When browsing the UESP gods page I've gotten confused about the different names of some of the gods. For example Talos has his own section in the encyclopedia under the name Talos, Tiber Septim, and the Dragonborn. If I remember correctly from Skyrim Talos was his nedic name and Tiber Septim was the imperialization of his name. Then under the Y section there is Ysmir, Dragon of the North and it says he is the Nordic aspect of Talos. Is this saying it is Talos or just a god similar too him? Then there is Akatosh/Auri-El with the Kajhit Alkosh and it says its a variation of Akatosh. Why do they separate the entries? Also Shezarr is described on UESP as a "Cyrodilic version of Lorkhan, a synthesis of Nordic Shor and Aldmeri Auriel" Is Shezzar Lorkhan? Since it is described as combination of Shor and Auriel does that mean that lorewise he is made up?

The god Talos is the oversoul of what was once three people - Hjalti (General Talos/Tiber Septim), Wulfharth (Ysmir), and Zurin Arctus (Underking). That's all I really know. Talos confuses me.


Now when it comes to Akatosh and Lorkhan, you should know that the gods are insane and suffer something like multiple personality disorder.

The Time God has the worst case of it; as Auri-El he hates creation and men and wants them destroyed. As Akatosh he doesn't mind either. Alduin fits into this somewhere, as he was previously believed to be Nordic version of Akatosh/Auri-El. But his claim as "firstborn of Akatosh" has muddied the waters a bit.

Lorkhan/Shor/Shezzar, AKA The Space God, are all the same god, each culture just sees him differently. Lorkhan is his merish name, meaning "Doom Drum." Shor is his Nordic name, and Shezarr is his Cyrodiilic name. In the Dawn, he convinced the other Aedra that creation was a grand idea. But when they realized that they had to sacrifice parts of themselves and bind it to Mundus in order for it to work, they got a tad peeved, ripped out his heart and threw it. The place where it landed became Red Mountain. Men like the mortal world and are grateful for Shor/Shezzar's role in creation. Elves believe creation is a mistake and see Lorkhan as a trickster.

I suppose I could also add that the Time God/Space God are two sides of the same coin. It's a really bad case of MPD.

Any idea of why these three people became one?

Its not really a question of why as much as it is how. The people of Tamriel believed them to be one person, and so, as a deity to be revered, they became one person.

I'd recommend looking up past threads about Talos, as the discussions in them are much more in depth and cohesive than I could hope to be.

Also read:

http://imperial-library.info/content/morrowind-arcturian-heresy
http://imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-five-songs-king-wulfharth
http://imperial-library.info/content/rise-tiber-septim
http://imperial-library.info/content/underking

The Khajiit say that their gods, though in personality and acts pretty much the other gods with different names, are separate from the gods of other races. I blame this line of thought on having drug addiction as a central part of your culture.

And Sep, right?

What is High Rock's version?

The Bad Man, Sheor.

Mind giving us a direction, stranger?

I was under the impression that Talos actually IS all of these people; or, more correctly, Talos is the God who was the man Tiber Septim. Wulfharth/Ysmir/Dragon of the North IS Tiber Septim reincarnate and the Underking is Talos reincarnate as well. If you read all of the books and material on UESP (it takes some time, but if you have time to spare it's a good read) it fairly clearly outlines that they're all the same person; or, at least, that was my take on it all.

Have I missed something here? It's probably something incredibly obvious like timeline inconsistancies.

It seems a mix of both. In the TES world, belief shapes reality. Talos is all three because people believe him to be. Most people only see Hjalti (also known as General Talos and Tiber Septim) as god-Talos, but because Wulfharth/Ysmir stood in for Tiber and pretended to be him, that made people believe Tiber/Talos was Ysmir as well. It is that belief that makes Talos a god. He's divine by association.

Zurin Arctus fits into this somehow. If the Arcturian Heresy is to be believed, then Wulfharth is the true Underking, as he went underground to rest and regain his power after the Battle of Red Mountain. Zurin Arctus, Tiber's battlemage, believed that the Numidium could be powered by the Heart of Lorkhan. But since that was impossible to retrieve, he went for the next best thing and tried to use the Underking's heart, which he believed would power the Numidium the same way, as Wulfharth was a Shezzarine.

Zurin ambushed the Underking and soultrapped him. But with his last breath, the Underking's Heart roared a hole through Zurin's chest, turning them both to ash. Then Tiber strolled in, took the soulgem (the Mantella), and claimed Zurin tried to assassinate him and became the Underking. Boom, now everybody thinks Zurin was the Underking all along, even though he originally wasn't. Zurin is Underking is Wulfharth is Ysmir is Tiber is Talos.

OK, so after taking a little bit of time to actually digest this, I think I can grasp a possibility, here...

If Tiber Septim became a god through the use of the mantella which was the soul of the Underking, which is itself also related to Lorkhan, then upon the ascension, Tiber Septim's soul actually... (crossed the streams? Merged with? Became cotangent to?) was mixed in with the souls of all of these things. So, basically, Talos is actually an amalgamation of several souls that had to be reconstituted into the divine form of Talos because they all sort of got squished into an inseparable mess during the activation of the Numidium, which was sort of designed to compress multiple souls down to a single focal point, anyway.

... maybe?

Sure...

Big thing though is how Tiber, Zurin, and Wulfharth were actors playing out the events for the creation of Mundus, along with the constant Rebel/King duality.

Bleh, my head is going poo poo. Need coffee to get my thoughts straight.

Thanks for quoting that, Willie.

For the other gods: think of the names almost like nicknames. It refers to the same entity, but just calling it something different changes things. Mr. Smith, Zachary, Zack, "The Pitmaster", Smitty, and Honeybeard could all refer to the same person, but there's a big difference between Mr. Smith and Honeybeard. There's different names for different roles. In the same way, Akatosh, Auri-El, Alkosh, and Alduin all refer (referred) to the same deity, but there's a big difference between Alkosh and Alduin. One of them eats the world. The other one protects Khajiit from evil kittens & other foes.

Mr. Zachary Zack "Smitty"
Smith the Pitmaster Honeybeard
Master mind on the fly,
Beware: this chap's relatively weird