VaranisArano wrote: »
Possibly. I cut off the first paragraph of the book because it wasn't precisely pertinent to the Alliance War, but it goes like this:
"The Wheel of Time turns: in the dawn, it was the day of the Aldmeri, and then came the time of Men—but now, as the decay and chaos in the Empire makes clear, the time of Men has passed. Of the Men of Tamriel, only the Eastern Nords had the strength of character to join Dunmeri and Argonians in repelling the recent invasion of Snake-Men from Akavir, thereby showing that of all Men, only they may be trusted."
Now, it's important to note that this is a work of propaganda. As such, it plays with the chronology a little. Technically, the Nords and Dunmer allied to fight the Akaviri, then the Argonians brought in reinforcements to defeat them. So far from it being a matter of "these Nords helped out - they're okay", the Nords of Eastern Skyrim are an integral part of the original Pact. Alla Llaleth is selling them short to make her point.
Stripped of the author's views on the failure of men in general, its likely that the average Nord agrees with the idea of regulating magic to prevent reoccurences of disasters like the Planemeld. After all, their old Reachmen enemies use magic and appeal to the Daedra. Between the Iceheart Coven, the invasion of the Rift, knowledge of Noctural's attempt to take the Crystal Tower, and several assassination attempts on Jorunn, magic looks pretty iffy. And when your Dunmer allies are of the opinion that "if it's human, necromancy is a-okay", and their own wizard-lords aren't part of the Pact, I expect most Nords think the Tribunal has a point about the dangers of magic and dealing with outside forces.
Side note #1: I never liked the questline in the Pact mage academy at Shad Astula, but now it makes more sense to me. If the Pact intends to regulate magical pursuits, they'll need their own officer corps who can do it.
Side note #2: the idea that the Pact will "strictly regulate all involvement in dangerous magical pursuits" adds an extra layer to the Telvanni decision to not join the Pact. Sure, they're a bunch of isolationist, slaving Wizard-lords, but in this case they are also a bunch of isolationist, slaving Wizard-lords giving the proverbial middle finger to the Tribunal's attempt to regulate what they do in their own mushroom towers.
VaranisArano wrote: »The Tribunal wants the Pact to be in charge of Tamriel, regulating magic in order to protect Nirn, apparently. Well, they certainly are right that numerous Daedric Princes are an existential threat to Nirn! Yet they are 0 for 3 when it comes to defeating daedric plots during ESO without the help of the Vestige? Hmmm.
(emphasis mine)
And if we look into the future, Tribunal will lose his power and Baar Dau will crush the island. Almalexia will kill Sotha Sil. Vivek will go away.
The problem with the prequels is that you've already seen all the spoilers.