Or was he just a mortal man that is now worshiped?

He is a god.

He was a man MADE a god.


As you can imagine, the Thalmor, claiming Elves to be the supreme race, aren't so happy with a lowly human becoming a god.

Well what do you mean when you use the word god? What characteristics do the 8 have that cause you to regard them as gods?

I'm moreso asking because I play as a Baldur's Gate style Cleric, so the will of the "deities" are what motivates my character. I have the Thalmor asking me to complete quests against Talos-- and if he's actually not a "God" persay then I'd have no problem siding with the Thalmor. Just trying to keep it in character...

He is a god Oblivion's main quest proved that.

Yes, he's a god.

He was the first Emporer of the Empire if I remember correctly, known as Tiber Septim in his mortal years during the first era (I think, could be 2nd era actually), about 3k-4k years ago. Upon death, his deeds to Tamriel and his lineage were so great he ascended into godhood. All Septims were then on Dragonborn, and the last one died during the Oblivion Crisis (aka the storyline during Oblivion).

The Thalmor don't like him, because they see a "man-god" as inferior and blasphemus. So they like to ban Talos worship. And because they want themselves to be the ones connected to the divines to the point of ascension, not men.

If he was....

You'd think praying at his shrine would actually give you a benefit instead of +0%

Seems to me he's "Ascended" but lacks the ability to actually act as god as the deities do (affecting the mortal realm)

For your character... the fact he ascended could well be enough to not want to attack him.

Talos in his first years actually, he later became Tiber Septim after he was emperor. He's had many names as well from before and in-between.

This.

As racism goes, the Thalmor are at the top of the dungheap.

From what I've read up on the reason the Thalmor hate him is because he's a prominent figure in man's culture. The elves somehow lost their connection with the spirit (Aedra/Mundas?) world because of man. Removing Talos brings them a step closer to rekindling that lost "divine connection" although it has more to do with destroying several Towers of which one (apparently) remains - the Snow Throat Tower. Or better known as the the Throat of the World.

he made a plane in the immortal realm for nords who die in battle (sovengarde)

Talos is above a God imo as he earned his divinity

Heres what I think, Talos is actually an aspect of Shor, or Shezzar aka Lorkan. This diety has always been a god favourable to mankind and disliked by the elves. The elves blame him for disconecting them from divinity by creating mundus. and Talos actually takes the place of shor in the pantheon upon his supposed ascension to divinity. however, shor has had avatars before such as YSMIR and pelenial whitestrake. see the connection? Talos was also known as Ysmir, though the one first mentioned i believe is a different person at a different period in the timeline.

tl;dr talos = lorkhan/shor/shezar and the elves be mad either way because it is a god of man.

The fact you can get a blessing from Talos 100% proves he is a legit god imo

In oblivion during the main quest, you need to get some blood of a divine in order to open a portal to Paradise. The quest has you get Talos' blood and it works. This proves that he is a god.

Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!

He is most definately not a god........For a lowly unintelligent man cannot become a god.The very thought of it is laughable beyond comprehention...Stupid Humans......

His just a man, who pagans worship as god. It was the eight before the nine, eight it will always be.

Haha! Awesome!

I wondered if it was a bug that the Talos shrines give you a 0% bonus to time between shouts. I'll have to see if 1.4 did anything to fix that.

According to uesp its a display bug. Its actually giving 20% except the game is trying to show it as 0.2 then rounding it down.

The great thing about the Elder Scrolls is the answer to your question is both yes and no. No single perspective is ever given the final say. Akatosh is a very goody-good deity in Oblivion, but Skyrim shows us that he and those associated with him are a little more complicated than that. And supposedly Shor and Lorkhan are basically the same deity, but I wonder if the Dunmer would imagine Lorkhan living in such a place as Souvngarde. Mortals are limited in their ability to comprehend such matters.

As far as I know, Talos is the combination of three people on Nirn who sort of imaged the creation of Mundus (Tiber Septim included). This apparently has some sort of spiritual power, thus ascending them, as one being, into godhood. I don't know, I don't understand it in the least. Someone call Lord Tidus!

LOL. Love that movie.

As to the OP - what is a god, anyway?

Someone/thing you pray to? Then Talos is a god.

Someone/thing that grants blessings to those who pray? Then Talos is a god.

Someone/thing that has temples/shrines dedicated to him/her/it? Then Talos is a god.

I think Talos is a god because the people who worship him give him his identity, and his power. through his own actions he transcended mortality. his actions caused a ripple effect in the world so great that the mortals of the world revere and remember and respect what he did to the point that he is now a permanent aspect of aetherius. the way the world seems to work in the game universe is that everything lving or dead has spirit energy known as magicka. that energy is never destroyed. just turned into and recycled into one form or another. The Daedra are forms of energy. the Aedra are forms of energy. Secunda, masser, Nirn, all forms of energy. in the elder scrolls universe all things are connected. what the Thalmor are attempting to do, is something extremely stupid, and in my opinion downright impossible. forcing people to forget Talos, so that his energy is no longer confined to that identity. why they are doing this is still unclear to me. perhaps they feel that it is not right that a man be identified as a god, and only mer have that right?