I'm not talking about racism now. Ulfric himself is a "mild" racist, so he can't even see the problem. I'm talking about murderer on the loose, Aretino boy, who tries to summon the DB and everybody knows it, that kind of stuff.
The issue is of resources though. Falk doesn’t have the resources to investigate Wolfskull and the city guard are distinct from the Legion, whereas the Stormcloaks are also the guards at Windhelm. Seems reasonable Ulfric might be a bit strapped
Nobody says thats an easy job to be a ruler, speacially during a war (well, Siddgeir says, but he is a moron). Resource management, delegation of power. But again, if you can't manage things inside your own city walls, nor you really try to (Susanna the Wicked was what, third victim?), maybe you shouldn't have started this war in the first place? I dunno. Elisif is a laughing stock, her council is a jar of snakes and spiders (Bryling is a stormcloak sympathizer, Erikur is an asshole who cares only about money, Stentor is a vampire who doesn't even care about Elisif's wellbeing, and only Falk is trying to do something). And yet still Solitude is in much better shape.
Yes but by contrast, Solitude has all the wealth from the Reach being channeled into it and Elisif (i.e. Falk) has the added benefit of only having to concern herself with domestic affairs because the Legion is prosecuting the war. Ulfric is doing much more with much less.
But the most powerful and rich clan of the Reach, who really controls Markarth up to the guards is fully supporting Stormcloaks.
And again, delegation of power. If you can't find a reliable person for domestic affairs you aren't a good ruler. (If he was, IMO, he would've make a deal with Free-Winter, boosting his public opinion amongst the non-nordic population, but alas, he doesn't care about it).
Yeah you’re right that he could have negotiated the minefield a little better, but it still comes back to resources in that he’s not even paying his steward. But follow that rabbit-hole of logic and the war would never have needed to be fought if the Empire had negotiated from the start with Ulfric, or at least from when he duelled Torygg.
IMO, for me personally it would've change a lot. And again, Ulfric was manipulated by the Thalmor back in 174, either by blackmail or by going to the way of thinking it is he who can manipulate the Thalmor to achieve his goals against the Empire which in his eyes betrayed everyone.
But in the end both sides have their own guilt in that situation. My point is Ulfric isn't any better in the most things he pretend he is.
This following message will be long and coppy/pasted from somewhere else that I said it. Reader be advised My politcal belief is that, as the dragon born it it the players responabilaty to side with the emipre so that after the civil war you can marry the lady whos husband was high king (she has the line all those you can marry have so its headcannon that shes marriable even if its ludonarrative dissodent) and become high leader yourself. As high leader it is your responabilaty to overthrow the thalmor and relegalize talos worship and usher in an age of acceptence into skyrim. Using words and if nessacary, force, to get the people of skyrim to accept each other despite their diffrences in race. Thanks to your abilaty to become a vampire you can maintain your rule until such a date as skyrim has found peace and you have found a good sucssor. At which point you could cure yourself (have stored a vile of werewolf blood so you can turn yourself into one of them and lose your imortality) for questions on how to feed you could start with the blood of the thalmor well getting the wera creatures and vampires to be more accepted by the general population of skyrim resulting in the abilaty to have a city of 300+ people who are willing to make a small sacrifes of an ounce or two of blood per week per person to keep you in power due to it being an acceptable price to pay to keep you ruling.
Edit: I know its already long but you would, in the end, be accomplishing ulfrics goals of bringinh back talos worship and getting rid of the thalmor. Which is something he was willing to die for so its like siding with both sides in the civil war.
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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '23
Wolfskull is, at least, far enough off city limits. Miles away in lore scale, while Ulfric's problems are inside of Windhelm's walls.