Well maybe not mantled, but it sure seems like he followed in Harvester of Souls path than the Doom Drum path. I don't see a giant Tiber Septim and a giant Wulfharth orbiting Nirn, but I do see an Empire that resembles an extremely sedated version of Molag Bal's sphere of influence. According to all scholarly references, the King of [VEHK]'s sphere is the domination and enslavement of mortals, which sounds like the basic principles behind the creation of an Empire. Coldharbour itself seems like an over-the-top parody of Imperial influence on Tamriel, like if you took the effects of Cyrodiilic hegemony on Morrowind, Skyrim, Hammerfell, etc. and then multiplied it Over 9000. One of the Sword-Meetings even implied Tiber SDEptim had a pact with Molag Bal.

And look, here's an interest sentence I just noticed from that Altmeri commentary:

When they put it like that, it sounds like Nirn is a supermassive soul gem, and Talos is the necromancer binding it. I guess that would make sense....being a Dragonborn, necromancy is truly one of their primordial abilities. As the Dovahkiin, you devour the souls of dragons just as easily as one might entrap mortals in a black soul gem, and Alduin's three simple words of "Slen Tiid Vo" may be one of the most sublime forms of necromancy ever demonstrated. So is it any surprise the dragon-headed Molag Bal bestowed necromancy and vampirism as "gifts" to mortals, being essentially shameless knock-offs of Dragon Mysticism?

And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Molag Bal is just a version of Talos from the last kalpa who has some major issues with the current one.

That's it! I'm moving to the Shivering Isles.

The other option is elves are just deeply off their rocker in terms of their importance to the Kappa.

That, in fact, they flat out wouldn't exist without Lorkhan.