I noticed an interesting thing in the Wikipedia just now, a similarity between LDS (Mormon) doctrine on the "Fall" of mankind and some ideas in the Elder Scrolls:

"The disobedience of Eve and Adam, therefore, becomes . . . a "fall forward." The Fall was a separation from living communion with God, yet was a necessary transgression intended by God so that humankind may come to be and experience joy:

22. And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. 23. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. 24. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. 25. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. [The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:22-25]

It makes me wonder if among MK's influences (which have been said on this forum to include gnosticism, Eastern religions, and the ideas of Mircea Eliade) were LDS concepts. It reminds me of the concept of Lorkhan "failing so that mortals wouldn't", or words to that effect.

Interesting take on it. I never thought of it like that. And I'm LDS.

I always thought the whole "thief, mage, warrior" thing was similar to the concept of the Holy Trinity in the Christian mythos, as far as that goes, on a similar note.

There's a number of things in TES influenced by mainstream Christian mythos. Especially in TES III.

I think its worthwhile to compare the Altmer/Aldmer view of Lorkhan with the "standard" Christian view of the serpent, and the Nordic/human view of Lorkhan with the gnostic view of the serpent.

The Christian view is that the serpent is Satan, which severs creation from the paradise created by God. The gnostic view is that the serpent is the first appearance of Christ, embarking on the first stage of a plan to set creation free from the prison created by the demiurge.

Good points. The elves would say that mortals fell from Grace, while humans in ES would say mortals are "falling forward" and evolving toward divinity.

aren't we not allowed to talk about religion and all its goodies?

We're not discussing the truth or falsity of real world religions. We're using some of the concepts in real world religions as a way to explore some of the concepts in TES lore. It's the same sort of thing as asking if we can understand Nerevar a little better by comparing him to King Arthur - we wouldn't be making any claims of historicity.

Yeah, I am good with that as long as the topic stays on that level. I'll be back to check - just in case.

I've gone back and forth on this thought. Certainly, there are a lot of superficial similarities. Definitely there's the three, and the implication that the thief, mage, and warrior are all aspects of the same thing, so there is a Three-in-One, One-in-Three thing going on there. But the triad of disciplines in ES are almost always set in some kind of opposition. Most notably, there's the Enantiomorph, but even in something unified like the Tribunal, there's the implication that either you follow Ayem and her Divine, Healing Theocracy, you subscribe to Vivec's Kingly Transcendence, or you actively try not to get involved with Seht. Certainly, you acknowledge and even worship the other Tribunes, but there is only one of them that you truly follow.