December 17, 2013 2:16 AM EST
I don't hate the blades, I merely have a low opinion of them. I think the blades have a much inflated view of their abilities and worth.
For those of us who played TESIV Jauffre the Grand Master (and other leaders) showed a remarkable lack of foresight and ability in securing the person of the Emperor Tiber Septim and his heirs. OK so maybe one can say it was the will of the gods, but I hardly think that allowing Daedric forces access to Tamriel through dimension gates would constitute willing participation by the "Nine". To digress slightly, pure speculation, but it may have been the ineptitude of the fledgling Talos that spurred the "Eight" to demote him from his divinity status by raising the AD. As it happens it took Akatosh to sort the problem out at the cost of the life of the remaining Dragonborn heir. There is no doubt that the Septim bloodline's link with Akatosh was nowhere near as potent as that of a Dragonborn being merely an exclusive possessor of the power to maintain the barrier between the realm of Oblivion and that of Tamriel
Sorry back to the Blades. Their patron deity was Talos who they worshipped extensively. Whilst not always exclusively Talos was the target of the bulk of their prayers as far as I can understand. All Blades were initially monks in the Order of Taloss, but for those with aptitude, combat skills were developed in training. More appropriately perhaps, for those of a religious persuasion, political skill and a talent for intrigue, were also imparted.
I am uncertain how the Akaviri became Blades and Guardians to the Septim bloodline, but we see an historic connection between the Akaviri and Rehman Cyrodiil who is said to have defeated the Akaviri in the battle of Pale Pass, subsequently becoming his servants. By the end of the Third Era the Blades membership was made up of a a cosmopolitan mix of all the Tamrielic races with the possible exception of the Dunmer
What I find hard to understand is the lack of political will that prevented the Blades from forging an open alliance with the Nords through their joint worship and deification of Talos. Even in TESV what remains of the Blades are still in isolation and appear to be operating independently from Ulfric's forces
However, what seems to be most disagreeable about what remains of their movement, is that it has become extremist and obsessed about the Thalmor. Further in the short space of 200 years they have forgotten or lost most of the lore they acquired and are now operating as crusaders for a lost cause. The blades original mission ( I make a distinction here between them and the general monastic order of Talos monks) was to guard and protect the Septim bloodline. They were not part of the Empire's military or political structure as such being purely in the military sense the Emperor's private army. Yet we see them taking an active role in the war when that was clearly not their duty! I would have expected to see the blades, like the Greybeards, in high monastic retreats leading scholastic lives awaiting the appearance of a Dragonborn somewhere in the mountains. Yet here we see them as an extremist sect much like the Mythic Dawn, obsessing about killing all dragons who are the children of Akatosh!
Personally I see them as a bunch of raving nutters who should be given a wide berth and just briefly used as a source of intelligence and to gain inspiration for the methods to be used in defeating Alduin and his cronies. The presence of the Blades at the summit, is a courtesy only, and a possible political concession to an attempt to return the Worship of Talos to Skrim and maybe Tamriel - Gods permitting of course!
