The Elder Scrolls universe is a self-contained universe. But in my wanderings of other universes, I came across something interesting said by a villain, speaking to the Player in a final diatribe before battle. The character is Gaius van Baelsar, a principal antagonist in Final Fantasy XIV. Bear with me here, because what he says is extremely interesting, and I'll get to the on-topic Elder Scrolls part afterwards.

Long winded, to be sure. But let's take what he says and transcribe everything into a fashion relevant to the Elder Scrolls. Think of it like this: a Man who rejects gods outright, judging them all as "wicked" as the Daedra, or even being the Daedra themselves. Replace "Eorzea" with "Tamriel" and "Carteneau" with the Oblivion Crisis, and any other small changes, and then examine it.

Suddenly, it's a lot more interesting. For the most part, I see this sort of person seeing rejection in places like Skyrim, but how would such a person be viewed in Cyrodiil, where faith seems less important? Imagine if you will, some high ranking military official seizing power in the absence of the Emperor here, and steering policy?

More importantly, what would the Thalmor think of someone like this?

The Daedric princes would probably want in on it. Or to shank them in the kidney. Kind of hard to have world changing events without them getting in on the action.

Anywho, strange as it seems considering his affiliates, that's mostly what Mankar came off to me as during Oblivion. Especially his rants about trying to prove that the Eight were nothing more then false upstarts to the proper dominion of Lorkhan. And his all he got to show for it was a flaming dragon chomping into his lords throat. In a world where divine beings are very, very proactive in the world and have a tendency to directly aid hero's and the like, its kind of hard to see that kind of sentiment actually take root without it being quashed immediately.

And the Thalmor would be utterly dismissive of it. "http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ondolemar." Again, they're practically waging a holy war on the empire, so to see man further cripple themselves would probably make them giddy.

The difference is that someone like Gaius would have told Mehrunes Dagon in no uncertain terms that he is being rejected, and would begin engineering a means by which these "gods" would be shown as the pretenders they were - by destroying their avatars.

How long would the Thalmor dismiss him, though? Someone charismatic, ambitious, powerful, and intelligent. And espousing Man's mortality in just as extreme a fashion as their own supposed goals of returning to immortality.