Pantheon Questions

Post » Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:46 pm

What are the races' views on gods of other pantheons? Do they acknowledge their existence? Do mortals know that the Aedra are shaped by belief? Does each race believe that their version of the gods is the true one or are they aware that it is only the version they created?
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Skrapp Stephens
 
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Post » Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:26 am

Imperial scholars often seem to hold the opinion that the gods of each culture are all reflections of one thing. For instance, considering Alduin the Nordic equivalent of Akatosh.

I don't know what any of the other races/cultures that worship the similar gods think, though.
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^_^
 
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Post » Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:15 pm

We just did this. Read the responses in this thread:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1436045-of-gods-and-goddesses/
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Noely Ulloa
 
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Post » Wed Jan 23, 2013 2:45 am

Completely different. That thread laid out the facts. This thread will lay out the in-universe perspective of those facts.

He isn't wondering which pantheon is real, he's wondering how the cultures of Tamriel regard one another's pantheons.
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victoria gillis
 
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Post » Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:02 pm

You're right. I should have paid more attention to OP.

As far as I can tell though, each culture seems to regard their own beliefs as objectively right and the beliefs of the other races as wrong. Except for maybe the Imperial Pantheon, which is a compromise of sorts. The Khajiit insist that there pantheon is totally unique, despite the similar names. The Altmer (Thalmor) refuse to recognize Talos as a god. The Dunmer broke off from the Aldmer originally because they disagreed with them religiously.

I think an interesting question is, is there an objective religious truth in TES that is separate from any of the beliefs held by in world characters? Could anyone ever learn how things ACTUALLY are? Or is everything just an interpretation?
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Daramis McGee
 
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Post » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:46 am

I'd assume each culture chooses to ignore such beliefs, but what would I know? I mean, I did ask those questions in the link mentioned several replies up.

But how can the other races deny the existence of such places as Sovngarde, when the Dragonborn goes there in the MQ? Altmer, Bosmer, Orsimer, Breton, Imperial, Dunmer, Argonian, Khajiit... it doesn't matter who you are, if you're Dragonborn you just went to Sovngarde, so there's no denying the existence of Shor, Tsun, etc.
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Jani Eayon
 
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Post » Tue Jan 22, 2013 12:37 pm

I'd assume each culture chooses to ignore such beliefs, but what would I know? I mean, I did ask those questions in the link mentioned several replies up.

But how can the other races deny the existence of such places as Sovngarde, when the Dragonborn goes there in the MQ? Altmer, Bosmer, Orsimer, Breton, Imperial, Dunmer, Argonian, Khajiit... it doesn't matter who you are, if you're Dragonborn you just went to Sovngarde, so there's no denying the existence of Shor, Tsun, etc.
While the Dragonborn might have been there, it's not like anyone else would believe him (Well, nords might). No one believed the Nerevarine when he claimed he murdered Almalexia. (Although he got the blame for Almalexia and Sotha Sil's deaths in the end, if the Third Edition pocket guide is anything to go by [presumably, someone found the bodies]) Until people find the portal to Sovngarde and open it, the common scholarly understanding will probably place the final battle as happening at Skuldafn, or barring that, in the sky. Then Odahviing will be written out of history because some bastard thinks the Dragonborn riding a dragon is absurd.
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Ronald
 
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Post » Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:13 pm

The way the Imperials recognize other pantheon's gods is by making parallels with their own. For example, Alkosh/Auriel/Akatosh/Alduin are all different but Imperial scholars have them as the same entity. The ancient Romans did the exact same with the Germanic gods when they started to record their culture (ie Thor = Hercules).
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MARLON JOHNSON
 
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Post » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:46 am

Interestingly, even as Imperial scholars acknowledge that their pantheon is an amalgam created by their first empress, they also insist that they worship the "right" amalgam. Clearly everything is simply a localized copy of their correct worship, even if they have historical proof that their gods were, to some extent, invented. Or perhaps they deny that their gods were invented, but acknowledge that the collection of eight that make up the Divines pantheon had never been put together in that way before Alessia. Regardless, Skyrim's presentation of the Imperial view of Alduin is pretty damning.

As for other cultures, while the Dunmer of the late Third Era are in a somewhat unique position due to their gods being former mortals who gained divinity through their deeds, I think their view of other "spirits" is worth looking at. The one quote that comes to mind starts out by asking if the Imperials are right to worship the Divines: "They are powerful, but are they good?" The quote follows up with the Dunmer saying something to the tune of, "We used to worship the Daedra, but now we worship the true gods, the Tribunal, and the Daedra serve them." In other words, the Dunmer view other people's gods as generalized spirits, making no distinction between Aedra and Daedra (why else put the quote together in this fashion?). Since Aedra and Daedra are Aldmeri terms, and the only pantheon we know of that considers this distinction to be the division between gods and demons (besides the Imperial amalgamation) is the Aldmeri/Altmeri system, I have to guess that the rest of the world probably feels similar: They have their gods, and the other people's gods are just spirits that they've decided to worship... the idiots.
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+++CAZZY
 
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Post » Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:12 am

See I actually get the impression that the Dunmer think the Aedra aren't good. They think they're bad.

Boethia and St. Veltoh told them that the Aedra were liars. I don't think they were just lying about Lorkhan's test. I think they are trying to interfere with Lorkhan's purpose, which is the Endeavor.

The Endeavor is a method of achieving the Tower and then what to do after.....

What is the purpose of the Psijic Endeavor?

To transcend mortal boundaries set in place by immortal rulers. At its simplest, the state of chim provides an escape from all known laws of the divine worlds and the corruptions of the black sea of Oblivion.

They are the lent bones of the Aedra, the Eight gift-limbs to SITHISIT, the wet earth of the new star our home. Outside them is the Aurbis, and not within. Like most things inexplicable, it is a circle. Circles are confused serpents, striking and striking and never given leave to bite. The Aedra would have you believe different, but they were givers before liars. Lies have turned them into biters. Their teeth are the proselytizers; to convert is to place oneself in the mouth of falsehood; even to propitiate is to be swallowed
How they fear the Truth, who came to Power by clawing it to tatters! But they failed, of course, for the lovers of the Truth are many; though we know not who spited the Dragon by saving it, they who preserved these texts have embodied the heart of our Manifesto (and, indeed, may have helped bring it about.) And now the Temple has found it appropriate to publish its contents, that all of Tamri-el might see the Truth with eyes unveiled – for it is in the Truth that we are free from the mythopoeic enslavement of Talos and his co-conspirators, free from all Opression!

Some seem to believe that the Aedra are keeping us trapped. That they are preventing us from succeeding in the Endeavor.

And from Mankar Camoran, who is crazy but still got to read Mysetium Xaraxes, which comes from the Oghma Infinium which is the secret knowledge of the universe. So maybe he kinda knows something:

The Bones of the Wheel need their flesh, and that is mankind's heirloom....Oath-breakers beware, for their traitors run through the nymic-paths, runner dogs of prolix gods. The Dragon's Blood have hidden ascension in six-thousands years of aetherial labyrinth, which is Arena, which they yet deny is Oathbound. By the Book, take this key and pierce the divine shell that encloses the mantle-takers!

I'm thinking the divine shell that prevents us from taking the mantle is the Aedra. They use souls as flesh for their Bones. They are liars and they are preventing us from reaching CHIM and Amaranth.
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luke trodden
 
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