This is a relatively simple question, to which I can't seem to find a definitive answer. To what extent are the differing Aedra pantheons actual different religions? E.g., if an Altmer began to worship the Nine Divines, would it constitute a conversion? To put it a bit differently, where gods are shared between pantheons, are they understood to be just different names, or are there real differences? And where a pantheon has a god which another lacks, would that be viewed as a false god, not worthy of reverence?

Of course there are a few complications when you get down to specifics -- Talos and Trinimac come to mind -- but I'm asking more generally.

Note that I'm mostly looking for what the social perspective would be, what the man in the streets would think, rather than the more complex theological realities. Assuming those two views would differ.

Due to cultural differences, there's no real definitive list of Aedra. The Imperial version we've been heavily exposed to in the last two games is just the most recent and popular version of a very old pantheon. Different cultures have pantheons which differ sometimes slightly and sometimes significantly. In some cultures, aspects of two gods are combined, or some gods are left out entirely, or in some cases some of the gods are actually Daedra or culture heroes like Phynaster rather than actual Divines.

Some people consider the Imperial pantheon to be a pretty accurate representation because it combines elements of both the Nordic and Altmer pantheons, but I think that's a mental trap of complacency that's easy to fall into. There are probably elements of the truth in every pantheon on Tamriel, including the pantheon of the Argonians and the mysterious religion of the Akavir kingdoms.


If you wanna know the opinion of the average citizen of Tamriel, I'm sure they'd see a lot of similarities between the religion of the Nords and the religion of the Altmer, but they would definitely be considered two different faiths. It's sort of in the same vein as Islam and Christianity, in that they're obviously based on the same story and cast of characters but things are just a little different. Painted with strokes from a different brush so to speak. It would be as if one gave a script to two different directors and they both made their version of the story. Neither matches the original script perfectly, and they differ from one another in various places, but a careful and scholarly eye can catch the essential similarities.

http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/monomyth.shtml might help.

I had been more or less assuming that all of the religions were true, so to speak. In the past two games we see physical manifestations of many of the Nine Divines; even Talos, and if any of the 9 were false it would presumably be him. Given that kind of powerful evidence being available, I had assumed that the Imperial pantheon would already have superseded the others unless they, too, had been manifested in like fashion, or otherwise been definitely proven.

In any case, I'm mostly looking at this from a role-playing perspective. From what you've said, it sounds like a non-Imperial following the Nine Divines would (in the eyes of most) be a conversion of faiths, and presumably only those who have abandoned their own cultures to some degree would do it. The question this raises in my mind is, why is the Imperial Cult the only widespread religion? Well, it's probably because the developers didn't want to have 10 religions in each area. But is there a more lore-friendly response? I.e., is Altmeri (or Khajiiti, or whatever) religion more personal and private than Cyrodiil, and hence there is no need for their own temples? They can't all be agnostics.

From what we've seen, the Aedra (and Lorkhan) are retroactive; mortal myths shape them, and they can be many different things at the same time to different groups. Given the Daedra don't seem to conform to myths, I suspect that this is due to the Aedra taking part in the "Divine Pact".


A lot of the cultures have their own pantheons, although most of them are primarily Aedric. The Dunmer, however, have no history of Aedra worship, preferring to worship the Tribunal, Daedra, and their ancestors (which they believe the latter to be). From what I've seen so far, the Imperial Cult proselytes in places where worship of the Divines is less widespread. So how much activity they would have in other provinces, we don't know for sure.

Welcome to the Forums. Have a http://www.uesp.net/w/images/images.new/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg!

Ah, that makes it much clearer. Well, in reality much less clear, but easier to grasp.

[This reply is so smeared with fishy stick sauce that it is impossible to read.]

Where everything else is equal, the difference between how a human sees the gods vs. how an Aldmer sees the gods comes down to the relationship that each race claims with the divine. Humans see the gods as the creators of their divine spark. They believe that without the gods life ceases to exist, so the gods should be hailed as something greater than themselves. The Aldmer see themselves as directly descended from the gods, whom they still refer to as 'ancestors'. The Aldmer believe that when Lorkhan tricked the gods into the creation of the world their birthright was stolen and they are now forced into the bondage of mortality. They believe that, without the advent of Lorkhan's trickery, they would still occupy their rightful place in the pantheon.

The average person would trust their pantheon is correct, while the others are false, otherwise they'd join the monomythers at the temple of the one. There's awareness the starting myths are similar, but the Khajiit, for example, would argue its because 'Words of Clan Mother' is correct and first. The others are good copiers. Apply that reasoning to each race.

While that is true, they are all correct. The Aedra (not the Daedra) are changed by Myth, and so Shor can be a crazy elf killed and yet Lorkhan can be dead.

I'm not arguing any myth's validity. Shor is also dead, by the way. He died in A(l)tmora/Sarthaal.

He has an annoying habit of forgetting he is dead, however.

Looks to me like being dead is less of an inconvenience for him than for mortals.

He IS a mortal. As an Aedra, he is a mortal, but goes through the dream-sleeve after death and then reappears as he always was IMO.

Aedra are clearly described as Mortal in all texts referring to them.

:dmc: :huh: :run:

I am fairly certain that the Imperial pantheon has all the Aedra right, they just messed up what they do. My evidence for this is that they have sent Mananauts troughtou mundas to make sure they had the right divine beings as Aedra.

:banghead: Sorry about that, gods' mortality somehow slipped my mind.