There is a funny moment in the Beyond Skyrim: Bruma mod where you visit a temple that was originally to Talos that has been repurposed into a temple to Martin Septim. Several Thalmor are outside trying to arrest the priests but they're like "the treaty said talos worship, not Martin septim." lol

 

The endgame in ESVI should be the PC becoming Talos just to piss in the Thalmor's cereal.

Also this discussion is the number 1 reason why I'm gonna buy ESVI day one regardless of Bethesda's reputation. The ES lore gives the games such a unique feeling that I haven't been able to find anywhere else.

 

I wonder if that makes it more of a shrine to Akatosh, considering Martin sacrificed himself to become his avatar? I guess he is indirectly descended from Talos too. I suppose either way the Thalmor wouldn't like it as they took credit for ending the Oblivion crisis and would probably try to delegitimise Martin (not sure how you do that if the giant dragon statue remains in the Temple of the One in the Imperial City) but have no authority to arrest people over it under the White-Gold Concordat as you say.

Edit: Meerkats - it's possible we already did become Talos, at least in some form. The Last Dragonborn is a Shezzarine, an aspect of Shezzar aka Lorkhan aka Shor aka Ysmir, Dragon of the North aka King Wulfharth aka Hjalti Early-Beard aka Tiber Septim aka General Talos. Evidence for this other than the fact that they're a player character and Dragonborn is the fact that you can sit in Shor's throne when you visit his hall in Sovngarde. Also the Greybeards recognise you as Ysmir, Dragon of the North during the ceremony where they shout at you after retrieving Jurgen Windcaller's horn. Plus that ghost at Old Hroldan Inn who thinks you're Hjalti.

 

I will admit I have fun chilling in my home just reading the books in game. Thankfully have the "eloquent reader" mod that gives you XP for it.

 

When I got Oblivion originally, I used to read uesp lore pages in the limited time I had not playing the game.

 

I'm assuming you've read/are reading dragon from ash?

 

Honestly I just lifted this off the wiki, it's from Kirkbride's book Altmeri commentary on Talos.

This suggests that while breaking down the towers would be key to erasing the concept of Man, it can't really be done while a man is a God.

Why? Because the concept of Man would still exist within the Aedra as long as Talos exists.

Now, none of this is relevant apart from the fact that as long as Skyrim is free, they worship Talos which means the civil war in Skyrim is just as crucial a plot point as the defeat of Alduin in respect to the Thalmor eventully needing to invade Skyrim.

They also seem to put priority on the Talos thing in the order of events.

Like, I'm sure they need to exterminate all men anyway but the hordes of Daedra can see to that if they get rid of the towers.

 

We don't really know the exact (in universe) source of the Altmeri commentary on Talos or if it even represents the Thalmor's views at all, none of it is attributed to them and could just be one fanatics view. While I'm sure ideally speaking erasing worship of Talos would be preferable to the Thalmor as a way of destabilising the Wheel of the Aurbis and erasing Lorkhan/man, practically speaking it would be hard to achieve that without completely killing all men. It's clear that even those in Skyrim who fight for the Empire and claim to uphold the White-Gold Concordat still worship Talos in secret, Tulius says as much and Elisif wants you to offer High King Torygg's war horn to a shrine of Talos.

Considering it's evidently beyond the ability of the Thalmor to kill all humans (see: The Great War, Hammerfell) or effectively enforce a Talos ban, the next best play they have is to take out the Towers, escape Mundus and sort out old grudges with Lorkhan in the Aetherial realm.

Also, regarding your last line - the towers are separate from the Limen, which is the barrier between Mundus and Oblivion that Akatosh created with his covenant with Alessia and reinforced after Martin's sacrifice with the Amulet of Kings. If the towers are destroyed, there wouldn't be anything left for the Daedra to invade.

 

Damn you're good at this. Let's go make nerd babies.

 

Countless hours in Skyrim and on /r/teslore finally pay off. Our union will result in a strong line.

 

I love how so much of the lore in TES is given by unreliable narrators. Lets Bethesday just do pretty much whatever.

 

My favourite book in all of the Elder Scrolls has to be Alduin is Real by Thromgar Iron-Head. By far the greatest work of art in the entirety of Mundus.

 

Playing an altmer in Skyrim is so awkward.

 

It’s honestly sad how many things get nerfed in game. I understand that the game has actual limitations to be playable, but the Thu’um should’ve been able to annihilate towns and small armies and Alduin should’ve been the OG to end all OG’s (for reference he literally unmade the Leaper Demon King, who may or may not be Magnus, into Dagon). I hope they portray other Tonal-Architecture more realistically if they have it in the next game. There is a forbidden sword-swinging technique that splits the TES equivalent of atoms, which is why there is little left of Yakuda in the first place.

 

Sword-singing*

Anyone can swing a sword. Only the Ansei could sing the sword of their soul into existence.