Well it's no sillier than Aedra worship. Sure the nine have alters to cure disease, but in actual practice the daedra give their worshipers a lot more personal attention.

Which makes me wonder at times why everyone kept remarking "How could the Nine let this happen?" regarding Kvatch, when there's not much indication that the Nine Divines actually do anything beyond shrine blessings. Are the people living in the heart of the Empire really that dense?

No denser then people anywhere on this planet.

Perhaps the Aedra let it happen because unlike the Daedra, mortals are free in their actions.

That's the thing. Aedra worship is generally associated with good, and is the mainstream religion. People follow it because their parents did it, it's tradition, and that's how things are done. They might not think that much about what they are doing, especially not in a "medieval" world, where the gods actually exist.

And what is that about "personal attention"? Do they have deep conversations? Eat dinner together? No. I doubt the Daedra would care much about the people who hang around their statues much - not when there's people like the Nerevarine, the Champion or Cyrus around. Azura didn't even care enough about her followers to save them from their vampirism. I mean, could you really imagine someone praying to Malacath or Boethiah for a good harvest? Healthy children? You go to the Daedra Princes if you want a large favour, and they usually charge you a high price for it. It's not a beneficial relationship for the "believer". It's not something to build upon.

Sure, there certainly must be cults and such who has the "follow me and reach paradise-agenda", but those are sects, not societies.

Or. I've seen to be foiled by my own argument about Aedra. If a society were built around Daedra instead of Aedra, it would still be the same thing - it wouldn't matter to most people. You still need to live, and people would do what they need to do because that is how things are done. They wouldn't get much more out if it, though, unless they worshipped one of the (seemingly) more benevolent Daedra.
You can go ahead and disregard most of my post now.



Did you miss the whole Oblivion ending?
Granted, Kvatch happened before that.

Yeah, Akatosh does show up at the last minute, through Martin. But it doesn't change the stuffiness associated with the Nine Divines, or how the Chapel in Bruma disparages Nordic religion, or the tone of Alessia Ottus' "guides." Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Don't confuse the gods with their worshipers.

Guilt by association.

Soooo, because my Oblivion toon has RP stuff where he little bro got svcked dry by a vampire, I should go kill all the Molag Bal shriners? Guilt by association.

I think maybe we are getting off track. My rant is just that the citizens of the Imperial province and worshipers of the Nine seem so utterly insipid and dogmatic, to the point of invective backlash. It's not very encouraging for their Imperial hegemony over Tamriel when they seem so bland and flavorless.

Well it certainly isn't http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2896.

In part the Aedra don't seem very interesting. Why worship endurance and steadiness when the times aren't rough? Why bother with Arkay when you aren't plagued by immortal horrors? Why worry about mercy when the Kings are good and just? Why worship Zendar when your business is blooming?

Yet it's these gods that allow for a person to life a good life, without these comforts the Daedra aren't all that interesting. Who needs Sanguine when they're hungry, cold and wet? At that moment you pray to Stendarr so that he may have mercy on your miserable body and you don't forget that.

But in part it is also Oblivions depiction. The Imperial City lacks much of an Nibenise culture. The NPC's pay lip service to the Aedra, mention their names but there are no little shrines where people make a quick prayer, there are no cults of Stendarr handing out meals to the homeless. The Merchants don't make agreements backed by Zenithars mark. It's these little attentions and the way the religion shapes the way people think, that make the Aedra vibrant and all pervasive. Much more so then the occasional show of fireworks the Daedra put up to swing peoples attention their way.

You can take some hints from Knights of the Nine, the First PGE and Morrowind, but also try http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384766/ or http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318411/ to create an image of what Cyrodiil would look like.