Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-6685058-20130727045056/@comment-98.28.88.47-20130831082838

Regardless of how he did it or what his original intentions were, the most bare bones answer is yes, Talos is a god. We know this because the player can recieve a blessing from him by praying at his altars or wearing an amulet that venerates him.

Basically the Thalmor are just racist jerkoffs that don't like the idea of a human gaining that kind of power since that would put Man on the same level as Mer, and thus they hunt his worshipers to further belittle and degrade the races of Man.