Alduin isn't really the Nordic version of Akatosh - it's the other way around. Akatosh is the Imperial version of Alduin/Auri-El, and was actually a political compromise to allow the freed former slaves that made up the Imperial population to "sort-of" continue to believe in the merish pantheon they were accustomed to, without angering the Nords who they had been freed by (and who were on decidedly poor terms with the mer). This is why, unlike Alduin and Auri-El, which are two different views of the same basic concept (Dragon God of Time who both creates and destroys the world), Akatosh was decidedly pro-Man and was a guardian of the Empire. He still had his primary element (Time) but he wasn't the destroyer as well as the creator.

Of course, even while his attributes were different it is important to remember that Akatosh WAS the same as Alduin and Auri-El - reality and gods specifically can get a bit schizophrenic like that.

It's actually possible that the Allessian Order did fundamentally change Alduin/Auri-El when they caused the Dragon Break - and that changed God was Akatosh, who might have ceased to exist as an element of the Dragon God at the end of Oblivion, allowing the original, proper form(s) of the Destroyer to come back - therefore causing the crisis in Skyrim. I dunno whether that's supported anywhere in the lore or if it's just speculation, but I think it's a pretty cool story myself.

A thought: Perhaps Akatosh is linear time, while Alduin is cyclical. The Alessians and the Empire (all empires) naturally wanted to tame time: to write it up as histories, a list a rulers and so forth, all sanctioned by a domesticated version of the Dragon God, thereby 'inventing' time as a rational, linear and pro-Imperial process of causality. The more primitive Nords, on the other hand, see time as something more primal and dangerous.

hmm... I'd never seen it like that, but it makes perfect sense, especially with the lord of spoons' post.
Thanks for adding more depth to my understanding of the idea.

No need to thank me for rampant speculation. : ) Because of the complex relationship between gods and mortals- thank you, LoS- it just seems like understanding the ways different cultures think about time might be important.

I don't know, it seems slightly mistaken to think of these "forms" of gods as occupying physical space and having a bash-up.

I may be mistaken but I like to think of it in quantum physical terms.

snip

It's not that, I've just always thought of Aldun as his angry form. :shrug:

Felmore throws pebble at Akatosh.........Akatosh turns into Alduin..."Alduin mad alduin SMAAAASH".....O.O

And now the image of Akatosh walking down a road, hitching a ride, with the Hulk's theme tune playing is transfixed in my mind.
"Dont make me angry. You wouldnt like me when Im angry"
"The madder Alduin gets, the stronger Alduin gets."

:rofl: