No.5- Skyrim, A Brief History & The Big Picture

I was lucky enough to sit down with an aged Tamriel Historian who was kind enough to give me a big picture view of Skyrim. Skyrim is the Northern region of Tamriel, a continent found on the the planet Nirn. Lets not dwell on that. The Imperials and especially the Nords call Tamriel home. The history of Tamriel has been explored in the Elder Scrolls illuminated by the living histories of Morrowind and Cryodiil. The latest chapter is Skyrim, the location in which I am currently adventuring.

Sometime long ago the Imperials and Thalmor waged war during a time before modern day Skyrim known as the Great War. Both sides called for an end to the fighting under the condition the Empire ban all Talos worship, among other things, as conceded in the treaty known as the White-Gold Concordat.

Stormcloak @uesp.net

In Skyrim, The Stormcloaks a group of resident Nords led by Ulfric Stormcloak, the Jarl of Windhelm are fighting for Talos worship.  The Stormcloak Rebellion is in full swing. But it is not that simple by a long shot. The Thalmor are Elf supremacists sworn to stamping out Talos worship and are in Skyrim, with the Empire's acquiescence, busy rounding up dissident worshipers.

As a High Elf trying to get by, it appears there are no simple "good" or "bad" choices, just compromises. On one hand Imperials tried to execute me when I first arrived in Skyrim. In addition the atmosphere is one of oppression with the Empire having outlawed the worship of Talos, and apparently are allowing the Thalmor to cheerfully kill those caught worshiping Talos. Complicating the situation is the rumor that the Thalmor have designs on taking over the entire realm.

On the other hand there are the Stormcloaks led by the great Ulfric, who comes across as an overly egotistical zealot, appearing to condone racism against the elves and anyone who is not a Nord. So who should I support? It is a pick-your-poison situation. The Stormcloaks are wreaking havoc on the Empire and if successful, could easily lead to a Thalmor invasion. For lack of a better comparison, think Hitler and Poland.

Considering I came close to being executed by the Imperials, my knee jerk reaction is "screw the Empire"! However the big picture conventional wisdom says that the Imperials are humanities best hope against the oppressive Thalmori dominion. So do I pick the underdogs, who tend not to like anyone but nords,  while making things easy for the zealot, domineering elves (Thalmor), or go with the struggling empire? Lol! I must think about it. :)