Poll: Skyrim; Empire or. Rebels?

[ZombieMonkey7]

Down with the rebel scum! Now I won't deny the empire is evil, but after the rebels win then what? All order would be destroyed and this wouldn't be just some city or country in ruin, but the entire galaxy

 

[Iggy Rufflebar]

From the story line point of view,the empire tried to kill me. If you need any other reason to become a rebel it's that.

 

[nerd51075]

I like Talos, so I sided with the Stormcloaks.

 

[Doc Cannon]

I sided with the Empire.
Stormcloaks are jerks, and Ulfric is the biggest jerk of them all.
I don't fully agree with the imperial policies, and I HATE the Thalmor so much... but still, the rebels are not doing things the right way and their leader is worse than the Empire.
I just hope the Empire unites everyone on Tamriel so we can all turn around and kill every single Thalmor soldier and ambassador (and go back to worshipping Talos).

 

[DEAD34345]

Why should the people of Skyrim give their lives to save an Empire that refused to do the same for them?

Where do you think the Aldmer will be coming next? Skyrim splintering from the Empire only serves to weaken the Empire as a whole and Skyrim versus the Aldmer + their client states = hdear: for Skyrim. While part of me, playing as a Nord wants to fight against the Imperial oppressors...there isn't really any evidence of Imperial oppression going on out there, beyond Colonel Tigh's snarky attitude. The political realist in me sees the Aldmer as the real enemy, fostering hatred and division among the Empire for their own gains. And thus, whenever I come across a trio of Thalmor justiciars I brutally murder them. Plus they were really, really rude to me the first time I talked to them and then tried to kill me.

Death to the pointies!

They can try to conquer Skyrim, but they would fail. As part of the White-gold Concordat the Empire actually gave large amounts of Hammerfell lands to the Dominion, and what did the Redguards of Hammerfell do? They told the Empire where they could stick their treaty, and took it all back. They beat the Ald'meri out of their home country against the wishes of The Empire (who then renounced Hammerfell as a province), and they did so very successfully. I see no reason why Skyrim couldn't do the same.

It's not Skyrim that needs the Empire to protect it, it's the Empire that needs Skyrim to protect it, but why should they? Why should the people of Skyrim lay down their lives for the Empire when the Empire didn't do the same for Skyrim, or any of its client-states?

 

[GundamSentinel]

The Empire. Sure it's falling apart, but that bunch of xenophobic man-children called the Stormcloaks really aren't a valid alternative.

Everything bad the Empire supposedly did (suppressing Talos, mostly) was done under extreme pressure from the Thalmor. Glory or death really isn't the way to rule an empire, but the Stormcloaks don't seem to understand that. Do they seriously think they can beat the Thalmor while the Altmeri Dominion brought the entire Empire to its knees?
And the Forsworn business proved that the Stormcloaks are capable of just the same atrocities as the Thalmor. As far as I'm concerned, the Empire did nothing wrong, seeing the situation it's in.

 

[Evil Top Hat]

I'm going to have to go with the dark side on this one.

What dark side? Both sides are as morally questionable as the other, an ultimately fight for what they personally view to be the greater good. It's a difference of ideals, although that said, you can be forgiven for assuming the Empire are supposed to be the bad guys, seeing as the game is pretty heavily biased towards the Stormcloaks towards the beginning.

 

[Geoffrey Harrell]

I'm really putting off choosing a side. I'm been on both sides of skyrim, from markarth and solitude to windhelm and dawnstar, and i've seen people on both sides that don't deserve to get f--ked over by the war. Whiterun, for example, becomes besieged during that questline. people die, jobs are lost, and the place just wouldn't be the same. which sucks becuase i love whitrun; it's my home. i would want to defend it, but i don't want to see my 'neighbors' tear each other apart supporting different factions. i geuss that's the moral of that questline? civil war, or war in general, tears communities apart? i dunno.

 

[laggyteabag]

Freedom. Skyrim should be run by Nords, and Nords alone, no annoying, ugly, elf should be anywhere to be seen

 

[ediblemitten]

Empire. Romans are sweet.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I'd be for the Rebels if they weren't xenophobic douchebags.

 

[AppleShrapnel]

Empire. Biggest deciding factor for me was Ulfric's use of the Thu'um to pop the (former) high king... from what I've seen/heard in-game, Ulfric challenged said high king to a little duel, he accepted, then a single Shout ends it... messily.

Greybeards say the Voice is to only be used to praise the gods with only Dragonborns being exempt from that. Was Ulfric a dragonborn? Don't think so.

On a more personal level, had my Khajiit thrown her lot in with the Stormcloaks, she'd basically be fighting for people that would ultimately shun her and any others that aren't Nord and that share their same ideals.

I guess what it boils down to for me is you're either fighting for the Nord's freedom with the Stormcloaks, or fighting for the freedom of the other nine races to live and work in Skyrim without being ostracized and ridiculed.

In a way, the Stormcloaks are a lot like the Forsworn; natives fighting for their homeland. Which is a noble and just sentiment, don't get me wrong, but the Forsworn are just... wrong as a whole. Nords aren't quite as bad, but their motivations just seem culturally selfish. /:|

 

[IamLEAM1983]

all star wars comparisons aside, when you start playing Skyrim will you support the Nords fighting for independence or will you fight to preserve the empire? I'm not sure if they let the player join the rebels or the empire, but I imagine that you will makes some decisions that will affect the fate of the empire. Whatever happens, the Empire's fall or renewal will definitely be a an important issue in the game.

*sighs* Again, Search Bar. Use it. There's already another poll on the very same subject.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.323634-Poll-Empire-or-Stormcloak?page=1

I'm currently with the College of Winterhold. The dragons and the political tensions in Skyrim can wait, I'm levelling up my Destruction magic.

 

[Nalfen]

I picked the Stormcloaks for one big reason; the Empire is allowing the Blades to be killed off. You know that group of people that is responsible for saving this world how many times? And now you want me to support the group that is behind killing them off? No thank you.

 

[Pandabearparade]

Well...I don't play as myself, I play as a character...so it would depend on who my character is. One character might support the empire, while a different one might support the rebels. I really can't say yet.

This.

I've played through the game on three characters now. My Dark Brotherhood assassin didn't care, my snarky Breton sided with the Empire just enough to secure his home city, and my Imperial sided with the Empire to the end. My next character will be a Nord who fights for his homeland William Wallace style!

 

[kickassfrog]

Empire. Because they're an amalgam of the Romans and the British. And I see Stormcloak as George Washington.

Screw you! I will crush you rebel scum as soon as I'm done killing every giant in the world!

 

[trouble_gum]

They can try to conquer Skyrim, but they would fail. As part of the White-gold Concordat the Empire actually gave large amounts of Hammerfell lands to the Dominion, and what did the Redguards of Hammerfell do? They told the Empire where they could stick their treaty, and took it all back. They beat the Ald'meri out of their home country against the wishes of The Empire (who then renounced Hammerfell as a province), and they did so very successfully. I see no reason why Skyrim couldn't do the same.

It's not Skyrim that needs the Empire to protect it, it's the Empire that needs Skyrim to protect it, but why should they? Why should the people of Skyrim lay down their lives for the Empire when the Empire didn't do the same for Skyrim, or any of its client-states?

In-game lore covering the events of the Great War indicates that at least part of the Redguard success lay in the state of Aldmeri military forces at the time - the Redguard were fighting the remnants of the Aldmer Dominion's invasion force which had been defeated at the Battle of Red Ring. To say they did so "very successfully" is somewhat contradicted by the in-lore source which indicates most of southern Hammerfell was "devastated."

And, in this, the Thalmor further drove apart the Empire and Hammerfell. If Skyrim also secedes from the Empire, you then have three seperate states where before you had a unified Empire. That unified Empire was able to fight the Aldmer Dominion to a standstill, albeit at great cost and without a truly resounding victory that would've meant a better outcome of the White-Gold Concordat. It can be inferred from in-game lore that this divided humanity is precisely what the Thalmor want; because it's easier to invade Hammerfell on its own that it proved to be to invade the Empire.

It's classic Divide and Conquer - The Empire turned out not be the easy victory the Thalmor seemed to expect. Solution: drive its constituent parts away from the whole and gobble them up piecemeal. Even easier if Skyrim has spent several years engaged in bloody civil war; weakening it and the Empire into the bargain. You can't simply assert that Skyrim can protect itself, and trying to argue that the continued well-being of the whole (i.e, the Empire) is of no protection to the parts lacks credence. The combined forces of the Imperial military, from Cyrodiil, High Rock, Hammerfell and Skyrim barely stopped the Thalmor invasion. Individually, they surely stand far less chance against a full-scale invasion force.

The assertion that the Empire didn't sacrifice lives is somewhat absurd: "Not a single legion had more than half its soldiers fit for duty. Two legions had been effectively annihilated, not counting the loss of the Eighth during the retreat from the Imperial City." Cyrodiil and the Imperial City were ravaged; the Imperial Palace sacked and burned. The Imperial Legions have been decimated. Skyrim takes place only 25 years after the end of the Great War - the Empire is probably just about back on its feet; no wonder the Thalmor are so keen on stirring up trouble between the Empire and Skyrim, hunting for people illegally worshiping Talos and generally poking their noses in everywhere.

 

[Shaughn Caso]

I fight for the empire because they actually support strong leadership, maturity, and order. the rebels are a bunch of racist pricks who want to kick out everybody from Skyrim. But I still take every chance I get to kill every Thalmor I see. the Stormcloak Rebellion is analogous to an uprising by the american Indians trying to kick out every single last person without American Indian blood in all of north America because they were there fist

 

[triggrhappy94]

I'm playing as an argonian so I don't really have an aliegence either way.
Empire:
+Black Marsh is apart of the Empire
-Those dick elves enslaved my race

Rebels:
+Black March could be inspired to succeed
-Why? I have no real invested interest.

 

[Stew Coard]

all star wars comparisons aside, when you start playing Skyrim will you support the Nords fighting for independence or will you fight to preserve the empire? I'm not sure if they let the player join the rebels or the empire, but I imagine that you will makes some decisions that will affect the fate of the empire. Whatever happens, the Empire's fall or renewal will definitely be a an important issue in the game.

*sighs* Again, Search Bar. Use it. There's already another poll on the very same subject.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.323634-Poll-Empire-or-Stormcloak?page=1


Let the record show this thread was created earlier than the one mentioned above