There are about 4 powers in Tamriel now if I'm right... I think it was the Empire, The Aldmeri Dominion and... didn't Blackmarsh take control of...that other place...was it Morrowind they took? Unless that map was missing a ton of places...
Anyway, what do you guys think, would Skyrim under the Stormcloaks be able to hold off the dominion?
The argonians left the empire and took control of southern Morrowind (that would be mostly Dres land, which is swampy). Hammerfell is independent, having fended off the Dominion after the Empire abandoned them due to the concordat. The bosmer and khajiit were vassalized by the Dominion. So by the start of the game the Empire has only northen Morrowind, western Skyrim, Cyrodiil and High Rock (and, thus, Orsinium). So it's more like 5 powers.
The Dominion also nearly destroyed the then-mostly unified Empire, so Ulfric would stand no chance. The dossiers on the Thalmor embassy seems to confirm that they want draw out the civil war for as long as possible to weaken both sides.
And, as said above, Ulfric is an egocentric idiot that has no concept of neutrality or of the threat the Thalmor pose against all non-altmer.
On another topic, after some delving in dwemer ruins you kinda notice how sadistic the dwemer were (torture rooms, how they left the falmer, etc), something that wasn't so apparent in Morrowind.