Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24999589-20140604181541/@comment-75.132.58.20-20140609211835

Shrines to Talos give blessings just like shrines to all the other Divines. Also, in Oblivion, there was an expansion called the Nights of the Nine. I don't remember the specifics of the story, but it was about a powerful Daedra that champions of the Divines (or the Divines themselves) banished from the mortal world long before Talos became Divine, and was now returning. You had to gather powerful artifacts from each of Divines (like the Gauntlets of Stendarr) that became a full set of armor. Once you had all eight pieces of the armor set, you would do battle with the daedra, but that would not be enough to defeat it. To do that, you would need the blessing of Talos. Throughout the quest line, I'm pretty sure (I played it years ago, so it's a little hazy) that you literally talk to some of the Divines. That seems to validate, to me, the fact that Talos is real, as the quest seemed to make that assumption and the other Divines backed it up. Really, I don't think the game creators even intended for it to be ambiguous to the player. I think it mostly was just to make the Stormcloaks more likeable, by giving them a real cause to fight for other than just hurt pride at losing the war.