Skyrim has always benefited from trade with the Empire. They also joined up purely for love of their country, and they hate seeing it being torn apart by Civil War. The Empire will surely need Skyrim's resources and men if they are to exact revenge on the Dominion. Many Nords in the Imperial Legion joined up because they believe that the Empire will eventually make war on the Aldmeri Dominion in the near-future and end the terms written in the White-Gold Concordat, such as the ban on Talos worship, meaning that the citizens of the Empire can freely worship Talos again. This fact isn't seen by many, but is a very important one. hoping that the military in Skyrim will be so weak that the Thalmor will invade and easily conquer Skyrim. The Dominion wants the Civil War to go on for years. Another downfall in the Stormcloak argument is that if Skyrim is liberated and becomes independent from the Empire, the country will be very weak militarily, which is exactly what the Dominion wants.

They also hate the High Elves, the ruling race of the Aldmeri Dominion. Besides the Dark Elves, they obviously hate Imperials, the head race of the government of the Empire. You can see how dirty and messy the Quarter is, and how the local Nords walk through the Quarter every so often and make hate-comments on the Dark Elves.

This is obvious in Windhelm, when the Dark Elves from Morrowind take refuge in the Grey Quarter of Windhelm. They don't tolerate anyone who isn't a Nord, nor do they tolerate anyone that doesn't worship Talos. On the downside though, the Stormcloaks are pretty much like the KKK of Skyrim. One more argument for the Stormcloaks: People say Ulfric Stormcloak is a power hungry maniac, but if you've played through the Stormcloak questline (I've played through both), you see that Ulfric doesn't automatically crown himself High King after capturing Solitude. Obviously this doesn't help the Imperial argument. Many Imperial NPCs in Skyrim say that 'What the rebels like to forget is that the Empire is what's keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim.' While the Empire doesn't let the Thalmor run around Skyrim willy nilly, the Imperials are okay with letting the Thalmor kidnap, torture and kill Nords who worship Talos. These are both very valid reasons for rebellion. The Stormcloaks believe that the Empire abandoned Skyrim when they signed the White-Gold Concordat, ending a war that untold numbers of Nords died fighting in. This is proven false in Oblivion when you retrieve the Armor of Tiber Septim from Sancre Tor and you find his blood on it. They're angry because the Aldmeri Dominion deny that Talos, who in mortal life was the Emperor Tiber Septim, is a god, and have banned his worship in the White-Gold Concordat that ended the Great War. I'm simply trying to see what the Skyrim community thinks of the Civil War. I'm not trying to persuade anyone to join either side, or asking people which side I should join.

The Maniac by E. Thelmar