Wait what....?

This playthrough started magic intensive. By the time I got to Markarth, the mines were pretty easy for someone who was the Arch Mage of the College (and actually had all of the schools mastered and all the spells). Taking my revenge on EVERYONE was also easy after escaping. Once you start killing the groups of guards, your bounty shoots up pretty quickly. I was at a 100K+ bounty in the Reach and decided to proceed the main story. I ended up in the negotiations to do the Dragonreach portion of the main quest. Handed Markarth to the Stormcloaks without thinking about it.

I fast traveled to Understone expecting to be set upon by the usual pile of guards....and nothing. Stormcloak walks up to me and says that one of the SIlver-Bloods cleared my name.

I guess I never realized that switch overs resulting from negotiations could affect your bounties.