General Tullius

General Tullius is a character in the game Skyrim of the Elder Scrolls videogame series, and is the secondary antagonist of the game should the player join the Stormcloaks.

The Great War
Prior to the start of the game Skyrim, the Cyrodiil Empire will have been fighting a major war against the Altmari Dominion, an alliances of Elven territories. The Elves of the Summer Set Isles, who were taken-over from within by a regime of elven supremacists called the Thalmor, sent some of their agents to the Empire to make demands. The Thalmor agents made various outlandish demands of their neighbors like the discontinuation of the Empires elite guards The Blades, Almari garrisons be stationed along Cyrodiil's boarders and the renouncement of their man-god Talos. Emperor Emperor Titus Mede II refused as the Thalmor expected he would and the second Mede asked them to leave the Thalmor gave the signal for the Altmari soldiers they had lying in wait to seize the empire and begin a massive invasion.

The Empire's allies Included their neighbors in Hammerfell, who were always on friendly terms with the empire and disliked the notion of being overthrown by the Thalmor (who ultimately wanted to get rid of all non-elves) and Skyrim, the Empire's northern province, which was the home of Talos who in addition to being later named a god was Cyrodiil's first Emperor. The Empire also had political and financial, though not military, support from Highrock in Daggerfall which had once been subject to Elven tyranny before achieving independence. At one point the Thalmor did take control of the city and kill the emperor, or so they thought the emperor killed was a decoy and Mede had made his way out of the city prior to the walls of the Imperial City being breached. Using the lull in fighting to their advantage once the Thalmor held the city the emperor marshaled his remaining forces and defeated the Elven General and retook his city putting the Thalmor in a compromised though not hopeless position in the war.

Once the tide of War began to turn in the Empire's favor the Emperor did something controversial that his allies and own subjects would scrutinize him for for years, he reopened negotiation with the Dominion. Titus Mede II wanted to end the war before more blood could be spilled and wagered the best time to renegotiate with the Dominion was from a point of strength so they would be more eager to avoid bloodshed themselves. A treaty was reached called the White-Gold Concordant, named after the White-Gold Tower capital building of the Imperial city and presumably the location of the signing. The White-Gold Concordant stated that the elves on the Altmer Dominion would be allowed to have officials in the Empire, that temples of Talos were to be closed and that the Emperor was to surrender The Blades as war prisoners. Furthermore the Empire had to break their alliances with Hammerfell who were continuing the War against the Dominion and had to order Skyrim to submit as well. Hammerfell was outraged at the Empire but understood it's position and continued the fight against the Altmeri Dominion by themselves, and won eventually though at a great cost to their nation's infrastructure.

Many have claimed that the Emperor's surrender just gave the Thalmor what they wanted the whole time making the war pointless but the empire's sympathizers have stated that there is a tremendous difference between accepting outrageous terms just because the elves asked and accepting them to stop a war. Also the empire did manage to get a few extra considerations from the elves like not having to allow the elves to garrison armies on Imperial soil and Emperor and Elder Council remaining independent political groups instead of subject to the Thlamor. Skyrim was also highly against the surrender and the culture of Skyrim's Nord people was such that fighting the good fight regardless of blood split was the highest honor. The ban on Talos was what weighed on the people of Skyrim the most, even more than that of Cyrodiil, since Talos was not only the embodiment of Nord ideals but their native son. Because of Skyrm's less than cooperative attitude towards the White-Gold Concordant the empire had to start stationing their own troops in Skyrim making many holds of the land subject to marital law if their Jarls ever tried to pass any policies that would endanger the Empire's side of the treaty.

Skyrim Civil War
For years Skyrim and Cyrodiil dealt with the ban on Talos worship by simpling hiding their worshipers, as far as the empire was concerned it's only obligation was to see to it there were no state tolerated temples or statues to Talos but that it's individual citizens had the right to praise whatever they wanted in the privacy of their own homes. This policy was eventually challenged by a Jarl named Ulfric Stormcloak. When Ulfric helped clear out the Foresworn, savage pre-Nord natives of western hold Skyrim known as the Reach, the price for his help was the hold was to allow Talos worship. Ulfric claimed his people should not have to hide their worship of Talos and keep their faith to the shadows. Of course the Reach could not honor such a request thanks to Imperial Legion being stationed within Skyrim. But the Thalmor took note of the trouble Ulfric was causing, realizing the empire had been choosing willful ignorance of many secret Talos worshiper for years. All of a sudden the empire had to start taking their ban on Talos worship a lot more seriously and it started by turning over Ulfric to the Thalmor and started allowing Thalmor agents to set up Inquisitional dungeons within Skyrim. General Tullius, who himself served in the Great War, was asigned to Skyrim as it's military commander with authority that could if need be outwieght that of Skyrim's own high-king.

Ulfric would eventually escape his captors and kill the high-king of Skyrim, Torygg, declaring with the king's death his wish to established Independence. With High King Torygg's death Tullius decided the empire's forces had to stop humoring Nord costumes and sympathies since the Empire's very rule was being challenged by it's own province and had lead to the death of one of it's official supporters. Tullius organized an ambush of Ulfric and his Stormcloak soldiers. Ulfric knew an ancient Nord Art called the Voice which allowed him to unleash sonic blasts just by shouting as such once captured Ulfric was not only bound but gagged and of course not be permitted to speak in his own defense.

Ulfric and his generals were taken to the small town of Helgen to be executed by Tullius and his men. Along the way the Imperials found an immigrant wondering over the boarder from Cyrodiil to Skyrim. Tullius did not want to take the chance the straggler was a Stormcloak contingent of some kind and had the immagrent arrested and brought with the Stormcloaks for summery execution to be safe. The straggler is the player character of the game and the game wil lstart off with the player being taken on the wagon ride to Helgen to await execution. A dragon named Alduin will interrupts the executions seconds before the players is about to be executed and the player as well as Ulfric and the renaming Stormcloaks can use the chaos as cover to forge their escapes.

Resolving the Civil War is an optional but very prevalent mission arch and may be summarized best as the second main storyline, with the main one being defeating Alduin.If the player goes to Ulfric's city of Windheilm he/she can join the Stormcloaks and fight for independence/revenge against Tullius. The fight against Tullius and his allies is the ultimate goal of this arch concluding with Tullius's death in Skyrim's former capital city of Solitude.

Personality
General Tullius seems to have a policy of ending the rebellion by any means possible, he does not care about Nord costume or being sensitive to the locals and instead views Ulfric's insolence as what happens when you tolerate dissidents rather than crushing them. Regardless of his insensitivity or kill or be killed outlook on commanding Tullius hates the Thalmor just as much as Ulfric, he does not trust them and prior to High King Torygg's death was encouraging Torygg not to give the Thalmor anymore leeway then was absolutely necessary. Tullius cares about Skyrim and it's people as a province of the Empire but this only fuels dedication to doing his job and getting rid of the rebels, as far as Tullius is concerned the sooner the Stormcloaks are dealt with the sooner the empire can focus on building up it's forces to be in a prime position to renegotiate the conditions of peace with the Altmeri Dominion. Like most Imperials Tullius maintains a cosmopolitan outlook on society and thinks that all cultures should be able to assimilate in one society without issue, but because of this he gets heavily annoyed by the Nords demanding that he and his people stop to observe Nord costumes over doing what is practical. Tullius's second-in-command, lieutenant Rikke, is a native Nord of Skyrim who while completely loyal to her commander is much more sensitive to her people's national pride and tempers most of Tullius's outlook on holding up military policies to humor local costumes.

When confronted in the invasion of Solitude, if the player sides with Ulfric, Tullius is disheartened by the situation and ready to surrender claiming that things are far too one-sided for anything to be done at that point. However regardless of acceptance of his situation Tullius is never willing to grovel to Ulfric but rather is just simply resigned to either being disgraced of killed. Rikke is not willing to go so quietly and fights the player and Ulfric, when she is killed Tullius resumes his grim outlook. With his final breath Tullius tells Ulfric he was just a pawn of the Thalmor, being manipulated into turning on the empire to weaken them from within, Ulfric dismisses the Tullius' words though as just the desperate words of a man who saw his end was at hand and kills him.