PMarth2002 posted...
I never got far into the main story or that particular plotline, so I don't know who the thalmor are, or which side is better in the end, but the stormcloaks didn't try to execute me for no reason, so I sided with them.
Muscles posted...
I feel like one of the options in the civil war quest should be to show off your dragonborn powers to both sides at the meeting and get them both to agree to following you to take out the thalmor. I'm pretty sure a late game dragonborn can single handedly take out their whole army.
I don't think most of the characters in the Civil War storyline are aware they are being manipulated by the Thalmor, nor is it explicitly brought up in a mandatory cutscene. You the player are aware of the true nature of the Civil War because of the optional lore you can find reading things here and there about everything surround it's events.
I think there is a single line from one of the Imperial generals that suggests they are aware the Civil War is a ploy by the Thalmor but they decided the well being of the people of Skyrim was an acceptable sacrifice to their long term goals of defeating the Thalmor (as the Empire was also willing to give away almost half of Hammerfell to halt the war with the Thalmor in a "treaty", although neither the Empire or the Thalmor intended to actually stop the fighting forever, they were both just using it to buy time (although, the Empire had no actual plan to defeat the Thalmor, it's just something they eventually hoped to do, while the Civil War was an example of one of the schemes by the Thalmor to continue to weaken their enemies and increase their own power), given, the "treaty" heavily favored the Thalmor as they were the stronger force.
And for people who don't read the lore Hammerfell rejected the terms of the Empire's treaty to give away almost half their lands to the Thalmor, and continued to fight the Thalmor off without the Empire's assistance (causing the Empire to remove Hammerfell as a land under its rule as to not be responsible for not uploading the terms of the treaty), which they eventually succeeded in doing, although at great cost.