Help with choosing an Alliance

Shadowshef

Hi, as you can tell by the title I am having trouble with picking an Alliance. Any race can be part of any faction so my troubles don't come down to race or any other gameplay aspect. My trouble is that for EP, I don't like the idea of working with slavers. I know that Dunmer can not enslave fellow EP races, however from what I read they still enslave Khajiit. So what is the deal with that, is there still slavery happening in EP. From what I read about AD, for the most part Altmer are not racist, that is only the Veiled Heritance, can someone that has played through the AD storyline confirm that. Problem with DC, is that is their goal to bring wealth and prosperity to just Breton and Redguard lands or is for all of tamriel. Another problem is I read that the Orcs are mistreated in DC, also I found DC to be the most boring out of the 3 alliances, however I could be wrong about that. Anyone with experience with all 3 alliances could you please help me out. Also if anyone has a guild that can help new players, I would be interested. Please if possible leave out bias for your alliance. Thanks!

Sheezabeast

If the slavery issue bothers you about EP, try rolling an Argonian, they are pretty fun as Templars or DKs. Shadowfen has great quests in it, lots of Argonian lore.

Xoelarasizerer

Lore-wise, it's gonna have to be a personal call deciding which you prefer (based on who you hate the least.) Long story short, all sides have their share of flaws. None of them are really too much better than the other in different ways. No definitive heroes here (except perhaps the Undaunted... but they are another matter.)

Gameplay reasons I'll put in this spoiler below (although there are no actual spoilers for story or anything in this spoiler... lol)

If you have any race for any alliance and aren't gonna be locked into an alliance based on your race of choice, then your alliance of choice means very little. Gameplay wise, it's your side in the PvP in Cyrodiil and thus the default locations your side will probably have access to. For PvE? I don't think alliance choice really changes much... besides where "The Harborage" location will be.

Aesthetics wise, your chosen alliance currently determines your character's background on the character select screen. It also slightly changes the appearance of one of your dragonknight's (if you are a dragonknight) ultimate moves and a few crown store items (alliance rider outfit, alliance horse and alliance dog pet, if you have those.)

Beyond that lot, you can go almost anywhere you want right out of the gate. So for example, with any race, any alliance, you can make a Daggerfall Covenant High Elf and head to Bleakrock and start off doing the Ebonheart Pact content and zones no problem (unless you feel it is immersion/lore wise.)

tl;dr, outside of Cyrodiil PvP, alliance choice isn't amazingly important.

LittlePinkDot

Queen Ayrenn has a good heart and believes in ruling fairly to all peoples, but shes naive. Its the Thalmor and alot of the elves on the summerset isles that are racists and alot of them dont even like her. They think shes too progressive and doesnt take their traditions and cultures seriously.

The kings of the DC and EP call her a child queen and they think shes over her head.

Rainraven

Hm. You want The Good Guys from a story/lore perspective, is that right?

I guess I'd go with AD as the most Good-Guy in an official way, but there is the Heritance and some seriously atrocious (if not officially sanctioned) behavior in Shadowfen. None of the alliances are untainted. Elder Scrolls titles just aren't big on Good Guys.

Also, only pick AD if you like Wood Elves. You spend three zones saturated in Wood Elfishness.

Doctordarkspawn

Honestly, if you want a case for a faction ideologically, the Covenant is by far the least....morally ***.

I mean yes they've still raided and burned settlements on the coast but compared to the litteral killing of unborn children by AD, and the Slavery and war from EP, (Of who still do raid Covenant settlements for slaves), the DC guys burning and raiding stuff isn't all that horrible truth be told.

They're also the least ideologically screwed. They only want trade, and reletive peace. They're model is much the same as the imperial model, leting people govern themselves while still answering to a high king.

LittlePinkDot

Rainraven wrote: »

Hm. You want The Good Guys from a story/lore perspective, is that right?

I guess I'd go with AD as the most Good-Guy in an official way, but there is the Heritance and some seriously atrocious (if not officially sanctioned) behavior in Shadowfen. None of the alliances are untainted. Elder Scrolls titles just aren't big on Good Guys.

Also, only pick AD if you like Wood Elves. You spend three zones saturated in Wood Elfishness.

Its hard to know what Ayrenn sanctions. So many of her people have no respect for her that I doubt they even report everything to her or even ask permission before they do various things.
But yes I loved the wood elf forests!

Rainraven

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Rainraven wrote: »

Hm. You want The Good Guys from a story/lore perspective, is that right?

I guess I'd go with AD as the most Good-Guy in an official way, but there is the Heritance and some seriously atrocious (if not officially sanctioned) behavior in Shadowfen. None of the alliances are untainted. Elder Scrolls titles just aren't big on Good Guys.

Also, only pick AD if you like Wood Elves. You spend three zones saturated in Wood Elfishness.

Its hard to know what Ayrenn sanctions. So many of her people have no respect for her that I doubt they even report everything to her or even ask permission before they do various things.
But yes I loved the wood elf forests!

Well

the machine in Grahtwood that read Ayrenn as pure of heart certainly had her brother's number, so I'm ok relying on it. Can't imagine she'd be at all fine with what (almost) went down in Shadowfen.

But yes, she's good, but weak. That's AD's trouble.

Demycilian

Shadowshef wrote: »

Hi, as you can tell by the title I am having trouble with picking an Alliance. Any race can be part of any faction so my troubles don't come down to race or any other gameplay aspect. My trouble is that for EP, I don't like the idea of working with slavers. I know that Dunmer can not enslave fellow EP races, however from what I read they still enslave Khajiit. So what is the deal with that, is there still slavery happening in EP. From what I read about AD, for the most part Altmer are not racist, that is only the Veiled Heritance, can someone that has played through the AD storyline confirm that. Problem with DC, is that is their goal to bring wealth and prosperity to just Breton and Redguard lands or is for all of tamriel. Another problem is I read that the Orcs are mistreated in DC, also I found DC to be the most boring out of the 3 alliances, however I could be wrong about that. Anyone with experience with all 3 alliances could you please help me out. Also if anyone has a guild that can help new players, I would be interested. Please if possible leave out bias for your alliance. Thanks!

Go AD. They got the most engaging stories by far and the regular Altmer are nothing like what some make them out to be.

leeux

Do you intend on PvPing or not? That's the important question... if you're not intending on PvPing, then I wouldn't think too hard... as Alliance outside of PvP have no real meaning.

As for which one, all of them have some dark side inside, but all of them, at least superficially don't seem like the bad guys at least, w.r.t. to each governing body.

Think about what kind of activities you intend to do (PvP, end-game trials, etc.) and think about friends and guilds you may have/want to invite or get invites to... those could be determinant factors in choosing an alliance as some guilds are restricted to be alliance only (specially true for PvP guilds.)

Anyway, last resort.. do as I did, and create 3 chars from the start one on each Alliance, and chose from there Chances are that class will make the choice for you, instead of Alliance...

Xoelarasizerer

My personal favourite of the alliances is the AD (Despite the general attitude of the Altmer.) imo, it had the most endearing and engaging cast.

Queen Ayrenn also feels the most legit out of the three leaders. Although, how authentic or secretively manipulative she actually is, is a debate in itself that some might have interest to engage in. She and her allies are the ones I'd put the most of my trust into long term.

Shadowshef

leeux wrote: »

Do you intend on PvPing or not? That's the important question... if you're not intending on PvPing, then I wouldn't think too hard... as Alliance outside of PvP have no real meaning.

As for which one, all of them have some dark side inside, but all of them, at least superficially don't seem like the bad guys at least, w.r.t. to each governing body.

Think about what kind of activities you intend to do (PvP, end-game trials, etc.) and think about friends and guilds you may have/want to invite or get invites to... those could be determinant factors in choosing an alliance as some guilds are restricted to be alliance only (specially true for PvP guilds.)

Anyway, last resort.. do as I did, and create 3 chars from the start one on each Alliance, and chose from there Chances are that class will make the choice for you, instead of Alliance...

Yes I do intend on PvPing. What factors should I consider when choosing an Alliance and pvping?

Sigtric

Argonians and khajiit aren't slaves. They are beasts of burden. Think of them like a pack mule or a cart ox.

There. EP wins.

Betsararie

It's sounding like you're a roleplayer, the only real reason faction matters is because of PvP. Are you going to PvP?

I'm not going to get into the stereotypes concerning each faction (which are surprisingly accurate), but basically it comes down to who do you want PvP with, and who do you want to PvP against.

leeux

Shadowshef wrote: »

leeux wrote: »

Do you intend on PvPing or not? That's the important question... if you're not intending on PvPing, then I wouldn't think too hard... as Alliance outside of PvP have no real meaning.

As for which one, all of them have some dark side inside, but all of them, at least superficially don't seem like the bad guys at least, w.r.t. to each governing body.

Think about what kind of activities you intend to do (PvP, end-game trials, etc.) and think about friends and guilds you may have/want to invite or get invites to... those could be determinant factors in choosing an alliance as some guilds are restricted to be alliance only (specially true for PvP guilds.)

Anyway, last resort.. do as I did, and create 3 chars from the start one on each Alliance, and chose from there Chances are that class will make the choice for you, instead of Alliance...

Yes I do intend on PvPing. What factors should I consider when choosing an Alliance and pvping?

First, disclaimer, I PvP for AD, not because I think AD is awesome or something like that... just, I happen to be member of mostly AD guilds, and don't like/want to play against the people that are in my guilds... it feels weird. Keep in mind that while you read my opinion... I may be biased, like everyone here

With that out of the way, let me say that all of them are similar, and are strong or weak according to the people playing at that time...

At this particular time on average, most days EP is the strong alliance, at least for the competitive campaign (Vivec), mostly due to better guild presence and better organization (and good communication amongst guilds, and strong oceanic presence) and AD is, on average, in a weaker position, mostly due to the fact that many players have left and there are fewer guilds and the ones that are still in the game, play less time per week or have less players, and since they play less frequently, they tend to jump in the fray without much coordination... that's my observation, and just that.

So, all in all, I'd say, if you like to ride with the winner (at least, in this particular time... keep in mind that things change often, though... and in the time it takes for you to get to level cap, things might probably change) go with EP and find a good EP guild for PvPing... if you want a hard time and fight against the odds and all that, chose AD.

DC is in the middle, somewhere mostly... DC has a strong core of really good players, and some bad-apples intermingled in there :P they have the population, just as AD they lost some important guilds and are lacking the coordination atm.

All of the above is my opinion, of course... so, take it with a grain of salt (cough) and probably others will have a different perspective on the matter

Anyway whatever your choice, the most important aspect is to have fun... hope you enjoy the game Good luck!

Betsararie

Basically, AD is garbage (as in an used tissue blowing in the wind on the side of the highway), EP has the best players but in general have really bad attitudes, and DC is for zergers. They'll have the largest and most cancerous zergs on average.

Take your pic.

Aliyavana

AD is fun and the faction leader is good, DC is fun and the faction leader is good but they will end up using the orcs and hate each other again, EP is fun but the faction leader is boring in terms of not enough game time and the argonians are going to be enslaved again anyway

Nyx2

The Dominion is most definitely racist. Ayrenn claims otherwise but then contradicts herself with statements like "I would sooner place an Altmer infant on the Ruby Throne than surrender Tamriel to their capricious whims." when talking about men. She sees them as lesser beings in need of the Altmers superior guidance. They're supremacist through and through.
The Thalmor are still an active branch of the Dominion which I think needs no further explanation. The Veiled Heritence is yet another group of racists that display how Ayrenn can't control her own kin. The other races are little more than slaves to the Dominion. They already tried to turn Khajiit into elves and their reason for joining the Aliiance is likely blackmail by making their moons disappear and claiming credit for their return.

The one choice dialogue with Ayrenn is also quite annoying. It's always "Of course my Queen! You're the greatest, most wonderful! How can this wretched creature be of service your majesty?" just so she can act all casual about her title and put you in this forced friendship for no reason. Every plot point in AD is the same thing happening again and again...

Betrayals everywhere, big surprise. The Khajiit part is the only thing interesting here.

The maps are the most frustrating to traverse due to obstacles everywhere, they're are all jungle / forest / savannah blending ultimately into the same thing. At least compared to the high variety of terrain EP and DC have to offer.

The negative aspects of other factions are boring Breton nobles and Nords who constantly want to drink mead.. still, their stories are the most diverse, you get to make more decisions and there are no awkward railroad dialogue friendships, you can tell people to back off. I'm looking at you, Darian and Naryu.
I don't know where you get Orc mistreatment from, of all the Alliances they seem the most content with their allies. EP does keep slaves of other factions just like AD enslaves goblins and Bosmer are cannibals. With all that being said it doesn't really matter what you pick, make a character for each if you want or decide based on friends / guilds / pvp.

Kram8ion

For the queen!

Jarryzzt

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Queen Ayrenn has a good heart and believes in ruling fairly to all peoples, but shes naive. Its the Thalmor and alot of the elves on the summerset isles that are racists and alot of them dont even like her. They think shes too progressive and doesnt take their traditions and cultures seriously.

The kings of the DC and EP call her a child queen and they think shes over her head.

You see, that's the thing - other kings call her a child-queen, but there is literally nothing in the quest line for her that actually suggests that she is a) immature; b) naive; c) child-like; etc. Moreover, it is explicitly stated that she'd spent some...years? decades?..running about the world as an adventurer, which sort of implies the know-how to survive and succeed in that line of work.

In other words, from a story development point of view I see a disconnect, especially after having gone through the quest line three or four times. Inexperienced in running a country? Yes, like a majority of aristocrats in any monarchy, by the way. Naive? How? In what way?

---

To the OP's question. DC quest line essentially has one fighting a lot of undead (necromancers, more necromancers, a certain undead werewolf, a vampire clan, still more necromancers, etc.). You basically spend most of your time fending off undead threats to the kingdom and the king personally, and only towards the end do you also start to occasionally brush up against the Imperials. Irrespective of the fluff (lore) for DC, the way it plays out the king hardly has any time to do much more than try and hold the realm together and not lose portions of it to yet another undead threat. Though at least the king's dialogue has some moderate humour to it.

In AD you are basically carrying out a purge against the a) racists and b) rivals for the throne. Sort of like the queen's own secret police, executing nobles left and right. The queen herself is probably the "easiest on the eyes" of the three, and generally wants "peace-love-togetherness" once all of her enemies have been dealt with. So from a moral standpoint I suppose this makes her version of AD more of a "good guy" than DC or EP. Plus you get to talk to a lot of Khajit, including one Razum-dar who provides most of the humour content for AD.

I actually do not remember the EP quest line very much, as it was the first one I'd done, quite a while ago. [You can tell it impressed me so much that I've stuck to AD and DC quest lines since...] I do remember that there was quite a bit of fighting off military invasions, you know, saving "the people" from the depredations of Daggerfall or whatever, plus slavery has technically been...abolished? Down-shifted? Something along those lines. You didn't feel as if you were playing for the "bad guys", just a sort of a realm in transition and being hammered militarily, which is something.

Thus - my personal preference would be AD > DC > EP, but what you are really choosing is not "which one is morally better or worse", but rather whether you want to build a reputation as an undead hunter, her majesty's secret service, or some sort of a war hero. And the ambiance as well - i.e. does one prefer Khajit or Argonian NPCs and quests? Deserts, forests or jungles? Which capital's layout works better for doing dailies and so forth (e.g. I personally like Grahtwood a lot more than Stormhaven but opinions vary). That sort of thing.

dodgehopper_ESO

Shadowshef wrote: »

Hi, as you can tell by the title I am having trouble with picking an Alliance. Any race can be part of any faction so my troubles don't come down to race or any other gameplay aspect. My trouble is that for EP, I don't like the idea of working with slavers. I know that Dunmer can not enslave fellow EP races, however from what I read they still enslave Khajiit. So what is the deal with that, is there still slavery happening in EP. From what I read about AD, for the most part Altmer are not racist, that is only the Veiled Heritance, can someone that has played through the AD storyline confirm that. Problem with DC, is that is their goal to bring wealth and prosperity to just Breton and Redguard lands or is for all of tamriel. Another problem is I read that the Orcs are mistreated in DC, also I found DC to be the most boring out of the 3 alliances, however I could be wrong about that. Anyone with experience with all 3 alliances could you please help me out. Also if anyone has a guild that can help new players, I would be interested. Please if possible leave out bias for your alliance. Thanks!

Life doesn't come packaged in a tidy bow. Each of the factions has its high and low points. The faction you flop into really matters more in the perspective of what pvp faction you want to side with. Plenty of Bretons and Orcs get along. Plenty of Argonians and Dunmer are fast pals. There's also plenty examples of the opposite. Plenty of Altmer are as condescending and evil as the worst of the Dunmer. If you care about the story just think about which faction you think you like the premise for and roll with it. If you care about what pvp group you want to side with there's that.

P.S.: Its easy to talk about racism I suppose when it comes to the Orcs and Bretons just bear in mind that the Bretons and Redguards are continually raided by the Orsimer because of their religion of violence (see: Malacath). In regards to the Dunmer they are still Daedra-worshipping scum, or in some cases slightly more civil Tribunal-worshipping scum. The fun of Dunmer is that they are in fact scum but they're very intellectual and interesting scum, and not all of them are so bad. Lets face it though: Dunmer represent the most morally base culture in Tamriel as they worship gods of ***, Murder, Deceit, Plots and so forth. Nords and Argonians tend to be adventurous but isolationist as a culture. The Aldmeri dominion is built up of Altmer who believe in their divine right to rule and Treehugging Bosmer who will kill you for stepping on a flower, and then eat you because if they kill you the green pact (their religion) demands they eat you post-haste. The Khajiit are a pretty chill society who have loose understanding of property rights and a serious drug culture. Ultimately there is good and bad in them all. It really doesn't matter what the society at large is. I say just play your character and play with the zone you find INTERESTING. You can be a hero in a villainous culture, and vice versa.

starkerealm

Jarryzzt wrote: »

You see, that's the thing - other kings call her a child-queen, but there is literally nothing in the quest line for her that actually suggests that she is a) immature; b) naive; c) child-like; etc. Moreover, it is explicitly stated that she'd spent some...years? decades?..running about the world as an adventurer, which sort of implies the know-how to survive and succeed in that line of work.

She's 27.

She disappeared when she was 18... okay, so, yeah, that could be considered immature, and reappeared when she was 25, to claim the throne. At this point, most of the people she's interacting with, never had the opportunity to see her grow up. It's kind of telling that the people who appear to regard her as an adult, tend to come out out of that era of her life (including Raz.)

This is on top of the part where High Elves are fairly long lived, and as a result 27 is still quite young, though not actually a child.

Also, for context, Emeric is 61, Jorunn is 36, and Varen is 46 (though, that last number isn't concrete). I don't have data on some of the other characters, but, yeah, for Queen of Alinor, Ayrenn is very young.

Iccotak

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

Honestly, if you want a case for a faction ideologically, the Covenant is by far the least....morally ***.

I mean yes they've still raided and burned settlements on the coast but compared to the litteral killing of unborn children by AD, and the Slavery and war from EP, (Of who still do raid Covenant settlements for slaves), the DC guys burning and raiding stuff isn't all that horrible truth be told.

They're also the least ideologically screwed. They only want trade, and reletive peace. They're model is much the same as the imperial model, leting people govern themselves while still answering to a high king.

DC wants the second Empire. EP are the guys who want each race to have the power to govern themselves

MLGProPlayer

AD

You're welcome

imredneckson

Shadowshef wrote: »

Hi, as you can tell by the title I am having trouble with picking an Alliance. Any race can be part of any faction so my troubles don't come down to race or any other gameplay aspect. My trouble is that for EP, I don't like the idea of working with slavers. I know that Dunmer can not enslave fellow EP races, however from what I read they still enslave Khajiit. So what is the deal with that, is there still slavery happening in EP. From what I read about AD, for the most part Altmer are not racist, that is only the Veiled Heritance, can someone that has played through the AD storyline confirm that. Problem with DC, is that is their goal to bring wealth and prosperity to just Breton and Redguard lands or is for all of tamriel. Another problem is I read that the Orcs are mistreated in DC, also I found DC to be the most boring out of the 3 alliances, however I could be wrong about that. Anyone with experience with all 3 alliances could you please help me out. Also if anyone has a guild that can help new players, I would be interested. Please if possible leave out bias for your alliance. Thanks!

EP - The Dark Elves still have slaves that can be found in Stonefall and you can still see slavers watching over Argonian labores in Deshaan outside Mournhold. Some EP soldiers have used necromancy as torture to gain intel from Worm Cult corpses. The Nords have a long history of racism against anything elf, going so far as to commit genocide against the Snow Elves. The Argonians have also lead mass raids into Morrowind killing many innocent men, women, and children and have been blamed for creating the Knahaten Flu which was the TES equivalent to the Black Death.

DC - The orcs are hated by pretty much every race on Nirn. They have no homeland and what they call a homeland has been sacked multiple times by the Bretons and Redguard and are still recovering from it. They have also attacked non-military targets and burned them to the ground and kill civilians.

AD - Altmer in general have a superiority complex and think themselves better than the other races. One group of Dominions soldiers ate argonian egg while they were in the hatching pools and tried to destroy the argonians as a species. They have allegedly massacred bosmer freedom fighters, made a fascist regime, and will later be the equivalent of the Nazis during the WW2 era. AD has even captured soldiers and civilians, skinned them alive and wore their skins.

In short, each alliance has their horrible traits and you're going to have to pick your poison.

starkerealm

Iccotak wrote: »

DC wants the second Empire.

Third.

The Second Empire started with Reman's Dynasty.

dodgehopper_ESO

starkerealm wrote: »

Iccotak wrote: »

DC wants the second Empire.

Third.

The Second Empire started with Reman's Dynasty.

I think he means they want to bring back the glory of the Reman Dynasty, that is before the snake men took over.

starkerealm

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Iccotak wrote: »

DC wants the second Empire.

Third.

The Second Empire started with Reman's Dynasty.

I think he means they want to bring back the glory of the Reman Dynasty, that is before the snake men took over.

Yeah, I'm just picking nits here.

Iccotak

Alliance choice is kind of meaningless in the story with the "Silver & Gold" story lines. Which only happened because they realized the lack of content a player in one alliance has.
My only real two gripes with ESO is that while the DLC content is fantastic, the base game could use improvements.

First off; Alliance choice has no real impact in the story of the world and only matters in PvP. Once you are done with the main story that's it. The only other Alliance related content is Imperial City.
The silver & gold stuff just has you experience the other alliances storylines rather than continuing your factions story.
Completely defeats the purpose pf making a character in other alliances. (so EP for Life)

Second; The vanilla zones lack the attention to detail the DLC/Expansions have. In both story and landscape quality.
Vanilla zones still have the old art style that they ditched as we can see in future installments. They literally changed art directors. That's why there is considerably less exaggeration in architecture & armor, and far more detail in DLC content.

TheShadowScout

Alliance choice is important for a roleplayer.

Sooo... in that spirit...

AD has high elves, many of which are still pretty racist, and quiietly agree with the veiled heritage even if they don't actively become members. Playing the AD storyline you can see that shining through now and then, even tho you see much of it from the side of the good-hearted but somewhat naive and too optimistic queen Ayrenn... the Bosmer are struggling with internal rifts, and have that cannibalism thing going on, which is a bit on the distasteful side, as well as the occasional blood sacrifices to the forest... and the Khajiit are a bit on the criminal side, which is okay if you want to play an "likeable rogue" type of character, not so much if you like to be honest and true instead of taking advantage of others...
...and then there is the atrocities AD troops get into when not at home, like khajiiti pirates raiding and plundering (of course, that is pirates) and regular AD soldiers busy childkilling in shadowfen in the -only- actual attempt at genocide in the whole ESO storylines...
...and finally the big picture, they fight because they think high elves are the "master race" and should rule everyone for the benefit of the "lesser races". Even Ayrenn, tho she is kind about it, has an ingrained sense of altmer being "better" then other races, and thinks they cannot be trusted with self-governance...she may just want the best for everyone, but that is how a certain historicval person in germany whose name the forums likely will censor also started out...

DC has the Bretons, known for their political infighting, double-dealing and ruthless use of forbidden magics, the Redguards who may be thinking with their swords a bit too much, and the orcs who are basically treated as second class citizens, and still carry a pile of grudges over prior successful attempts by the other two to destroy their nation...
...and of course, they get up to a lot of burning and pillaging in their armies visit to blreakrock, bal foyen (where they will slaughter a pile of innocents at least one location depending on player choices) and stonefalls, last where they also add quite a few war crimes to their account, like attacks on innocent magic schools, necromancy to use zombie soldiers and generally being *** about it. Then there is the shenannigans their orcs get up to in Deshaan, which incluides boiling the heads of dunmer civilians in their pots, or the civil war they start in Eastmarch...
...and finally, they basically fight for crony capitalism. Yes, high king Emric wants peace and stability everywhere... under his rule, so his people can get rich from trade. And he basically talked the redguards and orcs into it, despite their differences, and is not too picky about how they go about this, thinking the end must justify the means...

EP finally is the best alliance from the general point of view - tho individually they have more then enough black stains on their vest as well, above all the slavery loving, as racist as most high elves, and arrogant Dunmer. Yes, the pact made enslaving fellow EP members illegal... but as you will see, they still have no qualms about enslaving anyone else, and many of them think that this "foolishness" will in time end and things will go back to what they used to be (and the lore tells us they are right, for a whole anyhow, before they get a hefty dose of karma in the fourth era). The Nords are generally on the likeable side, if also a bit stupid, generally crude, sometimes brutal, and often drunk... as well as having a few dark spots in their history, as any snow elf would tell you if thy still were around. And the argonians may be a little strange, a little primitive, and maybe a bit too much into murder in the name of sithis, but generally are a decent bunch of lizards.
...outside their alliance, most of the pact races we meet being up top no good in other lands are criminals instead of regular troops - pirates pirating their way along this or that coast, plundering and burning (and presumably doing the other things too) while occasionally looking for people to enslave...
...and as a whole, their alliance does not fight to conquer the others, they fight to stay free from the others conquering them. Well, or to get revenge for the atrocities the others have visited upon their homelands. Thus my opinion they are the best from a general point of view, even though the individual side... eh...

So, in the final analysis...
...there are no "good guys" here. Its all shades of grey. Pick the shade you like for your character, and if you like to play as "good guy/gal"... build your character accordingly. Even if you -do- choose one of the less favorable races... well, not even among the dunmer everyone thinks slavery is a good idea. Its entirely possible to play a dunmer who grew up thinking argonians are people instead of clever animals (not like they are the only ones with such foolish notions, as we see from altmer, redguards, etc.). And so on. Thats all up to you!

Me, I still pick the pact. Because of the whole "defensive" nature of their involvement in the three banners war...
And of course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-lGevvO2vw

starkerealm

TheShadowScout wrote: »

So, in the final analysis...
...there are no "good guys" here. Its all shades of grey.

This is, in general, a pretty good description for the entire series. Even things that would be wholly evil in another setting, like demons (the Daedra), are far more complicated than you'd get from normal fantasy.

Hell, if you want to see how far this can extend, just look at @MythicEmperor's posts.