Talos as we know is the god of mankind but, the aldemari dominion/Thalmor think otherwise. yes Talos used to be a "Living being". My opinion is that talos is a god because you could not find him in sovngard or the hall of valor. please comment on if you think Talos is a god or not

He is. There was a quest in Oblivion (I never played it) where you needed the blood of a Divine. Talos' blood worked.

Yes, he did ascend. You can receive his blessing, he appears before you in Morrowind in a not-entirely-mortal way, his blood works when blood of the divines is required (as Shadow pointed out). On a grander scale, he took the place of Lorkhan and fortifies the Mundus - which is exactly why the Thalmor denounce him, trying to erase his worship so he is no longer an obstacle in their long-term plans. Faith is a powerful thing and changing a myth, or making it entirely forgotten - especially this one - can have serious consequences.

Rosveen, out of curiosity what do you think their long term plans are?

I also would say Talos is a god.

There is some evidence to suggest he is not the only mortal to enter godhood within the Nine. According to one of two possible explanations for the origin of Arkay, he may have been a mortal before rising to godhood as well. Here's a snip for UESP on the origin of Arkay:

'There are two legends about Arkay's origin. The book Ark'ay the God of Birth and Death has it that Arkay was once a regular shopkeeper with a passion for knowledge. He found a book written in a strange language and spent years upon years attempting to decipher it, slowly ignoring everything and everyone else around him. Eventually Arkay realized the book explained life and death itself, but by this time was at death's door with an incurable plague. Praying to Mara as a last resort, Arkay asked for more time to interpret the book. Mara gave him a choice: die now or become a god for eternity, charged with keeping the balance of death and life in the universe. The alternative is contained in The Monomyth, which suggests that Arkay was one of the very first spirits to "crystallize" after the start of time.'

He is as much a divine as the other eight. No more, no less.

His shrines seem to be working quite fine. Still a god!

Talos shrines actually stopped working in my current play-through. I suspect it's just a bug... or otherwise the Thalmor plan is working!

Talos is a god, why would anyone think otherwise?

Arkay as the God of Seasons (and Cycles) might have crystallized at the start of time, but Arkay the God of Birth and Death certainly did not exist before Convention. Why would the Mortals' God exist before mortality? Perhaps the original Arkay just took on Birth and Death as another cycle in his domain. Or perhaps a mortal mantled Arkay, and added Birth and Death to his domain. The book http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Ark%27ay,_the_God_of_Birth_and_Death isn't the only source claiming that Arkay was a mortal, Runil's dialogue in Skyrim reinforces that belief. I feel like there are some hints of CHIM in Arkay's ascendancy and what the "secret of life and death" he found in that book might have been, but that has little to do with Talos.

Talos certainly is a god, if not through mantling Lorkhan (at least two-thirds of his "oversoul" being avatars of Lorkhan, I'm not sure about Hjalti) then definitely through achieving CHIM and setting his own rules; can the Thalmor even do anything about him?

I have say that I just love how SnowBorn specifically asked whether Talos is a god in The Elder Scrolls... as opposed to our world.

Don't let those cheeky Thalmor fool you, he's as much of a god as all the others. What a good bit of CHIM can do for a silly mortal huh?

To be fair, the Yokduan belief holds that their Arkay was the God of Nobody Really Cares, and finally found a purpose once Convention took hold. I tend mesh that with the Arkay the Mortal being a story of a person of ultimately no consequence becoming a cosmic force that everyone acknowledges/tries to foil. It makes for a good parable if nothing else.

Those treacherous elves...

You don't suppose he mantled a god by being so inconsequential? As in, the mortal and the god were literally so forgettable that reality couldn't tell the difference?

Perhaps, but I'd have to disagree with the notion that the Birth and Death cycle was the result of someone mantling Arkay as opposed to it being something that crystallized post-convention, unless we're getting into the timey whimey nature of the setting, which makes it all lose its novelty really quickly. It is interesting that its Mara who is involved in Arkay's decision, at any rate.

Incidentally, the book also describes all of the other gods as mortals (Which meshes with the Aldmeri view of the world), and Varieties also claims that Arkay did not technically "exist" pre-convention either, so there is that. He is the Mortals God after all, so him having tales which brings him down to earth so to speak would probably be appealing toward the average Joe.

The predominant theory now is that they intend on unmaking Mundus and returning the world to the Dawntime, so that they can have their precious freedom back.

I would assume Talos is indeed a god, I mean he is accepted by the Empire as a deity so I don't see why he wouldn't be. Unless your one of those High Elves..........

This thread seems its based on the opinion or the assumption of Tiber Septim being a Divine. Well, I have to tell you. It was strongly stated that he was a god/ Divine by Martin Septim and proven since you needed his blood to open a portal to Oblivion ( since it did call for the blood of a Divine.)

Talos is a god. This was confirmed by Oblivion when you have to get Tiber Septim's blood off of his armor.

Tiber Septim achieved CHIM to become the Ninth Divine; Talos.

A [censored] who ascended... but will fall. Like Icarus.

Well, to be clear, there's some debate over who exactly became the Ninth Divine, though the generally accepted members of the Talos oversoul are Hjalti Early-Beard, Zurin Arctus and Ysmir Wulfharth.

We already know. They want to (and succeed in) exterminating man from the Mythos, wish can only be accomplished after the destruction of Talos (Due to mythopoetic forces, an Aedroth's power is proportional to the amount of worshippers it has). We see in C0DA that these actions somehow release Numidium from it's thousand-year siege of Alinor, but that is besides the point.

No. Tiber Septim/Wulfarth/Zurin Arctus became Talos by mantling Lorkhan. The steps of the dead. The combined Talos-figure would later achieve CHIM.

But if Talos achieved CHIM, do the normal rules for Aedra still apply to him? Can they erase him from reality when he exists beyond reality?

My guess for MK's "The Thalmor will win in the end" statement is that, if the Thalmor are the antagonists of a game's plotline, they'll set themselves up in a way that their defeat has long-lasting consequences that eventually result in the achievement of their endgoal. You'll end the immediate threat to the universe, but in such a way that destabilizes the universe and makes it much more vulnerable.

Has it not been like this all along?
Did not the act of attacking the Heart of Lorkhan to defeat Dagoth Ur deactivate the Red Tower?

Martin's sacrifice ended the Septim Line, but also destoyed the Amulet of Kings, deactivating W-G Tower?

I assume our actions in Skyrim in some way rendered Snow Tower inactive?

I haven't played Arena, Daggerfall, Redguard or Battlespire, but I know I've read that Towers were similarly disabled in at least a few of them.

When all the Towers are down, can Talos still fortify Convention?

I would say yes, he sort of acts like a tower in itself, that's precisely why the Thalmor need to destroy his foothold as a god of men. The only things that we know of continuing to fortify convention are Adamantia and Talos, yes?