The Politics of Skyrim

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Kareeah, while the Thalmor ARE undeniably decades-patient, I don't think they'd whiff a victory if they could, instead, simply win. Reducing half a continent to molten glass or magical wastes or whatever the southern half of Hammerfell now looks like, and THEN fleeing, would be supreme dedication to whiffing.

Okay, fair point.

Besides - I'm making assumptions about ESO here and feel free to correct me - this portal on which your theory hinges was probably not what you'd call common knowledge as of the Second Era; we're hinging on the Redguards having completely forgotten about it; and the Bosmer, simply because they live in a freaking jungle, could very well have forgotten about it almost as quickly as the Men did. In our hypothetical Elder Scrolls VI, the Thalmor will of course have discovered this portal, but the reason they didn't use it in the war against Hammerfell could be that they just didn't know about it at the time.

Here's some background then: the ruins in question are Salas En (Alik'r Desert) and Ne Salas (Grahtwood).

It's been a while since I did the Dominion-side quest for this event (there's a quest for both factions involved), but near as I can tell what happens is this:

Lady Laurent is a member of the Mage's Guild and amateur archaeologist. She and her assistants are poking around in Salas En on the Covenant side. They accidentally activate the portal, her manservant wanders through and encounters a Dominion patrol. They, having just encountered a random Breton in the middle of Grahtwood where he has no business being, give chase and find the portal when he goes back through it. Both sides (Dominion and Covenant) then try to stage minor invasions with this newly-discovered passage into enemy territory before shutting the portal down.

And the local Bosmer might forget, but remember the Altmer have something of an addiction to paperwork. Which means the Thalmor have a record of it somewhere.