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Um, guys, the Pope is a religious figurehead who serves as the patriarchal head of the Catholic Church. The Imperial Cults of the Nine Divines, the Tamrielic equivalent. has no such figure -- the Emperor is not a deity, and his duties seem rather secular.

Sorry to burst your bubble. Although the Archbishop of the Temple of the One may be a better example.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=925768&view=findpost&p=13422726

To be fair though, that was 4000 (4006?) years before Oblivion and it's likely enough something would have changed with the empire or religion during that time.

The First Empire was infamous for being a holier-than-thou theocracy, yes, and they even had an Inquisition -- but I'm talking about the 3rd Empire, or the modern day's.

Maybe, but the whole imperial mandate is still kind of predicated on the notion of a covenant with Akatosh, and Aka is so tied up with the iconography and history of the empire, up to and including when Tiber Septim, himself deified, founded the modern empire, that I can't see why this might be a sort of lapsed title. They might be less zealous now, but less religious?

And it's not like it's in the least unusual; the Roman Emperors, touched by semi-divine glory, were also high priests to the state religion, holding the title of pontifex maximus, the same title assumed later by the Catholic pope. I expected one of the excitable wiki-wuving boffins to jump at the opportunity to point out that particular piece of trivia. They have let me down.

That just highlights the fact that Popes claim a solely religious authority of 'the One God'.

In Tamriel it is the Nine Divines". Even with Akatosh senior each God/Goddess is worshipped separately ... for separate purposes.

You would have to go back to pre-Christian days to find a pantheon in Rome ...

Yet the Roman Emperors started calling themselves Gods as a result of conversion to Christianity such as it was then and that was blasphemy on their part.

etc ...