Considering how the Imperial Cult was Cyrodil's religion of choice, I was wondering if it is Skyrim's to. I know that the Nords have there own Pantheon with unique aspects of the Adrea and Daedra, but which of the two will show more? In Morrowind there was a Temple in just about every major city, and temple followers in all of them, but the Imperial Cult was only in strongholds and purely Imperial towns. The question gets raised because it is known that the only reason Morrowind got the majority of there freedoms is because the Trbunal's power and they were the only province that willingly joined without any show of power or force against them. Still even with all of the background on Nordic gods one must wonder if they will be the main religion or only have small sects around some of the smaller settlements. Or considering that there is a civil war does one side have the Imperial gods and the other the Nordic. Now I know that no info has been given about this, but I am just asking for peoples opinions so I can try to get a better understanding of it.

the nordic gods will probably be the most important.

With the empire having fallen and all, I think provinces will have mostly reverted to their original pantheon.
I would not expect to see many imperial cult temples. Possibly in ruins.

i second this

I will be hunting them for sure

For all we know, it could be like in Morrowind. The nords may be hanging on to their religion while the imperial cult is trying to push their religion on the natives.

That's what I saw in Bruma, as well.

Very plausible.

The Nord's pantheon is incredibly similar to the imperial cult with some keyt differences being that Akatosh isnt at its head (and more or less feared), and that Lorkhan is in it. But otherwise the rest is pretty much the same with different names. -> So I would'nt be surprised if they've just always more or less kept their own religion.

The way it works in the lore, to some degree the Imperial Cult is reflected in the Nordic Pantheon and vice-versa already. Throw a little Mer pantheon into the mix and TES has the potential of having some of the most interesting ingame religious lore. Morrowind was unique only in that it had adopted Almsivi. But they were Chimer before they were Dunmer and followed the Aedra presumably.

And when you consider the Akatosh/Alduin/Auri-El connection...it would be very interesting indeed to see some remnant Imperial Cult worshipers following Akatosh while at the same time fighting against Nord's who hate Akatosh because he is Alduin to them...at the same time that the Imperial Cult likely denies that connection and hates Alduin as well. :talk:

A lot of potential there.

As far as I know chances are some places where most adherants to the old empire live, imperial influence may be the strongest, as where the separatists live, all signs of imperial rule may be in the process of being destroyed. To put it cautiously. I'm fairly certain I read a short while ago that there are two cities that are especially in favour of the old Nordic ways, but please don't man the flak guns on me for not remembering where and which cities these are. Those in the North Eastern parts I guess. That's the best I can tell. I hope someone knows more of this and adjusts what I only partially recall.

Except for Morrowind and Solstheim, the Imperial Cult isn't anywhere. It's the missionary group for the Imperial pantheon, but nobody worships them all together like the Cult seems to.

No, the religion of the nine is not the most prevalent religion of Skyrim. If anything, it's a barely tolerable religion as it is quite merrish, with sprinkles of mannish thought (in that Shor became Shezzar, who is an extremely watered down version of Shor and not so anti-mer).

Chimer worshiped Daedra, specifically Boethia, Mephala and Azura.

Yes, I should have referred to them as having once been Altmer instead of Chimer, the point being that all Aldmer decedents once worshipped the Aedra panthon. True though that the Chimer worshiped the Daedra Princes rather than Aedra.

Still, the idea that Alduin/Akatosh/Auri-El can be different things to different peoples, with even some Nords seeing Akatosh/Alduin in different ways (some being pro-Imperial Cult, others pro-Nordic) is an intriguing direction to take. More intriguing than anything in Oblivion.