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.