I've done both. I play a Dunmer and both have kinda good reasons for siding with both.

Stormcloaks:
The Empire has been terrible for the people of Morrowind and abandoned us when we needed them.
After the Khajiit tore through Morrowind the Stormcloak racism towards, at the least the Khajiit is something my Dunmer can appreciate and be happy about. Also my people know the feeling of having our own homeland taken from us.
You could also say your Dunmer is sympathetic to the Thalmor cause. I never was. Fuck the Thalmor.

Empire:
If you are pivotal in the Empire's victory there is a chance you can use your influence to get Imperial aid for your people back on Morrowind.
The Stormcloaks treat your fellow Dunmer like shit, and fuck that.
My Dunmer was one who loved great power, and securing the Empire foothold in Skyrim ensures that the Empire is still very strong, this is especially good if the Thalmor attack again, and again fuck the Thalmor. I've never been a fan of the Thalmor as a Dark Elf. I think they take the idea of being a mer and bastardize it with the Thalmor. Also Dunmer> all other mer.

The Nexerus said
And you can blame the Dwarves for what happened to the Snow Elves.

I think the blame lies with the Nords for waging a genocidal war against the Snow Elves which caused them to seek the Dwarves help. The Snow Elves wouldn't even exist as the Falmer if the Nords had had their way.

My point was though, that Skyrim wasn't originally the Nord's homeland and that they are the true foreign invaders of Skyrim.

Oni said
I think the blame lies with the Nords for waging a genocidal war against the Snow Elves which caused them to seek the Dwarves help. The Snow Elves wouldn't even exist as the Falmer if the Nords had had their way. My point was though, that Skyrim wasn't originally the Nord's homeland and that they are the true foreign invaders of Skyrim.

There was no Skyrim before the Nords.

I'm in the 'never-will-be-able-to-afford-Skyrim-or-a-computor-powerful-enough-to-run-it-before-the-next-ten-Elder-Scrolls-installments-have-come-and-gone' faction, unfortunately.

Nord, Redguard, Argonian, and maybe Orsmer could go stormcloak, anyone else just doesn't make sense unless they've got some extreme empire hatred going on.

In the best interest of skyrim as a whole, the stormcloak rule is just an obviously bad idea; corrupt, war-loving leadership with questionable claim for the throne and loads of racism. The only reason empire wouldn't be the obvious choice for most players is because they were played as being incredibly torture/execution happy.

I personally am pro-thalmor and would side with the empire if suddenly thrown into the TES mythos.

mbl said
Nord, Redguard, Argonian, and maybe Orsmer could go stormcloak, anyone else just doesn't make sense unless they've got some extreme empire hatred going on.In the best interest of skyrim as a whole, the stormcloak rule is just an obviously bad idea; corrupt, war-loving leadership with questionable claim for the throne and loads of racism. The only reason empire wouldn't be the obvious choice for most players is because they were played as being incredibly torture/execution happy.I personally am pro-thalmor and would side with the empire if suddenly thrown into the TES mythos.

You bemoan the Stormcloaks for being racist but call yourself 'Pro-Thalmor'? Screw passive-aggressively dejecting minorities, the Thalmor literally enforce racial purity.

mbl said
Nord, Redguard, Argonian, and maybe Orsmer could go stormcloak, anyone else just doesn't make sense unless they've got some extreme empire hatred going on.In the best interest of skyrim as a whole, the stormcloak rule is just an obviously bad idea; corrupt, war-loving leadership with questionable claim for the throne and loads of racism. The only reason empire wouldn't be the obvious choice for most players is because they were played as being incredibly torture/execution happy.I personally am pro-thalmor and would side with the empire if suddenly thrown into the TES mythos.

My first play through on the Xbox, my khajiit went Stormcloak because he's somewhat self-serving and holds a grudge, so he signed on to get back at the Imperials before he really understood what the Stormcloaks stood for, and by then it was too late to back out, although he reasoned that if he could be something of an ambassador for his people, he could hopefully change some minds about khajiit, and by extension, non-Nords if he ended up becoming one of the great leaders and heroes of the war.

Second play though on PC, same character, he didn't run to join the war because it didn't concern him. The execution attempt was just botched fate, nothing personal. But after some time of adventuring the land and deciding Skyrim is a place he could potentially call home, he started to become wary of a Stormcloak victory and what it could mean for khajiit across the province, so he reluctantly joined the Legion to bring some semblance of security and peace to his adopted homeland, especially since an Empire without Skyrim is an Empire that is extremely vulnerable to the Thalmor, a group he rather dislikes based off his own back story, which I won't get into haha.

The Nexerus said
You bemoan the Stormcloaks for being racist but call yourself 'Pro-Thalmor'? Screw passive-aggressively dejecting minorities, the Thalmor literally enforce racial purity.

That was talking in the best interests of skyrim (which I specified in the statement), I never said I supported the Thalmor thinking in cyrodiil's best interests.

mbl said
That was talking in the best interests of skyrim (which I specified in the statement), I never said I supported the Thalmor thinking in cyrodiil's best interests.

The Thalmor have the best interests in mind for Altmer and absolutely no one else.

The Nexerus said
The Thalmor have the best interests in mind for Altmer and absolutely no one else.

Yeah... how does that conflict with anything I have said?

mbl said I personally am pro-thalmor and would side with the empire

???

That post is contradictory in about seven different places, and you didn't clarify ANYTHING that you said.

The Nexerus said
There was no Skyrim before the Nords.

There was a Skyrim before the Nords but it just wasn't called Skyrim. I referred to it as such because that is what it is commonly known as. I stand by what I said, the Nords are the invading foreigners.

Basically, there's an armistice between the Empire and the 2nd Aldmeri Dominion, who had ended the war conditionally after crippling loses on both sides, although the Empire fared worse than the Dominion since the terms they agreed to were almost identical to the ones that they had went to war over in the first place, including disavowing Talos worship and allowing Thalmor Justicars to basically do an inquisition in search of Talos worshipers, as well as having observers in place to make sure the Empire followed the terms. This was called the White-Gold Concordat, which is also a reason Hammerfell broke off in independence from the Empire, and they were at war with the Dominion for quite some time after that, although they managed to repel the Thalmor from Hammerfell. Talos is kind of the patron diety to the Nords, so being told they can't worship him is kind of like someone occupying Israel and telling them they can't worship Moses any longer. It's part of the reason the Civil War broke out, since the Stormcloaks largely view the Empire as elf stooges without a spine to stick up for what's right and that to preserve their way of life and not find themselves under the Thalmor's heel, they need to take their home from the Empire that is a shadow of its former self that clearly no longer has Nord interests at heart.

Another thing to keep in mind about the racism demonstrated against the Dark Elves is that it's largely due to the massive influx of refugees after the Red Mountain erupted and the invasion from the argonians forced them to flee their homes, and if you look at real-life examples of how hard it is for a country to take on several thousand to hundreds of thousands of refugees, you can see how the local population could grow to start resenting them, especially if they have a history of warfare and mutual hatred between them. The Nords, dark elves, dwemer, and snow elves had all had it out for one another for quite some time for hundreds of years. It doesn't make the racism and shitty treatment of the dunmer that you see in Skyrim any more justified, but if you take a look at the history and consider how hard it is to take in a huge amount of refugees, you can kind of understand where they're coming from. Before you say, "But Dervs! There's only like a dozen dunmer in Windhelm!", keep in mind the entire game is SEVERELY underpopulated on all accounts.

Also, keep in mind that the dunmer (dark elves) are hardly saints themselves. It wasn't long before the beginning of Oblivion there that Morrowind still practiced slavery, especially against the argonians and khajiit. It doesn't surprise me, at all, that the argonians would take advantage of political turmoil to get back at countless generations of oppression.

Also, the Nords were the first men to settle in Tamriel, which was ruled by the elves at the time, from a Northern continent called Atmora. The other men came sometime later, the last being the Redguard. There was actually quite a bit of peace between the Nords and the neighbouring snow elves for quite some time before tensions boiled over. It was hardly a war party that started conquering all the land.

The Nexerus said
???That post is contradictory in about seven different places, and you didn't clarify ANYTHING that you said.

I really needed to? I like altmer/bosmer and thus prefer the dominion and thalmor out of all the current factions, if I personally had to take a side in the rebellion (which was the main question of the thread), I would go with the empire as that seems to me to be the better outcome for the thalmor. The rebellion has served its purpose and damaged the empire, but stormcloak rule would do more harm than good for the thalmor cause.

mbl said
I really needed to? I like altmer/bosmer and thus prefer the dominion and thalmor out of all the current factions, if I personally had to take a side in the rebellion (which was the main question of the thread), I would go with the empire as that seems to me to be the better outcome for the thalmor. The rebellion has served its purpose and damaged the empire, but stormcloak rule would do more harm than good for the thalmor cause.

Technically, a Stormcloak victory is a bit more ideal for the Thalmor, since it further diminishes the Empire's strength, and isolates Skyrim for a later time. Sure, the Stormcloaks will probably kick the Thalmor out of Skyrim, but when the time comes to go to war with the Empire again, the Imperials will only be able to call upon the strength of High Rock and Cyrodiil (which saw the bulk of the fighting in the war where as the Dominion is largely untouched) without the manpower or resources from Skyrim. The Empire technically still has control over Morrowind, but it also was occupied by the argonians and has suffered a massive natural disaster, so it's not exactly reliable at the moment, whereas the Dominion can call upon the Summerset Isles, Valenwood, and Elsweyr to go to war at any time, and I do need to stress that as the invading party that had the truce signed heavily in their favour, they're sitting at a huge advantage. If they win that war against the Empire, then chances are, Skyrim will fall in due time when the subsequent war breaks out.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised in Elder Scrolls VI if the Aldmeri Dominion was dominating most of Tamriel.

For different reasons, I like both sides almost equally.


In the end, I like Stormcloaks juuuuuuuust a little more.

On my Khajit playthrough I went Stormcloak -- accidentally, but then, that sorta fits a Khajit rogue's personality, so I went with it. He took a lot of abuse, but coincidentally a lot of racist nords found their pockets light. Khajit won the war, more for amusement than for principles, but standing up for independence and freedom made for a nice plaque on my wall. Or would have, if I had plaques. Or walls. I spent most of the game squatting.

On my Argonian playthrough I meant to join up with the Empire, but the character's pacifism got the best of me. After a few unfortunate-but-minor run-ins with the law, following the attempted eating of some Whiterun cows, I headed up to the Mage's Guild and busied myself there. For some reason they made me king. And since this was a PC playthrough and I'd already installed a follower mod, I decided to make my own faction, and ran around for a while setting things right with an army of wizards, and fuck the war. Modding instability got the better of me and I moved on to AC4, but that's pretty much where his story ends anyway.

My next run (when I get bored of things), I intend to play an Orc warlord. Gonna scrape together a malicious band and rape the whole world. If there's a mod that lets me permanently annihilate major cities, I need to find it first, because I mean to leave none alive. I mean maybe some orc camps, but even there, those fuckers better not question me.

Empire. Ulfrics clothes are nice and plus you can wonder round and wear them and nobody gives a shit that
A: You're dressed in Ulfric's clothes
B: He's lying dead in his underwear

Skyrim, so silly.

I got the game two days ago and chose the stormcloaks because of one reason, my friends said I should. But I ended up kinda regretting it. I felt terrible when I backstabbed the Jarl of Whiterun, although having Vignor become Jarl and Brill becoming steward was a plus. Then there was that annoying quest with the ice ghast. Theres their racism against the dark elves. Their blood thirst (Golmar anybody?). My next playthrough, I will be going Empire.

Empire, every time.