Civil War

While the Civil War questline presents a variety of gameplay challenges and opportunities, its moral component boils down to one choice: to side with the Empire or with the Stormcloaks.  As I hinted in some previous posts, I had been leaning toward the Imperial side since the opening quest, but did not fully commit until well into the game.  I visited Solitude to hear the Imperial argument from General Tullius, then traveled to Windhelm to listen to Ulfric Stormcloak’s side of the story.  Not wanting to rush into anything, I set about earning the title of Thane in as many Holds as possible, which gave me the opportunity to listen to sympathizers on both sides.  While everything I heard and experienced ultimately led me to join the Legion of the Empire, the choice was by no measure easy. What follows is a breakdown of my considerations in choosing a side.

The White-Gold Concordat

There is no question that the Stormcloaks’ disgust at this egregious treaty is completely justified.  The fact the Empire would allow the Aldmeri Dominion to dictate religious practices within the Imperial Provinces is utterly outrageous, and permitting the Thalmor free reign to enforce the ban on Talos worship almost defies comprehension – which is exactly the point.  Having gained the upper hand after fighting the Legion to a standstill, the Dominion was in a position to ask for anything; why, therefore, would they demand a purely ideological concession (rather than another material or strategic one)?  The answer lies in the ultimate goal of the Aldmeri: total domination of Tamriel.  Because they could no longer afford to wage direct war with the Empire, they had to find a way to use the peace to their advantage.  They had already separated Hammerfell from the Empire; if they could sever Skyrim as well, they would effectively cut off the Empire’s supply of skilled warriors.  What better way to drive a wedge between the Imperials and the proud Nord race than by forcing the Empire to outlaw the worship of their apotheosized ancestor?

Ulfric’s primary error is in taking this bait, thereby weakening not only his beloved Skyrim, but the whole of the Empire as well. As I have suggested before, the ideal scenario would be a untied Empire biding its time, rebuilding its forces, and focusing the Nords’ righteous indignation on the real enemy in preparation for a renewed assault on the Dominion.  While I concede that I have yet to hear any Imperial representative suggest such a strategy, there is a strong possibility that this plan is being kept under the tightest of wraps in light of the Thalmor propensity for espionage.  However, even if the Empire did simply roll over to save itself, Skyrim only stands to lose by divorcing itself from Cyrodiil and High Rock.

Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak vs. General Tullius

Because I am playing with an eye toward moral agency, I have to consider not only the moral claims of the warring sides in the Civil War, but also the ethics of the men and women who represent each party.  One of Bethesda's major accomplishments in this game is the creation of morally complex antagonists; both Ulfric and Tullius possess a melange of admirable and lamentable traits, which makes following either one far more complicated than a simple good/evil split.

Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak of Windhelm is obviously the aggressor in the conflict, but his rationale carries a legitimate claim to justification.  The Concordat is a direct violation of the freedom of religion that we in the West tend to view as inalienable.  Furthermore, his speeches reveal him to be a man haunted by the soldiers who laid down their lives at his side during the Great War, and a Jarl unwilling to insult their memory by acquiescing to the Dominion's blasphemous demands.  While not an blatant zealot (such as Heimskr, the street preacher of Whiterun), Ulfric cannot separate his worship of Talos from his love for Skyrim, seeing the abandonment of the former as a betrayal of the latter.  Despite the accusations of his Imperial foes, Ulfric does not appear to be acting out of an inflated sense of self; even his most extreme actions, such as the killing of High King Torygg, come from a deep passion for Talos and for Skyrim.

He did, however, kill the High King.  The question of whether the killing was part of a legitimate challenge according to Nord tradition or a flat-out murder is in some ways irrelevant.  Instead of making his case and biding his time, he plunged his homeland into chaos on ideological grounds.  Furthermore, one cannot ignore the fact that using the Thu'um against an opponent who did not possess that power is tantamount to attacking an unarmed foe.  Throughout history, many honorable men have allowed their devotion to a legitimate cause to mutate into a kind of monomania that excuses any evil in the service of that cause.

Although not directly related to the Civil War, Ulfric's record as Jarl of Windhelm did not sway me to his side, either.  First, not only did he seem largely unconcerned with the serial killer running loose in his Hold, he had no comment when the killer turned out to be his own court wizard.  Second, when the boy Aventius Aretino was in his hour of need, the childless Ulfric decided to send him back to an abusive orphanage in another Hold entirely, instead of perhaps adopting him and gaining an heir for himself in the bargain.  Lastly, his treatment of the Dunmer was utterly deplorable.  While it is true that I never heard him utter any racial epithets himself, I cannot ignore the fact that he consigned the Dunmer to a ghetto and allowed the racial harassment going on in front of his own palace to go unchecked.  None of this should be a surprise, however; a quick perusal of the Markarth Incident raises the question: if Ulfric was willing to wage a nearly genocidal campaign against other races of men (Breton/Reachmen/Forsworn), what can we expect him to do to the non-human races?  Add his experiences as a prisoner of the Aldmeri Dominion to the mix, and we have a recipe for a racially-intolerant Jarl whom I could not follow in good conscience, regardless of his other virtues as a warrior and a leader of men.

As much as I liked Jarl Ulfric personally, I found his political views impossible to support; quite the inverse is true of General Tulius, whose repellant personality failed to dissuade me from the Imperial cause.  Tullius is a culturally insensitive boor who routinely, if unwittingly, insults his faithful Legate Rikke's homeland with dismissive comments such as:

What do you mean, "You people"?

Nevertheless, Tullius is on the right side of this conflict.  The Empire had a hard choice: sign a treaty that insults the Nords and defames its own progenitor, or risk annihilation after a long and bloody war with a seemingly implacable enemy.  While it may be noble to sacrifice one's own life for religious freedom, committing an entire Empire to that cause is another story entirely.  Tullius, who is no fan of the Thalmor,  understands that signing the Concordat was the bitter pill that saved the Empire.  What Tullius lacks in personal magnetism and tact, he makes up for in judgement.

Perhaps the best indicator of Tullius's leadership qualities is his second-in-command, Legate Rikke.  A proud Nord "daughter of Skyrim," Rikke bears Tullius's slings and arrows for the good of the Empire, and in return, Tullius looks the other way when Rikke expresses sympathy for Ulfric's cause or lets a "Talos guide you" slip out.  Rikke agrees, as I do, with the justness of Ulfric's outrage, but believes, also as I do, that a unified Empire is the best solution to the Thalmor problem.  That Tullius is willing to overlook the fact that his most trusted lieutenant is not only clearly violating the Concordat but also is apparently an admirer of his enemy speaks volumes about his priorities.

This tendency among supporters of the Empire to ignore the most offensive element of the Concordat is one of the main reasons that I feel good about my choice.  Yes, the Temples of Talos have been closed in Solitude and Markarth, but beyond that, no one seems to be enforcing the ban.  Balgruuf lets Heimskr preach in front of his Shrine all day every day in public.  Tullius knows that Rikke worships Talos, but says nothing beyond "Excuse me?"  In fact, the only character who ever reported any Talos worshippers was, well, me -- which I did in order to gain Ondolemar's trust, then promptly assassinated him and returned the Amulet of Talos to Ogmund.  The Imperial laxness in enforcing the Concordat beyond the bare letter of the law undermines Ulfric's claim that the Empire has become the lapdog of the Dominion.

Rikke and Balgruuf the Greater

The two characters I most admire in the Civil War quest both side with the Empire, which certainly influenced my decision.  I have already mentioned the long-suffering yet formidable Legate Rikke who, unlike Galmar Stone-Fist, her Stormcloak counterpart, resists the urge to demonize her opponents.  I cannot say this strongly enough: the fact that Rikke sympathizes with the Stormcloaks but grudgingly fights against them because she believes they are wrong is evidence of a moral character that approaches Kohlberg's Principled stages (5 and 6).  Galmar, on the other hand, relishes the prospect of savaging the Legion he and Ulfric once served.  Even if I sided with the rebellion, I would find Stone-Fist's taunts about "Deadking Torygg" tough to abide.

The other character who swayed my choice was Balgruuf the Greater, the Jarl of Whiterun.  Unlike Legate Rikke, Balgruuf has no real love for the Empire; his primary concern is the welfare of the people in his Hold.  As much as he hates the Concordat, and as much as he resents Imperial interference, he lambasts Ulfric for throwing Skyrim into chaos.  He knows that the Thalmor are the real enemy and, above all, he really wants people to focus on that pesky dragon problem.  He remains neutral as long as possible, because he knows that his decision will hasten a full-blown civil war.  When he finally chooses a side, it is because Ulfric forces his hand;  Balgruuf makes no secret of his reluctance to garrison Imperial troops within the walls of Whiterun and makes it abundantly clear to Tullius that he has no intention of giving up control of his Hold to the Legion, even as he sides with the Empire.

Rikke and Balgruuf demonstrate that one need not love the Empire nor agree blindly with its actions in order to see that seceding from the Empire would weaken Skyrim and further strengthen the Aldmeri Dominion's hand.

The Death of Ulfric Stormcloak

Once I chose a side, the individual quests in the Civil War line were morally simple. A band of Legionnaires and I would take a fort from the Stormcloaks, then I would be called in to do a more stealth-oriented quest (lean on a Stormcloak sympathizer, steal plans, etc), then take another fort, and so on.  There were very few serious ethical decisions to make until the end of the Battle for Windhelm.

The final battle of the Civil War took place in Ulfric's own Hall.  Legate Rikke, my Solitude housecarl Jordis, General Tullius and I faced off against Ulfric, Galmar, and a small band of Stormcloaks.  After Galmar fell, we forced Jarl Ulfric to surrender.  When Tullius offered him the chance to face the formal execution he had escaped after the dragon attack on Helgen, Ulfric refused, saying that he wanted me, the Dragonborn, to have the honor of killing him.

To be perfectly frank, I had no desire to kill Ulfric; as I said earlier, he is a good man with a bad idea.  Ulfric's death, however, was inevitable, and I sympathized with him enough to spare him the humiliation of dying by Tullius's hand.  In fact, when Tullius offered me his sword in order to do the deed, I refused.  Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak of Windhelm was a great man who committed great crimes, and his death needed to reflect both of those realities.  I therefore decided to kill Ulfric in the same manner he had killed High King Torygg -- a Dragon Shout.  A fitting end for one of Skyrim's greatest warriors.

The World of Skyrim: Religion

Religion in The Elder Scrolls is perhaps an even more complicated subject than politics, and it has a more direct impact on gameplay than history.  The gods and goddesses of the game have particular import in this study, as they form the moral framework of this fictional world.  As in the previous orientation posts, I will not attempt an exhaustive explanation of the supernatural elements of TES V: Skyrim.  Those readers who would like more detailed information are directed to the wikis in the right-hand column.

Each racial culture in Tamriel has its own creation myth and its own set of divine beings, but because these entities play a key role in the games themselves, each culture's mythos is really an ethnocentric interpretation of an objective supernatural phenomenon; because he created the Amulet of Kings (an in-game item that affects gameplay), we know that Akatosh the Dragon God of Time objectively exists in the game, even if the Khajiit call him Alkosh the First Cat or the High Elves call him Auri-El and believe he favors the races of Mer over those of Man. The ideas on which the religions concur can essentially be treated as cosmological fact.

What can be known is that the universe began as a stasis (Anu) into which came change (Padomay, or Sithis), thus creating the original spirits (et'Ada).  One of these formless beings created an identity for itself (Akatosh) thus creating time.  Other entities followed suit.  At some point, one of these et'Ada (usually known as Lorkhan the Trickster God) convinced a small group of others to help him create and populate a new plane of existence (Nirn).  These nine beings, known as the Aedra ("our ancestors" in Aldmeri), soon began to understand that Lorkhan was draining their divine essence in order to complete his project; those who abandoned the creation scheme earlier kept more of their power, while those remained later were left in a very weakened state (relative to their former existence, not to humans) -- the last of whom was Lorkhan himself, who is generally thought to have given his life for the creation of the planet itself.  The rest of the Aedra, now depleted of much of their power, are bound to their own planets in the fictional solar system.  The many et'Ada who did not join Lorkhan in his plan are known as the Daedra ("not our ancestors"), and retain the capacity to leave their own planes and interfere with the inhabitants of other realms (most notably Nirn).

Of particular interest to this study is the relationship of Tamrielic religion to real-world belief systems.  Because Tamriel is a fictional setting, it is necessary to be very fluid when drawing connections to actual religions.  Perhaps the best models for this genre are the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis that invent worlds in which neither the Abrahamic God nor His Son exist, yet nevertheless faithfully represent many of the core tenets of the Christian faith their authors professed.  Tamrielic religion, as imagined by a collective entity such as Bethesda and its fans, is likewise bound to incorporate a wide variety of belief systems, including atheism.

Given the key role of the Nords in the TES series, and Skyrim in particular, the prominence of Viking mythology is to be expected.  Sovngard (the land of the honored dead), for example, is essentially a stand-in for Valhalla.  The Aedra themselves are based on the Nine Noble Virtues distilled from the Poetic Edda and the Icelandic Sagas:

Aedra	Role	Viking Noble Virtue
Akatosh	The Dragon God of Time and the chief god of the pantheon	Discipline
Arkay	God of Life and Death	Honor
Dibella	Goddess of Beauty	Self-Reliance
Julianos	God of Wisdom and Logic	Truth
Kynareth	Goddess of Air	Perseverance
Mara	Mother Goddess and Goddess of Love	Fidelity
Stendarr	God of Mercy	Hospitality
Talos/Tiber Septim	God of War and Governance	Courage
Zenithar	God of Work and Commerce	Industriousness

Despite the Viking influence, these Aedra (a.k.a. the Nine Divines) do not correspond neatly to the Norse gods.  While one might be tempted to draw a connection between Lorkhan and Loki, the similarity between the two disappears beyond the trickster role.  Unlike the Norse gods, the Aedra are not personally active in the world; rather, they function more like transcendent divinities (similar to the New Testament God), granting blessings through their shrines, but not manifesting themselves directly on Nirn. 

Worship of the Divines is the orthodoxy of the Empire, hence the use of the Cyrodilic nomenclature; Nords worship the same gods for the most part, but sometimes under different names.  Although there are separate sects for each deity, these groups do not see each other as contradictory, but rather as distinct in emphasis; in this aspect, they are like the priests of ancient Greece or perhaps even modern Catholic religious orders.  Other racial groups worship some combination of these gods and their own deities, some of whom are Daedric Princes.  The unisex term "Prince" distinguishes the more powerful Daedra from the less potent Daedric rank-and-file.

The Daedric Princes, as divine beings who are able to manifest themselves actively in the mortal world, read more like the gods of ancient pagan pantheons than the Aedra do.  They interfere directly with the affairs of mortals for their own purposes; the destruction they frequently cause is of little import to them.  Their spheres of influence tend toward the ignoble: Boethiah the Daedric Prince of Usurpers, Assassins, and Secret Plots; Molag Bal the Daedric Prince of Enslavement; and so on.  The less powerful Daedra usually appear in the games as Dremora, humanoids with a demonic appearance who can be summoned from their plane as bound servants or fought as enemies.  Taken together, these attributes lead to a picture of the Daedra as evil, but there are a handful of Daedric Princes who seem more benevolent (Meridia and Azura, for example).

The reality is that attempting to see these divine entities through the western or Judeo-Christian dichotomy of "good" and "evil" is problematic.  The Aedra act as makers and sustainers of the known world, and therefore represent creation and order.  Because the PC is part of that creation and order, it is natural to see these beings as the embodiment of "good."  Likewise, the Daedra view mortals as means to an end, or even as playthings, which is insulting and threatening to the player's view of himself, so the Daedra are "evil."  These ideas do not, however, necessarily correspond to conventional ideas about morality.

This issue would be purely academic were it not for the presence of Daedric quests in TES V: Skyrim.  To play as a moral agent, the player must examine the reasons for his actions, the likely foreseeable results of his actions, and the justice of his actions.  Quests undertaken at the behest of a Daedric Prince are likely to involve some inextricable combination of "good" and "evil," which can seriously complicate the attempt to adhere to a moral code.  These quests are examined in detail in later posts.

Another interesting religious issue that can create fruitful ambiguity for the player as a moral agent is the status of Talos/Tiber Septim.  As detailed in a previous post, Talos is the Nord hero who founded the Third Empire (the current Tamrielic Empire).  At the end of his earthly life, Tiber Septim was apotheosized (in a manner similar to that of Romulus in Roman mythology) and admitted to the Cyrodilic pantheon as the patron of Mankind -- a type of replacement for Lorkhan, who sacrificed his existence for the creation of Nirn.  The races of Men see themselves as created by Lorkhan alone, whereas the races of Mer think of themselves as descendents of the Aedra.  They therefore have a distaste for Lorkhan, who they believed tricked their ancestors out of their immortality, and for his successor Talos, who brought their nations into a Man-dominated Empire.  The Altmer in particular believe that worshiping the once-human Talos as a god is a kind of heresy.

About 25 years before TES V: Skyrim opens, the battered Empire ended The Great War by signing the White-Gold Concordat: the Aldmeri Dominion agreed to end hostilities in exchange for a ban on Talos worship in the Empire.  Furthermore, the Thalmor are permitted to roam freely throughout the Empire to uncover and prosecute any adherents of the outlawed religion.  Because Talos was a Nord before his ascent, Skyrim is especially grieved at this situation.  The nation is on the brink of civil war, with one side supporting the Empire (even if they disagree with the ban on Talos worship) and the other rallying around Ulfric Stormcloak, who wants to secede from the Empire in order to preserve the Nord way of life against the onerous terms of the Concordat.

An additional complication for the morally-oriented player is the obvious connection between Talos and Jesus Christ. Aside from Tiber Septim's dual nature (as a Dragonborn, he possesses the soul of a dragon in the body of a man -- not too far from the Theanthropos) and his ascent to godhood, the persecution of his faithful invites the player to read Talos as a Christ figure.  The Thalmor quickly begin to feel like Pharisees hunting down the heretical cult of the God-Man, and Heimskr's diatribes sound a lot like the fiery sermons of Christian street preachers.  Even the visual symbolism contains allusion:

Heimskr preaching in front of the cruciform Shrine of Talos.

At the start of the game, the PC enters into a setting rich in moral conflict, and in order to navigate it in a meaningful way, the player must have a handle on the religious realities of Tamriel.  While some parallels between the metaphysics of the real world and those of Skyrim exist and might provide some guidance in the thornier decisions, care must be taken not to confuse the moralities of the two realms.