock, Morrowind and, yes, even Skyrim. The White-Gold Concordat gave a huge portion of Hammerfell over to the Thalmor as a big concession. Hammerfell heavily rebelled against that and this province eventually became independent and outside of Imperial control. The Thalmor struck the White-Gold Concordat as a way to keep their hand in the operations of Tamriel and put their thumb on Talos worshipers. They side with whomever is currently in power and keep tabs on how it is going so they can strike at any weakness. Apparently, the Thalmor also have a fairly large army contingent… enough to overwhelm the Emperor’s legion so as to force the Emperor’s hand (the same Emperor who is killed in the Dark Brotherhood quest in Skyrim) to sign the White-Gold Concordat.

I’m not a big fan of the Thalmor. While the Empire has tolerated the Thalmor and given the Thalmor access to the Empire, Ulfric has absolutely no love for the Thalmor, instead choosing to kick them out. I’m all for that. The Thalmor are nosy busybodies that need to stay the hell out of Tamriel. The Thalmor need to go find their own piece of land and go run that instead of bothering the people of Tamriel with their heavy handed military tactics.

If I had to make a guess, the Thalmor were probably the instigators of the Stormcloak rebellion in the first place. Strife means they can step in and take over the land when the troops are sufficiently weak enough. The Thalmor seem to thrive on strife and want the people of Skyrim to break the agreements struck in the White-Gold Concordat. With both the Emperor and the Empire out of the way, the White-Gold Concordat is essentially null and void. The Thalmor would need to approach Ulfric with new demands and/or treaties. It also means that the Thalmor could likely come in and decimate Ulfric’s remaining troops. This is probably the biggest single thing that Ulfric has underestimated about the Thalmor, even with the Dragonborn on his side. However, I’m quite sure the Thalmor wouldn’t attack Ulfric without a warning and some posturing before deploying troops. Though, the Thalmor would definitely offer a warning shot to ensure that Ulfric understands the gravity of the situation.

Overall

When playing the civil war story, I sided with the Stormcloaks because I preferred where the story in Skyrim would head without being under Imperial control or under that unnecessary White-Gold Concordat. Skyrim, like Hammerfell, needs to become its own independent nation state for the Nords (and others) rather than continuing to be part of Tamriel. Once Skyrim is independent, the Thalmor would have to bargain with Ulfric, go away or kill everyone to lay claim to the land. Let the Thalmor go back to Cyrodiil and hang out over there… or at least some place other than in Skyrim.

Let’s hope that The Elder Scrolls VI will pick up where Skyrim left off. It would be great if we could see how it all turns out under the Stormcloak rule. Of course, The Elder Scrolls VI won’t use the Dragonborn and will explain off that character’s death in some cheesy way so they can pick up the ES:VI story with a brand new hero character like they do with each new game.