Unfortunately this is another pro-morrowind thread. I dont have anything with religion in Skyrim. Deadric worship is unchanged since the daedric princes are something like the 12 gods of Olympus capable of doing great deeds and evils, although i dislike the fact that most of them are just "go kill that dude and i will give you this reward".

I always thought that the nine divines were downgraded compared to Morrowind. And this dissapoints me because i loved the way the religion of nine divines was depicted in morrowind. All these books, the sermons the sense that you try to become "better" through holy challenges. Actually the way this religion was depicted was quite close to the Jew and Christian religion and i found that charming. More philosofy and less "god was born, he did that etc". In Morrowind i had the sense that the Nine divines was the "real" religion while the daedra religion was minor followed by some fanatics. That has changed since Oblivion. Even Martin, a priest of the nine divines, was forced to fight Mehrunes dagon. I mean whats the point of the nine divines if you play only with daedric princes and neglect the "official" religion?

In Oblivion and Skyrim religion is quite predictable. They even have chapels and tombstones...Really they couldnt think something more exotic? Unfortunately after all these pcgames i ve played, when i see a tombstone i think of Zombies and walking skeletons but not of dead human beings

I'm going to try to depict this without wandering into real world anologies.

Every "God", be it a traditional divine, daedric prince, one of the tribunal from Morrowind, they all physically exist and have a visual presence on Nirn. It's not a case of "I believe in this God", as they all exist at once and are all represented in some way in the physical world (like the aspect Talos and the Tribunal in Morrowind, the shrines to all the princes, Mehrunes Dagon's physical form in Oblivion, Alduin in Skyrim etc.).

In Morrowind, the Tribunal was the main religion and so the Nine Divines "religion" was quite aptly named the Imperial Cult. In Oblivion, worship of the Nine Divines was commonplace and the norm, so it tended to be a more organised religion (chapels in cities for example) as opposed to a cult status.

In Skyrim, there's a lot of differences as it's now officially the Eight Divines. Nordic beliefs also differ from Imperial beliefs, regardless of if they both believe Talos.

I think the ways their depicted are entirely different in each game, province and time period. You don't "believe" in the Nine Divines but don't "believe" in the Daedric Princes, because they all exist. It's just whether or not you worship them.

I wished there were actual quests from the Divines. The Agent of Mara and Dibella don't really count IMO.

I think in Morrowind the nine divines have almost no place unless in the scattered chapers of the imperial cult, and are not so much welcome.
And we had worst things religiously speaking in Morrowind, we have three people that stole powers from a god millenias before the game, and to retain its power, they persecute everyone against the TRUE beliefs (like the thalmor in some way) with even an inquisition operatin guided by the ordinators.
In any case, you make missions for the tribunal temple. I dont remember the quests of the imperial cult to be so bright.
In oblivion religion is, to me, in a second plane, because they are all frightened by the oblivion crisis.
Then in Skyrim, you have a civil war that is stated, started by the ban of thalos, and that civil war triggered the return of the dragons so....