An Unplanned Post About Ulfric Stormcloak

This weird and rushed post is my feeble attempt to pool everything we know about Ulfric Stormcloak, and show why I feel he’s one of the most realized characters in the entire TES series (below Vehk, of course).

Ulfric had a ten-year period of training with the Greybeards on High Hrothgar. He was actually invited up to the monastery by the Greybeards themselves, and was on the path to becoming one of them when the Great War broke out. He cut his training off early and went down, and some time later abandoned the Way of the Voice.

Ulfric, along with his friends Galmar Stone-Fist and Rikke, fought in the Imperial Legion once news of the War broke in Skyrim. Unfortunately, Ulfric was captured by the Thalmor at some point before they took the Imperial City.

He was subsequently tortured to and past his breaking point by Elenwen, who would later become the Thalmor’s top agent in Skyrim, leading and organizing the effort of every Dominion agent in Skyrim, as well as managing the Embassy outside of Solitude.

He’s had the worst of it, really. It’s bound up mainly in two things: survivor’s guilt, and the breaking of his pride, honor, courage, spirit, what have you, in torture. We’ll start with the latter.

Ulfric was broken in Thalmor torture. Now, I don’t know about you, but no form of torture sounds pleasant. From what we’ve seen, the Thalmor have the capacity for mercy in the same sense that the Dwemer had that capacity. So, none at all. Their torture is brutal, efficient, and damned effective. Elenwen was the torturer assigned to Ulfric, and she broke him completely. He spilled information about the Imperial City and its defenders. While he gave them information after the City had been taken, he was led to believe that what he said was key in the Dominion’s capture. That brings us back to the former: Ulfric now, in addition to feeling that he failed his people by being weak enough to break under torture, is now feeling that every man, woman, and child who died when the Dominion took over the Imperial City, and every soldier who died during the Battle of Red Ring when the City was recaptured, died because of his weakness. Every soldier who died died because of him. His comrades’ and friends’ blood is on his hands, because he was weak. He’s not worth his salt. He’s not worthy to be a Tongue, or the son of the great Bear of Eastmarch. He abandoned the Way of the Voice, and failed the Greybeards. He’s not worthy to be considered to sit on the Throne of Ysgramor in Ysgramor’s Palace in Ysgramor’s City. He’s not worth calling a Nord. He should be the one lying dead in his own blood, not them.

And to his horror, when he’s released, he finds that the Empire gave in to end the bloodletting. The agreed to the same terms they rejected at the start of the war, including banning the worship of the god of Men, the patron of the Empire, and its founder. A Dragonborn among Dragonborn, and a true Nord. He not only failed untold thousands, but now he’s failed the entirety of the Empire, and failed its founder and his god. But he’s not the only one who failed. Every soldier who fought in the Legion failed. Every single death was utterly pointless. Every drop of blood spilled was a waste. There was no point to any of it.

Ulfric is the lowest of the low in his own estimation. And he returns to Skyrim an utterly broken man. The people of Windhelm are demanding the fight continue, that the Dominion be utterly crushed instead of the blasphemous Concordat accepted. This likely planted the seed that would soon flourish in him. With the Markarth Incident, he felt that he could be useful again, that he could make it up to his god and his people. And so he did. The Jarl of Markarth, so grateful for Ulfric and his troops’ aid, opened the Shrine of Talos to them so that they could worship. And then, the Empire betrayed him again in his mind, by letting the Thalmor capture him and his men, and trampling over the word of the Jarl of Markarth. The Empire sets up shop in Markarth, no thanks to Ulfric, and he and his men rot in the Thalmor’s prison. While he’s in jail, his father dies, and the Throne of Ysgramor grows cold. He can’t even be there to bury his father. He’s forced to give a eulogy through a smuggled note. Now he enters onto the dark path of rebellion. He’s been betrayed by his Empire, who betrayed (in his eyes) the people of Skyrim, and all men because they betrayed Talos. His hurt and self-loathing turn to hatred, to anger, and his rebellion takes hold. He is released, and assumes the Throne of Ysgramor as a different man. He is older, wiser, and angry beyond belief. He and his friend Galmar prepare for revenge, while the Thalmor took root near Solitude. That further enforces his vision of the Empire as a dying and corrupt husk, forced to do the Dominion’s bidding.

Thalmor agents walk Skyrim freely. Khajiit (who Ulfric would have fought against during the War) are travelling through Skyrim with no regard for their laws and customs, and the skooma trade is picking up. The Dunmer his father welcomed into the City of Ysgramor, who his father gave an entire quarter of the city to, are refusing to join the rest of the city, and are trying to recreate Morrowind instead of trying to adjust to Skyrim, like their kin in Riften have. To make it worse, they’ve been fighting with the Argonians who work the docks, and tensions are high throughout the city. Ulfric doesn’t like either of them, and puts the Argonians outside the walls in a dormitory. Meanwhile, he is content to ignore the Dunmer like he feels they ignore Windhelm. His citizens, however, don’t like the Dunmer. Some of them hate them with a xenophobic passion only seen in the TES series when it was exhibited by the Dunmer of Vvardenfell to the outlander who would eventually be named Nerevarine. The Nords of Windhelm feel that the Dunmer are dragging their city down, and begin to take matters into their own hands, which Ulfric does not stop. Then a serial killer starts striking. Windhelm is a city of understated chaos.

Then, High King Istlod dies, and the Moot places his son Torygg on the throne. Ulfric uses the Moot as a platform to speak his anger towards the Empire, and urge independence from the entity he feels has betrayed him, Skyrim, and Talos. He’s ultimately unsuccesful, but his words win him the heart of the new High King. Soon after, Ulfric traveles to Solitude to meet with Torygg. Torygg respected Ulfric as a war-hero even before he stirred his heart with talk of freedom at the Moot, and so he thought he was there to further discuss Skyrim’s independence, a topic Torygg was open to, even if he couldn’t officially say he was. By the time he figured out Ulfric meant to challenge him for the throne, there was no way out.

You know the rest. Ulfric Shouted Torygg to the ground and stabbed him, sending his soul to Sovngarde. There, Torygg was lost in a strange mist, and saw Skyrim’s doom approaching. Ulfric renounced all claims to be a man of peace, and took on the role of the Tongues of old, calling for others to do the same. He then returned to Windhelm, and the Stormcloak Rebellion was on.

Before I end this, let me give you some of Ulfric’s own words during Skyrim. You really should read through it, knowing Ulfric’s mind and motivations. Also, I forgot this video initially, the video that inspired this entire post to begin forming in my head.

Ulfric may be acting rashly, and No one can excuse the death of so many by his hand or word during the events of Skyrim, but I honestly think he was doing the only thing he thought he could do. You don’t have to agree with him, or like him. But you should at least pity him, a broken man trying to do his best to hold his world together. He’s in over his head, but not for the wrong reasons. He’s definitely the most realized character in Skyrim, and I would rank him among the top four or five for the entire TES series.

And there you go. Ulfric Stormcloak.