As Dragonborn who do you owe allegiance to in the civil war? Stormcloaks for preserving the sanctity of Talos? Or the empire for preserving the Empire Talos built? As your duty as a member of the Dovahkiin bloodline you hold responsibility to talos for what he became and what he made, your blood is linked. Talos was the only man and Dovahkiin that went from mortality to godhood. So as one that has been blessed by his blood do you think you should help preserve the man or his legacy?

Kyne and Kyne alone (with a nod to the other Battle-Wives of course). The Thu'um is her breath upon the face of Nirn. The rest is just petty-politicking. Use your gift to make changes as you see fit. Why be concerned with yet another pointless war, when you can turn the wheel? This is the true purpose of Tamriel.

I thought the Dragonborn was Akatosh's creation or something?

As far as I can tell (with the usual lore half truths), Thu'um is the gift of Kynareth, and every now and then, Akatosh chooses someone who is a born natural at it. Only trouble is, there are a whole bunch of Akatoshes, and certainly the Dovahkiin could be seen as inimical to Auri'el at least, and by extension the original Time-God. Perhaps, maybe, with provisos.

You do not owe anyone anything.

Being distantly linked to Akatosh, does not a loyalty forge.
Loyalty, like respect, is earned, not blindly given.

The civil war is more a matter of folks seizing the weakness of the moment to grab personal power, even if they would stink as a ruler.

It is rather evident when they fight and bicker rather than set aside the politics to deal with the real and present threat of Alduin.

Nobody. Maybe Akatosh, but only because he gave him power.

As a side note...
URIEL WAS NOT A DOVAHKIIN!

I serve the Empire, because the Empire venerates Akatosh above all the Divines and it was Akatosh that made me Dragonborn in the first place. Talos is a colleague, not a superior.

That flew over my head. I'm no lore buff, I just thought that the Dovahkiin was Akatosh's creation or something. It doesn't matter much to me anyways. Unless someone can make it really simple, lol.

Stormcloaks. Talos himself tells the Nerevarine that the Empire is dying and needs to be replaced.

Lore is a bit spotty on Talos being a dovahkiin sorry if I got it wrong, All I've managed to gather that he could thu'um then his throat was slit and he couldnt anymore. But he was called Ysmr Dragon of the north, the same name given to you upon induction into high hrothgar.

Exactly! Wulf from morrowind.

Tiber was both types of Dragonborn.
The biggest difference between Dovahkiin and Dragon Born is that Miraak was the first Dovahkiin and Alessia was the first Dragon Born.
I'm pretty sure the was the only Dragon Born and Dovahkiin.

I think the imperial push it, but if you go back to the gods the nords worshiped before Alessia changed the pantheon, Akatosh was Alduin and Shor was the god of mankind. If Akatosh is involved, I think it's at the behest of Lorkhan/Shor/Talos, who is the Aedric head.

Not to mention that the ghost of Hroldan recognizes you as Talos, you are named Ysmir, Shor is missing from his hall and locked it down. It has been for so long that Torygg couldn't cross the Whalebone bridge. The Shezzarine lore article says that one interpretation is that Lorkhan actually manifests as the Shezzarine and it also says that every letter in the name Lorkhan is filled except the last. N. Consider that this is the last dragonborn and the ghost of old hroldan recognizes him as Hjalti. Consider that Shor is missing from his hall and the Dragonborn is the only one who has been allowed entrance - not even Torygg got in.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Shezarrine

• When asked about Lorkhan and his avatars, developer Michael Kirkbride presented the following list. All items of the list are names, surnames, pseudonyms, or titles of people (notably http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Tiber_Septim) suspected to be a part of the enantiomorphic "Oversoul" that is believed by some to constitute the deity known as http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Talos.^{http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Shezarrine#cite_note-WWYDB-10http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Shezarrine#cite_note-11}

1. Wulfharth L
2. Hjalti O
3. Ysmir R
4. Talos K
5. Arctus H
6. Septim A
N


The last Dragonborn is the Shezzarine, Talos incarnate, Ysmir and Stormcrown.

It's said that Nords couldn't see Talos as a human. They saw him as a dragon.

So Dovahkiin is blessed by akatosh and dragonborn is born with the blood of a dragon? I'm sorry didnt know there was a difference.

It's not really the blood of a dragon. It's more that their blood is blessed that it can keep the jaws of Oblivion shut, while the Dovahkiin is a dragon in a mortals body.

Ah i see thanks for clearing that up, imho I believe in siding with the stormcloaks to deny talos of his godhood is inconceivable.

The only ones I can think of that you would owe an allegiance to would be Akatosh and Kyne. You don't have to owe it to anyone though if you don't want to.

One result of being the last Mantler and injecting a healthy respect for the Goddess of the Skies into the gestalt entity which preserves the world: next Kalpa, the siege of Alinor is achieved not with the Numidium, but with world refusals sung by a fleet of Thu'um powered airships. Don't break the dragon, just nudge him 'til the spokes lie where moar funz can be had.

That's purely speculation. There's no in game source material that says that there are two kinds of dragonborn, nor is there anything from Kirkbride, either.

This is how I've played skyrim. As dragon souls return to life and are near impossible to kill, that leads me to the idea that the dovahkiin of this game is old Talos himself reincarnated. So I play as this messiah-like dovahkiin who for some reason unknown to him, finds the empire's stand against Talos blasphemous.

Alkosh and Rajhin.

Talos be damned. Infested with the ideas the nascent Empire borrowed from their Ayleid oppressors of permanency and stagnation. Lorkhan is the agent of change; Shor his Nord-Enantiomorph, protector of the will-quick-to-adapt. Changed by Septim to be a staid protector of a permanent [permanently dull] Empire. Restore the balance, rediscover why the world was built in the first place.
Safeguard your right to change the future now. Not to keep it the same. That's Anu-descendant talk.

Sheogorath, of course, the only true way.