I've been dl'ing and looking at tons and tons of great mods. One I have my eye on is the Akatosh dragon mount mod. My question is: how lore correct is this mod? I seem to remember reading somewhere back in Morrowind's glory days that dragons weren't around anymore. Is Akatosh a sub-race of dragon, like a wyvern or something? Dl'ing it and checking out the readme didn't clue me in. What's an Akatosh?

Akatosh is a dragon, dude. Dragons have been known to help out the empire from time to time...however the fact that you can summon, control and ride the thing at will, sort of makes it not lore-friendly.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Akatosh

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Akatosh is one of the Nine Divines. So no, its probably not lore friendly.
Edit: Blasted ninjas!

LOL! I should have thought to check UESP. It's such a great site. I had it in my mind that Akatosh was a sort of psuedo-dragon, like a wyvern, not an individual. Has anybody who's played the mod any feedback on it? Is it easy to disregard this is THE Akatosh? I love the idea of a dragon mount but the prime god serving my PC sounds a little off.

I don't know all that much about lore, but the mod is pretty much just a flying horse, not exactly a god serving your character. I haven't used it in a while, but paired up with open cities it can make for some fun gameplay.

I don't think the author of the mod intended for it to be THE Akatosh. I think he just called it that because he used the Akatosh model you see in-game in order to make the dragon.

But anyway, it's a great mod, and definitely worth a download. I'm sure you could think up some explanation to make it seem lore friendly.

My understanding from reading quite a bit of lore on dragons in TES for quite some time is that dragons are one of the Akavir races and suspected to possibly be extinct. It seems dragons are shapeshifters however and probably very good at remaining undetected. The lore is clear that their extinction is not confirmed. I find it consistent with lore to suggest that there just may be a few dragons around.

Being able to summon your own to ride however is, IMHO, quite a stretch although great fun I'm sure. Your call on how lore friendly it is. My point is that the lore is clear (to me at leasts) that dragons just might still exist.

You might want to do some reading on it for yourself and see what you think. Start here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Dragons

Okay, so name of the mod aside it's just a really cool mount?

It's a very cool mount. Actually, 5 or so varieties of flying mount. Just be sure not to get in its way when it's defending you, it can deal some serious damage. It's also very fast, outrunning a running horse at a walk (running makes the dragon fly) - granted not all varieties of horses, but some at least.

I typically only use it to shortcut in Oblivion gates where I can, to get to the main tower with the Sigil Stone. I rely on teleportation (CM Partners' Partners Warp Ring, Dwemer Airship's Skyship Teleportation spell, and the teleportation pads at Frostcrag Spire) and regular horses (my current character owns a horse at every town, or has the means to buy it) for normal transportation. Note that none of my teleportation methods work in the Shivering Isles so I'll probably use the Akatosh mount there as well, once I return (kinda left ol' Crazy Eyes hanging).

I see. Thanks, everybody, for the thoughts. I think I will give the mod a try. It is a little too irresistible to have a dragon at my beck and call.

One thing to watch out for, they're not invincible (they're rather fragile in fact, at least compared to how powerful they are), nor are they flagged essential. They WILL respawn if they die, and can be summoned while dead to change where they respawn, but while they're dead you can just choose a different one to ride.

What does that mean that they are not essential but will respawn? And how do you summon them while dead?

It's definitely not THE Akatosh, even more so since there's a few variations. There's a fire one, lightning, ice and "dark" one (there might be one more but I'm forgetting it). Each one has a special attack. Fire = fire attack (duh) and the dark one has a powerful damage health breath attack.

They can die (quite easily really) but after a few days (I'm thinking 3) you can summon them again and they'll be revived. However, just because one dies, doesn't mean you can't summon any of the others. If they all die though, you'll have to wait to fly around again

I see. Okay, thanks. So, it sounds like I can have some with them since there's several to use. I can't wait to play!

To get into more detail, upon loading the mod you're given a spell to select which mount you want to use. Cast that, choose a mount, and you'll get another spell. Cast the mount selection again and you can pick a different one, but the first one's spell is removed.

Cast the Command Drake spell and you're presented with another menu. This menu includes Summon, Return Home (sends the drake away), and a few other ones.

Sounds great. Thanks for the info. I'll be busy perusing readmes and unzipping/installing these mods for days so teasers like this are fun right now.