When every one in Skyrim says "By the Eight", Tolfdir from College of Winterhold says "by the Nine".

Is this an oversight by the Dev. or is Tolfdir a Talos worshipper?

the college doesnt care about the thalmor or other petty political nonsense, so im pretty sure that as far as they care its the traditional 9 divines

Probably. I think he's a Nord, and the College of Winterhold is far removed from the rest of Tamriel. Even when Ancano came to the College, I doubt he was as concerned with the staff as he was getting Savos to trust him with secrets.

Besides, he's an old man. They're stuck in their ways, and even if he doesn't worship Talos, he's grown up with the Nine Divines and saying "By the Nine." It's probably a hard habit to break.

This is clearly a breach of the WGC. I can see the Thalmors begining to swarm in there already.

Tolfdir is lucky Ancano has not reported him as a Talos Worshipper, too.

What, to capture a single old man who's living in the middle of nowhere?

Don't let Tolfdir fool you.

Even stormcloaks say by the eight.

That's not true at all. A lot of the members from the college didn't quite trust Ancano because of who he represented. Even Faralda, another Altmer, doesn't trust him because hes a thalmor.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ancano
"The other members of the College deeply and somewhat openly distrust him due to his Thalmor allegiance."

Really? Ouch.

I've noticed a scattered few characters will refer to the Nine Divines rather than Eight. Erik the Slayer is another one. Whenever we stumble across some epic scene in a dungeon he'll almost always blurt out, "By the Nine!"

Kinda makes sense in his case. Rural farming communities (like Rorikstead) have other, more immediate concerns besides some treaties made hundreds of miles away by distant governments, and the Thalmor Inquisition's more focused on the larger cities for now besides. There's probably more than a few people in those villages who still openly worship Talos.

(Plus Erik's kind of a Tiber Septim fan. And I've caught him shouting "Skyrim belongs to the Nords!" when charging at non-Nord bandits sometimes. Guess he's pro-Stormcloak? )

I figure it has to be deliberate on Bethesda's parts rather than an oversight. I mean, why bother writing the lines, having VAs record the lines, and then putting them in the game only for certain characters otherwise?

There are obviously Talos worshippers among the Dev. team, that survived through the cleansing.

The college is removed from politics and civil wars and conflicts. They just don't care. They're like the bards college.

Ancano is more interested in what they are looking for, than taking down Tolfdir.
Tolfdirs stronger than he looks, also.

He's a Talos worshiping heathen!

You'd think Ancano would say something.

Seeing Tolfdir take down a dragon tends to make someone think twice about trying to do anything that old mage wouldn't approve of. Between this, the fact that he doesn't give two ****s about the WGC, and his general philosophy on magic, there's a reason I can see my good (and even some of my neutral) characters looking up to him as a mentor.

I know Delphine says "Talos be with you" but that might be because she's a Blades member and she's sticking it to the Thalmor

A few NPCs say "By the Nine!" aside from Tolfdir. I wouldn't so much say it's a sign of their Talos worship as much as it may be a force of habit.

I'm just trying figure out whether it was a DEV's force of habit, or it was intentional.

I am not impressed with Tolfdir and he is not stronger then Ancano, that's for damn sure. Tolfdir suppose to be master in alteration magic yet he couldn't block his Paralyze spell with the ward spell.

You're ignoring the massive power boost the Eye of Magnus is granting Ancano...

I've never heard that. The distinction is usually pretty clear based on which hold you're in.

^ This. And also consider that as soon as somebody else comes along with an equally powerful weapon, Ancano gets his posterior handed to him. If Ancano was actually that powerful (instead of an idiot-child playing with fire), he might have stood a chance and lived.

I found it sort of Interesting you could be made Arch Mage in the ES games using a Fighter based character. Well, you needed certain levels of magic to advance in the earlier games, but not really Oblivion and Skyrim. I would have liked that magic using capability being a consideration here.

My Character definitely looks to Tolfdir as a Leader of the College, as do ALL the others. Many actually mention tht Tolfdir is the Leader of the College.They may see the title Arch Mage, but they send that one out a College Warrior on Quests and defer to the Leader Tolfdir.

I am happy with that.

I'm actually warming up to the College quest-series. At first it seemed like i'd just joined, then I was arch-mage. Yet at the same tiem there are a fair few sidequests for other students, you accomplish something pretty big, can space out the quests between other events in the game, and in the end you can rely on Toldir to be your 'mentor' as noted above. I see it as you carrying the ttle, while he plays advisor and grooms you ito the role over the following years. I think the problem was the initial having to cast a spell and then attend an actuall lesson gave me expectations of more of the same.

As for his saying Nine instead of Eight, awesome, wasn't aware of that.

The college mages being wary of a Thalmor agent doesn't prove they care about what goes on in the world at all, just that they know enough about the Thalmor to realize their agents might pose a threat. Having someone around from a fanatical organization which can send agenst to haul you off in the middle of the night never to be seen again for saying the wrong things would make anyone view the person with distrust.