I've read somewhere that the Aedra are not truly gods but mortal beings. But none of the eight divines have ever died right, so how can it be known that they are mortals? Is it because the leser "gods" became the Earthbones? It also said that they gave up some of their powers while creating the world, what kind of powers?

Sorry if I haven't got the facts straight here. This is what I remember reading, allthough I don't remember where I read it.

Well, they're mortal in the sense that they can die, but the god-ness becomes apparent when they don't let it inconvenience them. Case in point, Lorkhan. He's pretty spry for a corpse.

Right. I remember reading that Lorkhan convinced the Aedra to create the world, but what does that make him? Is he also an Aedra in sort?

I think Lorkhan is a gradient above(below?) the Aedra and Daedra making him neither.

He had a hand in creation, so I'm pretty sure that classifies him as an Aedra.

arent aedra the 9 divines?

He's a strange case. In the most literal sense, he'd be an aedra, because a part of him was used to create the world (his heart).

When it comes to naming conventions, just use this to make it simple:
aedra: those who gave parts of themselves during creation
Earthbones: aedra who gave themselves completely up during creation
daedra: Those who didn't give themselves to creation, but remain in Oblivion
Magna-Ge: Those who didn't give themselves up to creation, and fled to the Aetherius (which is NOT Heaven! Dead mortals go to the Dreamsleeve!)
Special Cases: Shor/Shezarr/Lorkhan and Talos


For the most part. You have to remember though that the 9 divines was a compromise between the nordic myths and the merish myths. Also, Talos isn't an aedra, but he is a divine.
Here's a list of the gods and goddesses worshiped throughout the empire according to each providence, http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/varietiesoffaith.shtml

Ah, thanks. Made it much more clear.

Btw, was Oblivion created to, or had it always existed? If it was created, who created it?

It always existed, like the aetherius.

If you want the more straight-forward answer, when they created the world they gave up their hold on immortality - ie, they became mortals when they entered the world, something the elves are still ticked-off about (its that loss of power that's referred to).

If you want a better explanation, as I've mentioned somewhere before when speaking of the Aedra the words 'creation', 'death' and 'ascension' should be seen as synonymous and interchangeable terms. All of the divines have died, they died in creation, they also ascended in creation for they ascended in death. The mythic stories separate the creation, the ascension, the death, the becoming part of the world as earthbones, the having children and becoming parents, the fighting a big war in which everybody dies and the king flies away to heaven - these are just different ways of talking about the exact same thing. There is no difference between the Aedra dying and them creating, between the Aedra ascending and them having children or becoming the very earth beneath your feet.

There is no separation between the Earthbone, the Aedra in Aetherius and the Ehlnofey who lived on Nirn and had children - just different ways of looking at the same thing. The Aedra are mortals, for indeed, how else could they have died...

They all gave all.

"The magical beings of Mythic Aurbis live for a long time and have complex narrative lives, creating the patterns of myth... Finally, the magical beings of Mythic Aurbis told the ultimate story -- that of their own death... The magical beings, then, having died, became the et'Ada."--The Monomyth

Eight of the Nine Divines are Aedra, yes, but there are alot more Aedra than just the Eight Divines (the ninth being Talos).

I thought the aedra only gave a part, while the earthbones did everything.