Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-97.81.240.58-20130603234626/@comment-6707115-20130625160508

I was simply making an obsevation based upon other examples in history. The title great for a ruler doesn't always require good deeds, just that they win in the end.

Besides, as for the status to the Divines on Mundus, isn't it just a little strange that Talos has ALL of the traits of Lorkhan/Shor/Shezzar/Sep, and Talos worship has all but substituted Lorkhan worship in all it's names? Talos is the champion of humanity in the game series the same as Lorkhan was/is. By observing this, one should come to the conclusion that Talos is just the newest name for Lorkhan. If you disagree with the idea that Talos was Lorkhan incarnated, then there's another way around that: mantleing a diety. The way metaphsics works in the  Elder Scrolls univerese is that if a person becomes so like a deity then they basically become that deity (or a part of it). Remember how the Hero of Kvatch mantles Sheogorath at the end of Shivering Isles and between the events of Oblivion and Skyrim (easily explainable as deities may take whatever form they please).

So the Thalmor's objection with Talos worship is really just an objection with Lorkhan worhip (because they feel that this Divine cheated their ancestor out of divinity by creating Mundus, the Mortal Plane). Before someone uses the, "but the Thalmor are just doing what's best for all of Elvendom" card, remember that they periodically go on pogroms in Valenwood killing off settlements of Bosmer (the Bosmer waiter in Diplomatic Immunity helps you for this reason), the Thalmor took power in the Summerset Isles by killing off all of thier opponent and monarchs of the Summerset Isles in one night (One of the Skyrim book series mentions this: The Rising Threat, written by an Altmer no less), and not all Altmer agree with the Thalmor or their ban on Talos (an Altmer Legate in the Legion had to flee the Isles with his parents, and the Falkrieth Priest of Arkay, who's Altmer, worships Talos). Also, the Thalmor forced the Bosmer country to join, despite the majority not wanting to.

As for Talos forcing the native out of Skyrim? That was the Reach, and they were't forced off as they are still there ( as for the natives of Skyrim, Ysgramor forced them off because the Falmor slaghtered all of the humans of Saarthal because they were increasing in numbers to quickly). Remember that everything Talos did to the Reach was under Cuhlecain's orders, so using both Talos's conquest of the Reach and his betrayal of Cuhlecain as reasons for why he's "bad" seems a bit hypocritical.

Lastly, I was respecting your opinion, but I just have to point somthing out, the Thalmor are meant to be an antagonistic force in The Elder Scrolls (much like the Mythic Dawn and Dagoth Ur) and there is no way to aid them in a sinificant way. So you can basically see that the Thalmor philosophy is predestined to lose (and even if they are "good", Dagoth Ur's philosophy of spreading divinity was much better, yet he lost). Alsp remember that Talos/Lorkhan is basically a spirit of heroic endeavor, so  if you want to know whay type of heroics just think Beawulf, Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas, Theseus, and Romulus (who killed his brother Remus to found Rome).