I was just wondering what the exact purpose of the Imperial Cult is. Is it the collective worship of the Nine Divines, or rather a missionary group (primarily stationed in provinces such as Morrowind where Imperial culture is fledgling in popularity) - where they work to spread Tamrielic influence and assist the needy through almoners, donations, et cetera.

Just wanted to know, since it only seems to exist in Morrowind, whereas provinces such as High Rock and Cyrodiil house individual temples to the divines, no doubt a combination of the lack of a need to unify these teachings (given how Bretons and Imperials respectively already worship the pantheon) and an increase in racial and therefore faith diversity?

I'm thinking of making a mod (for Oblivion, not Morrowind, for lore reasons stated) that restores the individual temples as joinable factions. Morrowind's Imperial Cult and Oblivion's, well, amazing five "guilds" have left the Divines lacking in fresh lore, and I feel as if the apotheosis of Talos has only inreased this.

both. the cult's primary purpose is to spread religion and imperial ways, hence they simplify the religion to make it easier to understand (sort of how early christian missionaries incorporated pagan beliefs to make the religion appealing to the local populations).

on the mod side of things, ive seen a couple mods to add religious diversity already - maybe look into joining one of them if they are still around?

To create a religious hegemony, with the nine divine as the only religion of significance.

They could easily have pulled off the Cryodiilic religion in places like High Rock and Hammerfell, due to those places already worshiping the Nine religion, though the more hardcoe Redguard probably disregard it. Also, the lands were heavily fragmented, and that probably led the religion to be fragmented too.

In an area like MW, they have living gods, and really only allowed the Imperials to make headways into Vvardenfel not too long ago. This is probably why the Imperial Cult is just a giant mishmash of of the Nine all liking each other, instead of allowing more fragmented religion. Makes it easier to show that your religion doesn't want each other killing each other, and spread Imperial hegemony

Are the divines in conflict? Was this concept in an earlier game or something? Goes against what i saw and read about them in MW and OB.

It's not really an Imperial Cult, it's either the Society of Jesus or a castrated form of Roman paganism. There's no Imperial worship, hardly. Several Emperors have been deified, one deified himself literally, but he's the only real one properly "worshiped." Is Allesia worshiped?

But it's there to propagate the Truth alongside the Empire, a semi Missionara Protectiva kinda.

It dates back to Daggerfall - whre joining of the the eight cult barred acces to the others. It was also implied for mthe in-game textes that relations between the diffrent cults weren't outright hostility, but weren't exactly cordial either (as an example, the cult of Stendarr viewed Dibella worshipersa as gutless dilettantes, and were viewed in return as a bunch of uncouth brutes.).

As a whole, rivalry for membership and influence but little open conflict.

Is that mutual hostility from the followers or does that come from the divines themselves? I remember taking away from MW that the divines were too distant and spiritual to be that conflicted.

People think that the Daedra are the bad gods, but they're just like us. The Aedra have a temper too, they ripped out Lorkhan's heart in a hissy fit when realizing what he made them do.

I my opinion it's more a problem with the followers and clergy. It also come partly from the overlap/opposition from parts of each divinity's portfolio.

As an example, followers of Zenithar would probably habe no qualms about clear-cutting a forest for timber and arable land, ruin a river with a gold mine's runoffs (hey it brings money way more money than the previous situation did), but followers of Kynareth are likely to disagree.

The cults of the Nine Divines are in conflict with each other. It's all about prestige with them.

I think it says a lot that the Benevolence of Mara operates a military order. That shows that the different sects can't always agree on how to worship their divine, nevermind this nine divines concept where people worship them all.

Exactly what I was thinking, but you have put into words what I could not. It'd be best to unify and streamline Imperial culture if it were to stand a better chance at making headway into one of the most conservative and traditional provinces in Tamriel - alone, they would not be able to get anything done.

And yes, the temple rivalry dates back to Daggerfall. It's just kind of odd though that a sense of religious unity exists in Cyrodiil - I guess it's like the United States of America, and it's a mishmosh of culture...

Well, KotN sorta agrees, but only in it's practice as opposed to it's ideal form. It's ideal form is that those two in particular blend together, where nature, the gift of Kynareth, is used for commerce, the gift of Zenithar. But Imperials being Imperials, it more winds up to be more like "i's all for the cause, and the cause is money." Just ask the Skaal.