In all my 700 hours of play I still have never joined the Stormcloaks. Not that I am an Imperial fanatic, but the Nord Supremacists just don't really speak to me as a group.
In all my 700 hours of play I still have never joined the Stormcloaks. Not that I am an Imperial fanatic, but the Nord Supremacists just don't really speak to me as a group.
Funny that I'm the opposite; haven't managed to get more than halfway through the Imperial campaign, finished Stormcloaks four or five times.
I'd honestly have preferred an option to become High King. For a series that has the freedom to a lot as it's main feature I'm very disappointed we didn't get that option.
I too don't like the Stormcloaks not that much. I mean I dig the whole manly viking/highlander but when they tell my Argonian character that they are so much better than me. It's satisfying to bash their heads in with Volendrung.
Though to be honest the Civil War Questlines were pretty dull.
I always go with Ralof into the keep, if for no other reason than to kill that bitch Imperial captain.
Because fuck that rancid used cuntrag.
This was the thing that always annoyed me about Stormcloaks being popular.
These factions represent something, they have a cause, a backstory, a philosophy behind them, but at least a third of players go Stormcloak for no reason other than "I met an Imperial lady who was mean to me, so I'll kill all Imperials regardless of what beliefs it means I am swearing allegiance to."
This was the thing that always annoyed me about Stormcloaks being popular.
These factions represent something, they have a cause, a backstory, a philosophy behind them, but at least a third of players go Stormcloak for no reason other than "I met an Imperial lady who was mean to me, so I'll kill all Imperials regardless of what beliefs it means I am swearing allegiance to."
To be fair, the Imperials did screw over Skyrim so bad it's in a civil war, the Summerset Isles so badly it left then went to war with the Empire, along with it's cats and hippie cousins and then the Empire screwed over Hammerfell so bad it seceded in the middle of an Aldmeri invasion...
So mean Imperial Lady and Incompetent Sentry may as well be a reason as good as any other... Same goes for "Racist Stormcloaks" regardless of how they treat you badly (at first) even if you are a Nord.
To be fair, the Imperials did screw over Skyrim so bad it's in a civil war, the Summerset Isles so badly it left then went to war with the Empire, along with it's cats and cousin and then the EMpire screwed over Hammerfell so bad it seceded in the middle of an Aldmeri invasion...
But that's not the reasons people use. Those would be halfway reasonable reasons to join the Stormcloaks, although I don't think they're the best ones. [expand]You're basically complaining that someone on the losing side of a war that was forced to make concessions in a peace treaty followed through with those concessions. The concessions were even explicitly demanded so that the elf-nazi actual villains could use it to force that civil war to futher weaken the empire and lead to their next genocidal war being easier to pursue. Helping divide the only nation really capable of standing up to the elf-nazi threat even further isn't really doing any good.[/expand]
The problem is that people are choosing a faction without any reason at all other than "I chose to pick a side based upon the first mean lady I met", and would have picked the Imperial side for the exact same reason if they reversed which side was mean to you in the opening cutscene without changing anything else in the balance of what factions represent what. (In fact, I firmly believe Bethesda made you face a mean Imperial specifically because everyone was going to pick Imperial and it wouldn't seem like much of a choice at all if it weren't for adding in that mean Imperial to swing people dramatically over towards the Stormcloak side.)
But that's not the reasons people use. Those would be halfway reasonable reasons to join the Stormcloaks, although I don't think they're the best ones. [expand]You're basically complaining that someone on the losing side of a war that was forced to make concessions in a peace treaty followed through with those concessions. The concessions were even explicitly demanded so that the elf-nazi actual villains could use it to force that civil war to futher weaken the empire and lead to their next genocidal war being easier to pursue. Helping divide the only nation really capable of standing up to the elf-nazi threat even further isn't really doing any good.[/expand]
The problem is that people are choosing a faction without any reason at all other than "I chose to pick a side based upon the first mean lady I met", and would have picked the Imperial side for the exact same reason if they reversed which side was mean to you in the opening cutscene without changing anything else in the balance of what factions represent what. (In fact, I firmly believe Bethesda made you face a mean Imperial specifically because everyone was going to pick Imperial and it wouldn't seem like much of a choice at all if it weren't for adding in that mean Imperial to swing people dramatically over towards the Stormcloak side.)
Or the Imperials could get off their high horse and fight alongside Skyrim and Hammerfell in an alliance like the good old days. The Empire's biggest problem is that it has shown that it has no claim over Skyrim anymore, neither by blood (since the Medes aren't related to the Septims) nor by ability to secure Skyrim's people. They even straight up negotiated Skyrim ceding land in the Markarth Crisis without consulting Skyrim according to the Bear of Markarth (blatantly anti-Stormcloak propaganda).
On the Mean Lady, it would be fine if she was just the exception, but Tullius is right in front of you as it happens and doesn't do anything, condoning her actions. It's not "one mean lady" that tried to kill you, it's the entirety of the Imperial chain of command in Skyrim that did.
NWSiaCB said: You're basically complaining that someone on the losing side of a war that was forced to make concessions in a peace treaty followed through with those concessions. The concessions were even explicitly demanded so that the elf-nazi actual villains could use it to force that civil war to futher weaken the empire and lead to their next genocidal war being easier to pursue. Helping divide the only nation really capable of standing up to the elf-nazi threat even further isn't really doing any good.
Having played both sides multiple times you can justify either side but whichever side the LDB joins is fully capable of resisting the Aldmeri Dominion. Seriously, once you get past Dawnguard we're talking about a WMD that can strip souls off people, call storms, and, based on Ulfric's conquest of Markarth, render any and all fortifications useless. Furthermore, he can call on 2 dragons, 1 of which can never die and now that i think about it, has Bend Will.
There's also the fact that Skyrim's defensive terrain is the biggest reason the Imperials still haven't won the civil war (passes into Skyrim are blocked according to letters you could find in the border forts), and would be a hindrance to any invader, such as the Aldmeri dominion. Skyrim's terrain is remarkably defensible, from the mountain wall surrounding it on all sides to internal mountain ranges that allow defense in depth, the forests and tunnel/cave systems that allow ambushes out of nowhere, the swamps that would encourage disease and attrition on invading forces not used to it, the ghosts that would keep invaders awake at night, the coast that's riddled with ship wrecks making naval invasions a terrible idea, and of course, the cold.
If anything, Skyrim staying in the Empire would make it more vulnerable to defeat because the Empire's capital and strategic hub is on one of the most accessible islands in Tamriel, surrounded by mostly soft hills and open plains directly bordering the Dominion, while, detached from the Empire's direct rule, Skyrim would have the ability to simply go "lmao no" when the Empire surrenders ala UK 1940.
Just as in the Great War, a war against the Empire would only require the dominion to take and hold Cyrodiil to win, a war against an alliance of men would require the Dominion to take and hold each nation's Core regions, possibly every hold and major settlement in Skyrim and Hammerfell's case.