house politic

[jygglag]

Unlike morrowind, politic has hinder it's develop. But in the thieves guild of skyrim, it established link between the families of skyrim. If they are united, they form a house like house hlaalu. The mines and other country side area will be under strong control. Silver blood family already starting to control the whole hold, if they allowed some other member join them , another house will be established. Another posiblities is east empire company, if they follow the way in bloodmoon, they can become another competitive power. Although it has some side effect like monopoly, it will speed up skyrim's economy and political development.

Are there any other possible powers?

[boltonbrowne]

Trololo.

This thread makes no sense.

[Evil-i]

Way to go bolton, for insulting a user for whom English is not his first language. If you took the time to think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

[Will Zurmacht]

Hmmm. I think increasingly powerful inter-hold family alliances could threaten the traditional King-Jarl power structure. Either Ulfric or Empire+Elisif would probably fight against such a decentralizing trend. Ulfric as king would probably break up powerful alliances with threats of violence, or win them over with his famous rhetorical skill: "True sons and daughters of Skyrim don't fix the price of silver!!!" etc. etc.

And isn't the EEC a state-owned outfit based out of Cyrodiil? Basically a tool to further imperial mercantilist policies? If that is the case, I imagine it could bring considerable economic counter-pressure to bear if Skyrim's major families tried to start a cartel.

As for other powers, either the Battle-Borns or Grey-manes will probably become dominant in Whiterun politics, depending on how the Civil War goes.

[FORKFARM]

Word -- I haven't undertaken the civil War quests yet but this is very interesting for sure...

I suppose it also depends on the mitigating factors that have previously stopped this from happening. Would the Dark Brotherhood want that shift in power? A bloated empire may be easier to deal with in some regards than it would be to operate with small strong local factions in place. Would the Thieves guild really want to pick a side? -- or would they rather feed off the stuggle itself? (i.e. there's more money to be made when there are two sides causing a distraction). Would the College engage in this effort? Would the Grey Beards?

The East Empire company is in the business of making money -- and it is obvious to conclude that they will follow the path that leads to the most gold. But the key word there is follow. They have no standing army I'm aware of -- and there are only so many mercenaries that you can hire... and those cost gold. It makes more sense for them to wait until the dust settles and trade with the victor.

It seems to me that the political structure of Skyrim is more or less set up to keep a stark divide between the ruling class and the masses. It would seem then that it would have to be an internal shift by someone who already has a moderate amount of power to try and seize more (i.e. Ulfric). But that may not change system itself -- just who's at the head of it. Since power in Skyrim comes from either money and/or violence (hell, you have to kill a dragon, or come out of a zombie filled dungeon alive to even be allowed to own a house) -- I think an inter-family alliance would more than likely lead to just a shift at the top -- rather than a full fledged rearrangement of the political system.
In that case -- it seems less likely that they wouldn't bother.

Just my 2 cents yo! Dope topic homie!

[Gideon Dragontongue]

Definitely the Black Briars, but also the families in Windhelm could form a house. When the Grey-Manes and Battle-Borns were friends, they could have also been a house.

[Mattbott]

the college interested me, cos it keeps itself to itself but every Jarl has a court wizard, so you would wonder what influence there is there

having a dunmer character i've been checking out the grey district in windhelm and speaking with most dunmer i meet - there's definitley a distinct dark elf connection throughout Skyrim esp since we're refugees in a relatively hostile country (dunmer and nords are ancient enemies after all) but i get the sense that the dark elves are a race that wants to be left alone, rather than potential power base, but you never know. Despite dunmer slavery of the beast races, i actually found the khaajiti (also stranded far from home) struck a chord with refugee dark elf background

i need to complete the civil war quest (and a few others) and will definitely be looking out for any groups supporting the opposite side to the one the hold supports, which would indicate a strong independent streak imo

[Gideon Dragontongue]

Well, the Dunmer in Windhelm are an obvious choice.