February 22, 2017 11:57 PM EST
Gollum said: The real gods are the Daedra; the Aedra are basically Jungian archetypes, with little to no power on Nirn. Talos was real, but as an Aedra, he is basically dead. The Nords have followed this conquerer so deeply that they forgot their own religion, culture, and history. In my eyes, Talos is the same as Trinimac; he should be respected as a deity, but not the center of worship (excluding, maybe, the Orcs). That said, it would be better if Talos worship just ceased to happen. At least Trinimac is considered an ancestor; Talos is just 1-3 people who probably have no blood relation with anybody and is therefore: nobody's god.
Everything's a bloody Jungian Archetype in the Elder Scrolls. One subset is just all too happy to wave their literal and metaphorical dicks in your face, another subset just doesn't give a shit to bother, and we're walking on the rest.
Talos hasn't caused the Nords to lose their traditional religion. The damn Imperial missionaries have done that. Talos is literally the most Nordic deity there is. He's the most important one in fact. Talos is Shor's heir. 1/3 of Talos is Ysmir and 1/3 of him is Shezarrine which is Shor's spirit. Talos is the combination of Akatosh, Lorkhan, and Man. That's what pisses the elves off.
Trinimac is some elven punk who went emo after he got some learning from Boethiah on what Lorkhan was really about. You'd have to be daft to think Trinimac was the literal ancestor of elvendom. Elves have been caught in a circle jerk of their own superiority since Convention, and entirely leave out the fact that they come from the same stock as man.
Talos is about man taking the heavens by the nuts and telling the elves to get wrecked. Elves have committed the worst crimes imaginable on mankind since the beginning as part of their existential temper tantrum. This upstart named Talos kicked their asses physically and metaphysically, showing mankind that Shor isn't forgotten and the plight of humanity isn't going away that easily.