They were nordic versions of the 9(Strangely enough, there's no zenithar equivalent. Tsun sort of fits I guess if you consider trials against adversity = work/labor. I'm not exactly sure which totem went to which though) with one extra.

Alduin(Akatosh/snake totem, yes snake. Check the http://i.imgur.com/hByIw.jpg statues if you don't believe me), Shor(Lorkhan, no totem, always depicted as a man), Ysmir(Talos, Dragon totem), Kyne(Kynareth, hawk totem), Jhunal(Julianos, moth totem), Tsun(No equivalent in nine pantheon, probably whale totem given his connection with the whalebone bridge), Stuhn(Stendarr, unknown totem/wolf?), Dibella(Also Dibella, unknown totem/fox?), Orkey(Arkay unknown totem/owl?), Mara(Mara, unknown totem/bear?)

Thinking back on what was the Bloodmoon expansion pack, I think something was lost on the way. I liked the Nords up there and their myths a lot more than what we got. Skyrim didn't need to be 100% like Solstheim but there wasn't even a tiny part that felt like that place anywhere :/ Bethesda stopped putting myths in the worlds they make and we only get rather bland worlds instead. Not sure how to explain it better. Anyway, it's a shame really.

To be fair, the Skaal were nordic heretics that even said they weren't much like the nords of skyrim. Worshipping a single god is rather uncommon in TES.(Save for the allessian one god.)


Still I would have liked more nords that revered the old gods more than the imperialized versions. Sure people sometimes mention Shor/Ysmir(I think a couple mention Kyne too) but they don't really treat them like gods, just old language they say out of habit without any real thought to its origins.

Wanna see a true warrior race, get your ass to an orc stronghold

If you look at the hall before each claw doors you'll see that each of the murals have images such as this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877544549/in/set-72157629321466509/lightbox/

Each mural has either a male or a female figure for each animal. If you go through them all then you find that Moth, Hawk/Eagle and wolf are all female. Since 3 of the Nord Gods are presented as feminine I'd assume that:

• Kyne is Hawk
  
• Mara is Wolf
  
• Dibella is moth

The male gods/animals are harder as one must fit in Shor as well since he's the chief of the pantheon. Although he wasn't chief of the pantheon during the power of the Dragon Cult in which all these barrows were built therefore:

• Alduin - Dragon
  
• Shor - Snake
  
• Ysmir - Fox (since his many re-incarnations wander Nirn)
  
• Tsun - Whale (Whalebone bridge)
  
• Jhunal - Owl (wise)
  
• Stuhn - Bear (only one left)

However with the barrows built after the fall of the Dragon Cult:

• Shor is Dragon
  
• Alduin is Snake

I'd like to see more of these if you have any. But that picture depicts men and women bringing their dead to a man with an owl over him. You know, like Arkay god of life and death. Edit: Scratch this, looks like all the murals have dead people next to them. Odd. I chose Julianos as Moth because of the Ancestor Moth priests which are closely associated with Julianos. I'd like to see that mural though if you happen to have a pic.

The ysmir/fox connection makes sense though. That one incarnation wasn't called Hans the Fox for nothing. But then again, I don't think they called Ysmir "Dragon of the North" for no reason either.

I've actually seen that wolf one, but assumed it was depicting potema.

This also isn't quite right. Barrows were still built after the dragon cult was defeated. Jurgen Windcaller had to have been after their time, since no one knew how to shout until the dragon cult war(And they had plenty of wars involving shouts before Jurgen's time came). The nords that went to solstheim continued to make them after all.

I can see the shor serpent connection though given his role as the rebel and hence why alduin took the role of the snake in later depictions of Shor given shor was ruling king at that point.

Read the link in my sig on what happened to the Dwarves; insight into Nord mentality. They will fight when it's time to fight, and when it's not, they start doing something else, no problem.

no, it wouldn't be realistc if everyone was a warrior,

I did they all died to a single giant and no it wasn't largashbur. Also I think shor always was the dragon while alduin the snake. This is based off of the descriptions I seen and alduin seems like the snake waiting for the right moment to strike.

If you know anything about Nordic mead and how the rest of the Empire banned it because it's strong enough to kill a horse, I take it to assume that it'd kick the snot out of liver cancer, too.