I'm unsure any Towers were deactivated in Arena, although I'm still trying to figure out what became of the Jagar Tharn/Uriel Septim Enantiomorph. I think Numidium's status as a Tower was deactivated with the Warp in the West. The Red Tower and the White-Gold Tower's deactivation is pretty obvious. And I have no idea how the Snow-Throat got deactivated, if it even is deactivated. The Stone for that Tower is allegedly a "cave"; the Tower is also described as "sundered, kingless, bleeding" in the Dragonborn prophecy, but whether that means it was deactivated I don't know.

If the Direnni clan are allied with the Dominion, the Adamantine Tower is probably already done for. If not, it's got a great strategic position in the Iliac Bay and protection from navies in High Rock and Hammerfell, which will make it quite difficult for the Dominion to take it by force. Green-Sap was either already deactivated by the Dominion, or it's still a work-in-progress, since Valenwood is now part of the Dominion. I believe the Void Nights may have deactivated a Tower, as well.

What I'm wondering is, if the Thalmor do succeed in negating the existence of Talos, will he have the power of CHIM to hold Convention together regardless? And if all the Towers are deactivated and Talos no longer has a grip on Convention, is Mundus immediately unmade, or is it simply "unbound"? i.e. still standing, but with no actual supports and extremely flimsy

Did Alduin, or his return, have anything to do with this Tower business? The Prophesy tells the fall of several Towers and I'm wondering how they link to the return of the World Eater?

My assumption is that they don't, and only serve as omnious markers or events to take place that proceed his return, as opposed to being directly linked.

No, Talos became the ninth divine. Originally there was Shezzar but his worship was done when Alessia fused Shezzar worship and Auriel worship into one to form Akatosh. The members of the Talos oversoul is just Hjalti, Zurin and Wulfharth and we have nothing to suggest otherwise except some bad LDB theories that fans created that is literally just pulling at straws.

I figured it also to be a parable, and not something to be taken literally.

What's the point of life and death if that concept cannot even be executed.

There is no Talos oversoul and there is no deity that is 3 souls fused into one.

The Acturian Heresy is a heretical account, not fact.

If anyone can point to where Bethesda has stated that the Acturian Heresy is canon please show us all.

For once I want to see evidence that is not pure speculation.

Ghost at Hroldan mistakenly calls us "Hjalti".

Hjalti Early-Beard doesn't exist in the Imperial Orthodoxical Account. That identity doesn't gel with the Emperor's supposed Atmoran origins; Talos is supposed to be original name, remember.

OOG, Devs wrote Arcturian Heresy to explain the Underkings motives in Daggerfall.

Official history is written by victors and all victors are self-aggrandizing propagandists. Talos was every bit as much of a scheming Machiavellian chess master as he was a righteous conqueror (if conquest is ever a righteous thing). Otherwise he wouldn't have won. No one wrangles Tamriel into a political union without getting his hands dirty. Then again, vengeful, self-interested ghosts aren't exactly paragons of objectivity either.

There is valuable insight to be gleaned from the Arcturian Heresy, as with every genuine text that provides a window into Tamriel. The Heresy was written by one of the most important parties to the events that it documents. The only justification we'd ever possibly have to dismiss it out of hand would be if out-of-world Bethesda outright states that it is an in-world forgery - not that some TES character claims it's a forgery, or argues that it's a forgery, but the company itself issues a binding declaration to that effect.

Note that they have never done this and never will do this. It would be inimical to the series' entire approach to world-building.

This is how history works in the real world as well. There is no "canon" of the history of Earth, no single account of an event is ever irrefutably true and complete and beyond reproach, but at the same time every document from every time period is necessary to gain a better understanding of that given historical period. But I digress. As to the Arcturian Heresy in particular, the name 'Hjalti', which as HQ helpfully reminded us was corroborated by the Ghost of Old Hroldan, first appears within its pages.

There is no such thing as objective truth. TES is a proudly postmodern fiction.

Is there any evidence to suggest that the Arcturian Heresy is NOT canon? Considering Haute's post I would say that it's the far more likely of possibilities.

But that may be their c0da. You of all people should know to not discredit their explanation for things.

Vilnii,

do you have a fact to back that statement?