QUOTE(King Of Beasts @ Feb 13 2013, 03:47 AM)
QUOTE(Kiln @ Feb 9 2013, 01:01 PM)
I did find it interesting that the poll was so evenly divided between the empire and the stormcloaks.
I figured there'd be a much larger number of people who supported the empire. Why? Because we've been playing under the empire's rule since the first ES game. They've always been the ones in charge and kind of the glue holding Tamriel together. The empire has forts everywhere protecting citizens and enforcing basic laws.
The Stormcloaks are fighting for a free Skyrim at the cost of damaging the empire as a whole when it is already on shaky ground. It would be like some of the states seceeding during the revolution against the british. Then you take into account that the dunmer and argonians in Ulfric's own city are being oppressed by him and you can kind of get an idea of what kind of rule the province would have under him.
While the Stormcloaks are idealistic, they don't really have a plan. How would they survive without support from all of the other imperial provinces? Think North Korea here. A small nation that cannot provide for all of it's citizens surrounded by other nations that are hostile and won't trade with it.
Skyrim's war for independence may be won but in the end it is only going to hurt Skyrim and the people there.
But the empire turned their back on Tamriel! You said it yourself. They are pretty much the main reason that Tamriel is a prosperous continent! But why go down with the empire? If they go down, who says that the rest of Tamriel has to go down with them?! True, the stormcloaks definitely don't seem to have a plan, but at least they're trying to stop the Thalmor from dominating Tamriel! Skyrim is just trying to be independent so they don't have to live under the iron fist of the Thalmor.
Yes and what I'm saying is that Skyrim's independence would be bad for both the Empire and Skyrim. Isolationism just doesn't work as a long term goal when your country can't provide for it's own people. If Skyrim isn't on peaceful grounds with the Empire, they're not going to be trading with all of the other Imperial aligned provinces.
There is no long term plan here and in the end an even weaker Imperial force just increases the chances that the Thalmor would be able to conquer Skyrim. Instead of uniting to fight the Thalmor, Ulfric selfishly throws the region into a civil war without any thought to what happens next and IMO simply uses Talos worship as justification to get nords behind him. What he actually accomplishes is weakening both the Imperial presence in the area and the Stormcloak presence.
Basically Ulfric wants what Dagoth Ur wanted to do in Morrowind, he wants to kick out all the foreigners and isolate the region at any cost. Skyrim for the nords, Morrowind for the Dunmer.
This post has been edited by Kiln: Feb 13 2013, 10:10 PM
He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee. - Friedrich Nietzsche