Imperials or Stormcloaks, what one?

[samgurl775]

If you let Madanach live, and allowed him to escape the mines, you now stir up even more chaos against the citizens of the reach by making the Forsworn even more powerful, since they now have their leader to lead again. Sure Thonar is dead, but you still have 1 remanding living Silverblood alive to take over the family business.

I always kill Madanach in Cidhna Mine and then kill Thonar later. #Problemsolved

Eh, Stormcloak dungeons have torture chambers too thats just a medival thing. As for the Markarth incident, what does that have to do with the Empire? Igmund acted indipendantly and supported Ulfric before the Thalmor threatened him.

I hate how if you follow Ralof at the start of the game he acts all shocked and aghast at the idea of the Empire using a torture chamber. I just want to be like please, I've seen the inside of Stormcloak forts, don't act like you guys don't use them too.

 

[Raijin]

I'm surprised I haven't yet had any dreams about this thread. Honestly. Pretty sure I'd wake up with a hammer in my hand if I did though.

It is interesting how long this debate has raged though. Well played, Bethesda.

Well to be quite honest with you I use this thread for when I get bored. I know I always get a response back, since discussing politics is such a touchy subject, even in a fictional world. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who uses this thread to demolishes their boredom

Lets use simple math

Bored Stormcloak fan + Bored Imperial legion fan + Political debate = No longer bored

 

[Jersey Dagmar]

I use this thread to up my post count.

 

[R'alle]

I use this thread to up my post count.

Your profile kinda looks like Freddie Mercury. I love it.

 

[Gunnbjorn]

And why should I pick one over the other? So far neither have shown me that one is better or worse than the other, they both have their bad and good qualities. Many say Stormcloaks because the name sounds cool, but I want to side for a reason, not the name.

I'm a male Khajiit (Destruction mage)

Please help me D:

EDIT: I really want to keep being a mage so does one of them have classes or can I just stay been a mage.

I only started playing 4 days ago and i have never played any other TES.

If you want a reason, continue to play.... Learn more about the sides in game, and decide yourself. This game is based on making hard decisions that can only be made by YOU, because it is YOUR opinion. I could tell you which side to choose, and give you my reason, but my opinion and reason behind my choice was based on my characters personality. Our characters are two different people, and may have completely opposite personalities and beliefs. This whole post is all just people posting what they decided to do, and posted their reasoning behind it. If you came here looking for someone to make the decision for you, 'your gonna have a bad time.'

 

[Raijin]

As a staunch Stormcloak supporter all of my characters joins the rank of the stormcloaks... I've recently been trying encourage myself to join the imperials with my latest Breton character.

So check this out.
Theirs 2 little people sitting on the opposite side of my shoulders talking to me.

The person sitting on my left shoulders is telling me to join the Stormcloaks while the person that's sitting on my right side is telling me to join the Imperials.

So which team should Ra-Horakhty join? Or should he become a vampire (DG) and take over Skyrim, and have him become the next ruler?

 

[Docta Corvina]

Personally I like the idea of him being a sexy vampire overlord.

 

[Hargood]

As a staunch Stormcloak supporter all of my characters joins the rank of the stormcloaks... I've recently been trying encourage myself to join the imperials with my latest Breton character.

So check this out.
Theirs 2 little people sitting on the opposite side of my shoulders talking to me.

The person sitting on my left shoulders is telling me to join the Stormcloaks while the person that's sitting on my right side is telling me to join the Imperials.

So which team should Ra-Horakhty join? Or should he become a vampire (DG) and take over Skyrim, and have him become the next ruler?

OOOH-MAAH-GAAH!!! RAGE RAGE.. How could you ....RAGE RAGE!!!!!!


....wait, what was this thread about again?

 

[Raijin]

To be honest with you Ra-Horakhty has a deep fetish for aggressive and demanding women. When he came up to Legate Rikke he was quite intrigued with this nord woman.. I think the imperial legion is winning on his side, since he has a crush on Legate Rikke for exactly that reason

Unless if shes trying to seduce him.

 

[Hargood]

To be honest with you Ra-Horakhty has a deep fetish for aggressive and demanding women. When he came up to Legate Rikke he was quite intrigued with this nord woman.. I think the imperial legion is winning on his side, since he has a crush on Legate Rikke for exactly that reason

Unless if shes trying to seduce him.

Maybe you could invite here out for a Drink... and a fist fight. Ya know, just to get to know her better

 

[cbnck01]

I wish there is option to eliminate both sides. would'nt that be fun?

 

[Raijin]

Maybe you could invite here out for a Drink... and a fist fight. Ya know, just to get to know her better

You're probably right. Shes probably using her seductive woman powers to lore men to join the imperial legion. A drink is a must... and probably a good fist fight... however I don't believe in fighting with women. If things don't go well I can always tell her that I'm out to join the stormcloaks, and that I'll see her real soon.

 

[pidgeoneyepete]

I joined both, my Nord joined the Stormcloaks like a true son of skyrim, all my other characters joined the empire cause ulfric is a racist prick.

 

[ReaperHemingway]

As a staunch Stormcloak supporter all of my characters joins the rank of the stormcloaks... I've recently been trying encourage myself to join the imperials with my latest Breton character.

So check this out.
Theirs 2 little people sitting on the opposite side of my shoulders talking to me.

The person sitting on my left shoulders is telling me to join the Stormcloaks while the person that's sitting on my right side is telling me to join the Imperials.

So which team should Ra-Horakhty join? Or should he become a vampire (DG) and take over Skyrim, and have him become the next ruler?

I actually have a Breton character who just joined the Stormcloaks. Even though he is a non-Nord who uses magic, so he is doubly hated by the Nords, the Stormcloaks were the only side that made sense for this character.

The reasoning: This character is very smart and is thinking long-term, and everyone seems to agree that all out war with the Thalmor is inevitable. The Empire is already far from it's former glory, even a victory over the Stormcloaks is going to decimate the Legion's numbers.
At this point, the Thalmor would be complete idiots not to invade the Empire. Think about it, what are the Thalmor going to do, wait patiently while the Empire recovers from the civil war, and then attack? The Empire would be in no shape to fight at that point, and that's the end of the Empire.

Also, an independent Skyrim, combined with the already independent Hammerfell, means that High Rock is now cut off from Cyrodiil, so it's only a matter of time before my character's homeland separates as well. With Nords to the east, Redguards to the south, High Rock couldn't be safer from the Thalmor.

The only real way the Empire could hope to survive is not an option in the game: Withdraw from the White-Gold Concordat immediately.
The ranks of both the Legion and the Stormcloaks are growing, and they'll keep growing until the Battle of Whiterun when the war truly begins and both sides start taking heavy losses.
So if the empire wanted to survive, they'd give the Thalmor the boot, make peace with Ulfrich, and most importantly, absorb the Stormcloak army into the Legion. At this point the Legion will be at it's strongest point in a long time, and there is no better opportunity to launch an attack on the Thalmor.

 

[pidgeoneyepete]

I actually have a Breton character who just joined the Stormcloaks. Even though he is a non-Nord who uses magic, so he is doubly hated by the Nords, the Stormcloaks were the only side that made sense for this character.

The reasoning: This character is very smart and is thinking long-term, and everyone seems to agree that all out war with the Thalmor is inevitable. The Empire is already far from it's former glory, even a victory over the Stormcloaks is going to decimate the Legion's numbers.
At this point, the Thalmor would be complete idiots not to invade the Empire. Think about it, what are the Thalmor going to do, wait patiently while the Empire recovers from the civil war, and then attack? The Empire would be in no shape to fight at that point, and that's the end of the Empire.

Also, an independent Skyrim, combined with the already independent Hammerfell, means that High Rock is now cut off from Cyrodiil, so it's only a matter of time before my character's homeland separates as well. With Nords to the east, Redguards to the south, High Rock couldn't be safer from the Thalmor.

The only real way the Empire could hope to survive is not an option in the game: Withdraw from the White-Gold Concordat immediately.
The ranks of both the Legion and the Stormcloaks are growing, and they'll keep growing until the Battle of Whiterun when the war truly begins and both sides start taking heavy losses.
So if the empire wanted to survive, they'd give the Thalmor the boot, make peace with Ulfrich, and most importantly, absorb the Stormcloak army into the Legion. At this point the Legion will be at it's strongest point in a long time, and there is no better opportunity to launch an attack on the Thalmor.

That doesn't really make that much sense, if the Empire as a whole was unable to defeat the thalmor how is Skyrim gonna do it on its own without the rest of the empire to back them. The Nords already fought the Dominion once and lost, except when they lost it was as part of the entire Empire. Also with Nords hating magic they have no chance on their own as the Dominion will just pound them with magic and totally decimate them since they have no battlemages of their own to counter the spells.

 

[samgurl775]

Good choice Raijin. Even if afterwards you still strongly support the Stormcloaks, it's good to have played both sides.

 

[ReaperHemingway]

That doesn't really make that much sense, if the Empire as a whole was unable to defeat the thalmor how is Skyrim gonna do it on its own without the rest of the empire to back them. The Nords already fought the Dominion once and lost, except when they lost it was as part of the entire Empire. Also with Nords hating magic they have no chance on their own as the Dominion will just pound them with magic and totally decimate them since they have no battlemages of their own to counter the spells.

If the Empire wins, they have a severely weakened fighting force that will need to be stretched out over several provinces.
If the Stormcloaks win, and the Thalmor invade Skyrim, they're going up against a Stormcloak army highly experienced in guerrilla warfare, with far superior knowledge of the geography of Skyrim, and they're fighting for themselves, and not for some far off Emperor.
Finally, and most importantly, the Stormcloaks only have to defend Skyrim, not defeat the Thalmor. If the Thalmor did invade, the Stormcloaks hit and run tactics will simply make it in the best interests of the Thalmor to eventually withdraw. This exact scenario of a large, advanced invading army eventually being forced to withdraw through the tactics of the defenders has played out countless times through history.

Plus if the Thalmor were smart, they'd be focusing their attention on Cyrodiil, and not Skyrim, at that point.

As for what would happen over time in a Stormcloak victory, I'll leave that to better storytellers. Maybe the the whole dragon thing gets the Nords back to their hard-shouting roots. An army that has even a handful of people who know a shout or two would be pretty badass. Or maybe High Rock, now being cut of from Cyrodiil, makes an alliance with the Skyrim, who knows.

EDIT: It's also worth pointing out that all the lands the Thalmor currently control, they got through overthrowing governments and deception, not through fighting for them.
The lands that were taken by their army eventually were given back. Not a very good track record. How can they now expect to conquer, and then hold onto, a land inhabited by trained rebels?

 

[Raijin]

That doesn't really make that much sense, if the Empire as a whole was unable to defeat the thalmor how is Skyrim gonna do it on its own without the rest of the empire to back them. The Nords already fought the Dominion once and lost, except when they lost it was as part of the entire Empire. Also with Nords hating magic they have no chance on their own as the Dominion will just pound them with magic and totally decimate them since they have no battlemages of their own to counter the spells.

The Nord may not trust magic, but as what old man, Sergius Turrianus, said at the college of winterhold the nords don't mind wielding enchanted weapons. Look at Ulfric Stormcloaks weapon for an example. his axe, Steel War Axe of Cowardice, is enchanted with magic. Perhaps the nords are actually accepting Magic? With the real threat on the horizon they too will use magic if need be. Although we never seen Stormcloak mages in action... They do have battlemages. In fact if you're a PC player you can spawn some of them by using this code: Stormcloak Mage: 4622B

Good choice Raijin. Even if afterwards you still strongly support the Stormcloaks, it's good to have played both sides.

The imperials lost some major pointage when they attacked me at a fort near whiterun. The Stormcloak seems to be a lot more nice to me then the imperials. The Stormcloaks welcomes me to their camp to sleep while the imperials tries kicking me out, and if I doesn't leave then they attack me. I'm afraid Legate Rikke isn't going to like my decision if the imperials continues acting like assholes.

 

[Docta Corvina]

The imperials lost some major pointage when they attacked me at a fort near whiterun. The Stormcloak seems to be a lot more nice to me then the imperials. The Stormcloaks welcomes me to their camp to sleep while the imperials tries kicking me out, and if I doesn't leave then they attack me. I'm afraid Legate Rikke isn't going to like my decision if the imperials continues acting like assholes.

I've actually had both groups run me off if I wasn't allied to either side when I ran into them. That's just game mechanics, and it makes sense. If I were a commander of either camp in the wilderness, a stranger traipsing about would put my teeth on edge as well. It's war time, I don't expect an invite to tea and scones.

So yeah, I don't believe one side is nicer than the other in that regard. The Stormcloaks pulled the same stunts even when I was neutral.

 

[ReaperHemingway]

The Nord may not trust magic, but as what old man, Sergius Turrianus, said at the college of winterhold the nords don't mind wielding enchanted weapons. Look at Ulfric Stormcloaks weapon for an example. his axe, Steel War Axe of Cowardice, is enchanted with magic. Perhaps the nords are actually accepting Magic? With the real threat on the horizon they too will use magic if need be. Although we never seen Stormcloak mages in action... They do have battlemages. In fact if you're a PC player you can spawn some of them by using this code: Stormcloak Mage: 4622B

I've always got the impression that it was just the common folk of Skyrim who were suspicious of magic. Ulfrich and other people of power may give the same impression, but they are politicians, they've got to pander to the stupid public. Ulfrich himself has a court wizard, and like you said, an enchanted weapon. When push comes to shove, he'd have battlemages in combat, but it's reasonable to expect that not many battlemages have been volunteering for his cause so far.

I like to think that my Breton in the Stormcloaks is going to be the guy that changes people's mind about magic. I do often use it to win important battles after all.
I even married Brelyna Maryon and moved to Windhelm with her, just to stir the pot even more.