This is a thread for the discussion of the ninth Divine Talos, whom has mantled the dead god Lorkhan and fortified the wheel of convention (in other words, existence, if I've understood it right).

I have a question for you lore buffs out there:

1) From the in game books I have read, it is actually possible for an Aedra to not only be subject to change, but also subject to DEATH. We already believe that the Thalmor are trying to erase Man and Talos to uncoil the serpent and revert everything to the Dawn Era. So can a God die from lack of worship?

2) What is Talos a God of? The other 8 have spheres of influence they govern. Arkay's is the seasons and life/death, Akatosh is time, Kynareth is nature, etc. From what I've read, hes the God of righteous war and Patron of heroes. But isn't Stendarr the one that governs righteous might?

Talos is the god of War and Governance.

It seems then, that Talos and Stendarr have quite a few overlapping areas don't you think? Stendarr is, after all, the God of Righteous Might and Merciful forebearance. While justice and mercy aren't war and governance, they do seem to be rather close don't you think? And oddly enough, for a God of War/Government, he's also a God of Heroes, which is micromanagement, and strangely paired with the aforementioned.

Talos is the god of man.

To understand Talos is a complicated thing, and not easily explained all in one go.

Lorkhan is the god who tricked or convinced the other Aedra into making the Mundus, thereby sacrificing (parts of) themselves into the project.
The other Aedra decided to punish Lorkhan for this and ripped out his heart. Where it landed a volcano grew and this is Morrowind's Red Mountain.
His body was torn asunder and orbits Nirn as the moons.
"But when Trinimac and Auriel tried to destroy the Heart of Lorkhan it laughed at them. It said, "This Heart is the heart of the world, for one was made to satisfy the other."

Lorkhan may have been dead, but even dead gods can dream.
Over the course of history many avatars of Lorkhan, or Shezarrines, have walked Tamriel. They fought on many sides, some even against each other and mostly all are remembered as great heroes.

During the time of TIber Septim several of these avatars all joined together to form Talos, the mirror-brother of Lorkhan.
The story of their collective feats, their fates, so closely matched the story of creation, up to and including the betrayal, that in the mythic sense there is no difference.
This act of mythical affirmation of creation merged the souls of these Shezarrines, Tiber, Hjalti, Wulfharth and probably a few others, into the mirror-image of Lorkhan.

This building of a new Lorkhan from the ground up instead of from above, as it were, is a big giant cosmic YES.
It strengthens the Wheel of Creation, and is therefore a thorn in the side of the Thalmor.

What appears to be an Altmeri commentary on Talos:
To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison.
To achieve this goal, we must:
1) Erase the Upstart Talos from the mythic. His presence fortifies the Wheel of the Convention, and binds our souls to this plane.
2) Remove Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility, so that the very idea of them can be forgotten and thereby never again repeated.
3) With Talos and the Sons of Talos removed, the Dragon will become ours to unbind. The world of mortals will be over. The Dragon will uncoil his hold on the stagnancy of linear time and move as Free Serpent again, moving through the Aether without measure or burden, spilling time along the innumerable roads we once travelled. And with that we will regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit.

Its complicated but I hope this helps

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/monomyth
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/arcturian-heresy
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/walking-ways
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/five-songs-king-wulfharth-0

1. Read what can happen to a lesser Daedroth, still supposedly immortal, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Vernaccus_and_Bourlor.

2. From the Morrowind and Oblivion descriptions : "Tiber Septim, Talos, the Dragonborn, Heir to the Seat of Sundered Kings, is the greatest hero-god of Mankind, and worshipped as the protector and patron of just rulership and civil society."

Thank you Merari! As always, your input is quite helpful. You mention avatars of Lorkhan, so lets take a look at another character:

Pelinal Whitestrake

Referred to as an uncle by Morihaus, son of Kyne. Has been called an avatar of Lorkhan not once, but TWICE! One of the poor sods got smothered by moths that very night. He even refers to himself and Morihaus as Ada. Could Pelinal, the insane, time traveling, elf hating, sword theory crusader be, infact, an avatar of Lorkhan whom became part of Talos?


EDIT:

Just remembered this now, but every single hero in this series typically saves the world. From a gameplay perspective, no surprise. From a lore perspective, this is actually VERY interesting. Perhaps every hero in the game is kind of like a Shezarrine, fighting to preserve the status quo of the cosmos.

What makes it even MORE interesting this time around, is that the game rewards you for worshipping Talos.

An avatar of Lorkhan, definetely, a part of Talos, doubtful.
I must admit Im a little hazy on Pelinal at the moment and I could be wrong, but I dont remember him playing a large part in the unification of Tamriel under Tiber Septim.

Yes, 'the hero' plays a large part in Tamrielic mythos.
Always a stranger, always dissapears at the end of events.

"Each event is preceded by Prophecy.
But without the hero,
there is no Event."
-Zurin Arctus | the Underking

Nope, this was in Allessia's time. First empire. Pelinal died before it was formed. He's an avatar of lorkhan AND akatosh. "O Aka, for our shared madness I do this."

Ah, fascinating
I must read up on Pelinal.

Talos is a man.

Talos is a man turned into a god. As for you saying the Aedra are mortal, that's right. But Aedra are mortal in terms of actual mortality meaning if someone's strong enough (ridiculously strong enough), in theory, they should be able to kill an Aedra. They're immortal in terms of aging though.

Daedra are immortal. Even to the weakest Demora, they're immortal. If you kill their physical form, their spirit reforms their body. Before you quote Umaril, he's not really a Daedra. He's an Alyeid that made a deal with a Daedric Prince.

So yes, he's a God. Talos is the God of War, Heroes, and Honor. Elves are just butt hurt because a man became an Aedra.

The only good use i have found for Talos so far is that every time i mention his name to a Thalmor, they attack me first. That way, i don't have to pay a fine for killing them.

Other than that, gods are useless ...