Nine Divines (Faction)

The Nine Divines faction is composed of the most fervent worshipers of the Nine Divines. The faction includes all chapels and their staff. The Hero of Kvatch can only join this faction by attaining Pilgrim rank with the Knights of the Nine.

History
In 1E 242 The slave Alessia, her demigod lover, Morihaus-Breath-of-Kyne, and Pelinal Whitestrake, start the Cyrodiilic human uprising against the Ayleid. By 1E 243 they had captured the Ayleid White Gold Tower ending the Ayleid Empire and forming the Alessian Empire of Cyrodiil.

Eight Divines
Alessia's first major act as Empress was to abolish worship of the Ayleid gods. However, she was a shrewd politician, enough to realize that her people had never known any other gods. The Nords violently opposed the Ayleid gods, and chiefly worshiped their version of Lorkhan, whom they called Shor. The elves, however, hated Lorkhan, whom they called "The Trickster", and completely rejected any worship of him. Alessia knew she had to be careful in choosing the official state religion; she could not afford to anger her Nordic allies, but her own people could not adjust to the complete Nordic pantheon in just a single generation. Her compromise was to merge the two religions, choosing to keep the less controversial Ayleid gods, such as Akatosh and bring in popular Nordic ones, such as Dibella and Kynareth. She sidestepped the issue of Lorkhan by leaving him out of her Eight Divines, but identifying him as the "missing ninth god", a brother to the Eight Divines who was otherwise absent from the pantheon. The worship of the Eight Divines, along with the Empire itself, would go on to become the most prominent religion across all of Tamriel.

Tiber Septim
On his deathbed, Tiber Septim bequeathed his throne to his grandson, Pelagius Septim, and he died in 3E 38. Tiber died at the age of 108, the oldest man in history. He was buried in the catacombs of Sancre Tor among the members of the Reman dynasty.

After his death Tiber ascended to godhood. He became Talos again, the God of War and Governance, for after a lifetime of war, he had united Tamriel for the first time in history. He changed the religion of the Eight Divines into that of the Nine Divines.

White-Gold Concordat
In 4E 175 the White-Gold Concordat is signed ending the Great War between the Empire and the elves of the Aldmeri Dominion however, peace was agreed upon with one of the conditions being that the Empire cease to recognize Talos as one of the Divines, and all shrines to him be removed from the temples of towns loyal to the Empire and their new Elven masters. This act changed the name of the religion back to the Eight Divines.

After the treaty
The Thalmor, the governmental representation of the Second Aldmeri Dominion, the members of which are "elven supremacists" who seek to end the Empire and eradicate the worship of Talos. The White-Gold Concordat gave them free reign to move throughout the Empire and to hunt down any worshipers of Talos' outlawed religion.

Known members by location
All known members during the Oblivion Crisis.

Ranks
The Hero can only ever attain the rank of Pilgrim, as that rank is used by both the Knights of the Nine and Nine Divines. Entry into this faction is by default as the Knights are a sub-faction.