Is Auriel and Akatosh the same being or not? In dawnguard, the knight paladin said they were but that's pretty weird cause I can't picture the elven god being a dragon. Auriel has Auriel's Shield and Auriel's bow and Akatosh is a dragon as seen in the climix of the oblivion crisis. If they are indeed the same, than how would Akatosh a dragon hold Auriel's bow and Auriel's shield? they'll be too small for him and even if he changes the two artifact's size, it'll still look weird for a dragon to hold a shield and bow. I hope they are different gods so that way we could have Auriel as the Thalmor's secret leader and final boss in the summerset island game,

Edit- Thanks for the answer everyone, I understand now.

You're kidding, right?

Here you go: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Akatosh

While Martin as Akatosh's avatar might have been a variant of dragon, look at the window from the chapels. I see humanoid, and hands.

Don't forget the statue you see in Dawnguard. Even less of a dragon. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Auri-El

Auri-el and Akatosh are indeed just two versions of the same god. There was even an attempt in the past to separate the elven Auri-el aspect from the imperial Akatosh aspect, and it just caused a Dragon Break that lasted, what, 1008 years?

Auri-el and Akatosh are separate and yet one and the same.

It's Dawn Era chaos. It's thought that the same entity could manifest in a multitude of ways. That the same pantheon of higher spirits appeared to different groups of early mortals in different forms, and interacted with them and each other in different ways. So Akatosh and Auriel are the same and different. I presume that this paradox was in some way stabilized or reconciled with Convention and/or the proliferation of Towers, although the reconciliation is still an ongoing concern. Hence things like Skyrim's main quest.

The Dragon Break was on purpose.

-http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Vindication_for_the_Dragon_Break
-http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/On_the_Detachment_of_the_Sheath
-http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Vehk%27s_Book_of_Hours%2C_concerning_the_Dragon_Break#Vehk.27s_Book_of_Hours.2C_concerning_the_Dragon_Break

Not to mention that, in Morrowind, you run into three avatars; Mara, Zenithar, and Talos. You don't find out until later who they actually were.