Curious concept here. In Skyrim we find a few things leading towards the mistrust of both Daedra/Aedra/any God-like magical being.

1) - The mistrust of magic: Ever since the disaster of Winterhold (I think I have the right place) and the Oblivion Crisis, magic has continually been mistrusted and believed to be evil and not natural.
2) - The doubt of existence of dragons: Whereas Dragons were once fact in Skyrim, over the course of years people have started to believe that they might've just been a myth all along. An archaic, tribal belief that didn't apply to them.
3) - The banning of Talos worship: Because Talos is no longer legally a god according to the Empire (or, at least, his worship is banned by the Empire), we can clearly see that Gods, ever so slowly, are losing their foothold/place among man-kind.
4) - The Mistrust of Mer races: The relationship between Mer and Man is now strained because the White-Gold Concordant Banned Worship for the Empire. Not only are the Altmer mistrusted, but the Dunmer are now slowly earning hatred in Windhelm because of their exodus from Morrowind.

Each of these progresses society in Tamriel towards, if you will, Atheism.

And if the war between the Empire and the Stormcloaks is taken into consideration, you have the extremes of 2 outcomes:

1) - The Empire wins the War. We all know the Thalmor will wage war on man-kind once more and either eradicate them or subject them to their religion and their gods, thus making Tamriel back to it's original state with the Ayleids: Man-kind is enslaved by the Elves.

2) - The Stormcloaks win the war. We can presume here that they will reinstate the Hero worship of Tiber Septim/Talos and, presumably, lead Skyrim into atheism because of their victory over a race that was highly religious and magic-using.

I can reinforce my point with (nearly) dead cultures/religions like those of the Hopi tribe in New Mexico, or (if I dare make too controversial of a comparison), the Jewish religion, who still believe that their god, who is "dead", essentially, but was not always like this and they are waiting for his return to save them. I can also make a game-to-game comparison of Fable 1 vs. Fable 2 where gods and magic was widely accepted and acknowledged, but by the time Fable 2 comes around, magic is a myth.

Either way, it makes for an interesting situation should Bethesda make an Elder Scrolls: VI.

Thoughts/Opinions?

No. The Nords are very, very religious, especially when it concerns Shor and Talos. Some didn't believe in dragons because they weren't seen for a really long time, whilst people see and hear about Daedra all the time. The Oblivion Crisis is a recorded event in Tamrielic history, ect. I don't recall anyone not believing in dragons, aside from one load screen comment.

Talos lost his place because the Thalmor's goals require him being destroyed, and one of the ways to weaken a god is to take away his worshipers. Besides, other gods are still worshiped. They then have to kill all humans, and make it so they can never come back again.

I don't really get your second point. Why would a Stormcloak victory make Nords atheist? Talos is worshiped a god, not just a hero.

You're taking regional opinions and applying them to the whole of Tamriel. Long before Magic was distrusted in Skyrim, Magic was distrusted in Hammerfell, so that idea is nothing new. Secondly, how do opinions in Skyrim affect opinions in the Imperial Province? Or High Rock for that matter which is home to a long tradition of Magic use?

Are you implying that the reemergence of dragons will disillusion people into atheism? If anything it would reaffirm peoples' beliefs in the unknowable, given that something thought nonexistent is now proven to be quite real.

Um, you're taking legal mandate and having it imply social outcomes. The White-Gold Concordat only drove Talos worship underground. It didn't stamp it out. If history can teach us anything it's that setting a legal precedent on an unpopular issue increases spite toward the law. See the 18^th Amendment.

Again, this is old news. The Nords never like the Elves and the Elves never like the Nords. They've been fighting since they were created.

How can you assume that the Thalmor will, with all certainty either eradicate man-kind or enslave them all? That was their plan to begin with, and they had the element of surprise. They still couldn't do it. Furthermore, the first era enslavement of Man was not Tamriel-wide. The Ayleids didn't reign supreme over the entire continent.

Your conclusion is in complete conflict with Nordic society and religion. They worship Talos as a hero god. Furthermore, you make a gigantic jump in logic to think that the Nords will shun religion because their enemies are religious. If anything, the Nords will just revert to worshiping Kyne instead of Kynareth, Shor instead of Akatosh, Stuhn instead of Stendarr, and Jhunal instead of Julianos. If you want a historical precedent, look at the rise of Ysmir Wulfharth of Atmora, defeating the Alessians and returning to a traditional Nordic belief system.


Thanks for calling my religion dead, buddy. Furthermore you only succeed in showing your ignorance of Judaism. My God, the Jewish God, YHVH is not dead, He was never alive in the conventional sense. He always was. Life and Death imply a beginning and an end. You're confusing God with the Prophet Elijah, who again never died either. He was carried into Heaven in a chariot of fire. Also, the return of Elijah, the Messiah doesn't serve to "save" the Jewish people but save the world, ushering in the age of Heaven on Earth.

The part about Nords and Elves is untrue, when Nords settled in Tamriel, they called the land Mereth in the honor of their elven friends. But then the elves slaughtered the Nords in the Night of Tears, and the Nords were like "Never. Again."

Tensions started between Nords and Snow Elves before the Night of Tears, it was the old Pilgrim and Indian conflict, were the Nords were taking too much land too quickly and the Snow Elves suddenly found themselves conflicting with them over resources.
Night of Tears was just a single incident between the two races, the last straw so to speak.

Lets seriously not bring any real world religions up in this topic, that doesn't serve any purpose in the TES Lore section or on this forum at all really.

Chaplain pretty much answered all these questions quite effectively, What Nords are seeing now in Skyrim, is just simple racism towards anyone with a slanted brow and pointy ears. The people of Winterhold have an issue with magic, understandably
so too, they blame it for the destruction of their city. But in other parts of Skyrim you do not see that same level of ignorance, the guards warn you when you run around town casting magic, not because they hate it, but because its DANGERIOUS.
that is rather their job, they dont say Hey stop casting detect life or i'll cut your head off. No they say, Hey be careful with that magic, or destruction magice is fine just don't burn any houses down. Not to mention Breton's have been allies of the Nords
since the First Era, and most Breton's cant use the bathroom without casting a spell or two, along with the fact their people are half man- half mer which never seemed to bother the Nord's in the past.

Nord's haven't like Dunmer since the First Era because of the loss when attacking the Dwemer and Chimer, they really do hold long grudges, so accusing them of being allies of the Thalmor is just a pre-dislike of their race mixed with racism as an
excuse to be spiteful towards them openly by associate them with another pointy-eared race they currently hate, The Thalmor.