So I've been doing some digging recently on the origin of the abrahamic god YHVH (jehovah, yahweh, adonai) of Islam/Christian/Judaic/Bah'ai etc. beliefs , (which turns out to be comparable to the greek cronos or akkadian el/enlil/elil/dagon baal and other gods in other cultures historically, (who knew! the abrahamic monotheistic god was from a polytheistic background). I've also been looking at other aspects of real world mythology creation myths in general surrounding monotheistic religions and ancient politheistic religions.

I realized through stumbling through akkadian/caanite mythology surrounding the now monotheistic god of christiandom/islam/judaisme etc. that the team at bethesda historically (m. kirkbride et al.) has taken a lot from real life mythology in creating the aedra (divines) and daedra (see akkadian father god anu/antu (i.e. anu in ES) and mother godess Ki/antu/Ninhursag (i.e. Padomai), mother of gods (aedra), demons (daedra) and men (men/mer).

Other examples I stumbled into include the egg of the world from babylonian myth, molag (from mardak?) baal (i.e. akkadian for lord/god), the YHVH tetrogram like ALMSIVI to dunmer daedric site names being akkadian or semite origin (tel=hill, daedra shrines in vvardenfell being akkadian city names/gods).

Other examples include propagandized avatars of gods such as gilgamesh or adam (of adam and eve) which roughly parallels to the vague list of shevarines and other godly avatars such as pelinal, or kyne's morihaus found in ES. Other inspirations could be traced to lorkhan i.e. creator of nirn (trapper of the aedra) to perhaps real world inspiration from Enlil/El/YHVH (the creator), who was banished (trapped) to earth by other gods for sinning (eating apple in the garden of eden/[censored] enlil/lilith in akkadian myth) with similar parallels in other ancient real world mythology/ES.

Furthermore this is tied to unsure nature of the relationship between gods. i.e. is Arkay the son of Akatosh, or an aspect of him, similar to Ra and atem of egyptian mythology. or An/Anu and El/Anlil. Of note, I once read somewhere that one of Kirkbride's colleages was adament about real life parallels (i.e. imperial=rome, dunmer=babylon, nord=viking etc. culturally)

But to the point and sorry for the ramble!

Real life historical mythology is evidently complex, confusing and interesting. My real question surrounds do you think this appropriation of real life mythology for elder scrolls helps the series mythology and do you think they should continue down this path in future games to create storylines for less explored cultures in future games. Or do you think that the meta-narrators of ES should create original mythology the allows their imaginationto remain unhindered by real world parallels and more focused on original lore (i.e.such as the dragonborn/greybeards myth, although similarities with the jews "shouting down" the walls of Jericho similar to Hjalti shouting down the gates of old Hrodan could be drawn...).

anyway

Personally I find the real world parallells interesting as they reflect the milennia of time that has past over recorded history (similar to ES) and the changing and uncertain identity of gods. Like how did Talos, a human, become a god? Is he a god? or are his shrines just centres of divine energy and not Talos himself? what makes a divine a divine or paramount in a given racial pantheon. Real world examples seem to guide this confusion nicely without seeming artificial props of storytelling as they reflect the natural b.s. or real world propaganda/politiking and myth morphology over time IMO.

So are you for More of this type of mythology based on real world history or Less of this type of narrative in exchange for original lore in the next Elder Scrolls Game...

Seeing as how I tend to value consistency, I'd be openly weeping a little saddened if the series took that route, if only because its what most new and upcoming fantasy series have been doing of late, and with mixed results in my mind. I do like having more fantastic elements in a series more often then not, and taking those kinds of things detracts a lot of build up we've had in dealing with the Daedra, and takes away a lot of the menace the setting faces.

That and it'd be kind of jarring considering all the crazy events we've already witnessed in the series. Giant flaming dragon taking a bite out of a god of destruction neck or stabbing the heart of a god to make a twisted one disappear, or shooting arrows with a divine bow into the sun itself.

Mythos gains more aspect if one can see the broad sweep in the tale.

The greek one tells of a rebellion or civil war against Chronos, he looks like the All Maker in Ovid's Metamorphoses, from the point of view of Jove, the Ulfric of this tale.

The gods you named by name have distinctly different personalities and worship requirements as well, so they are NOT the same being, but each is a distinct individual.

I play TES agnostically, or with respect to the all maker like the Skaal do.

I've no problem with real world mythology influences and sometimes it is cool to stumble upon something and go "hmm.... nice.." but Elder Scrolls mythology should be able to stand on its own two feet (and it does just that).

There are already plenty of other franchises drawing heavily from real world mythos. Let them have it.

Interesting, I always tend to play characters that have quite varied philosophical/religious views being it talos/divine worshipper/daedra or something more specific. Is the allmaker necessarily Agnostic? I'd argue he's a deity, even though not a very well understood one.

The god's I named by name I merely am relating based off several shared patterns of mythology. I am not equivalating 1=1 even if it came across as such. Obviously belief systems shift and change and people will change aspects of deities or combine/fragment deities. Just trying to lump the obvious proto-god identities together in some roughly related pattern to establish a possible origin theory! but your critique is valid.

true, true.
and personally I dislike how the imperial legion now looks much more roman than it did in oblivion (reality parallel)
My main point is that a lot of the really interesting lore concerning the dunmer culture the/formation of nirn/creator forces/beings has some loose inspirations from ancient mythology (specifically akkadian) that I think is an interesting inspiration when it is removed a step or two from it's source. Imagine Argonian Black Marsh with a creation myth inspired by the mixing of salt and fresh water forces and their serpentine offspring (draw a possible connection to akavir?) which in Akkadian myth led to the creation of Anshar) sky god and (Kishar, Gaia/Haia) earth goddess (relate to ES Auriel and hist?). This would be similar to the Akkadian myth of Abzu and Tiamat, which parallels Anu and Padomai (from Anu, Ki: Akkadian) who's offspring were Auriel and Sithis or something along those lines but all of this being farther removed as to not be obvious. It cannot be denied the real myths of humanity have an impact on the historical lore of ES so far.