One thing that always confuses me is how violent the Nordic Pantheon is. The other religions have their gods act similar to their counterparts, but not the Nords. Alduin and Orkey are evil schemers who hate humanity. Shor isn't a trickster but a warlod. Stuhn invented the concept of ransom, which I think would go against the mercy of Stendarr. All the other gods, except for Jhunal, are somewhat similar to the Eight Divines, albeit more violent. We do not know enough about Jhunal to figure out what his deal is. One can say that this is because Nords were a warrior race, but the Redguards are just as much of a warrior race as them, and Yokudan tradition has more friendly gods. I don't know why the Nord religion is so dissimilar to the Elven and Yokudan ones. Anyone care to theorize the source of these cultural differences?

Simple.

Nords come from way up north, while elves originated in Tamriel. Because the two did not really meet until sometime during the Mythic Age, they had a long time to develop their religion. The Redguards come from Yokuda, an island southwest of Tamriel that was destroyed. They also didn't have much contact with the Elves until they arrived in Tamriel.

It wasn't until the destruction of the Aylieds did the budding Empire try to focus all these distinct religions into 8 seperate gods, the Divines, plus Talos when he ascended after he died. (Correction by the Aldmeri Dominion- Talos is NOT a god! Further spread of this heresy will result in harsh punishment.)

Yokudans met plenty of elves. They had constant wars with them. Yokudan elves were left handed.

I am pretty sure the Left-Handed thong is metaphorical.

Edit: nevermind it is better this way lol

I dont know how you could take that to be metaphorical.

They could all only have one hand. Or both of their hands were left hands. The reason why they fought the Yokudans was that when they first met, there was a miscommunication about the handshake.

Oh yeah THAT'S how. I sure feel stupid now.

Left handed could be a synonym for weird or different. This is TES were talking about. That the elves were left handed would probabaly be irrelevant to the Raga. Why care about so minuscule a detail after all? It is more likely that being left handed was something of an oddity in early Redguard culture thus when they came into contact with each other they found each other much to different.

Something like that

Not to mention the Redguards talk really weird.

I don't know about the rest, but as for Stuhn... well, when the alternative is death, ransom could be seen as a mercy.

We know about the nordic, imperial, yokudan and dark elven pantheons and the latter doesn't correspond to the others. We know next to nothing about the south-western pantheons, any old breton ones or if the argonians even have one. Although Akatosh seems to be pretty much the same in Cyrodiil, Alinor and Wayrest, suprisingly enough.


These things must matter in a sword fight.

Yokudans are more "civilized." But don't forget that their pantheon can be violent too, especially when you stand in their way.

Well, the HoonDing is the god of "Move [censored], get out the way, get the way, [censored], get out the way."

Nords haven't had it easy. Hence their gods are maniacs.

Ransoming prisoners is merciful compared to execution, indefinite imprisonment, slavery, and being used to make dwemeri metal.

Why is the Redguard pantheon less violent? The Redguards alone of the human races have a spiritual worldview that resembles the Aldmeri one. That is, the Lorkhan good vs Lorkhan bad acid test. So their clashes with the elves are simply cases of mammals competing for resources, rather than a primeval clash between forces whose opposition is written into the very creation story of the universe. Their pantheon doesn't have to be a rejection of anything.

Umm...HoonDing? There's plenty of violence, but they have sooooooooo many gods, it tends to be diluted when compared to the nordic ones.

It's not just they are a warrior race - it's that they live in a harsh land. Before they had cities, they'd all probably live in isolated villages, and a bad harvest and a harsh winter it meant the whole village would die - this is why Orkey was seen as so bad. I also believe that the ancient Nords saw their Gods as animals rather than humans, so at some point they transitioned but kept their feriociousness. Too bad that Arkay is revered in TES V with a Hall of the Dead in every city, but it's possible that the reason we encounter so many draugr in the Nord ruins is because of their hatred of Orkey.

People who are left-handed are traditionally seen as being sneaky or deceitful in many Earthling cultures. The word "sinister" derives from the latin word for "left". The term "Left-Handed Elves" may be a mistranslation of something else entirely, based on how languages have the tendency to mutate over time.

Given the similarities between the Redguard and Earth Arabic cultures, it could be that 'left-handed' was a signifier of both 'weird/different/other' and 'bad/unclean'. Traditionally Arabs use their right hand for eating and their left hand for 'cleaning up' after themselves; there are thus no left-handed Arabs (right-handedness is taught at childhood). If the same were true of the Redguard/Yokudans, they'd have certainly noticed elves using their left hands to eat or for other 'clean' activities and commented on it, and probably thought the elves uclean or savage for it.

A left-handed handshake really would be very insulting on that reading.

I'm gonna go with the fact that it is an important fact if you're gonna be swrodfighting htem.

Yeah, it's like boxing a Southpaw, it easily throws you off your balance..

I've fought with left handed people before, and it always catches me by surprise

Sura-Hoon holds His sword left handed when fighting in the forms of the Ansei.

Yeah, some people think I hit hard, but between you and me, it's merely because I'm lefthanded.

I'm curious how Alduin was viewed in the Nordic pantheon before the real Alduin showed up and asserted dominance. I mean, whatever dragon figure they had in their pantheon, it must've been more benign than Alduin. Alduin merely played on their sympathies, I think.

Also, I wonder if the Dragon War was a direct result to their focus on Kyne and Shor afterwards. Alduin would've been villified after awhile. But I wonder why Shor wasn't the chief diety to begin with, and why they let themselves get b.s.ed so hard by the dragons.