Ulfric, Behind the Mask: The (Second!) Great War
Preface and Index/Link hub to all of the chapters
(Final Publication)
THE (SECOND!) GREAT WAR
It was two months ago today. A very recent event, seems almost yesterday, but it is already so imbued with contradictory gossip that it induces headaches to try to make sense of it. I’m talking about the coup that started the Civil War, of course.
Ulfric marched into the city of Solitude accompanied by dozens of his elite Stormcloak Guard. There was a conference in session at the Blue Palace, the new High King and his thanes all assembled in the main hall. Ulfric walked in like it was his own living room while the Guard lined up along the perimeter. Skip fifteen minutes – Torygg was dead, Solitude guards were wrangling with Ulfric’s guards and Ulfric himself was dashing for the city gate. Above all, the Civil War had begun. Make no mistake. Ulfric had no quarrel with Torygg. He killed the High King 1) to open the throne, and 2) to start the Civil War.
I’ll answer some common questions. Yes, Ulfric used the Thu’um. Anybody in Solitude would be able to tell you that (know how loud the shouts actually are?). No, the Thu’um did not kill Torygg, but it did incapacitate him so that Ulfric could easily stab him in the abdomen. Yes, Ulfric’s escape depended largely on the chance that one of his sympathisers was stationed at the gate. While the greater part of the Stormcloaks were occupied with the city guard, Ulfric and a couple other men fled – hiding and playing dead on their way. They ended up pretending to be cargo in the wagon by which Ulfric’s soldiers entered the city, and the gate guard turned a blind eye (he’s been arrested, by the way, due for execution).
Note: This is Ulfric's story, not mine. But since my last chapter was published I have been questioned as to how I know such specific details. To save being accused as a spy or something, I’ll say it: I was one of Ulfric’s personal guard. I was one of the Stormcloaks who accompanied him back to the gate (tripped and dislocated my arm in the process – not fun). That was the day I saw Ulfric behind the mask, behind the Su'um, and it took hell for me to see it. Instead of riding back to Windhelm, I ran away the first night we set up camp. To avoid any further trouble I’m falling in with the ranks of the Legion. There. Better?
What matters is that Ulfric escaped alive, and since then, opposition has also started to develop in Skyrim. Nords who support the Empire are joining the fight. General Tullius has arrived from Cyrodiil to organise a comeback. The Imperials are still loath to call this uprising a Civil War – they perceive the coup as a singular event that warrants Ulfric’s execution as a traitor. The Nords know of Torygg’s assassination as a plunge into a nasty conflict.
Ulfric very much anticipated the level of opposition he received. As I mentioned in previous chapters, he was rearming like crazy for what one can only assume to be a war against Haafingar, Falkreath and the Reach – possibly Whiterun. And with the current state of the war (especially if Whiterun remains neutral or aligns with Ulfric) we can expect a Stormcloak victory, which means an independent Skyrim, which means ALL of the plans I highlighted in the last chapter becoming reality. It’s time for me to speak of the future again.
Now there’s something I’ve been beating myself up over because I really should have mentioned it in the last chapter (The Hidden Agenda). My publications in Haafingar and the Pale have become a great deal more popular than I anticipated, and now public demand has me churning out these essays like Cidhna silver.
Anyways, that point I didn’t mention was a future alliance with the Thalmor. You read right. Ulfric wishes to ally Skyrim with Alinor. You, the high elves, hand in hand. Why on Nirn would he want such a thing?
The idea was never unique to Ulfric, though foggy – lurking beneath the common gaze. Postwar Eastmarch was home to certain politically one-sided journals, from a variety of different perspectives, laced with drivel about what either the Empire or the Jarls were doing wrong. There was a vehemently anti-Empire paper based near the smithy I worked at. Its manager even offered me to write, since I had developed a reputation of having experience in journalism. I refused. This paper had repeatedly proposed that Skyrim 1) gain independence (okay so far), and 2) become best friends with the Thalmor (what?). You might ask who in Mundus provided the funding for this journal. The answer is Ulfric.
I kind of ignored it at the time, but now I realise that I shouldn't. Whatever Ulfric means to gain from an alliance with the Thalmor, it must be so great that it lead him to overcome his memories of the Great War, even being imprisoned by the Thalmor (though, as I indicated in an earlier chapter, Ulfric’s interrogation was not the harrowing experience his supporters have us believe).
First you have the sentimental, ideological reasons. Ulfric has always recognised the high elves as a proud and ancient race; he forms in his mind a parallel between the Altmer and the Nords as the ‘highest’ peoples of Mer and Man respectively. If they become allies, the ‘subordinate’ societies will follow and there will be peace throughout the entire Tamrielic Arena. To him the Cyrod Empire epitomises an unjust triumph of lesser peoples, and perpetual war, soon to dissolve when the Nords and the Altmer combine their forces. This alliance will bring about a change deep within the inner workings of Nirn itself.
You could say these ideas are revolutionary in wishing to end the war between Man and Mer once and for all. You could also say they are inane in their basis on hatred and begrudged notions of superiority.
Then there is that fact that an alliance with the Thalmor would remove any threat from the Empire, and as Ulfric believes, it would also take care of the threat from the Thalmor itself – which is largely based on mystery. We know so little about Alinor, so much was kept from us, that Ulfric feels the need to establish a policy of open discussion between him and Alinor. He wants to know how the Altmer see the world. What their plans are. Whether or not mutual benefit is possible.
Me, I think this is the worst idea anybody has ever dreamed up, and chances are that you agree with me. Ulfric may want to meet the Thalmor on equal footing. The Thalmor would never abide that. The elves are not equals; they are overlords. As for us, we are not a strong province at present. We are a determined people that happens to be contorted by grandiosity, internal struggles and uncertainty as to where we fit on the Tamrielic stage. Meanwhile we are already a Thalmor pawn as it is. If we make an alliance, we will be a pawn captured like a chess piece. See what happened to Valenwood and Elsweyr? We’ll be that. So much for Ulfric’s hopes of world domination. The Thalmor have us in their web and we’re just wiggling, aren’t we?
But let’s say it works out fine. Maybe a decade or two from now, when Ulfric’s hair is starting to go gray and he has taken some pieces of Colovia and Solstheim, he manages to build a friendly alliance with Alinor. At this point the White-Gold Concordat has shattered in Skyrim’s absence. It’s a meaningless dummy of a treaty. The Empire has done nothing but appease. You all know something is going to go wrong, but the question is what. Here are a few possibilities:
The Empire, probably along with Hammerfell and High Rock, declares war on Skyrim for the conquests in Colovia. Hammerfell would have a reason to forget their tensions with the Empire and join this conflict as Skyrim’s annexation of Port Anvil would interfere with their access to the Abecean. You know what the Thalmor call the Great War? ‘The First War against the Empire.’ (The bastards already saw it long ago - we can't let them be right) As per their defensive alliance, the Thalmor would join in a second.
House Redoran declares war on Skyrim for conquests in Solstheim and violence towards the dark elves in Skyrim, and the Empire joins Morrowind. This works out similarly.
Ulfric dies. Nope, the man isn’t immortal and he lacks the luxury of an elven lifespan. If he hasn’t firmly decided on a successor by then, or Skyrim experiences another uprising, the next High King might very well try to undo what Ulfric would have done. Break from the Thalmor alliance, possibly rejoin the Empire. The Thalmor would likely hit back, hard, in a Second War against the Empire. This time with Skyrim as an opponent.
The Thalmor were lying all along. They destroy the world and none of this matters.
Nothing goes wrong. Skyrim remains a garrison state under a lunatic, in a cordial relationship with the genocidal elves you thought we were trying to oppose. Nothing goes wrong, but everything goes wrong. Is this the Skyrim you want your children to live in?
As you can see it’s nothing good. But it would be folly even to assume that the situation gets anywhere near this point. It’s possible that the Empire declares war on the independent Skyrim, and persuades both High Rock and Hammerfell for aid, while alliance with the Thalmor is still merely one of Ulfric’s daydreams. If this happened, Skyrim would be crushed, and the Thalmor would reap any benefits.
We can avoid all of these predicaments. We can work our way to an entirely different outcome and laugh at my hypothesis, dismissing me as a psychopath. I would love for that to happen. We just need to keep Skyrim as an imperial province. I can’t conclude by saying ‘join the Legion’ because Legion propaganda was never my reason to write this. I joined the Stormcloak guard, so I must have my own disdain for the Empire – but I know better now. I know the face behind the mask. No, life would not be perfect under the Empire, and yes, Talos worship is still an issue, but it’s the difference between discontent and utter chaos (besides, you now know that you will not have Talos worship under Ulfric either). And who says we will not be able to achieve independence later, under better circumstances? Who says the Empire, who cares about Talos as much as we do, will not take the fight to the Thalmor once it is whole and strong again? Ulfric is a good man deep down, but he is becoming a fire that we need to put out before it sets all of Tamriel aflame.
It’s all in the Skyrim Civil War. The rest of Tamriel sees it as a petty conflict of succession. You know better. Everything depends on this war; now is a turning point for all of Tamriel. We need to put aside our hatred for the Empire. We need to recognise that the path of Stormcloak victory has already been paved by Ulfric, and it leads to nothing but doom. If the Empire wins, the Civil War is just the Civil War and everyone moves on. If Ulfric wins, we’re not in any Civil War. We’re in the dawn of a Tamrielic crisis.